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Tiny Habits
TINY HABITS
Do you pay attention to all the things you do in a day? All your tiny habits? Perhaps some you do and others not so much. They may seem completely insignificant in a day, but what about if you do them every day?
For example, do you spend 10 minutes on Facebook every morning while having breakfast? Not a lot of time, right? But if you did it every single morning for 365 days that adds up to a lot of time on Facebook. Do you really want to be spending your precious time in this way? Perhaps you do, perhaps it is part of your business and it is intentional, but that is a decision, an intentional decision. However, most of us just kind of mindlessly browse and that is a bit of a waste.
What if you had a goal of exercising for 10 minutes every day, again not a lot, but over 365 days it compounds and you will see the benefit of it. Your tush may be a bit tighter, you don’t get out of breath as easily or you can walk up a few flights of stairs without breaking a sweat.
So the first step is to be mindful and pay attention to all your daily habits and routines. On their own they may be complete non-events, but over time they become hugely significant. I used to detest routine and see it as boring and mundane, yet there are routines that are a given every single day. You get dressed, you brush your teeth, you have breakfast and so on. But how about not seeing routine as boring, but rather use it as a way to elevate your life, your lifestyle.
Instead of just dressing, put more care into what you are wearing, pay attention. It takes just as much time and effort to put on a pair of yoga pants than it is to put on a lovely dress. The outcome = you feel so much better. And when you feel better, you show up better. The same with breakfast, instead of grabbing a piece of toast, grab an apple or banana instead. The compounding effect of these small yet seemingly insignificant choices, are enormous. If you did this every day for a year, how would you feel, how would you be showing up in your life?
This is how you create huge change in your life, by showing up every day and doing the work. It’s the lot of little decisions you make on a daily basis that adds up to the big successes. What you often see is that woman, sitting at the table next to you, looking gorgeous and glamourous and wealthy and you wish you could be her or like her. What you don’t know is the fact that she grew up on the wrong side of the tracks to alcoholic parents, was 20kg’s overweight and had a thick accent. What you didn’t see is that she decided to change her life, one day at a time, she worked hard as a waitress to be able to put herself through university, she worked hard at correcting her language and her accent, she gave up eating that chocolate and exercised every day. She made her life better, she elevated her life by making small seemingly insignificant choices/habits every single day until she showed up as this gorgeous, glamourous and wealthy woman.
Perhaps another example is of listening to the news every day. A couple of minutes a day, right? Wrong? News, in its very nature, tends to be negative. They very rarely report on happy, good experiences. Ok so now you have listened to the news and you start thinking about what was said and how you feel about it, so this takes up more of your thought space. This all adds up and has a huge effect on your life, as you are slowly dripping negative thoughts into your life. Some people say they like to be informed, but does this serve you? Would you not rather have positive influences, uplifting thoughts and new ideas coming into your life? Would that not serve you more?
What small insignificant thing could you do every single day, that would elevate your life? Can you imagine how excellent you would become by honing that particular skill daily?
Now, in the moment it may not feel as if your tiny habits are making the slight bit of difference, you may not see any results, but over time you will notice a huge change. “We are what we repeatedly do” Aristotle said. It’s true, what you have in your life presently is a result of what you did and thought. So in the end you have either negatively compounded things in your life or positively compounded something.
The trick is to like the journey of these tiny habits. Don’t get fixated on the big end goal you have, just focus on today and what you can do today and just one little change today can make all the difference. You will start to get momentum and that will start to shift your energy and before you know it, you are a match for more good stuff.
So what tiny habit are you going to change or start?
Thank you for reading, ladies….
xxx
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