Success is a Force of Habit
Assuming you have come to this point and decided to at least try to live with a positive attitude, your next question is likely to sound something like: “Ok, now what do I do? How do I make my positive attitude relevant in my life?” The “what” and “how” begin and end with habits. Best-selling author Stephen Covey defines habit very succinctly: “A habit is the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire.”[1]
1. Identify negative habits
Our negative habits are like the proverbial elephant sitting in our living room. We know its there but we don’t talk about it. Before we can begin to flow positive habits into our lives, we must define the poor ones. Chances are, that’s not too hard.
In his self-growth book “Real Magic,” Dr. Wayne W. Dyer suggests the following steps.
Restate everything you dislike about who you are in positive affirming ways. Instead of being against your laziness, be for having more energy. By being for your energy, you will take actions correcting your laziness. By being against your laziness, you will stay angry and upset with yourself and thus weaken your resolve to change. This is true of your weight, your addictions, your entire physiology and all of your “bad habits.”[2]
Write down your negative habits — those daily activities you know are stopping you from achieving positive change. Next, following Dr. Dwyer’s advice, cross each of those negative habits off the list and rewrite positive replacement habits next to them. Be specific. If you have an unhealthy attraction to sugary, fattening sodas, write: “Drink 3-4 sodas daily.” Cross it out, and re-write: “Drink 3-5 liters of water daily.”
[1] Covey, Stephen R: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Franklin Covey Co. 1995
[2] Dwyer, Wayne W: Real Magic, Harper-Collins, 1992
