Habit of the month

In order to live a life you love, one that gives you all the amazing things you deserve, you need successful habits.
Our habits underpin our daily lives, so we may as well work on habits that will support, nurture, and sustain us, as opposed to the ones that deep down we know do nothing to improve our lives.
One of the things coaching (and life in general) has taught me is that people tend to crash when they try to change too many things at once.
You see it every January 1st. People get all fired up with enthusiasm, tell the world how this year is going to be different, this year they are going to get fit, de-clutter the house, learn to play the guitar, take up knitting, wash the car every week.
Then on the 15th of January, they have still not been to the gym (it’s been raining or they had to take the Christmas decorations down). They picked up the guitar once, realised that they could not immediately play like Clapton and decided that actually, the guitar was probably quite a difficult instrument to play. They’ve been ‘too busy’ to de-clutter the house, and the car is sitting all sad and forlorn with moss growing around the windows.
The moral here is – it is good to have goals that keep us motivated and excited. However, we have existing habits and mindsets that are resistant to change, especially when we try to change too many things all at once. The result is that we set ourselves up for failure.
My philosophy is to make slow and lasting changes. Introducing one habit at a time in a way that is realistic for each individual.
It might not be as exciting as trying to attack ten things at a time, and there is a strong argument for setting goals that are both exciting and motivating.
But, and I believe this is the key, we get our goals and habits muddled.
The goal might be say, to get fit, which is both an exciting and stretching goal. However, it is underpinned by a series of daily habits that culminate to bring about the stretching goal you have set.
So on the following pages, we will pick a habit for each month – small things that we can easily incorporate into our daily lives that over time can impact in a big way.