Learn how to create a new habit in 7 steps

7 Steps To Developing A New Habit

How long does it take to develop a new habit?

The time period can be any length from a single second to several years. The speed of new habit pattern development is largely determined by the intensity of the emotion that accompanies the decision to begin acting in a particular way.

Many people think, talk about, and resolve to lose weight and become physically fit. This may go on for years. Then one day, the doctor says that, “If you don’t get your weight down and improve your physical condition, you’re in danger of dying at an early age.”

Suddenly, the thought of dying can be so intense or frightening that the individual immediately changes his diet, begins exercising, stops smoking, and becomes a healthy and fit person. Psychologists refer to this as a “significant emotional experience.” Any experience of intense joy or pain, combined with a behavior, can create a habitual behavior pattern that may endure for the rest of a person’s life.

For example, putting your hand on a hot stove or touching a live electrical wire will give you an intense and immediate pain or shock. The experience may only take a split second. But for the rest of your life, you will have developed the habit of not putting your hand on hot stoves, or touching live electrical wires. The habit will have been formed instantly, and endure permanently.

21 Days To Break A Habit Or Make A Habit

According to the experts, it takes about 21 days to break or form a habit pattern of medium complexity.

By this, we mean simple habits such as getting up earlier at a specific hour, exercising each morning before you start out, listening to podcasts in your car, going to bed at a certain hour, being punctual for appointments, planning every day in advance, starting with your most important tasks each day, or completing your tasks before you start something else.

These are habits of medium complexity that can be quite easily developed in 14-21 days through practice and repetition.

How To Develop A Habit

Over the years, a simple, powerful, proven methodology has been determined for new habit development. It is very much like a recipe for preparing a dish in the kitchen. You can use it to develop any habit that you desire. Over time, you will find it easier and easier to develop the habits that you want to incorporate into your personality.

1) Make A Decision

First, make a decision. Decide clearly that you are going to begin acting in a specific way 100% of the time, whenever that behavior is required. For example, if you decide to arise early and exercise each morning, set your clock for a specific time, and when the alarm goes off, immediately get up, put on your exercise clothes and begin your exercise session.

2) Never Allow An Exception To Your New Habit

Second, never allow an exception to your new habit pattern during the formative stages. Don’t make excuses or rationalizations. Don’t let yourself off the hook. If you resolve to get up at 6:00 AM each morning, discipline yourself to get up at 6:00 AM, every single morning until this becomes automatic.

3) Tell Others You Are Practicing A New Behavior

Third, tell others that you are going to begin practicing a particular behavior. It is amazing how much more disciplined and determined you will become when you know that others are watching you to see if you have the willpower to follow through on your resolution.

4) Visualize Your New Habit

Fourth, visualize yourself performing or behaving in a particular way in a particular situation. The more often you visualize and imagine yourself acting as if you already had the new habit, the more rapidly this new behavior will be accepted by your subconscious mind and become automatic.

5) Create An Affirmation

Fifth, create an affirmation that you repeat over and over to yourself. This repetition dramatically increases the speed at which you develop the new habit. For example, you can say something like, “I get up and get going immediately at 6:00 AM each morning!” Repeat these words the last thing before you fall asleep. In most cases, you will automatically wake up minutes before the alarm clock goes off, and soon you will need no alarm clock at all.

6) Resolve To Persist

Sixth, resolve to persist in the new behavior until it is so automatic and easy that you actually feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you have decided to do.

7) Reward Yourself

Seventh, and most important, give yourself a reward of some kind for practicing in the new behavior. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. Soon you begin to associate, at an unconscious level, the pleasure of the reward with the behavior. You set up your own force field of positive consequences that you unconsciously look forward to as the result of engaging in the behavior or habit that you have decided upon.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  Please feel free to share with your friends and leave a comment. If you want to learn how to accomplish 10-20 times as much as the average person, click the link below to get my brand new

Article Source: http://www.briantracy.com/blog/personal-success/seven-steps-to-developing-a-new-habit

Motivation Is Nothing Without Action

Create small habits and these will keep you going.  Watch this  video and try a 30 day challenge and see how you feel.  Great video,  watch and let me know what you think?

Your Mindset Determines Your Success

Great video, basically sums up everything you will need to stay inspired and motivated. What do you think?

10 Reasons Why Successful People Deserve The Success They Have

Just like every seed that is sown comes to its fruition. Success is yielded to the person who puts in the required efforts for its achievement.

Every day you might find those with a success mind-set hard at work laying the foundation of their desires. They don't leave things to chance and are not waiting on a win of the lottery. They plan ahead because they know that where they fail to plan, they are actually planning to fail.

10 Reasons Why Successful People Deserve All The Success They Have.

1. They discipline themselves in what they desire to have success in.

2. They persist in the direction of their dreams even when the path has dried up. They learn to create another path through persistence and faith in themselves.

3. They remain students and well as leaders in the area of their success.

4. They enlighten this world by bringing a new awareness of the possibilities.

5. They learn from their adversities and aim to become better people and help others.

6. Whilst most others are sleeping, letting time pass or watching television, successful people are perfecting their craft.

7. They take time to share in their wisdom and they encourage us by showing us that we too can become successful.

8. They take responsibility for their actions and their future.

9. They appreciate and celebrate the successes of others

10. They are proactive, instead of waiting for opportunities or for their ship to come in; they create opportunities for themselves and for others.

Successful people are also some of the most giving people you will ever find; they love helping others by sharing their keys to success because they want everyone to experience what is possible.

Successful people often choose to burn the candles late at night and early in the morning; before the sun rises, in pursuit of the dream that is calling them.

Successful people become successful by doing the things the unsuccessful don't like to do.

What is absolutely so admirable about successful people is when they get stuck they refuse to stay stuck. They learn to get their ego out of the way and find the route that leads to what they desire instead of forcing a particular way for their success to come. That is one of the most wonderful attributes of successful people, because it indeed takes a mind that is made up; they learn to become fluid, the way, or vessel of success, instead of forcing their own way.

There are many keys to success like, getting our mindset open for it, having persistence and being around people who are thinking like we think and having someone on our side whose only motive is to see us operate in your full potential.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8440513

How to Avoid Laziness and Get Something Done - 5 Tips For Motivation

Getting started then done is only part of the battle. What you do after you get started and before you get done is the main part of the battle. The battle is won through the productive use of imagination to pump yourself up first, without thinking of being what you want to be, you do not have a conception of what you genuinely want to achieve. in fact, the productive use of creative imagination to excite yourself is a powerful tool at the start, during what you are doing and fulfilling yourself at the end of what is done. Without imagination, everything is just "flat doing", like a machine. Reality works on what intelligently innovative action, not by flat doing. Say there was flat doing in lighting, we would still be using candles as a main source of light instead of light bulbs today.

Once you start, you must persist. Without persistence, nothing is achieved, sure you can imagine going to the moon. But, you will not even see an exhibit or read a detailed book without some persistence. Also, genuine unstoppable persistence is the key to winning over all laziness.

Another concept to get something done and make a powerful life is disciplined assertiveness, meaning you must be forceful, yet tactful, thoughtful and disciplined about it.

Sure, the second to last concept is this: You must not let too many emergencies happen, always be prepared to the best possible extent. Without preparation and rightly used experience, either a "lucky break" happens or loss happens the first time out of the gate. You must be properly prepared to take proper action like a blacksmith with a calloused hand and powerfully prepared arm to shape metal with a hammer!

The final concept combines all the concepts into a harmonious whole. Realistically, preparation and opportunity are perfect mates that go together without qualms or argument. But, productive vigilance is the law above opportunity and preparation that unifies everything for the person who "gets the best opportunities" and is "consistently lucky".

Indeed, the most fortunate person is not really lucky, the most fortunate is the most vigilant for the best opportunities. Every valid philosophy begins with being, goes on with doing and ends with having? Well, we must first be the fortune, do the deed that makes the fortune and then have the fortune. The process is always the same, but the goals differ.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7900021