Hello,
As you create personal habits that help [habits that help are those habits that have the potential to help more than just you] in your life it’s important to take stock of your present habits.
Often people have so much more going on than they realize. Going on in a good way I mean. It’s centuries old, this idea of taking stock of what is in your hands, not re-inventing the wheel or going in search of what we think we need when in fact we already have the thing. This concept is no doubt as old as the human experience.
So let’s take inventory of your habits. How do you begin?
What works for the retail giants can work for us – stop business as much as possible to take stock.
1) So the first thing to do is be still. Still yourself, still your thoughts and still your body.
2) After a period of quiet, take pen to paper and write freely. Without editing yourself complete this sentence: The positive and effective things I do routinely and without the need for much persuasion are_____________________. Write for as long as you have more to list but a minimum of 3 minutes.
3) Now review this list and see if you can group these ‘things you do’ into categories of similarity.
4) Take your sub-lists and give them all a heading – to name the category.. Say for example you have these items in one group: getting to bed early, rising before sun rise, exercise regularly, weekly paper/files organization and daily limits on social media; a great heading for this list would be SELF-DISCIPLINE. Of course some of these items might also belong with other groups. If for instance you have a set of habits that revolve around ORGANIZATION, then certainly weekly organization would go there as well. Double duty is fine.
When you have your sub-lists each with a title or heading, you will have a great list of what you do habitually and well.
5) As you review your final groupings of habits, you will probably remember a bunch of things that didn’t come up during the first part of the stock-taking. Just add them on and make your list as robust as you would like.
These are your habits that help. We all have them and it’s really important to know yours.
Before adding new ones, it’s important to know what you already ‘have in hand.’
Of course you can do the same thing with habits that do not help. We’ll take a look at that tomorrow.
Until then, enjoy taking stock of all the great habits you have…and be very grateful!
Abundant Success,
♥~