There are so many unpredictable situations in our life, outer factors like people, events, misunderstandings, notifications, the future and so on, that affect the way we feel.
And we can’t really control it. But what we can control is our behavior, how we react to all these. And once we decide to take this in our hands, our life can finally be in control.
Your behavior consists of what you do daily. As every single action, when repeated more than once, has power, becomes energy, affects our reality and eventually shapes our identity and how we live.
These are our habits.
What we repeatedly do is who we really are. And in order to take control of our life, we need to take control of our habits. In fact, it’s the only way to let go of the chaos, go back to our path in life and follow it without losing direction.
But how do we do that?
Taking Control of Your Habits
1. Analyze your daily actions.
Most people have so many bad habits without even realizing. They complain about feeling tired all the time, not being productive, not having good relationships, not being motivated, not seeing results, and so on. But they don’t take the time to look closely at their daily schedule.
Write down everything you do today. Add the time you do it, how long it takes, and even how you feel during and after that.
Do it for a few days, and you’ll be able to see the bigger picture.
You’ll probably be amazed at how many unnecessary actions you take, how much time you waste in unproductive activities and how bad things are organized.
2. Make adjustments.
Think your day through. Carefully make a plan and try it out.
It will take time until you find what works best, but the experiments are worth the effort.
Move your creative work in the morning, for instance. Most people find themselves being more productive in the early hours.
Start getting up an hour earlier. That will give you more time to get ready for the day.
Stop doing some of the things you always do but which don’t get you anywhere.
3. Plan out your days.
A great little habit to develop that will make your days organized, is to plan them out the night before.
Simply spare a few minutes before you go to bed to write down all the things you need to do tomorrow.
Define what your most important tasks are and you’ll know where to start when you wake up.
Also, you won’t need to memorize things, won’t miss appointments and meetings, will have a plan to follow and will always know what’s left to be done.
4. Eliminate temptations.
Taking control of your habits is a rough road. Many things will get in your way and will distract you, or tempt you. So it’s better to avoid these.
If you’re trying to eat better for example, and thus take control of how you look and feel, and your health in general, you’ll need to throw away all the junk food at home, say no to going to lunch with friends if you think you’ll consume too many calories, or even do grocery shopping less often.
If you’re trying to give up nightlife, together with the drinking, sleepless nights and poor decisions, and want to be more serious about your work instead, then you’ll have to stop spending time with your party friends.
These are the sacrifices that need to be made in order to get rid of the chaos we live in.
5. Have a fixed time for everything.
That makes life so much easier and more organized. Your performance increases and you just don’t need to think about time anymore, as everything will have a set hour throughout the day and you’ll just follow the plan.
These are just 5 simple methods that can help you take control of your habits, and eventually your whole life.
It takes some time, but if you’re tired of getting the same results and seeing no improvement, then you’ll find the willpower and motivation to change.
Do you have control over your habits? What helps you stay on track?
What other techniques do you know that are useful?
See also:
How to break a bad habit and replace it with a good one
7 little habits that can change your life
3 steps to changing any bad habit or forming any good one
Want to kick a bad habit? Change your scenery
7 good habits of highly successful people