The One Thing You Ignore That Dictates Your Future

Everyone wants the world to change but few people want to change themselves, why is that? It’s because it’s hard work to make changes in our own lives. We know it’s hard so instead, we pick out anything we can find that is wrong with others and society as a whole. The more we do this, the further we get from what we want from life.

Whether we like it or not we are our habits. The life we get tomorrow is a result of the habits we have relied on today. When we do what is hard and change our habits for the better, we get closer to the success that we desire. When we refuse to change our habits, we get left with frustrations. I want to see people succeed and this is my journey of how habits led me to developing the mobile app WeWake.

The Marriage of Habits and Character

You may not think that your habits represent your character, but they do. For example, let’s say someone is bothering you and doing anything they can to get under your skin. What they are trying to do is to get you to fall back on your habits and do something that you will later regret. We all have habits and they come out at different times by default. The key is learning to change that default setting.

We Have Habits When We Are:

• Fearful
• Hungry
• Tired
• Happy
• Frustrated
• Angry
• Bored
• Successful
• Feeling like failures
• etc…

We default to certain behaviours when the time calls for it. That is why you don’t know a person until you see them in many different situations. Emotions can bring out the best and worst in people.

Your character is who you are when no one is watching. The building block of your character is the habits you default to. Habits are actions that happen automatically. If you are in the habit of eating healthy, you don’t have to think about it you just do it.

How I Learned About Habits

When I was in high school I was on a mission to move from Canada to the United States. Why I’m not sure, but I always knew that the Land of the Free is where I wanted to be. I knew It was going to be my home one day. To do this, my best shot was an athletic scholarship.

I decided to go to high school far from my home to go to the best athletic school in the city of Toronto. My parents helped me to set up some killer habits that are still helping me to this day. For example…

They made me take the bus which developed a crazy level of grit that I cherish.

I had to pack my lunch and that developed the habit of paying attention to what I put inside myself.

I needed good grades so I had ask friends and teachers for help. Asking for help developed the habit of seeking mentors.

I NEVER missed track practice and that developed the habit of showing up.

My track coach was very technical so he made me focus on the details. Being detail oriented with my craft developed the habit of chasing mastery.

I had to throw up and finish workouts and the developed the habit of doing the work even when it hurt.

These habits started to make my life but bad habits also started to creep in.

The Habits We Choose To Ignore

I first learned about the habits we choose to ignore when I learned what my default was when I felt liked or loved. I wanted to dive into that head first regardless of who it hurt because at the moment it felt good. That developed the negative habit of being compulsive in relationships.

Whenever anyone made me feel stupid I would lash out due to bad experiences in school. The developed the habit of speaking before thinking.

I would work hard as hell and not get what I wanted and cry because I was not getting a life my way. It developed the habit of being impatient.

Once I retired from track and field, I started eating junk and sugar like it was my job. I justified it because I had sacrificed so much earlier. That developed the habit of short term thinking.

I also went through a period in my life where I just lived for gossip! I had to use an app to check myself and make sure that I was not gossipping until it became habit to avoid it.

We have to be willing to step into these poor habits and change them before they become huge problems.

The Habits We Are Not Aware Of

When I was building WeWake I knew it had to have a habit tracker. I love tracking habits daily because what gets measured gets improved. When I ran track the main number I knew at all times was my fastest 100m time. I tracked my time because I wanted to improve it. You track your habits so you can improve them.

To find these habits, it starts with being truthful. It also means having friends around you who will tell you the truth. You have to start measuring where you want to be and identify the roadblocks that are stopping you.

For example, let’s say you want to save $20,000 and you can never make any progress on this goal. Ask yourself, have you developed the habit of spending everything you make? What is the habitual thing you are doing that is stopping this from happening?

You need to start identifying your bad habits and do everything you can to change those habits. Then start working on developing some powerful habits that will help to build your confidence.

The reason I started getting up at 3:10 AM and taking cold showers is that to most people it is insane. They do not understand how I do it, and that actually gave me a tonne of confidence. If I can do that day in and out when I don’t want to, what else can I accomplish?

Goals We Just Can’t Seem to Reach

I added a goal tracker into WeWake that also has a progress bar. The goal tracker gives people a way to watch their own progress.

If you want to save $20,000 a year from today then 6 months from now you should be around $10,000. If you are above or below that $10,000 mark, you know you are ahead or behind.

Most people do not track their goal progress close enough. We may know we are not close and we assume something magical will happen one day that will change our lives. Well, I am here to say that the magical thing that needs to happen is you make a change. Nothing happens until you do that!

Tracking goals will make you think about your actions. When you set big goals the only way you get them is when you stretch and change.

Why Write About Life?

The last piece to all this is keeping a honest journal. I lay it all out in my journal. I talk about the worst thoughts that run through my head and I get all the frustrations out.

What the journal helps me to do is reveal me to me. Once I see what I put down I start to see the holes in my character. It gets clear why I am not getting the things I want. You save the journal entries for the right moments as reminders.

The journal was the toughest thing to put into WeWake because I felt like its so cliche. I knew it was important though because most of us have a lot to get off our minds.

How to Get Everything You Want From Life

You can get anything you want from life by adjusting yourself to who you need to be to get it. If you don’t see those changes as possible then you will not get the thing that you want. That is the blunt and simple truth.

WeWake is meant to do four important things to start this process.

1. Track habits you want to start like reading every day, and habits you want to stop like skipping workouts.
2. WeWake will help you set goals, write them down, and track every step of progress to that goal.
3. Get your thoughts out of your head so you can learn more about yourself and start to gain more insight.
4. WeWake allows you to do this all alone or share it with a group of friends so you have accountability.

You change your habits, and you will change your life!