Do you want to form good habits that will help you reach your goals? In this training, I share with you three steps to form good habits that will lead you to success.
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Good Habits are Key to Success
What we’re going to talk about now is about habits. This is on my mind because, to be honest, I have some habits that need changing. So I’ve been working on this and I’ve seen some things that are helping me. That’s why I wanted to share them with you.
As an author, there are so many ways that consistent small habits can lead you to success. It could be a habit of having a power hour every week. Or it could be working on writing your book a couple of times a week. This habit can eventually allow you to finish your book.
The small habits of doing marketing every day can lead to more sales. In fact, one of my Author Audience Academy members, Kim Steadman, was just talking in the group today. She shared about how she had been busy and stopped posting regularly on social media.
For everyone it’s different. But for her, Facebook and I think, Pinterest is her thing. She observed that when she stopped posting, her sales stopped. And she was getting consistent sales.
Then when she started posting again, she started getting sales again. There are so many small, consistent actions and habits that can lead to success. And that’s what I want to talk to you about.
Honesty is a Start
So let’s do a little exercise. And when you do this, I want you to be honest. We have, to be honest with ourselves. That’s the first thing we need to do.
So let’s answer these questions:
- What are some good habits you want to create? I want you to pick one habit that you would like to develop.
- What is one bad habit that you would like to break? I would love to hear from you about some of the habits that you want to change in your life. But you have to really dig deep and be honest.
Sometimes, maybe we’re not ready to change something. Or there are times when we don’t want to admit that it’s an issue.
Personally, there have been several different habits that I’ve needed to change. For instance, one of the things I have to develop is my fluoride treatment. I have really soft teeth. I don’t know why, but I get cavities easily.
My dentist advised me to start fluoride treatment. This usually takes five to ten minutes in the morning and another five to ten minutes at night. But it’s easier for me to batch it. You know how I am on productivity and batching.
In short, I wasn’t able to do it consistently. And he’s been telling me this for probably a year and a half. Every time I go for a dental check-up, there’s still a bunch of cavities that are close.
This last was the first time I didn’t have a new cavity. But there are some that are very close. So my dentist reminded me again.
He said, “Shelley, you could actually, potentially, reverse some of this damage if you would just do this fluoride treatment.”
And finally, I thought, “OKAY. I know I need to change that habit. That’s a good habit that I need to create. And it could eventually save me thousands of dollars in dentist bills.”
So I decided that I will get serious about this. That’s a bad habit that I want to break and a good habit I want to create.
Know Your Motivation
Another thing you have to do to create a good habit is to have a “Why”. You must go deeper for the motivation to change.
For me, my motivation is that I want to keep my teeth. I only have one set of teeth and my grandma lost all her teeth when she was young. She must be in her 30’s when that happened.
I don’t want to have all my teeth pulled out and wear dentures at a young age. And it’s also very expensive to always get work done on my teeth. Just recently, I must have spent thousands of dollars for the dentist’s visit and treatment.
So I made it a motivation. I thought, “Okay. I need to take care of my body because my body is God’s temple. This is something that he’s given me. I want to be a good steward of the money he’s given me. And so I’m going to do this.”
The Three Ideas
To be able to develop my new good habits, there are three ideas that I implemented. I am sharing this to you, as you may be able to use it as well.
#1: Connect it with something you already do every day.
I’m never really was a person who enjoyed a bath, or a warm bath. I’m a get-it-done person, you know that. But in the last six to eight months, I realized that I also need to have some self-care sometimes in my life.
At night, taking an Epsom salt bath with lavender oil or such has been really good for me. And it is self-care.
What I’ve decided to do then is to connect the fluoride treatment with my bath. The fluoride treatment needs to be ten minutes. And a lot of times, I spend about ten minutes just soaking in the bath.
So, I decided to do it at the same time.
#2: Set a reminder on your phone.
Most of us have our smartphones with us all the time. So, you can set a calendar reminder. You can use the reminders app, or whatever you need to do.
So I set a reminder, a recurring reminder, and I decided Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursday. So I set a reminder for me to do it three times a week.
It would be the nights that I would make sure I would take a bath and my fluoride treatment. And you know what? I have been doing it!
#3: Have accountability
One thing we provide for you in Author Audience Academy is accountability. In fact, in just about a half an hour I’m getting ready to go live in my private Facebook group for Author Audience Academy.
We have accountability calls, and I do a weekly accountability post. And having accountability can really help you create a new habit.
I told my husband that I was doing it and so I had some accountability. Connecting it with something I was already doing is awesome. It was like I was able to do both at the same time.
I just had that thing in my teeth while I was relaxing, and it didn’t interfere with the bath. It just works.
Just recently, I also started having back and neck pain. In the last seven months, I really got into art. So now, I already have an art studio. I really got into lettering and I was doing it a lot during the day.
Eventually, my muscles started tightening it up. So I’ve been trying to take care of myself. That’s why I decided to do certain exercises that my chiropractor gave me.
I’ve also been drinking tea more often in the mornings. So while my tea is getting made and I’m waiting for it to steep, I have about three to four minutes. Instead of spending three to four minutes standing there waiting for my tea, I’m doing my exercises.
You know what? It only takes three to four minutes to do the exercise he wants me to do. And I can do it by hooking it and connecting it with something I’m already doing every day.
And guess what? I have been doing my exercises every day. So, it’s really amazing what can happen.
Bonus Tip: Have another positive replace the bad habit.
Another thing I want to change is my diet. I’m really trying to eat better and not eat as much sugar. I just get so addicted to it and crave for it every time.
But I know it’s not good for inflammation, which is what I’m dealing with my muscles and everything. So my other option is to have another positive to replace that.
So what I did is I make sure that I have some sort of healthy bar in my purse. It’s an alternative to a sweet. I also have something available at home all the time that I can just grab real quick if I have a craving.
It’s an alternative that I can use.
But you have to remember, these are just a few ideas. Some of these things may not work for what habit you want to create.
I’m just implementing this. But there are so many ways to create new habits. What is your favorite way to create a new habit?
Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear from you.
Do Everything for the Glory of God
As we close I want to pray for you. Ultimately, no matter what we’re trying to do, I believe we should do everything for the glory of God, Amen? So I want to pray for you because He’s the one who can help us to change.
We can try all the behavioral modification in the world like setting the timer or setting all these things. We can do all
those things and still fail.
For these habits, there’s something deeper it’s connected to. There’s something deeper going on. So sometimes it really requires us to get alone with God; to pray and to ask him what the root of this is.
So, what’s that deeper issue?
Let me pray for you. I just pray that God gives you the clarity. I pray that He shows you the plan to break those bad habits you want to break. And the plans to create those new good habits you want to create.
When we’re writing, we’re trying to fit things into our lives. And it can get overwhelming. Sometimes we just simply need to create these things as habits into our lives. So let me pray for you.
“God, I thank you for each person that is listening right now. I thank you for their desire to continue to grow. I know that we’re going to continue growing until we reach heaven. And I just thank you that they have a desire to grow.
I don’t personally know all the habits they want to break or create, but Lord you know them. You know their hearts’ desires. You know those things that have a strong hold on them; even if they’re not willing to admit it right now.
Lord, we want to really glorify You. We want to honor You with our physical bodies. So what we’re doing with our physical bodies, eating and exercising, is for your glory.
But also Lord we want to glorify You with our gifts and abilities. Whether in writing, teaching, encouraging, or other the ministries, we want to give you glory. We want to glorify you through our books and writing. Lord, may we honor you with all of that.
Lord, I pray that You would help each person get to the root. Help them to see what it is that’s holding them back. And I pray that You would bring a breakthrough in Jesus’ name.
I pray that You would do an amazing work in their lives. I just thank You for them in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
I encourage you to sign up for my free seven days writing challenge if you have not already. We talk a lot about developing habits for writing and how to find your sweet spot for writing.
This way you can really get your first draft done. Until you have your first draft done you don’t have anything. You have to have that first draft done before you can self-edit.
You need to have that first draft done before you can have it proofread, professionally edited, and go through the process. So, sign up for free at writingweek.com.
If you’ve already signed up, I would appreciate if you would share that resource with the writers in your life or those you know have a story to tell.
Until next time!
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