Get Yourself in the Habit of Changing for the Better

If you haven't familiarized yourself with Stephen Covey's "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" you should consider taking a few minutes to Google it.

One of the ideas discussed in acquiring your own Independence is something called the Circle of Influence and the Circle of Concern.

The Circle of Influence being areas that you have the ability to influence like your relationships, your diet, what you spend your time doing, etc..

The Circle of Concern being areas you may concern yourself with but don't have the ability to control like the weather, the US government's foreign policy, which team wins in your favorite sport, the price of bitcoin, etc...

Everyday each of us has the opportunity to evaluate what we spend our time worrying about. Are we worrying about things we can influence or things entirely out of our control?

The proactive person takes charge of this. The reactive person doesn't.

An interesting and simple method to making positive changes is Micro Habits. Initiating a micro habit and sticking with it for 30 days may be long enough to convince yourself that you can make positive changes.

The Three Characteristics of Micro Habits

A micro habit must be:

• Related to something you care about.

• Something you can do in under 1 minute.

• Too small to fail.

Some examples of Micro Habits:

Relationship: Give a loved one a 30 second Hug

Health: Do 5 push-ups

Wealth: One minute thank you to a deserving client or customer

Stress Reduction: Take a one minute focus break in silence asking yourself "Am I Satisfied?" or "Am I moving in the right direction?" or "Am I in control?"

One way to improve the chances of successfully implementing a micro habit is to tie it to something you already do each day. For a coffee drinker... prior to or after your first cup of coffee would be a chance to implement a micro habit. Someone else might tie it to a bathroom break. Before you go to lunch.

Take some time to consider some clever micro habits you could implement and what you might tie them to.

Those who succeed are those who are willing to do what it takes to do so. It's a process that starts with delving into the uncomfortable zone. Micro habits are a simple way to get used to putting one's toe into the uncomfortable zone.

(The idea of “Thought for the Weekend” is to examine an idea at a time when one has the time to. The weekend is the free time to relax, do what you enjoy, it provides enough time to think in depth as well as a opportunity to form a very good habit: blocking out some time for thinking.)

Next Week: Five great ways to stimulate Creativity