How to Start Good Habits That Will Make You Successful

Don’t kick yourself into bad habits. (Photo: Spencer Finnley)

I personally want to thank everyone who has read Vagabond Insider. My first month as a blogger, I appreciate all the comments and everyone who read articles.

If you noticed my first few articles dealt with making good personal decisions over tips of How to in Vagabond life. I still am working on great How To articles, though I think it is best to start out with ourselves.

This is an article I’ve written on ehow.com at the beginning of last year. I think it is better suited here, check it out below.

Habits define how our lives go. If we have habits which are destructive in our lives, it leads to our destruction.

It is the same for habits which construct our lives in a good way, it leads to our good. Haha, man that was a terrible phrase, I loved it.

Here it is.

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How to Start Good Habits That Will Make You Successful

Do you want to be a superstar? Would you enjoy accomplishing so much in your life?

If not, don’t read on, it won’t help. If so lets continue to good habits.

First lets talk about habits. From thefreedictionary.com,

“A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.”

What does this mean? We acquire habits sometimes without knowing it. There are both good and bad habits, lets learn how to establish good ones.

Step One

First step is to define what you think is good or bad. I won’t decide for you, it is something ultimately you will decide.

What is good to you? Working out 3-4 times a week? Being on time to work? Thinking positively? Do you think any of these items are impossible or difficult to get into a habit of doing? Good, lets use it to our advantage.

One of the great lessons I learned about good habits, they are usually done by people I find successful. Who do you know or who do you see as successful? What do they do which you find good? Can you do it, yes you can.

What is bad to you? Smoking a pack of cigarettes everyday? Thinking you’re not good enough? Being late to everything you attend? Do you think any of these items are impossible or difficult to get out of a habit of doing? Good, lets use it to our advantage.

One of the great lessons I learned about bad habits, they are usually done by people I find unsuccessful. Who do you know or who do you see as unsuccessful? What do they do which you find bad? Can you not do it, yes you can stop.

See, I changed a few words, they work exactly the same way, good and bad. It’s all about deciding what you want, what you see is beneficial and not beneficial for you.

Is it really difficult to develop a habit? Hell yes if you believe so. What happens if you believe it is easy? It becomes easy.

Step Two

How do we form habits?

From thefreedictionary.com,

“A recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.”

Now we know how to form habits. A “pattern of behavior that is acquired through frequent repetition.” Lets use this to our advantage.

Do you want to do what you define as a good habit? Repeat it, in the same intervals you want it, and continue for 21 days.

Do you want to workout every other day? Work out every other day. Lets work out Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Monday, etc. Continue it until you reach 21 days (you can consider 21 days a total of 21 days doing your habit, instead of 3 weeks passing. This helps build it even longer.)

Are you having trouble doing the habit? Do you feel as though you don’t want to continue? Tough it out, bring a friend to help you stay accountable. If you cheat in your habit, it may not form on solid foundation.

You don’t cheat if you smoke right? You don’t miss a chance to smoke right? Good habits are the same way if you want to keep doing them.

This part is the most difficult and most rewarding too, do it with no short cuts, breath your habits, they will become you.

Step Three

Ok so we defined good and bad, and we now know how to form habits.

The tough part is going and going and going so we don’t quit. Quitting is easy, and to some, it is a habit. Remember how habits are formed?

Do you want to be a quitter? Some things in life are worth quitting, such as doing something which is not rewarding, doing something which does not help you get where you want to be.

I’m not going to hold you accountable to your good habits or bad habits, you have to. Are you going to make excuses of why you can’t do your good habits?

• It’s too hot.
• I’m too tired.
• I’m lazy.
• I’ll just skip it this once.
• I’ll do it tomorrow.

Ever hear yourself say these words? How can we ever overcome such words? Use them to our advantage.

Use excuses as a reason to continue. When you make an excuse not to do a good habit, you know you’re doing something right. Excuses we use show our weaknesses, lets overcome them and become the successful people we want to be and continue on with our habit creation.

It’s up to you at the end, can you look in the mirror, think about how you quit your good habit because you didn’t want to continue? Or because it is too hard?

Are you able to look in the mirror at yourself when you quit your bad habits because it’s good for your kids? Or because it’s good for you?

It is up to you, I know I’ll sleep well tonight.

Posted on January 30th 2010.