Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them

Little Habits That Can Change Your Life, and How to Form Them “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” - Aristotle Post written by Leo Babauta. Follow me on Twitter. If you could just pick one or two (or seven) habits to create in the next few months — habits that will have the most impact on your life — what would they be? I often get asked this question, because people are overwhelmed when it comes to starting positive life changes. They ask me: what one or two habits should they start with? It’s not an easy question. There are so many changes I’ve gone through, from quitting smoking to simplifying my life to reducing debt to many more. And they’ve all seemed life-changing, and they’ve all seemed important. But if I were to start again, and had to pick one or two, it would be the one or two listed below. The list that follows is in order of what I think I’d do the first 6-7 months of changing my life … but realize that every person is different. No one should follow my choices exactly — you’ve got to figure out what works for you. That said, if you followed the program below, and worked to develop these habits, you’d probably do pretty well. “Men’s natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.” - Confucius How to Develop the Habits I’ve written a number of times about developing habits, but here are the basics: Do a 30-day challenge, focusing on just ONE habit. Write it out on paper, along with your motivations, obstacles, and strategies for overcoming them. Commit fully, in a public way. Log your progress. Remain publicly accountable — report on your progress each day. Have support for when you falter — either in real life or online. Reward every little success. If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again
7 habits