If you haven’t read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, I suggest you give it some time — it’s totally worth it!
Where we decide to apply our time is critical to our overall accomplishments and success.
Habits Are The Compound Interest of Self – Improvement
— James Clear, Author: Atomic habits
The most important asset that we have is our time. It should be valued as a high priority on your list. We should all know how much our time is worth. We can spend 2 hours somewhere and those same 2 hours could have been spent doing something else that can move you closer towards your goals.
This is why our daily habits are so important to constantly watch over and consistently take inventory on.
Here are 12 small daily habits that if executed consistently with intention can lead to big results.
Learn To Say No
How many times do we catch ourselves enveloped and focused in what we have in front of us and we get sidelined by someone else’s requests. Whether it is go somewhere or do something that time frame is going to be taken away from you.
I’m not saying to do anything except analyze where your time is going. If it is being requested and you have something more valuable to do with your time, say no. Don’t hesitate.
Clean Nutrition
Have you ever felt like something is off, but you can’t quite put your finger on what it is. You stop to think about every possible factor that could be causing you to not operate at your best but still can’t figure it out?
Try giving your nutrition a look. Our nutritional intake is highly underrated today. Not enough people are taking into account that the food they are consuming play a huge role in the way that they are feeling and operating on a daily basis.
Exercise
This is not an easy habit to build and maintain for most people. I have lived it, and I know that if it does not come natural to you, it can be quite difficult to sustain over time. But, I promise you if you can find the willpower to execute on this daily habit your life will 100% take a turn for the better.
I am not sure if you have seen the movie Avatar, but I walked away from that movie understanding the connection between the mind and the body. The ONLY way I feel we fully learn who we really are is when we push our bodies to new limits and feel our mind and body in harmony.
Don’t hop on the exercise train to lose weight or anything physical. I believe all the physical results are just a by product of where you take the mind. It just happens in the process.
If you are reading this and do not have consistent exercise into your routine but want to; go into exercise with the curiosity to see what happens when your particular mind connects with your body. You really start to see who you are and what you are capable of.
Read 10 Pages Each Day
When I was a kid, my sister used to read me a-lot and it was a habit that I picked up at an early age. I say this because for me, I was blessed to have someone pass onto me such a strong transferable skill. Although, it may not be easy for you to adopt reading has brought immense benefits to my life. I am sure it will do the same for you.
If you are starting out with this powerful habit and are struggling to stay consistent, this is what I recommend:
- Start Small – Move yourself towards reading 2-3 pages everyday. On days where you are feeling it just let your imagination run wild.
- Seek Reading Material That Interests You The Most – In my opinion, when you start to get into reading about the things that you love most, this is were creativity is born. Reading about tile may not be of interest to someone else but if you dedicate yourself to reading about tile consistently, before you know it you could be among that 10% of tile experts in the world.
Start A Side Hustle
Looking back on my life, if I had someone like a mentor in my life that would have talked to me with intention about the importance of working on something you personally love on the side, I would have been so much further ahead. Believe in Help is all about helping other people. It is about passing on the things that we have learned in our lives that we struggled to find to the world for free.
Find something that you absolutely love to spend time on. We all have something, this could be makeup, video games, editing, writing, mechanical work, painting — anything!
Once you have found that thing you love to spend time on, find a way to turn it into a business. Don’t get fancy, just find a small starting point and work your way up from there on your time.
Dedicate 1 Hour To Sharpen A Skill
We all have skills that are meaningful to ourselves. If it is valuable to you then it must be valuable to someone else out in this world. Make a list of your most valuable skillsets. These skillsets can be skills that you already obtain or skills you want to learn and develop.
Once you have your list of skills, find different activities in your life that practice those skillsets. For example, I like to work on my self-discipline and patience. I find activities like woodworking to build my patience levels up and I use my health habits like nutrition and exercise to practice my self-discipline.
Finding activities that we enjoy but also make us demonstrate our skill level are great ways to sharpen your sword on a daily.
Journal
Journaling is a great habit to pick up if you haven’t already. Like most habits you start small and build your way up from there. Journaling is one of those daily habits where you want to ease into it. I feel like it is viewed as intimidating in a sense where people can’t wrap their heads around how to start.
Take time each morning to sit alone with your thoughts and use journaling as a way to comb through those thoughts and weed out all the unnecessary junk that floats in our heads. Then, pick out the golden nuggets that can help you grow.
Set Your Phone On The Other Side Of The Room
That 6am Alarm goes off and you know you should get up, but that drowsiness is hitting hard and you feel like you could use just 10 more minutes of sleep.
We have all been there 😴
A great tip that can really help you out in these situations and just make it easier for you overall to get out of bed as soon as that alarm hits, create a charging station away from your bed. Place your phone on the other side of the room so that as soon as that alarm goes off you can either get up and go turn it off and not go back into bed 🤞 or just lay there and try to sleep through that annoying sound. 🤷♀️
Feed The Brain Something Positive Daily
Everyday between social media, the news and everyone else around us we are constantly being surrounded by a lot of excess and sometimes completely unnecessary noise.
This is why I believe it is important to replace or simply introduce positive information to our brains on a daily basis. Take 30 minutes to one hour and listen to a positive informational podcast, audio book or YouTube video. By feeding the brain consistent growth minded information it leads to a much healthier state of mind.
Carry a Water Bottle With You Everywhere You go
We can be in dehydration and have all the symptoms but not even know it. Most people don’t know that if they are lacking water, their appetite increases, overall mood moves towards irritability, and mental cognition functions slow down.
Water plays an intricate role in our overall well being. Look into purchasing a water bottle that you can take with you everywhere you go. When purchasing a water bottle purchase something practical that aligns with your day-to-day activities and schedule.
Prioritize Your Sleep To 8 hrs Minimum
We all do it. We prioritize our night owl tendencies over shutting down and getting some good sleep. I have fallen victim to this countless times, so I know how difficult it can be.
For me, it was a medical condition that forced to me to improve this area of my life. By being pushed in this direction without choice I was able to experience firsthand just how powerful of a shift 8 solid hours of sleep at night can really do for your life.
Take Time To Review Your Goals 2x a Day
Daymond John a well known millionaire and Shark Tank investor has an excellent practice that he has cemented into his life that I found extremely valuable.
Take a piece of paper or index card and write down 5 different goals that you want to hold yourself accountable for.
Each morning and each night read your goals out loud to yourself and speak them into existence.
Each night before bed, review your goals again and make the connections of all your habits that you executed on that same day. Are you moving closer to them?
He practices this 5 days a week and updates them every 6 months.
