I’ve been reading Brendon Bouchard’s book High Performance Habits for the past week and I feel like this book was written for me. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience, where someone’s describing a person and/or personality traits and you think to yourself “Hey, that’s me!” That’s the feeling I got when reading the introduction of this book.
One of the things that the author says early on in the book is that a lot of what he talks about is common sense stuff. He then goes on to say that the problem is that common sense isn’t always common practice. Isn’t that the truth! Sometimes I wonder if common sense even exists anymore 😉
All joking aside, raise your hands if all of your daily habits are fully supporting you in creating the life you want. I believe that most of us have some idea of the habits and beliefs that are holding us back from living the life we want, but we’re not doing anything about it. Even if efforts have been made, it can be so easy to give up and go back to the status quo because it’s familiar and easy.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from my journey to-date, it’s that making significant changes in life takes time and commitment. Most of are habits weren’t developed overnight, so letting go of them and creating new ones is going to take time as well. Habits, good and bad, are created with repetition. Think about how mindful you were about your driving when you were a new driver, and look at all the things that you do now when you drive that you don’t even think about!
You’re not going to create a positive mindset working on your positivity once a week. You don’t lose 10 pounds by working out when you feel like it. You won’t get that job or new client beating yourself up about the last time you were told no. We have to create positive habits, habits that serve us and make them common practice. This is where commitment plays a vital role. The reality is that if we want to make a positive habit common practice, we have to do it even when we don’t feel like it.
Making life changes isn’t easy. It takes work and brutal honesty. We have to be willing to admit our shortcomings, bad habits and the beliefs that we’re holding onto that don’t serve us in a positive way. If you remind yourself regularly about what the changes you’re making will mean for your life and your loved ones, it will help you to remain focused. There might be challenges along the way that make you want to give up. If you’re willing to stick it out and be the best version of you that you can be, you’ll be glad you did! ♥