Swapping a negative habit for a positive habit is a powerful success skill. However, there are times when installing a new habit is necessary, even if there isn’t a negative habit to replace. You’ll have a better understanding of how to create new habits by the completion of this lesson.

There may be times when you don’t actually have a negative habit that thwarts you from living the life you desire. Instead, you just don’t do anything to actually work to achieve the goals and success that you want. During these times, you could develop new, empowering habits.

Once a positive action that you decide to do becomes a habit, you’ll do it automatically without even thinking about it. So positive habits you develop on your own make it easier for you to create the life you desire.

Case Vignette #3

Here’s another hypothetical case vignette to illustrate how you can develop a positive habit:

You want to get more promotions at work so you’ll make more money and become one of the resident experts in your field. But for some reason, you’ve never really invested any of your personal time in your work. You don’t read journals, trade magazines, or even brief articles on the internet about your career.

The thing is, you really like your job and love it when your supervisor gives you projects that really challenge you. How can you set up your life so that you invest a bit of your personal time to expand your professional knowledge and horizons?

Examine these suggestions:

1. Subscribe to a professional or trade journal in your field. To excel in your work, you must have tangible evidence of your career. Place books and journals on a coffee table and your bedside table. These are your situational cues to devote time to your study at home.
2. Schedule time in your day to read about your profession and explore trending topics related to your job. Even 30 minutes a day consistently will whet your appetite to delve more into your profession and the specific areas that interest you. If you can, establish your study time to occur at the same time each day.
3. Join a local business organization that addresses your type of work. Attend the meetings consistently, whether they’re weekly or monthly. Remind yourself you’re working to establish the habit of cultivating your work interests to be more successful and achieve your goals.
4. Engage in activities to cultivate your special interests. Check out library books, meet co-workers for coffee to discuss work for an hour a week, and surf the internet to see what’s going on in your profession.

Starting new behaviors that you want to develop into a positive habit takes a certain amount of self-motivation, focus, and effort on your part. However, it’s worth the effort because, ultimately, you’ll establish positive habits that will lead you to the life you dream of.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle

In the next lesson, we’ll put it all together and apply all the lessons in this module.

Get Started on the Tips in This Lesson

Forming new habits requires motivation. You wouldn’t go to the trouble of creating a new habit if you didn’t care in some way. One of the challenges to creating habits is that there is little to no reward in the short term. The benefits only come down the road.

Pick new habit you’d like to develop and imagine all the benefits you’ll receive if you’re able to consistently perform that action. Notice how much more motivated you are after this exercise.

Take action to start making your new habit a reality.

Downloads:
Each Day Is A New Opportunity To Practice Good HabitsI