Habits are becoming

 I'm looking forward to some future posts. Over the last several months I've added a few new habits and I'm working on how to add some additional ones. That's what I've been studying and learning about: how to add good habits and eliminate bad ones.

This has been a challenge for me. I'm learning lots of great self-improvement and personal development information, and getting great ideas. Some of these I've already been doing or they need minimal adjustment.

Others I want to incorporate into my life. And, I start but then the follow through drops out.

So, how do I make those changes in my life?

I determined that the key is to identify and incorporate habits that will lead to greater success. The question is how to do it in a way that those habits--ones that I need and others that I want--truly become a part of my life.

Research has shown that 40-50% of our daily life is habitual behavior.

Here's the kicker. Our daily life operates around habits at a much higher percentage. Habits begin a process that results in other decisions/choices/actions being made, often on an automatic level.

Here's an example. 

You hear/feel a notification on your phone and that cues you to check your phone. That's the habit.

You may also have the habit to randomly check your phone...like an inner alarm clock telling you that you haven't checked it in a while.

And/or you may just have the habit that you're bored, or need some "social" connection, so you do what's easy and convenient and you check your smartphone.

In any case, the habit is small. It doesn't take up much time. 

But, what happens after the notification is checked? Or after you decided to check your phone? Or after your quick check on social media?

If you're disciplined, you're back to work or whatever task you were previously doing. But for most people...20 or 30 (or more) minutes later you realize a time warp occurred. Maybe you inwardly tell yourself you need to do better and not spend so much time on the phone. But, the next time usually ends up the same.

The actual habit consumed very little time. It's what the habit led to that took up much more.

The post's title implies the importance of habits. Since so much of our behaviors are habitual, or directly related to habits, our habits establish who we become. Breaking out of bad habits and planting and growing better ones is our process of becoming better, of experiencing quantum leaps, and actually achieving and living our dreams.

There are a number of posts that emphasize the importance of taking action towards our desires. Many of these actions can be initiated with habits. 

Many of the habits we have are the results of our belief systems, our mindset, our internal programming (paradigms), and often habits are begun (and usually continued) because of how we feel or what we expect to feel.

Mindfulness can key us in to our habitual behaviors. Without this awareness it's difficult to make changes. We may know what habits we'd like have, but those may be undermined by by already established habits if those old ones are changed or eliminated. 

Anyway, I'm completely digressing. This was supposed to be a post about something else and I got off on habits. It's definitely a habit I have to write where I need to keep focuses or I can easily go off on tangents :-) 

If you can't tell, I'm really looking forward to writing a number of posts about habits in the near future.