Do More, Your Life is Lived One Day at a Time

It can be tough to do more when it feels like you don’t have enough time. One way to start achieving more is to add small tasks to your day. Think about this for a minute. If you want to write a book but don’t have time you can write 100 words per day. That may not seem like that many but over the course of a year you will have written 36,500 words. That’s almost an entire book right there. This simple idea can be used on any task that you want to have more of in your life.

The idea is that if you add one small thing to your life each day it builds up over time. It’s like compounding interest. Einstein once said “Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… He who doesn’t, pays it…” if you consider doing something every day as a way to compound your interests you will achieve more. The first thing you will need to do is find something worth pursuing.  That thing must be worth doing every day!

Pick Your Once a Day Thing

If you’re like me then you know that picking something new to learn can be difficult. Since you are trying to pick something that you can do every day it is a good idea to start with something you want as a habit. The best kind of habits are keystone habits. They are life changing and they build up other good habits. A few examples of things that you could do every day are reading, writing, exercising, or practicing a skill or trade.

Your one thing is something you have to be willing to commit to for a couple of months if not years. After you have picked your one thing you will be able to start your journey towards achieving more and pursuing excellence in all aspects of your life.

Make a Goal Then Break it Down

You’ve already picked something you want to spend more time doing. Now it’s time to decide what you want to do with your one thing. Goal setting is a monumental part of being successful. You should always strive to create the most empowering goals for yourself because you are the only one that can decided how successful you can be. When building monumental goals you should plan to break them down into actionable steps. That’s where doing something every day comes in.

After you’ve made your ultimate goal, it’s time to figure out what the most beneficial use of your time is each day. Take some time to visualize what you’re trying to achieve. How much time can you spend on your goal each day? Is it 30 minutes, 1 hour, or more? If you only have 30 minutes each day to work on your goal, break your goal down into smaller daily tasks that are easy to manage. The same goes for an hour or even 2. The important part here is making and effort to work your goal into your daily schedule.

Expand Into New Areas

After you have gotten into the habit of doing your task everyday it is time to expand into new beneficial areas. These new areas need to be 1 step removed and no more. That means that if you decided to read more often you should go out and start riding a unicycle as an additional task (unless you were learning about unicycles, in that case ignore that last part). If you did choose to read more this is a perfect time to start writing. Another example would be if you started working out then adding a healthy diet or meditation would be 1 step removed. You may have even started learning to draw in which case painting or animation may be a good next step.

Whatever you decide to do remember that you are only going to add a task that is 1 step removed. 1 step removed tasks will have overlapping interests or skills. The reason for this is that when your goals overlap you can compound your success.

Achieve More With Less

Success comes to those that are willing to put the work in, have patience, and understand that your opinion of success isn’t the same as the next person’s. Finding one thing that you can do everyday will evolve into you mastering a skill. If you are able to find something you are passionate about your growth will be accelerated even more. Once your skills evolve to the point where you can bring in new ideas that’s when you know you’re on the right path to success.

The more you strive to be the best that you can be the happier you will be. You aren’t just helping yourself, you are helping everyone that you interact with on a daily basis. If you think that getting better at one thing will help your life, find a friend that wants to do more too. You’ll be able to hold each other accountable meaning you’ll grow faster. No one successful will ever claim they did it alone, surround yourself with people that have the same mindset as you.

If you think achieving more every day is something that will help you, then it will help someone around you achieve more too. Make sure you share this idea with a friend. Whether it be by word of mouth or by sharing this post on social media. Taking one step in the right direction will help. Success is something that everyone deserves. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter to learn more about what you can do for yourself and the people around you. Thanks for reading!

Forming Keystone Habits Is The Start Of A Better Life!

Keystone habits are not talked about as much as they should be. They are the habits that hold everything together. Keystone habits are named after a keystone in construction, which is a stone that holds an arch together. So what I’m getting at is getting keystone habits created will improve other habits.

Why Should You Care About Habits?

You may be wondering why it matters if you have a keystone habit and that’s fair. It is important to have keystone habits because they are something to build on. One example of a good keystone habit is working out. When you first start working out things are difficult but over time they improve. If you want to continue to see progress you may need to change your diet. If you smoke it may also get you to quick because of the difficult breathing.

A few more examples of common keystone habits would be reading, writing a journal, making your bed, or eating dinner with family. If you look at each one you’ll notice how they build up new habits. If you are in the process of forming a good habit consider that your keystone habit and build off of it. Just because it works for one person doesn’t mean it will work for you but creating great habits should always be one of your goals. 

Reading

If you read often you will have a more worldly perspective leading to new habits. Reading can also teach you about new habits or concepts that you’ve never heard of before. 

Journaling

Writing a journal will make you think about your day, you’ll see places for improvement and want to make the change. 

Making Your Bed

Making your bed starts your day off with something you can say you finished. You will want to keep checking things off your “to do” lists. It’s the easiest way to start the day of with an accomplishment.

Dinner with Family

If you start eating dinner with your family you will want to get more involved in everyone’s lives. You will grow new habits together.

As you can see changing one aspect of your life can make a big difference. Have you ever wondered what your life would be like if you started to read more? What about going and using that gym membership you’ve been paying for? One new habit that sticks will change your life everyday. 

How Do You Develop New Habits? 

The sad truth about habits is that there is no cookie cutter formula for habit creation. Scientists have put an incredible amount of effort into studying habits but everyone is different. That means that everyone will have different results when forming a habit.

On the bright side we do know that being systematic about habits will help in forming them. You shouldn’t worry about how long a habit takes to form. What is more important is making sure you continue practicing the habit. The repetition is what builds the habit.

Systematizing Your Habits

As mentioned before a habit is formed by being systematic. There are three common parts to a habit and each is just as important as the lost. They are known as the the cue, the routine, and the reward. Charles Duhigg can be credited for putting the parts of a habit into such a simple concept. He explains them really well in his book “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”.

The Cue 

The cue or trigger is the thing that sets off the habit. This can be a time, a place, other people, your emotions, or a reaction to an event. When the cue happens this is when you start your routine.

The Routine

The routine is the habit itself. It is the action that you do without thinking about it. This can be anything from going to the kitchen to grab a treat or going out to smoke. Once the routine gets going it is hard to stop and may feel automatic. Without the routine something feels off about a situation and it can ruin your day.

 The Reward

The whole reason the habit exists is to get the reward. In most cases it will be related to dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical in your head that gives you pleasure or joy from a situation. Once you have finished your routine your brain will tell you you did a good job and reward you.

The Plan

Now that you understand these three principles it’s time to make a plan.  If this is a new habit you will have to create a cue, for an old habit you will be identifying. The next thing will be the routine. The routine is the action of the habit, if it is a new habit decide what the routine is but make it small. Small habits are easier to form than big ones. If you have a habit it’s time to change it. If you change the cue and the routine to something positive the reward will still come.

Take some time and write out either what your new habit will be or what you want to work on. Keep a notebook around as you build your habit and document how things feel. The beginning is the hardest time. As you spend more time on your habit it will feel easier every day.

How do you choose a new habit?

Choosing a new habit can be difficult. The easiest way to get started is to look at what will benefit your life the most. If you feel like you could lose some weight look into starting a habit of exercising. This doesn’t mean buying supplements, getting a gym membership, and a personal trainer. Make it simple like doing pushups before or after work. A great app for this is the 7 Minute Workout. It’s easy to do and doesn’t take much time. If you feel like reading suits you better take a look at getting ebooks on your phone. You can always read a few paragraphs instead of checking social media.

What really matters when picking a habit is picking one that suits your life. If you try to jump into something that you don’t care about it will be much harder to do. The easiest habits to form are the ones that you enjoy doing.

Sticking With Your New Habit

There are four things to keep in mind when forming habits.

1. It’s not going to be easy.
2. You are going to have to self motivated because this is about you.
3. You will have to show discipline.
4. Delayed gratification is key.

These 4 concepts may sound challenging but they really aren’t. It is much easier actually get out there and do something than think about it. If you sit around thinking too much you will overhype how hard it will be. Motivate yourself to get out and do what you want, use the 3 parts of a habit to break it down. Know that it will take some time but it will pay off in the long run. If you stick to your habits in the end you will have a happier life.

Habits Change Your Life

It is pretty obvious that habits can change a life. All of us know at least one person that smokes too often or drinks to often. Those are habits that formed from doing the activity regularly. Spending the time to create a good habit can have positive impacts in all aspects of your life.

As long as you are picking healthy habits to form there is no wrong way to do it. If you pick exercising eventually you will start eating healthier. If you start reading more often you may start to write more often or get into new hobbies you didn’t know existed. The people around you will also be inspired by what you are doing.

It is important to remember that you are living your life for you. Forming habits makes life easier you can go on autopilot and still do great things. If you are ready to go out and start building new keystone habits make sure you like this post, share on social media and sign up for our newsletter. If you’re really feeling confident about your habit tell us about it in the comments!