Your Future Self Wants You To Commit to Better Habits

Every day is a gift, right?

But, why? Some days certainly don’t feel like gifts, yet other days feel like the universe has everything perfectly aligned for you — so, how can every day be a gift? It doesn’t make much sense looking at it from this perspective, but let’s try looking at it like this — your growth, like the one of a seed, does not depend on good or bad days, but rather on the nourishment and value it can draw from them.

So each day holds the potential to grow you in some way — this is one of the reasons why it’s a gift

Now, this comparison holds true for a seed, but how would you find value in your good and bad days? Where would you look? Well, the answer is quite simple — it’s in your habits, it’s in the things you do every day regardless of whether how you feel. How you choose to commit your time every day will greatly impact the value used to grow and deepen your roots, whether you realize it or not.

And please, I don’t only mean your physical habits

I point also to your mental, emotional and spiritual habits. They are independent, but they work together to decide the value you find in your days. This value is greatly impacted by the food you eat, the thoughts you hold and the worries you entertain. If you focus more of your time on bad habits, you will become a result of them, but the same holds true for good habits.

Because you become what you commit your time to

Your habits are so powerful, but you have to be careful not to trap yourself in habits that only bring you short-term value, for they lead to long-term damage. I know that the better habits that ask for more effort may seem less attractive, but don’t be discouraged by this — if you find the strength to commit to them, to stay true to them, they will improve your life today, tomorrow and every day after.

“Successful people aren’t born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don’t like to do.” ―William Makepeace Thackeray

So if you wish to better your habits, let these help you start:

Observe Your Days And See Where You Can Improve

Every day brings you 24 hours and you can commit this time wherever you like — this is a power we all have. Your everyday commitments have a tiny and powerful effect on you because they decide your growth and the person you will become. If you do not like yourself very much and wish to change that, you have to become someone you admire, and you do this by bettering your habits.

Begin by focusing on your bad habits, the ones that bring you short-lived value

Make a list of them if you must. If you overthink your worries or overindulge in food and fears, write them down. Accept these as your bad habits and understand that they will take time to weed out — even Mark Twain knew that they must be coaxed down the stairs one step at a time. But this effort will only bring you the time you need to focus on better habits — the ones that will better you and help you become one you can admire.

“Let today be the day you give up who you’ve been for who you can become.” — Hal Elrod

Make A Commitment To Better Habits

By now you should have an idea of what you need to change in your days and what can remain the same. This definitely will be a tough decision for you to make every day, but I urge you to commit to it because there is something greater happening in the background — your future self is watching you and waiting for you to make these better commitments.

Everything that you do today will affect your future self in some way

But please, don’t expect it to be easy — bad habits are often more attractive than good ones, so you may find them luring you in at times. Don’t expect yourself not to be attracted by them, expect yourself to be stronger than this attraction. Expect yourself to resist them and choose the habits that will make your future self proud of you. Fight every day and soon these habits will become second nature to you.

“In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.” — Tony Robbins

Your Habits Will Decide The Life You Lead

I have learned that our habits have a profound influence over our lives. They largely impact the way we see ourselves, the paths we follow and the choices we make every day. They influence whether we overcome or succumb to overwhelming situations, whether we choose complacency and how we react to adversity.

Our habits decide the lives we lead

I know this comes off as a bit strong, but there is truth in this — it’s difficult to be a valuable person if you never do anything that brings value to your life. And it’s up to you to see the things that bring value to your life and add them as a part of your days. If you never improve the things that you don’t like about yourself, that’s something you have to live with.

This does not mean you cannot be better, it just means you have to decide to be better every day of your life and if you do, you will slowly become so.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ― Aristotle

I recently read a quote by Benjamin Franklin that I felt to be quite powerful — he said, your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. How true, right? This simple equation helps you understand the overall value your life creates for you and the world around you.

Try working out this equation for your life

See whether the current life you lead is bringing value to you and the world around you or whether it’s taking it away. This simple evaluation of the life you lead is only there to help you understand where you can improve. So whatever result you find after, accept it, be humbled by it, and let it be the foundation from which you begin to build a better life. Transform every day into a gift.

“Make the most of yourself….for that is all there is of you.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Invest In Your Existence, Kind Reader.

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Previously Published on medium

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Photo credit: by Jakob Owens on Unsplash