4 June 2023 - Cultivating Meaningful Habits

Welcome to "The Sunday Supplement," your dedicated source of inspiration, guidance, and practical tips to help you embark on a transformative journey towards becoming the best YOU possible. Each Sunday, we'll dive into the realm of personal growth, self-improvement, health and well being, finances, and more, equipping you with the tools and knowledge to unleash your full potential.

This edition is all about cultivating meaningful habits to give structure to your daily routine, enabling you to progress in all aspects of your life.

Habits shape our daily actions, determine our outcomes and ultimately, define who we are. Whether is is exercising, meditation or learning a new skill, cultivating a habit can lead to huge transformation in our lives.

What is a habit?

A habit is a settled or regular tendency or practise. It is developed over time, usually around 66 days, according to Robin Sharma in the 5am Club. A must read for anyone wanting to cultivate meaningful habits. A habit becomes second nature. Much like brushing your teeth, or driving a car. After some time, it becomes part of your day takes no conscious effort to start.

What are the best habits?

Self reflection is a good starting point for anyone wanting to cultivate good habits. It will give you an indication of where you need to improve in your life, and yourself. It is good to have habits for a range of categories in your life. For example, a habit for health and well being, finance, knowledge and relationships.

Know your goals!

Your habits will be cultivated from your goals. When you know what you target is, you will know what habits you need to introduce into your life to help you reach that point. If your goal is to lose weight, you know you need to create a habit that gets you exercising. You may decide you need to go to the gym 4 times a week, or do 100 squats as soon as you wake up. Your goals will decide your habits. Make them relevant and effective.

The key to success.

The best way to form habits is to start small. By starting with habits that are easy to do, the success rate will be higher, making you feel better and, in time, be able to progress further. Trying to form a habit which is unrealistic, will end before it has begun. Take the squats, for instance. If you want to get fitter and you haven’t done any exercise for years, trying to form a habit of doing 500 press ups every day probably won’t happen. You will become disillusioned and give up. If you start by doing 10 press ups and gradually increasing that number over time, you will form the habit and progress as you get fitter. Success doesn’t happen overnight. It is a journey that takes time, hard work and dedication. Habits are the same. They take time to grow and become part of your life.

Consistency is the foundation of habit formation. When you do something every day, continuously over a period of time, it will become engrained in you. It will become part of you. Time, dedication, consistency. In a world where we want everything now, there is no cheat code for self development and success.

Use this week to start a new habit. Find an area you want to improve in your life. Choose a habit that will aid your progression toward that goal and do it. Use the habit tracker attached to help your accountability and reflection. Set time in your diary to do it. At the end of the week, reflect on what you have achieved, how you are feeling and the benefits of starting this habit.

Have a great week.

See you Sunday!

Lee