With the New Year already a week behind us, most of the resolutions for some would have either fallen flat and for those of you who have still managed to hold on to your horses,given below is a clear Road Map for creating a new habit which will empower you in more ways than one.
New habits can be worked on at anytime of the year. I never did believe in beginning the New year with any kind of resolution. On the contrary I have stopped working on Big resolutions for the New Year from many years. What I have observed over the years is that people who work on forming new habits or a positive change will eventually succeed. Ayn Rand has explained beautifully in her book “Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotional brain….If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and we’ll run from what we’re trying to do”. I am sure most of you can relate to these words in some way or the other. So how does one go about working on developing new habits and making their life more meaningful? It could be done by working on a few strategies which have worked for me over the years
Work on small gentle changes: By making small progress one can over a period of time reach big milestones. I believe in this so much that it has become the crux of my Life Coaching. With gradual change one will not see the new habit formation image as menacing. This works magically for the simple reason because we as human beings are more comfortable in making small and gradual change.
Do not work on Massive change and lose the momentum: Most of people fail in New habit formation for the simple reason that they want to climb the whole mountain in their head in a day. This usually makes you run out of steam within no time. like so many people you will eventually lose the momentum as the curve begins to incline.
Make use of the power of momentum: If you have seen birds fly I am sure you would have seen the eagles flying most of the time in the air without any effort but by sheer momentum. This is exactly the logic which one needs to build. Once you get the momentum then you just need to ride it with minimum effort and only once in awhile flap the wings. However there would be a time when you would hit a turbulent period and need to make necessary course correction. This is the what I will be discussing next.
Make necessary course correction: Even a precision guided missile always goes off course and needs course correction to home in on its target. The same goes with each one of you when you are working on a new habit and especially seeing the goal post. We at times tend to move off the target. The only way you can be aligned to your vision and find the shortest possible route to your goals is making regular course correction.Which according to me is the most challenging and impactful.
Follow the Kaizen principles: If there is one thing you want to incorporate in your daily life then just follow the principles of Kaizen which is nothing but continuous incremental improvement. Some of the biggest companies in the World follow this strategy and each one of us can use this principle in our daily life to amazing effect. I have been following this from many years and it has worked wonderfully, well be it with me or even with my clients. Actually when I look back, my whole Life Coaching profession is built on this one foundation.
The word that leaps out at me when I read about the principles of Kaizen is ‘continuous’. I don’t know how it is for you, but in my life personal growth happens in bursts – with longish pauses in between. I would look at it as progress in a small way which is more lasting and life altering rather than in a short spell of time. When I look back over the last couple of years I have learnt an immense amount of knowledge with slow and steady progress. I am sure you will have the same feeling when you begin to work on your own progress in the similar way.
I hope this Blog article has made you look at the importance of steady progress. Working on a new Habit is something most of us do especially at the beginning of the New Year. Now what makes only a handful stick their neck out and grind it out are probably following some of the above mentioned points. The idea is to plant the seed of change and get you to know that it is not coincidence or sheer luck that many people who are successful in their respective lives have been able to master the habit change plateau, but have worked on it gradually over a period of time. So it is your turn now to turn the tide and make the next few days, weeks and months, the best days of your life so far.So what is one habit you really want to work on from this moment, which is impacting your life immensely and have tried over the years with not much success so far?Let me know if any such thing you are trying to overcome on my FaceBook Fan Page or coach@satishrao.in and i shall see how best i can give you some additional pointers as a New Year gift from my side.