7 Habits That Make You Great

Habit - noun

A behavior pattern acquired by frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that shows itself in regularity or increased facility of performance

This week, I would like to touch on a different topic. I want to enter into the realms of personal growth. Why, might you ask. As always, the answer is simple: because I care!

As I mentioned on this blog, I wear multiple hats and have to juggle priorities and responsibilities in order to do all that I have to do. That being said, optimizing my time and adopting good habits is essential in my routine, or else this ship sinks.

Developing good habits is something most of us struggle with, myself included. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I used to procrastinate a lot. I rarely put the effort into anything, whether it be housework, physical health, studies, or even finances. Life lived itself for me, and I was just kind of going with the flow of it.

Later on, after entering the marketplace as a professional, getting married, and having children, I realized I could no longer just let things be, I had to take the reigns. So, I did some research and went through a bunch of trials and errors to find out exactly what would work for me. One of the results of my quest was a 2010 book called The compound effect, by author Darren Hardy. It is a short read, about 172 pages. Darren Hardy, as I would find out, is the man behind SUCCESS magazine.

In the book, he talks about how simple habits repeated over time will make significant changes to your life. There is no magical formula in this book, nor is there any type of revolutionary new concept. It is just a much-needed reminder and demonstration that slowly, brick after brick, a house is built; and in the same way, a small change in your lifestyle and decisions will snowball into big changes that will dramatically improve your life.

When I first looked the author up, I discovered that Jim Rohn was actually one of his mentors. And as soon as I knew that, I ordered the book without hesitation. If you do not know who Jim Rohn is, do yourself a favor, and as soon as your done reading this post, research him and his work.

In connection to that, I also researched how habits are formed and stumbled upon the concept of automaticity, introduced by Shiffrin & Schneider in 1977. You can look it up but in short, they discovered that it is the process of consistent mapping that made something go from a conscious effort to an automatic response. In other words, repeatedly doing something the same way over a long period of time will wire your brain into an automatic response to something.

That being said, I reflected on what kind of habits I could adopt for a compound effect in my own life. As it turns out, in order to live my best life ever, I had to touch up a couple of things! So, I thought I could share a few ideas with you on areas that often need a tweak or a downright makeover.

#1: Your professional life

Learn something new every day in your field of work. Whether it is by following the news from specialized platforms of your profession, or actively asking questions in forums, or even buying books to read from, any means is good to get informed and keep up your knowledge of the industry. This helps in two ways. First, you will adopt the habit of always staying open to learning, and second, you will keep improving, which could lead to some amazing discoveries or even advancement in your company if you so desire. Also, your workdays will be that much more exciting since you will have something to look forward to at the beginning of each day. For better results, your learning moment should be short, just a couple of minutes. You can do this during your commute if you do not drive, just before your lunch break, or even in the last 5-10 minutes before you call it a day.

#2: Your physical health

There are three types of people when it comes to physical health: the gym rats or athletes, who know their body well and allow a good number of hours in their week to work out. Then there are the occasional exercisers, who get active when they have time but are not obsessed with it. And then there are the ones who have never seen a gym in their life, nor are interested in their physical health at all, either because they have completely given up, or simply because they believe they are healthy, therefore exercising is unnecessary. This tip is for the latter two. We should take time each day for a minimum of exercise. Even a small 10 minutes of stretching daily will help your body to function well. Over time, this small habit will leave you wanting more. The stretching can turn into light exercises, and the light exercise might evolve into a full-blown workout. In the end, what really matters is to START doing little every day, for a compound effect. Your body will thank you for it.

#3: Your homemaking

This is an easy one, yet a lot of us are just not open to trying it: make your bed every single morning! I have heard so many people, young and old, ask ‘Why do I need to make my bed if I will lay in it tonight?’. And every time, I facepalm myself. Not only is making your bed beneficial in so many ways, but it also takes literally no time! My advice is to get up and get ready while your bed breathes, and then make it before going about your day. First, not only will your bedroom instantly look put together and inviting, but you will be glad to slide into a made bed at the end of the night. Second, here is a fun fact: The National Sleep Foundation conducted a study where they found that people who made their beds in the morning had 19% more chances of having a good night’s sleep. Need I say more? Finally, if for any reason someone else enters your room, you will never have to be ashamed of its aspect as you know you will have tidied up the biggest piece of furniture in it. Also, making your bed every morning will make you feel productive and incite you into doing even more for your home (more on this in an upcoming article).

#4: Your money

Now this one applies if you have a hard time saving money. If you are like me, you do not really spend big, you just spend often. Where some people go missing money because of significant purchases, my wallet used to be emptied out by coffees, gum, earrings, snacks, shoes, purses, headbands, clothes. These are all things that are enjoyable for sure, but I came to realize that I was buying them way too often, half the time because of lack of time management, and the other half simply out of boredom and opportunity. I came to this realization when a friend of mine suggested that I write down everything I buy, as small as it may be, and take a good look at it at the end of the month. The shock, I tell you! 80% of the stuff I was purchasing I could simply make, or go without. After that, I promised myself to get to daily tracking and asked everyone around me to hold me accountable. I easily saved my first 1000$ in a matter of 8 weeks. Don’t judge me, we all have issues! Anyhow, this prompted me to start making my own coffee and packing lunch and snacks, to get over my earrings and shoe addiction, and to only get purses when I actually needed to. So, friends, get to tracking your expenses, you never know just how much it could reveal about you and how much money you could save and invest elsewhere.

#5: Your romantic relationship

There are so many habits you can try out for a compound effect in your couple, but I found this one to be the easiest: hug for at least 7 seconds daily. That’s it, just try! It can be harder than it sounds due to schedules, fatigue, conflicts, hesitations, expectations, distractions, etc. But if you do nothing else, at least share a hug a day, for a minimum, of 7 seconds. Give it a go for 21 days, enjoy the release of oxytocin in your body (also called the cuddle hormone) and increased connection between you and your partner, and come back here to tell me how that went.

#6: Your mental health

Now you guys know I could not do this post without plugging in the mental health. There is plenty of ways to focus on it but one way I have found to achieve mental peace is to allow ourselves to hear ourselves. That means blocking out the actual noise and enjoying the silence for something like fifteen minutes a day. No television, no music, no conversations, no podcast, not even the white noise or “relaxing sounds” from some app. Absolutely nothing but you and your thoughts, and the silence. Of course, it will feel awkward at first for those who are not used to it, but after a couple of tries it will come naturally and you will learn to really enjoy it. In silence, a lot of things are born: calmness, creativity, spirituality, relaxation, patience, simplicity. Now granted, if you are like me, you might be willing to try, but your household is filled with people, and your office mates always want to chat. The solution: tell people! I have worked up the confidence to actually say “I need a moment of silence for myself, I will see you in a bit”. It works like a charm! You say that and you go find a quiet place.

#7: Your community

Being truly great also involves allowing time in your schedule to other people; lending a helping hand. In a time where we are very much focused on ourselves and lack a sense of community, it has become scarce to find individuals who are genuinely interested in their peers, much less willing to sacrifice their leisure time to the benefit of others. This is the reason why, over time, the habit of helping out will make you great. It will make you stand out from the crowd; it will warm your heart as you will know you actually made a difference in these people’s lives. It has also been proven that volunteering for a cause counteracts the effects of stress, anxiety, and anger, as well as helps fight depression. Wonder why? It is because we were not created to live an individualistic life. The human is a social creature, the sense of community is innate within us, and most of us are born with basic caring feelings for our fellows. We have just strayed from that with time. Therefore, coming back to basics will really make you feet better.

So, let’s get to it! It could be as simple as helping someone you know who works a lot to cook or clean, calling the lonely elders in homes to conversate with them, babysitting some kids so parents can have rest or date nights, mowing lawns for neighbors, grocery shopping for your grandparents disabled people, car lifting for churchgoers, free dog walking, haircutting for your whole extended family. Whatever it is, the important thing is to give your time freely and with a warm heart!

Final thoughts:

There are plenty of good habits we can adopt in various areas of our lives in order to level up. No person is perfect but I believe we can all take an honest look at our daily ways and decide where we are committed to improving. My wish for all of us is to ultimately be satisfied with the way we are living. I hope these few tips have been helpful and gave you the desire to apply the compound effect!

What habits have you adopted in your life?

What advice have you gotten that you could share with me to help me out?

Your suggestions and comments will always be welcome!