How to Keep Your Mind Focused on Healthy Habits
Maintaining Self-Awareness through Good Habit
Habits are the bare bone of our existence and we must nurture them. Without them, we could not function properly as we would have to use constant brainpower to make decisions.
Habits can be behaviors (the way you act with yourself and others) or mindsets (the way you perceive life and the way you talk to yourself).
The tricky part of life is to maintain a healthy habit will remove/reducing unhealthy one because they require no effort. They are also easily reinforced by society and peers if you are not careful.
Arriving at a point where the good one supersedes the bad one, time, consistency, and tenacity is going to be required. Forget the 30 days. Forget the 66 days. It is going to take way more than 30 days of repetition to offset the 1000+ days where you did not any healthy habits.
For any new behavior you want to add to your life, as you long as you have to THINK about it, it is not a habit. As long as your default behaviors are going back to unhealthy or lazy ones, it is not a habit.
The major problem people have when implements new behaviors is the need to take a “break”. We feel like we need to reward ourselves for being such disciplined people.
I hate it to break it to up, the second you take that break, you are done. You lost the battle against your mind. It is back to square one because from that moment on, you convince yourself that your excuses were valid. And since an excuse is valid all other excuses are valid. Your mind will follow the path of least resistance if you give it room and excuses. That’s where 3 months pass and you are nowhere near what you set yourself out to be.
How to avoid this dangerous trap?
Challenging Yourself Every Day
Small successes bring large successes. Challenging yourself every day and accomplishing the challenge you set for yourself will put in the right mindset. It will reinforce good behaviors every time you win.
Don’t wake up already losing
Make Yourself Accountable
Having a group of friends or a friend to whom you can make yourself accountable will pressure you to perform and keep yourself focused. You want to make yourself accountable to people who want you to succeed. Not the loser who brings you down and shame you.
To Stop Caring What Other People Think
As much as it contradicts the previous point, you cannot care about what people think of you, especially those who do not support you or those who want to bring you down with them.
If going for a run at 6 AM and at 5 Celsius outside is crazy for them, let them think it is crazy. If that is what you need to do, do it without hesitation
Decrease the Judgement of Others, and the Judgment of Yourself
One mistake I have done is to put too much of my focus, thoughts, and energy on other people that do not want to succeed. You cannot expect other people to follow you no matter how disappointed it makes you.
It is wasted energy.
Energy and mental space that could be used to improve yourself. If your friend does not want to do anything, leave him be. You can only convince someone by your action. Be the example people want to follow but don’t expect anybody else other than yourself to do the work.
Limit Your Exposure to Lazy People
In the same vein, limit your time with lazy people. Make them your enemy. Not the person itself, but the way they live. Make laziness and complacency your enemy.
We have all heard the sentence “you become the 5 people you hang out with”. You need to understand yourself and know how influenceable you are. I know I am, so avoiding people who rub laziness on me is a big no-no.
Avoid at all costs.
Instead, be around people who push and challenge themselves.
