We are what our habits make us. They are either moving us forward or holding us back.
Unfortunately, when it comes to habits, it's much easier to form bad habits than it is a good habit. This is because bad habits are usually easy to do. They take little effort. On the other hand, a good habit requires effort and self-discipline. They are much more difficult to acquire.
"All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits - practical, emotional, and intellectual - systematically organized, for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny whatever it may be."
-Theron Dumont
Negative habits are time wasting, character eroding, and health destroying. Once developed. A bad habit is difficult to overcome. Once overcome, one must be constantly on guard against slipping back into it. Unlike bad habits, a good habit is much easier to let go. Maintaining a good habit demands constant attention.
It would be much easier to not have formed the bad habit in the first place, but unfortunately, they are often formed in youth, when one lacks the foresight to see ahead the consequences of their actions.
Good habits, once developed, are what drive a person toward success and accomplishment.
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit."
- Aristotle
One thing that can help keep you adhering to your good habits is to keep your eye on the "big picture." Keep in mind that each daily task accomplished is moving you toward your goals. It takes about thirty days to form a habit. Once a good habit has been developed, a person feels uncomfortable and ill at ease if he neglects it. Instead of a burden, a new good habit becomes a comfort and a joy.
Don't be discouraged if you slip up, either by neglecting a good habit or falling back into a bad one. Just pick yourself up and get back on the right track. Admonish yourself to show more resolve but don't torture yourself and fall into a hopeless depression.
"The greatest glory is in never falling, but rising when you fall."
-Vince Lombardi
Don't let people ridicule you for persisting in your good habits. They are just trying to pull you down to their level. You will soon leave them in the dust. People who exercise regularly or try to eat healthy are often derided as being fanatics. Those that criticize are just feeling guilty because they lack the resolve to do what you are doing.
Sit down and think for a moment about what habits you may have. What are your good habits? What habits are hindering you? People of character are the ones who have built good habits into their lives and have eliminated the bad ones. It is your life and your responsibility to govern yourself. You are the master of your ship.
Richard Kimball is a successful entrepreneur, artist, and teacher. His latest project is to share the universal principles of success so that others can achieve prosperity and the fulfillment of their dreams.
Website: http://www.buildingasuccessfullife.com/
Negative Energy - How To Avoid It
Where does negative energy come from? Some of it is from the other people we spend time with. Don't we all know people who just suck away our energy? However, it also comes from our own thinking habits. Here are some examples of both sources of negativity and what you can do about them.
Negative Energy People
Perhaps you have a friend who needs to challenge everything you say. Some people you know may point out the negative aspects of everything. Then there are those who are just plain depressed and who seem to want the world to join them.
What can you do about these "negative energy people"? First recognize that it isn't always just that person. It is often the way you interact with that person. For example, a critical person can be a useful person if critical analysis is what you need at that moment. However, such a person may drain your energy if you waste your time defending yourself from their petty and unnecessary comments. Ignore them or ask the person to stop!
There are other ways to change the negative energy between you and another. One way is to talk about something you both have a common interest in. This can dissolve the negativity, unless it is a very depressing topic. Another simple technique is to ask negative people for some good news. Get them to tell you about anything that is going well in their lives. It's hard to maintain negative feelings when talking about something good. This one really does work most of the time.
If the above ways don't work, or if the person is just always depressing, the solution is simple, but not necessarily easy - spend less time with that person. You have to spend some time with unpleasant people, of course. They could even be people you love. However, you have no obligation to take part in their negative thinking, and you can reduce your exposure.
Negative Energy From Our Thinking
At times, don't we all produce our own share of negative energy? It comes from primarily one place - our thoughts. You may have heard the saying, "change your thinking, change your life." Don't believe it? Start to imagine all the things you need to do and all the things that could go wrong in your future, and see if you aren't feeling more stressed. The lesson here is obvious: Drop your negative thinking.
It is a simple, but not always an easy solution. Start by watching your mind. When does it indulge in negativity, and what triggers it? What can you change to trigger it less or discourage it? You don't want to ignore problems that you need to pay attention to, but how often do you do the same five minutes of thinking about a problem fifty times over? Just do what you need to do and drop it!
The flip side of negative thoughts is positive ones. This doesn't mean you need to be overly optimistic. You can change your state of mind by simply recognizing of all the good things you already have in your life. Continually thinking about the advantages you have, the good things about your character, and the wonderful things you have seen and are seeing, makes it difficult to feel very negative.
Start doing what you have to. For example, if it's difficult for you to remember to think positively, write a list of the things you are grateful for. Then put it in your pocket and pull it out and read it from time to time. Maybe you can experiment with affirmations. Start watching for things that are going right in your life and pay attention to those. Positive and negative energy come from where you aim your mind. Why not choose better places?
Steve Gillman writes on many topics including brainpower, weight loss, meditation, habits of mind, creative problem solving, generating luck and anything related to self improvement. Learn more and get FREE e-courses at http://www.SelfImprovementNow.com
The Essence of Change
Change of any kind is disruptive – surely we can agree on that point! But when it comes to a more precise definition, change has several faces.
Change can be experienced as alteration or modification, which implies an imperceptible or limited difference in the original end result. For example, altering a piece of clothing leaves the garment essentially the same.
Change can also be swapping or replacing, a movement from one distinct entity to another, such as a change in subject, a change of clothes, or a change in venue.
Finally, change is transformation, moving from one state or condition to another, implying a passage experience, a "going through," resulting in a drastic difference in the end.
Informative as they may be, these are only definitions and don't offer us any assistance in dealing with the hundreds of changes we face and the impact they make on our lives and relationships.
So let's move to a more personal level by using a brief and simple exercise. Take a moment and list 5 life changes you have personally experienced such as birth, death, marriage, career change, transfers, etc. Then on a scale of 1-10, list the resulting degree of disruption you experienced.
Now take your list and mark each item with a "P" or "N" to indicate it as a positive or a negative experience. Having done this, reassess your 1-10 rating for degree of disruption.
More than likely you have noted that designating the change as positive or negative in no way diminishes the impact on your life. Perhaps you are surprised by this, but it merely supports our original observation – change is disruptive.
Why is change so disruptive and why do most people have such an aversion to it? After all, many of those things we profess to find most exciting are also disruptive. Adventure and passion, excitement of all kinds, are based in a disturbance of the norm, but it is the disruption of change that throws so many of us off course.
An important piece of our answer is in gaining some understanding of the biology of change. The entire human organism operates on repetition. All the essential functions which maintain healthy operation are repetitive, cyclical.
Organs operate on set routines for handling stimuli. For instance the digestive process is stimulated by the introduction of food into the system. If there is no disruption, the process cycles through as it did the last time food was introduced and the way it will the next time food is introduced – repetition. Repetition ensures the ease of the process. Disruption in the process creates the opposite, dis- ease. Without interference, dis-ease will ultimately break down the organism.
The brain operates in much the same fashion. Records of movement patterns, called engrams, are created within the brain. Every 2000 repetitions creates a new motor engram, and 10,000 repetitions recreates, or changes, a motor engram. It will be no surprise that changing brain patterns is 5 times more difficult that creating them.
Physiologically, our bodies will follow the path of least resistance, creating efficient systems which repeat unless disrupted. Even desired change in the body, such as exercise produces, involves dis-comfort, breakdown of muscle and rebuilding.
For the desired change to occur there will be dis-ease (not to confused with illness), discomfort and ultimately change. Some disruption in physical repetition is healthy and some is unhealthy, but most is nonetheless uncomfortable in its disruption of established processes.
So, our bodies resist change and our brains prefer consistency, all of which leads to unrest with change, but change is inevitable and in any area it is highly emotional.
The only change that seems totally rational is when it's not you experiencing it!
