Habits change you and your life

Everything we do every day is our habits. They are actions that we sometimes don't even pay attention to, don't even think about. The most practical way to change who you are is to change what you do, those little habits.

For many years I have been practicing sports. At first I exercised in the evenings, then I switched to the morning. I used to stop and then start again. But working on my habits and on myself helped me. Gradually it became a habit. Now Sport has become a part of my personality and life. It is also about my other habits. My personality has changed for the better. That is the essence of habits, to become better and improve in something.

If you want to achieve some goal, it's not enough to just write on a piece of paper and that's it. If you do the same habits every day that won't get you there, you won't achieve anything. You're not going to change. You will stay the same, with the same narrow mindset. True behavioral change is personality change. You must change your essence, behavior, personality, thinking, beliefs.

✓ For starters, you don't have to rush and demand huge results and goals from yourself at once. A daily improvement of just 1% will yield significant results in the long run. We change gradually, day by day, habit by habit. If you do a little bit each day, a little bit at a time, but consistently, you will make big improvements and successes later on. No one becomes successful at the snap of a finger. You labor a little bit every day, developing a habit and then 'Boom' and you achieve success, the goal you set. Good habits only bear fruit over time. And in fact, these small actions start to change your life and you for the better.

✓ Some people think: since I can't do something perfectly, it's better not to do it at all. But it isn't.  You just don't realize how valuable it is to do at least something when you're having a bad (or too busy) day. Just doing at least something - ten squats, five laps, a push-up - is a lot. Don't get down to zero.

The road less traveled is the road of delayed rewards. If you are willing to wait, you will meet less competition on your way and as a result you will get more. 

✓ If you find it at all difficult to start doing something, you can use the Two Minute Rule, which states, "Any new habit should take no more than two minutes." Start doing something planned for two minutes.  You may think this is silly, but the point is to get yourself into the habit of starting. The habit needs to take hold. If you find it hard to start exercising, for example, you can exercise for just 2 minutes and then stop. And do this every day. You won't believe it, but after a while, you'll want to keep going. It's better to do a pull-up once than to not show up for a workout at all. It's better to read a book for one minute than to never open it at all. It is better to do less than you would like to do than to do nothing at all.

You may not believe me, but it's really just an incredible feeling. You become the master of your life, your routine, every single day, you know what happens every single day. You're living. You have a great mood, motivation, energy, because you are getting better every day, every moment and you are going towards your goal, your dream.  At the same time you have time for rest, for other things.​

Choose the habits that work best for you personally, not the most popular ones.

✓ The best way to track progress is with a habit tracker. Tracking progress can increase your motivation to change for the better.  At the end of the day, you'll be proud of yourself for not missing a day, for not being lazy when you check a box. Evaluating your day and progress will let you see what is happening each day, what positive changes you are seeing. With a habit tracker, you have visible proof of hard work - a reminder of how much you've already accomplished.

When you start doing something new, and you get used to doing it, there are bound to be days when you'll want to quit.  Either you will get sick, or you will have to go on a trip, or your family will need you.  It's impossible to be perfect at everything. If you blog, you will have days when you won't feel like writing at all. But a professional keeps going, even if it's uncomfortable, painful, and tiring. And that's what makes him different from an amateur.

If I miss a day, I try to get back into the habit as quickly as I can. It is much more important that you continue even when you don't feel like it and if you do less than you would like.

Professionals stick to a schedule - amateurs let life take its course. Professionals know what is important to them and work with purpose - amateurs are thrown off course by life circumstances.

Truly successful people suffer from the same lack of motivation as everyone else. The difference is that they keep working despite the boredom. The one who wins is the one who trains every day, doing the same approaches over and over again.

There it is, the key difference between winners and losers. Everyone can have a bad performance, a bad workout, a bad day at work, a bad mood. But when successful people fail, they recover quickly. It doesn't matter that you broke a habit if you get back to it quickly.

Nothing lasts forever. Life is changeable, and you need to check in with yourself periodically and see if all your old habits and beliefs are working for you.

Can small insignificant actions change lives? Yes, if you do one more? And one more? And another? At some point you will have to admit that your life has been transformed by one tiny change.

Success is not a goal to be achieved, a finish line to be crossed. It is a system of improvement, an endless process of change. It is a constant process. There is no finish line. There is no permanent solution. It's over and over again. Always look for new ways to become one percent better.

I reflect on my personality and how I can become the kind of person I want to be. Every time at the end of December, I write notes about what I learned last year, what I accomplished, how far I've come. I take stock of my habits.

Never stop. You will be amazed at what you can achieve if you don't stop. Be amazed at how your business will flourish if you don't stop working. Be amazed at what your body will be like and your health will be strong if you exercise all the time. Be amazed at how much you know if you don't stop learning. Be amazed at the fortune you'll make if you don't stop saving. Be surprised at how strong your friendships and family are if you don't stop caring for them. These small habits and moments can change you and your life for the better.

Celebrate every even the smallest result because it was once your dream.

I recommend reading the book "Atomic Habits. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones" - James Clear.