Category: Adapt, Innovate, Win

Nine heathy habits that will change your life today

1. Leave five minutes early. Why pressure yourself with the stress
   of worrying about whether you are on time.
2. Breathe. Oxygen burns anxiety.
3. Be kind to yourself. You deserve feeling good about yourself.
4. Savor your food. Eating is one of life’s most wonderful experiences. Enjoy it.
5. Drink water. Every part of your body, from your brain to your bowels, from your toe nails to the hair on your head needs water.
6. Write. Erase your worries and anger with writing. Writing takes the power out bad feelings.
7. Stay in the slow lane. Commuting is not a competition.
8. Smile. Smiling makes you happy because it releases brain chemicals that improve your mood, reduce stress, and help you feel good in every way.
9. When someone criticizes you, Say to yourself “I’m bored.”  Your brain believes what you say. People who bore you have no power over the way you think.

Photo by Dave Hoefler on Unsplash

Start with these six steps to Create a Habit

1. Identify Your Goal

The first step in creating a habit is to identify your goal. Be specific about what you want to achieve and why it is important to you. Having a clear and compelling reason for adopting the new habit will provide motivation and direction. Write down your goal and reflect on how it aligns with your values and long-term aspirations.

2. Start Small

Begin with small, manageable changes. Trying to make a significant change all at once can be overwhelming and lead to burnout. Instead, break down your goal into smaller, actionable steps. For example, if you want to develop a habit of reading more, start by reading for just five minutes a day and gradually increase the duration as the habit becomes more ingrained.

3. Establish a Routine

Develop a consistent routine around the habit you want to create. The routine should be simple and easy to follow. Consistency is key to reinforcing the habit loop and making the behavior automatic. Make sure the routine is realistic and fits well with your lifestyle. If you encounter obstacles, adjust your routine rather than abandoning the habit altogether.

4. Reward Yourself

Reinforce the new habit by rewarding yourself immediately after completing the routine. The reward can be something simple and enjoyable, such as a healthy snack, a short break, or positive self-affirmation. The reward creates a positive association with the behavior and increases the likelihood of repeating it. Over time, the behavior itself may become its own reward.

5. Track Your Progress

Keep track of your progress to stay motivated and accountable. Use a journal, habit tracker app, or calendar to record your daily activities and milestones. Tracking your progress allows you to celebrate small victories and identify patterns or obstacles that may need adjustment. Reflect on your achievements regularly and use them as motivation to continue.

6. Stay Patient and Persistent

Forming a new habit takes time and persistence. Be patient with yourself and recognize that setbacks are a natural part of the process. If you miss a day or encounter challenges, don’t get discouraged. Instead, focus on getting back on track and learning from your experiences. Consistency over the long term is more important than perfection.

Overcoming Common Challenges

Creating a new habit is not without its challenges. Here are four common obstacles and strategies to overcome them:

1. Lack of Motivation

Motivation can fluctuate over time, making it difficult to stick to a new habit. To combat this, revisit your initial goal and remind yourself of the reasons why the habit is important to you. Additionally, consider finding an accountability partner or joining a community with similar goals to provide support and encouragement.

2. Environmental Barriers

Your environment can either support or hinder your habit formation. Identify any environmental barriers and make necessary changes to create a conducive space for your new habit. For example, if you want to eat healthier, keep nutritious snacks visible and accessible while removing unhealthy options from your immediate surroundings.

3. Time Constraints

Busy schedules can make it challenging to prioritize new habits. To address this, integrate the habit into your existing routine and allocate specific time slots for the behavior. Additionally, consider combining the new habit with an existing one, known as “habit stacking.” For example, listen to educational podcasts while commuting or doing household chores.

4. Boredom

Repetition can lead to boredom and reduce the likelihood of maintaining a habit. To keep things interesting, introduce variety into your routine. Modify the activities, change the order, or add new elements to make the experience more engaging. For example, if your goal is to exercise regularly, try different workouts or explore new outdoor activities.

The Power of Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement plays a crucial role in habit formation. By acknowledging and celebrating your efforts and achievements, you create a positive feedback loop that encourages continued progress. Here are three ways to incorporate positive reinforcement into your habit-building journey:

1. Celebrate Small Wins

Acknowledge and celebrate small milestones along the way. Each step you take, no matter how small, brings you closer to your ultimate goal. Celebrating these achievements boosts your motivation and reinforces the habit.

2. Practice Self-Compassion

Be kind and compassionate towards yourself throughout the process. Understand that forming a new habit is a journey, and it is natural to encounter setbacks. Treat yourself with the same understanding and encouragement you would offer to a friend.

3. Visualize Success

Use visualization techniques to imagine yourself successfully maintaining the new habit. Visualizing positive outcomes can enhance your motivation and confidence, making it more likely that you will stick to the behavior.

Conclusion

Creating a new habit is a transformative journey that requires dedication, consistency, and patience. By understanding the science of habit formation and following a structured approach, you can successfully integrate new behaviors into your daily life. Remember to start small, choose effective cues, establish consistent routines, and reward yourself for your efforts. Overcoming challenges and incorporating positive reinforcement will further support your habit-building.

Take Breaks

How Saying No Can Lead to Greater Success

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and constantly pulled in different directions. We say “yes” to every request, every opportunity, every social invitation, leaving little time for ourselves and our own goals. But saying “no” more often could actually be the key to achieving greater success?

Here’s how saying “no” can propel you towards your goals:

Greater Focus and Productivity: When we say “no” to distractions and time-wasters, you free up mental and physical energy to focus on your priorities. This allows you to dedicate more time and attention to the tasks that truly matter, leading to increased productivity and higher quality work.

Reduced Stress and Burnout: Constantly juggling commitments can lead to chronic stress, burnout, and decreased well-being. Saying “no” allows you to prioritize self-care and avoid overextending yourself.

Improved Decision-Making: When you’re not constantly bombarded with requests and obligations, you have more mental clarity to make thoughtful decisions about how to spend your time and energy.
Increased Confidence: Learning to assert your boundaries and say “no” can boost your self-confidence and empower you to take control of your life.

Stronger Relationships: Ironically, saying “no” can actually strengthen your relationships. When you prioritize your well-being and set healthy boundaries, you demonstrate self-respect and encourage others to do the same.

How to Master the Art of Saying “No”

Identify Your Priorities: What are your most important goals? What activities bring you joy and fulfillment?

Learn to Recognize Time-Wasters: Identify activities that drain your energy and don’t contribute to your goals.

Practice Polite but Firm Declinations: “Thank you for thinking of me, but I won’t be able to make it this time.”

Don’t Apologize Excessively: You don’t need to justify your decisions. A simple and polite “no” is sufficient.

Embrace the Power of Silence: Sometimes, simply not responding is the most effective way to decline.

Know Your Priorities: Understand what matters most to you and align your decisions with your goals.

Be Polite but Firm: You can decline requests respectfully without feeling guilty. A simple “I’m sorry, but I can’t take this on right now” works wonders.

Offer Alternatives: If possible, suggest someone else who might be able to help or propose a different timeline.

Practice Self-Care: Remember that your time and energy are valuable. Saying no helps you maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Be Honest: Transparency can build trust. If you’re too busy or not interested, it’s okay to say so.

It’s Wise to be Selfish with Your Time.

Saying “no” protects your greatest asset: time. It’s about being able to get to the things that matter to you.

Saying “no” to prioritize yourself and your well-being is productive and healthy. You can create more space for the things that truly matter, leading to a more fulfilling and successful life.

By saying no, you create space for opportunities that truly align with your values and goals. Have you found it challenging to say no in certain situations?

Career Burnout: When Working Less Becomes a Priority

Remember to Reward Yourself

Start Small: Begin with manageable changes. For example, if you want to read more, start with just 10 minutes a day.

Be Consistent: Consistency is key. Try to perform your new habit at the same time every day.

Track Your Progress: Use a journal or an app to keep track of your progress. Seeing your improvement can be very motivating.

Stay Patient: It takes time to form a new habit. Be patient with yourself and don’t get discouraged by setbacks.

Reward Yourself: Give yourself a small reward when you stick to your habit. This can help reinforce the behavior.

Photo by Laura Peruchi on Unsplash

Before starting any new experience, ask yourself, “What do I need to know?” ~ jaywren

Starting a New Job

The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

Seize upon small wins. You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enables you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss. Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships. Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down. Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step. The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge. Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas. A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day as they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was as great as a month of sales the rest of the year.

Prioritize tasks. Before starting each day, make a list of five things you want to accomplish that day.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Great leaders have things in common. They also have different ways to find their individual greatness.

Here are eight ways you can find your own individual greatness. 

Find the beat of your own drum and march to it. 

It is so easy for me to get distracted and off course when I look at what other people are doing and imitate those people. What I often find is that the direction that those people are going is completely off track from where I want to be. If I can just trust the beat of my drum, I can stay on task, trust my instincts, and create work that is original and produces fantastic results. 

Be happy today. 

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ” Buddha

Happiness is an inside job. When I feel sad, I acknowledge that I am sad. I do not focus on the things that I believe are making me sad. Often my feelings come along and I seem to find ideas to hang them on. I admit that I am sad, I experience the feeling of sadness, and I let it pass on its way. If I do not attach ideas to my feelings, most of the time my feelings only hang around for a minute or two, and I get a fresh, often invigorating sense of my world. 

Focus on doing things accurately. 

My baseball coaches said see the ball and hit the ball. In football, the coaches said see the ball and catch the ball. Watch the baseball all the way into your bat. Watch the football all the way into your hands and arms. 

Create new things instead of perfecting old things. 

I have worked drafts of articles so many times that I have lost track of what I had in mind when I started writing the article. I have found that the best way to work on any project and carry it forward to the finish is to write a statement of what I want to do. Second, I create an outline of the things that I need to do to do the task. Third, I fill in the details of completing the task. Whether I am washing my car or writing an article, the process of the same. 

Keep projects simple. 

The steps are pretty much the same for each project

Wash Car	Write Article
Tools: bucket, soap, sponge, towels, water hose	Tools: Laptop
Spray the car.	List paragraph headings
Sponge wash car.	Write material to match headings.
Rinse the car.	Proofread the article.
Dry the car.	Post the article on my website.

Finding Your Individual Greatness through Personal Growth

Emphasize the things that are working and build on those things. 

Sometimes it is easy for me to get off track, discouraged, and lose my sense of direction. When this happens, I can focus on the things that I did when things were working and simply repeat those things. 

Keep an open mind to new ideas to simplify and make your life easier. 

I see new, simple, even free ways to do the same things that have been a struggle. I created the table above in Microsoft Word. For anyone who has ever tried to insert a table in a website, you will know that tables make some material easier to read and the table can be a challenge to create and support through editing. 

Take criticism as suggestions that can help you. 

I remember working with an applicant on her resume. She told me that the things that I told her she had already covered with other recruiters and had even had her resume written professionally. I said simply that I understood and that the only thing that mattered is that she manages her resume in the way that she feels will be most effective for getting her interview. 

Photo by Nabil Naidu on Unsplash

All those things I learned as a child about healthy living are by coincidence the same things that adults do to become winners. ~ Jay Wren

10 Ways Winners Become Winners

There are countless ways to become a winner. Here are ten things I see winners doing that help me.

Winners own their mistakes.

They correct them. They move forward. They don’t let life’s little mistakes lie around and create problems and stress.

Winners don’t apologize all the time.

People who are apologizing all the time aren’t correcting mistakes. They are just trying to deal with the stress of insecurities without understanding why they feel insecure.

Winners talk to friends.

Just having friends helps us beat stress.  Talking to friends gets us out of my own head and into the present moment. Talking to friends helps me get my bearings. Talking to friends can also help me deal with the stress of insecurities that can cause me to apologize all the time.

Winners do it now.

Of course, we feel stressed when we keep putting off what we need to do. I win when I do the things I need to do.

Winners write it down.

When something is bothering me, I can write it down. Writing takes the sting out of stress. If I have something that I need to do but can’t do now, I can write it down. Having a list creates a plan of action. Having the plan helps me become more productive. When I become more productive, I have a sense of accomplishment. I feel less stress.

Winners eat healthy stuff first.

We must eat. Sometimes our cravings are going to make us eat junk. Winners don’t worry about it. But they eat the healthy stuff first.

Winners take breaks!

No one can run wind sprints all day long. Winners take breaks. Breaks make us more productive. People who work in virtual offices can easily forget to take breaks. I stand up. I walk away from my desk and walk around for five minutes. I lie down for a couple of minutes. I take breaks by getting away from my work. Not taking breaks creates fatigue, which screws up our perspective and stresses us out.

Winners get plenty of sleep.

Lack of sleep causes depression and anxiety. Lack of sleep creates stress. I get plenty of sleep and live with a clear, rested mind.

Winners get real!

It is so easy to believe that we have some kind of control over national or international event way beyond our control. Get real. We can’t police the universe! Being the police officer of the universe is completely fruitless and painfully stressful.

Winners get help!

Asking for help does remarkable things. Winners gain the advantage of getting help with their success. With one person rowing, you can power a small boat or a canoe. With dozens of people rowing, you can move a large ship.

Photo by Codioful (Formerly Gradienta) on Unsplash

 

Life’s challenges create pressure. I cannot always eliminate these challenges, but I can be smart about how I respond to them.

Action

I feel stressed when I put things off.

To overcome procrastination, I simply agree to do one small thing. A common example is to go for a walk, I lace up my shoes. To do odd jobs around the house, I lay out my tools. Often, this one thing sets in motion my completing small tasks. To reduce stress, I break projects down into multiple, simple steps.

When I am stuck with writing an article, for example, I write a statement. From there I write the information to explain the statement. I might write one paragraph. I save what I have written as a draft. During the day, I may stop and leave my work. However, by coming back with a fresh mind and additional information through the day, I complete the article.

Write Things Down

When something is bothering me, I can write it down. Writing takes the sting out of stress. Further writing helps me process anxiety. Moreover, further writing often leads to solutions to solving problems that bother me.

From there, I have a plan of action that gives me the confidence to be more productive. I have a sense of accomplishment. I feel less stressed.

Eat Healthy Food First

When hunger makes me anxious between meals, a snack cuts my anxiety until mealtime.

Sugar snacks make me hungrier. The sugar demands insulin to burn the sugar. Somewhere in the lack of balance between sugar and insulin, I feel anxious.

Therefore, I try to keep more satisfying snacks handy. Cheese, nuts, peanut butter are calorically dense, but reduce cravings and quiet the anxious voices in my head.

Take Breaks

Being tired clutters my mind. I become less productive. My cluttered mind focuses on problems.

For me, a power nap or a walk help me recover from the fatigue of working on most projects. Simply taking a walk reduces my anxiety.

To remind myself to move each hour, I have notifications on my calendar to leave my desk and move around.

I Take Breaks and Sleep at Night

Not only do I take breaks. I try to get seven hours of sleep. Allowing my brain to rest enables me to make better decisions. Better decisions increase success and cut stress.

Lack of rest is one of the steps to burnout. We reach a point where overdoing our job cripples us in ways that we cannot perform at work.

Keep It Real

It is so easy for me to want to control national or international events. Thinking that I can control these things is completely fruitless and painfully stressful.

People in forums say things that annoy me. Correcting them is pointless. I cannot police the Internet!

Likewise, I can easily believe that I can change other people. There are things that I can do that affect how other people react. However, just changing my own behavior is not always easy. Believing that I can change other people is often impractical.

Frustration over the things I cannot change creates stress. I try to keep it real about the things that I can change and not change.

Talk with Friends

Just having friends helps me beat stress. Talking to friends gets me out of my own head and into the present moment.  Furthermore, in talking with friends, I get practical information on dealing with life’s challenges, thereby increasing success and stress reduction.

Stress Reduction

Reducing stress from life’s challenges clears our mind and increases our long-term success. The steps to stress reduction include steps to increase our health.