Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. John C. Maxwell
In Tim Horton’s the other day, I overheard a man say, “I used to weigh three hundred pounds. I glanced at the man talking; he looked well under two hundred pounds. The only motivation that works for the long term is self-motivation. We can persuade and be cajoled for short periods but to set and meet goals we have to be self-motivated.
It is the time to set and work on our goals for the New Year, but New Year’s resolutions have a bad rap. Those who regularly go to the gym see new faces and some of them become old faces at the gym, but many do not, they go for a few weeks, or even a few months, but eventually quit working out. The people who go to the gym for years build a fitness habit.
It doesn’t matter what we set out to do, we will feel good about our goal in the beginning but eventually, self-motivation will be what keeps us going. If we order our life so our goals become priorities and habits it will be easier but we will have to be vigilant, or we may find it is weeks, months, or years since we…
I’m reading the book, “Life by Design” by Tom Ferry. The basic principle behind living by design: The right attitude + the right action + the right structure = an extraordinary life. Sounds simple and easy but we know if it was so easy we’d all be doing it, and he wouldn’t have anyone to sell his book to.
Pick any subject and a guru is telling us how to be rich, successful, slim, fit, happy, fulfilled, grateful, creative, and the list goes on. These gurus make money because we can’t make the formula fit every area of our lives, many of us are looking for an easy way to fix things we want to fix, but if we manage to fix them we will have to make a fundamental change in our lives, and we will find if we get one area of our lives under control we will have other areas crying out for attention.
All big things come from small beginnings. The seed of every habit is a single, tiny decision. James Clear
No matter how well we do in life our lives will require maintenance. How many stories do we hear about people who are successful in one area but a failure in another because they put all their time into making that part of their life a success? They become rich but their marriage falls apart, their health suffers, or their children feel neglected. We see people at the gym whose physique is amazing and we might ask ourselves how the rest of their life is. The amount of time spent creating that physique might not leave a lot of time to excel in other areas.
To live an amazing life we need to manage and maintain all areas of our lives, and the best lives might not be as amazing and extraordinarily successful in one area, but having a measure of success in all areas leads to an extraordinary life.
We choose where we put our time and attention, and those decisions add up to the life we have. If we want something in our lives to be different we will have to make some different choices, create different habits, and persevere over time. No one else can do for us the things we must do for ourselves. How can we rearrange our lives to make room for the change we want to make?
The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Socrates
First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Octavia Butler
In a nutshell, your health, wealth, happiness, fitness, and success depend on your habits. Joanna Jast
Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more and have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
