What do you do everyday that sets yourself up for success? Are your habits setting you up for failure? I challenge you to take a few days to observe your life, your daily routines, actions, decisions, habits, attitudes, word choices and how you spend your time. You can journal it, track it on your phone, or your own method of tracking these components.
Small habits such as: flossing, brushing our teeth at least twice a day, drinking filtered water, turning off the TV, reading, walking, exercising (even for just a few minutes!), laughing, turning away junk food, saying “thank you” instead of “sorry,” hanging your clothes up after you wear them instead of on the floor, cleaning the dishes in the moment, making healthy eating choices and saying kind words instead of assuming the worst of people (and yourself!).
One way to set ourselves up for success is to make good habits easier to do, and to make bad habits harder. Below are a few I’ve implemented in my own life, that you might also find helpful in yours.
- Remove the TV from the focus of the rooms it’s in. For us, we have only one TV in our home, and it is in the living room, but is not the focal point. It is rarely on, only for our little one to watch cartoons or the occasional holiday movie.
- Remove junk food from your kitchen (and other areas!) and replace it with fresh, whole foods. Organic fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and nutritious snacks are the key to snacking your way to good health. Oreos might taste yummy, but their addictive nature and empty calories do our bodies no good. It’s very simple to make yourself granola, protein balls, nut mixes and other snacks from super foods such as raw cacao and local honey. Simply replacing poor quality foods with high quality foods will improve your life immeasurably.
- How often can you walk or bike to run errands, instead of driving? Our bodies are made for walking long distances, yet few of us engage our legs for their natural purpose beyond the usual door to car to door routines. How much more walking and functional movement can you include in your daily activities?
- When you change clothes, where does your removed outfit go? To the floor? To the chair? (I know you have one, every adult has one.) Do you hang them back up or toss them in the laundry bin for washing? It takes a few seconds to hang that shirt up to prevent wrinkling, instead of tossing on the floor. This will save you hours of unnecessary laundering in the future, and thus, free up time and energy for happier activities.
- Do you quickly jump to conclusions about others when something inconvenient or unfavorable occurs? Try replacing blameful thoughts and words with ones of compassion and understanding.
- If you do, or want to maintain a workout routine, write out your excuses for not going or not wanting to go, then solution your way through those excuses to successes. For example, I have an hour commute one way to my office, so going to the gym regularly would take more time away from my family. To solve this, we have workout equipment in our home, and I do bodyweight workouts that can be done anywhere. Another example: My fiancé’s excuses revolve around going after work, and eating junk food throughout the workday with the reasoning of it’s okay as she’ll work it off at the gym. To solve for these bad habits/excuses, she goes to the 5:30 AM class, which sets her tone for the day of being fully aware, energetic and confident about making good consumption choices. And, since she goes before our required wakeup time to ready everyone for school and work, she’s not missing out on anything at home. She’s a proper badass, and inspiration.
- Make decisions about how you go about your day. What are you doing out of habit without questioning, and what can you change to make your life better, happier, healthier?
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