There Are Two Kinds of Habits:

Those that serve you and those that don’t.

Fortunately, we have the choice over our habits through our choice of everyday actions.

These actions vary from day to day in the course of our lives; however, our attitude towards them can either be passive or active…on or off.

At first we need to be active in our intent to be aware of what we’re doing but then, when we do get it…we’re in our flow, what happens?

Typically we notice a shift in effort from active to passive…from on to off.

We’re human – this is biology – this is our brain being lazy to ‘conserve’ energy.

Tsk tsk.

Passively is where we can slowly get ourselves into trouble with our habits.

Whenever we’re passive we are unaware of the LITTLE THINGS.

These little things add up astronomically over time.

Unfortunately, no one guides us to which habits are truly helpful and which ones are a marketing scheme.

This article is designed to make your life easier by making your day easier. Day by day, these daily habits will:

• Increase Productivity
• Increase Happiness
• Cultivate a Positive Mental Attitude

Let’s get to it!

1 – Show Up

Trying to pursue many different directions at once, but not making progress?

Frustrated that the world wants you to pick one thing, because you want to do them all?

The problem is you’re thinking short-term — acting as if you don’t do them all this week, they won’t happen.

The solution is to think long-term.

You may have heard this story:

Buridan’s donkey is standing halfway between a pile of hay and a bucket of water. It keeps looking left and right, trying to decide between hay and water. Unable to decide, it eventually falls over and dies of hunger and thirst.

A donkey can’t think of the future. If he could, he’d clearly realize he could first drink the water, then go eat the hay.

Don’t be a donkey.

You can do everything you want to do.

You just need foresight and patience.

2 – Show Up Consistently

It sounds easy but this is where the discipline begins. And here’s the secret is:

Discipline = Freedom.

Think about it…

You already know how to do everything it would take to make you an outrageous success.

All you have to do is keep doing the things that have gotten you this far.

You have complete control over the direction that the rest of your life takes.

Simple daily disciplines – little productive actions, repeated consistently over time – add up the difference between failure and success.

The slight edge is relentless and cuts both ways: simple daily disciplines or simple errors in judgment, repeated consistently over time, make you or break you.

People don’t consistently do those simple things for 3 reasons:

1. While they’re easy to do, they are also easy not to do.
2. You don’t see any results at first.
3. They seem insignificant, like they don’t matter.

But they do.

3 – Cultivate a Positive Outlook

When something is wrong or bad do you say ‘Good’?

Do you see the ‘GOOD’ in everything?

You have the opportunity to figure out a solution.

If you can say the word, ‘good’, your still breathing…you still got some fight in you.

Don’t let life get you down. Get you some Jocko.

Embrace every obstacle…for this is life…and life is GOOD.

4 – Be Committed to the Long Haul

Getting better is a campaign. It’s an uphill climb every single day.

Be committed to the little things. Those easy things are just as easy not to do as they are to do. Those little decisions that either:

• Lead us up towards our goals
• Spiral us down in the opposite direction

Have you ever heard of the 10,000 hour rule? It’s said that is how long it takes to become competent in a skill…any skill.

If you take a day off, you’ll never get that day back. It’s math and a fact of life.

You’ll never get the opportunity to get any of those available 24 hours back. Ever.

And just like those little things not done…those things done add up over time. In a BIG way.

Just think for a second… where you could ‘sneak’ some more quality into your day. Quality is what counts for habits NOT quantity!

5 – Cultivate a Burning Desire Backed by Faith IN YOURSELF

Napoleon Hill’s book The Law of Success will never lose it’s value over time.

He was really big on this burning, not itching, but BURNING desire to accomplish YOUR goals, dreams and ambitions.

Something that gives your life meaning and is truly meaningful to YOU.

The mind becomes withered, stagnant, narrow and closed unless it searches for new ideas.

Your definite purpose needs to be constructive:

• Bring hardship/misery to no one
• Bring YOU peace/prosperity

Hard labor and good intentions = Wishful Thinking

Definite purpose = Definite plan

Too many subjects/directions = indecision and weakness

CONCENTRATION makes REALITY

You’ll get nowhere is you start nowhere

Has it ever occurred to you to CREATE OPPORTUNITY FOR YOURSELF!?

6 – Be Willing to Pay the Price – Be Your Own Champion

None of these habits are popular in our society.

Our society is flourishing and running unchecked with:

• Learned Helplessness
• Learned Meaninglessness
• Learned Negativity

All of these are choices. Decisions the INDIVIDUAL makes. Not society, not your boss, not your spouse…

You.

You are the only responsible for YOU.

Take accountability and take it NOW. And keep taking accountability with your actions every day in literally every way.

If you can control your choice then it’s literally ON YOU.

Be willing to pay the price is anything but monetary.

Things cost time, not money.

Time is the price we must pay in the form of effort…physically and mentally.

We can learn, just like financially, to manage our time by being mindful where it is going or be satisfied enough to put it on auto-pilot.

It’s a choice.

Do you know where your 24 hours is going?

There are 8760 hours a year. That’s the budget. It’s the same for everyone.

The little things often accumulate to form an alarming amount of misallocated time….Like social media averaging a little over 2 hours PER DAY. That’s for grown adults…kids are averaging more screen time than ever before…

Let’s do the math for perspective’s sake…allow me:

2 hours and 15 minutes multiplied by 365 days is about 34 DAYS

That’s 9.3% of the YEAR. The entire year!

Allow that to sink in dear reader…People average 1 month on social media…does that sound like a productive use of time?

It’s a choice.

Which habits are you fueling by not being mindful?

7 – Practice Integrity