First, you make your habits and then your habits make you. Our habits habitually create our lives. Whether or not we choose our habits consciously, they still create the life we live and our future. When you consciously choose habits that are beneficial for you, you create a better future. Here are a few habits that everyone should do that have helped me tremendously.
Wake up early and at the same time every day.
Waking up early and at the same time is one of the few things you can control in your life. Life is ever-changing, so it can be hard to have control over anything to really root yourself down into to build off of.
Think back to the last time you decided to wake up early and you were interrupted or prevented from doing so. Has it ever happened? For most people, the answer is probably no, and this is a foundational habit to build your life around.
Journaling
Journaling can be a way to sort through your thoughts, feelings, and plans.
With journaling, you can get those thoughts out of your head and onto paper. You process them much easier when you can physically look at them. You can take all of your good ideas and thoughts and write them out to get a better understanding of them.
If you don’t like talking about your feelings with others or you have a hard time handling your emotions, journaling helps with that. Write down how you feel and really think about what caused it and why you think you felt it, it sounds cheesy, but it works. You will begin to see what triggers you, how to prevent it in the future, and then eventually how to work through it so it no longer bothers you.
If you are in a turbulent stage of life, with no idea what to do, then you must start journaling. When you begin to write out a plan of what you think you may want to do, the answer will slowly come to you. You can use your journal as a log to see if the plan is working, then work through kinks to plan your next step. Ask yourself questions like, “where you do see yourself in the next few years” to better help your planning.
**Pro-tip for writers: Journaling is basic writing practice. You get to practice wording your thoughts and ideas as concisely as possible on paper.
Physical activity.
This one is vague because any sort of physical activity is beneficial and is a must-do for everyone if they care about their life at all.
You need a balance of strength-building resistance work and cardiovascular training, but any sort of physical activity will work. The only requirement is that whatever physical activity you do, it must be hard for you, and it must push you. If your physical activity pushes you then it will keep you in shape. This will allow you to better experience life with a strong and capable body.
Just find what works for you, do what you enjoy, and make It hard!
Meditation
Meditation is one of the best ways to truly strengthen your mind against mental health problems.
If it is hard for you to sit still with no mental stimulation, there may be underlying mental health issues. If you start meditating but are only able to sit for a few minutes, that’s fine, start there and build up as you go. The longer you can sit with yourself the better you will be at handling your thoughts and emotions that are tied to your mental health, because usually what makes you get up from your seat is in fact what’s going on in your head. So, if you can learn to sit through this you will strengthen that ability to handle your thoughts and emotions.
Cooking.
The biggest thing that causes people to gain weight is the fact that they either eat out for most meals or they eat microwaveable junk. If you cook 90% of your meals, you will be able to maintain a healthy body weight much easier. Most homemade food will always be healthier than eating out and as a society, we eat out way too much and this is what leads to weight gain. Cooking is a habit that will benefit your wallet and your waistline tremendously.
Creativity.
Having a creative habit that allows you to express yourself and then have something to show for it, helps give your life meaning and fulfillment. You will always have something to look forward to doing outside of work. You will also have something to work and focus on that you can be proud of. We often don’t do many things that give our lives meaning or add fulfillment so adding this to your schedule can help.
Mastery.
Having a habit to master over a lifetime will also give our lives meaning and fulfillment. This one can tie in with the last habit of creativity because we can spend a lifetime becoming masters at whatever creative endeavor we have chosen, but it differs because it doesn’t have to be creative. This habit can be anything that you can master over time with practice. Just find something you like that you can practice and get better at.
Reading.
Most of us stop learning after high school or college. We let our brains melt away because we no longer challenge them or learn new things. Reading is an antidote to this. No matter what you read you will learn something. It is like meeting a new person and learning about their ideas, philosophies, and perspective with every book you read.
Reading is an exercise for your brain. The act of reading hard books and taking the time to understand and digest them is like lifting heavyweights. Reading the hard books will challenge your brain.
**Pro-tip for writers: There is an idea that reading improves your writing, so if you write but don’t read, Start!
Habits take some time for their benefits to become obvious in your life, but if you don’t start, you’ll never see them. Pick a few of these if you like, or just pick your habits more consciously. Do you have any habits you have incorporated into your life to make it better?
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