Cultivating Better Habits to Achieve Our Goals
What is a habit?
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit.”
–Aristotle
A habit is something that we do
repeatedly in life, but we don’t often
pause to consider the long-lasting
effects many of them have on our lives.
Through cultivating positive habits and
letting go of the negative ones we
really can build the life of our dreams
one piece at a time.
Habit-forming can be a powerful skill
when applied correctly. In my opinion,
it’s the most efficient way to make
lasting changes in your life.
When we dream, we dream big, and why
wouldn’t we? That’s a luxury we can
afford when we dream. However,
dreaming big can have it’s pitfalls. The
sheer size of our dreams can be so
overwhelming and paralysing that we
find ourselves squinting up at their
distant summits considering the
impossibility of ever reaching them.
Dejected, we turn our back on our
dreams.
Dreaming big is the first step in
achieving our goals, but what follows is
most important. Our dreams must be
broken down into smaller
accomplishments and then they must be
broken down further into the steps
needed to make those achievements and
then using those steps, we implement
small things, or habits, we can do each
day that will move us closer to our
dreams.
Why do they work?
This became most clear to me when I
completed NaNoWriMo 2011, during
which I wrote a 50,000 word novel in 30
days. The task seemed mammoth, but by
building a habit of writing for an hour
and a half each day, I achieved my goal.
The beauty of it was, it didn’t even feel
like hard work. This is because when I
sat at my computer, I wasn’t sitting
down to write 50,000 words or even to
write a chapter, it was simply to write
for an hour and a half and then save my
progress. That’s all I had to do, and by
the time November left me, I had
completed my task. This really helped
shift my perspective from only seeing
the long struggle towards the goal to
simply focusing on the small things I
could do on that one day.
If we can focus on integrating a simple
habit into our lives, however small, the
effect it has on our future can truly be
great.
Some habits I try to cultivate;
Performing body weight exercises every
day – I don’t go hard on myself if I fall
short of my goal, but as long as I do
some each day I manage to stay
relatively trim and fit.
Writing every day – some days it’s 1000
words or more, other days it’s only a
sentence or a word to inspire a future
blog post. As long as my writing is at the
forefront of my mind each day, I move
closer to my goals.
Pausing each day to consider at least
one thing I’m grateful for right now –
after a while this can shift your whole
mindset in life-changing ways.
Contemplating my ideal self-image and
what I’m doing to move towards it – I’ve
been doing mental exercise like this for
several years and now only need to
spend 30 seconds on this to get the
desired effect (more to come).
Some habits I try to avoid;
Complaining – it’s such a drain on our
moods and those of the people around
us and if we indulge in it too often, it
can greatly affect the person we grow
to become in ways we might not
appreciate in the future.
Lingering on negative thoughts – another
intense drain on the mind. Sometimes
they need dealing with, but once I’ve
entertained them a while, or solved
them, I’ll accept it and let it go.
Negative self-talk/berating myself –
this starts with an increased awareness
of how you speak to yourself. A method
I used initially was trying to imagine if I
heard a parent speak to a child the way
I speak to myself and consider if it’s
productive and beneficial or simply
abusive. You’d be surprised how tough
we can be on ourselves sometimes.
These are just a few of things I try to
do or avoid each day. By considering our
long term goals and the small things we
can do each day simply to inch our way
towards them, we can rest assured that
we’re moving in the right direction and
will someday reach the mountaintop of
our desires.
What have you done today that your
future self will thank you for?
Thanks for reading.
By Tim Pound
See you at the top
“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a
habit.”
–Aristotle
A habit is something that we do
repeatedly in life, but we don’t often
pause to consider the long-lasting
effects many of them have on our lives.
Through cultivating positive habits and
letting go of the negative ones we
really can build the life of our dreams
one piece at a time.
Habit-forming can be a powerful skill
when applied correctly. In my opinion,
it’s the most efficient way to make
lasting changes in your life.
When we dream, we dream big, and why
wouldn’t we? That’s a luxury we can
afford when we dream. However,
dreaming big can have it’s pitfalls. The
sheer size of our dreams can be so
overwhelming and paralysing that we
find ourselves squinting up at their
distant summits considering the
impossibility of ever reaching them.
Dejected, we turn our back on our
dreams.
Dreaming big is the first step in
achieving our goals, but what follows is
most important. Our dreams must be
broken down into smaller
accomplishments and then they must be
broken down further into the steps
needed to make those achievements and
then using those steps, we implement
small things, or habits, we can do each
day that will move us closer to our
dreams.
Why do they work?
This became most clear to me when I
completed NaNoWriMo 2011, during
which I wrote a 50,000 word novel in 30
days. The task seemed mammoth, but by
building a habit of writing for an hour
and a half each day, I achieved my goal.
The beauty of it was, it didn’t even feel
like hard work. This is because when I
sat at my computer, I wasn’t sitting
down to write 50,000 words or even to
write a chapter, it was simply to write
for an hour and a half and then save my
progress. That’s all I had to do, and by
the time November left me, I had
completed my task. This really helped
shift my perspective from only seeing
the long struggle towards the goal to
simply focusing on the small things I
could do on that one day.
If we can focus on integrating a simple
habit into our lives, however small, the
effect it has on our future can truly be
great.
Some habits I try to cultivate;
Performing body weight exercises every
day – I don’t go hard on myself if I fall
short of my goal, but as long as I do
some each day I manage to stay
relatively trim and fit.
Writing every day – some days it’s 1000
words or more, other days it’s only a
sentence or a word to inspire a future
blog post. As long as my writing is at the
forefront of my mind each day, I move
closer to my goals.
Pausing each day to consider at least
one thing I’m grateful for right now –
after a while this can shift your whole
mindset in life-changing ways.
Contemplating my ideal self-image and
what I’m doing to move towards it – I’ve
been doing mental exercise like this for
several years and now only need to
spend 30 seconds on this to get the
desired effect (more to come).
Some habits I try to avoid;
Complaining – it’s such a drain on our
moods and those of the people around
us and if we indulge in it too often, it
can greatly affect the person we grow
to become in ways we might not
appreciate in the future.
Lingering on negative thoughts – another
intense drain on the mind. Sometimes
they need dealing with, but once I’ve
entertained them a while, or solved
them, I’ll accept it and let it go.
Negative self-talk/berating myself –
this starts with an increased awareness
of how you speak to yourself. A method
I used initially was trying to imagine if I
heard a parent speak to a child the way
I speak to myself and consider if it’s
productive and beneficial or simply
abusive. You’d be surprised how tough
we can be on ourselves sometimes.
These are just a few of things I try to
do or avoid each day. By considering our
long term goals and the small things we
can do each day simply to inch our way
towards them, we can rest assured that
we’re moving in the right direction and
will someday reach the mountaintop of
our desires.
What have you done today that your
future self will thank you for?
Thanks for reading.
By Tim Pound
See you at the top
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