One Mans Money (Mis)Adventures

Building Healthy Habits

Posted by Louis in Lifestyle, Self Development on Sep 20th, 2009 | no responses

“habit |ˈhabit|
noun
1 a settled or regular tendency or practice, esp. one that is hard to give up”

Having healthy habits and feeling like you are on the right path is not something that comes naturally to everyone, it certainly didn’t for me. This takes time to develop, the thing that was most difficult for me was knowing what I needed to change, adjust and build. I did a lot of thinking and I compiled a little list that I think is rather relevant. Something to help you get into the swing of life. In the case of good habits it’s a positive thing that they are hard to give up, and I tell you, once you get into building these habits they become somewhat addictive.

Have fun and:

Challenge Yourself - Challenging yourself can mean a variety of things, its not always easy to do but push yourself to leave your comfort zone, you will find massive amounts of life-nourishment from leaving the single minded thinking behind. Take risks you normally wouldn’t, talk to people that you normally wouldn’t, set a goal for that day or week or month and push yourself to do it. Go attempt something EXTREME like sky diving, the best place to start is with the stuff that you fear, find what your scared of and get on top of it. This will resonate through your entire life. If you dislike feeling lonely, go to another country alone, learn some language and make friends. Its hard but worth it.

Learn To Listen - Being a good listener is a powerful and underestimated skill. Everyone can talk but there are not many people who can truly listen. Being a listener has far too many benefits to list here, I will probably write an article on this soon although there are a few currently. There are so many developments in your own life that you have to deal with, that its easy to forget to stop and really listen to the advice people give. Most people have some amazing advice to share and most often you will take more out of it then expected, if you pay attention. Also listening is key to developing new ideas, when it comes to design, inventing, marketing and even art and music, some of the best ideas will come from interaction with other people and not from your own mind. When two minds clash it creates a beautiful fusion where ideas spew forth in a cacophony of life experience. One of the best habits to develop.

Avoid Arguing - Now here’s one I am always accused of (for good reasons I’m sure.) I like to argue, its just in my nature, it used to be something that I wouldn’t believe of myself, until one day I had a bit of a realization…I probably do argue just a little bit more then average. But then I started noticing, and everyone does it, about everything, even the most menial of subjects. Now I believe a good solid conversational debate is healthy, but sometimes its just ridiculous, and you find yourself in an argument about flushing the toilet at night or something of the sort. If you just pay attention to yourself and others it can be easy to curb the conversation away from a pointless argument and onto something more fun and interesting. You will find yourself a lot happier. This relates to being a good listener

Develop Healthy Internal Dialog - The funny thing about developing healthy internal dialog is that the only thing holding you back from doing so is your internal dialog. It’s a funny contradiction but anyone can truly do this, if your constantly telling yourself that you are sad or depressed how do you think your going to feel? Happy all of a sudden…I don’t think so. If you tell yourself that there’s no way you can do something, do you think that you will succeed of fail when you try? One of my favorite sayings is

“Imagine what you could accomplish if you knew you couldn’t fail.”

and that all comes down to your internal dialog. If you knew you couldn’t fail you would attempt everything your mind could come up with, you would know in yourself that it’s all going to end well and you would feel uber confident and positive. Well the funny thing is that you can’t fail. If your uber confident and positive the world is your oyster, not everything will go your way but there are no mistakes, just experiences. That feeling of helplessness or being disadvantaged is often in your head. So speak to yourself in a positive manner, tell yourself you can do it and you can. This leads me to the….

Morning Voodoo Chant - Ahh… the old Voodoo Chant as I call it to myself. Often my girlfriend laughs at me as shes chilling in the room and for some strange reason to her I’m staring into the mirror with a spaced out look on my face, contrary to what she would say its not because I’m extremely vain. Its because in my head (Internal Dialog) i’m repeating to myself, some strange sounding chant to wake the gods and destroy all man kind. Okay, not quite that Voodoo. Its more just a self speak exercise that I’ve been doing since I was a kid where I tell myself a bunch of things that I need to hear (not just want to hear) to move forward in life, either my goals, or quotes…anything that stirs me to feel good and positive. In my head it sounds something like a Voodoo chant but everyone’s different and I’m not going to give an example. Also this doesn’t have to just be in the morning, I do it before bed, or take five minutes in the day to get your head straight. I actually have an article on getting your head straight – here

Don’t Be Satisfied - This should have probably been titles keep learning or keep developing, but I follow the idea that I’m never satisfied with what I know. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t mean happy with your material possessions, more along the lines of don’t ever stop learning, whether its about the world, yourself or others, there is always something to learn and you will personally benefit from it, this is a great habit

Throw Away Your Junk - Declutter, I mention this a lot, but decluttering is amazing. Try to throw away one thing everyday, I guarantee there is a tonne of stuff around your living space that you don’t need, or doesn’t get used. Just get rid of it, this keeps you in the present, you don’t want all that old junk making you feel stale. A lot of people are natural hoarders yet this is only a mindset. Be prepared to throw your junk away. Live happier with less in your life

Write - I have always loved writing lyrics and poetry but I never really moved on to other forms of writing until recently, with this blog. This is something that I have only discovered as of recent, but writing is one of the most stimulating feelings. I love the creation of something from nothing and the way writing just takes all that crapola from inside your brain and explodes it all over your computer screen or paper. Whether it be for a blog, a journal, that novel you’ve always wanted to write, a short story, a song or anything else you thought you might be good at, just start writing and you might surprise yourself.

Sing - Yes a little strange on a money blog i admit but no matter who you are, whether musician or not, i believe singing is a great habit. Its so natural for humans to sing. Think of the tribes in Africa you couldn’t stop them singing if you tried. Even if its just along to music in your car, or the shower…sing. It will make you feel happier and its a great habit, it makes you accessible to people.

Be Forgiving - Another excellent habit to get into is forgiving people that have wronged you. Do you think the greatest minds and inventors bothered wasting their time holding grudges. I feel that I don’t have time to hate people and it doesn’t advantage anyone. So think about it everyday and forgive someone, just out of the blue.

Be Happy For People - This habit is another one on the people relations side, when someone succeeds try to be honestly happy for them. Its funny because if there is someone you truly don’t like who is succeeding, even moderately. Just think to yourself and try to feel honestly happy that they are doing well, be happy for them and you will feel your dislike for them melt away magically. It’s quite hard to describe but it works for me.

Have A Hobby - A lot of people say that their work is their hobby, especially the few people who like their job. But when you get into the frame of mind of work and making money its hard to get out of it. This is where a totally separate hobby comes into play. Have something to lean back on. Something to feel passionate about that doesn’t involve making money. You will feel far better for it.

Don’t Complain - Okay complaining is a bad habit, get into the habit of trying to find the good in a situation or a silver lining. Something of that sort will do. Everyone has tough times and often its fair to complain but when you keep in that attitude and replace it with something positive using your internal dialog you will be happy. Especially if your in a team or group, no one likes a complainer.

Trust Yourself - In your existence no one is more valid than you. If you believe something follow it, in the end it doesn’t matter if it goes wrong and everyone warned you because it was your decision. This is the best habit. Only you know what you truly need, just remember to look for it internally before you look for it externally.

I just had an interesting realization that this post had almost nothing to do with money, at least directly. I think I will make a post specifically on money habits. If anyone has a suggestion for it write a comment.

Goodbye for now,

Louis

Photo Courtesy Of: Maurofaraoni – Check out their flickr

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