ARE YOUR
HABITS HELPING OR HINDERING YOU?
"Habit
is either the best of servants or the worst of monsters".
Nathaniel Emmons
I came across the
above saying the other day which I haven't read for a long time. This
started me thinking about my own habits, the good, the bad and the plain
old, 'why do I keep doing xxxx for!'
It's interesting
to note that those things we do consistently tend to turn into habits and
they then begin to make up our character. Quite a point to ponder me
thinks!
1. Just take a
moment if you will and quickly write down all your habits, don't worry if
they're 'good' or 'bad', just list everything you do consistently, i.e. go
for a workout 4/5 times per week, have your morning tea/coffee on the
station platform, put off making calls until they become extremely urgent,
falling asleep in front of the tele, reading inspirational literature, (get
the idea).
2. When you've
listed all or as many as you can possibly think of, just notice the ones
that serve you in your life and the ones that don't.
3. Once you've
listed your obvious habits, dig a bit deeper, what do you do mentally
consistently i.e. always congratulate yourself when you do something well,
beat yourself up because you are hopeless at preparing those reports,
good/bad at organising, etc.
4. Now look at the
things you want to achieve in your life (I'm presuming regular readers will
have their goal list not too far away!) and ask yourself, as you survey your
habits, are they serving you in achieving those goals?
5. What one habit,
if you acquired it, would help you achieve something or empower you in
some way towards your goals?
It's quite a
sobering thought to think that our habits have a large part in creating
our destiny, making us who we are tomorrow. I deal with habits quite a lot
when dealing with clients in hypnosis and quite often people only decide to
change a habit when they are desperate. Would it not be, perhaps, a
better idea to decide to review one's life regularly and look at what habits
you do want to eliminate and which ones you would like to create!
In fact, why not
make a habit out of it?!
Until next week Onwards and Upwards and create
some great habits this week!!
2004 Denise Bosque All Rights Reserved