Have you ever noticed how bad habits tend to gravitate to one another? And how there’s a momentum associated with habits in the positive or the negative direction?
This is why, especially if you are struggling in building positive habits, it is a great idea to recognize any positive pattern/habit that you have established and been even moderately disciplined in throughout your life and hone it and build upon it. Then, subsequently you will build momentum and aquire other good habits more easily.
For example, in my life I have always been disciplined in the area of exercise. I was involved in many sports and physical activities most of my life, regular exercise naturally became a part of my routine and thus my life.
There’s my exercise snowball; rolling downhill picking up speed!
I have always struggled in the discipline of organizational skills & time management and I once had a mentor tell me that if I was half as disciplined in this area as I am with exercise I would have great success in this area. She suggested that I apply the same principles just in a different area. Essentially she was simply telling me to develop the habit in my life the same way I had with exercise.
Developing a habit is simply repeating something until it becomes an automatic part of our life that we do without question or conscious decision. Once you make the decision consistently enough, it sticks.
This was me trying to push my organizational/time management snowball uphill. Ugh. No fun.
I’m happy to say that I am now working on developing small disciplined positive habits in this area and let it roll downhill naturally. No more pushing!
Another mentor of mine once said it is a wonder that developing the positive habit of flossing is just as tough as quitting the negative habit of smoking. Lol. Seems like a drastic analogy but it we give it truthful thought, we can see how this makes sense. Most of the daily actions we engage in are brought on by habits we create and have become unconscious. We are, in fact, creatures of habit and the trick is to develop our unconscious mind to engage in positive habits we create over time. Our unconscious mind is insanely more powerful and influential of our actions than our conscious mind!
Just like a snowball rolling downhill, habits build upon each other and create great momentum in our life. A ball of negative habits can be likened to an avalanche as they will definitely lead to utter chaos once compiled. However, creating positive habits that build upon each other creates a positive momentum that leads to peaceful functionality, productivity, and ultimately a lot more freedom! Don’t forget that you have to pack that initial little snowball and get the ball rolling!
