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We Are Creatures Of Habit
Blaise Pascal Once said, „Habit is a second nature that destroys the first.” It may not seem obvious at first glance, but the way in which we typically act, think, and feel on a daily basis gradually becomes our second nature.
To give an example, procrastination is a simple act of delaying or postponing a particular task that we are all guilty of doing to some extend. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Furthermore, in some cases, active procrastination can be quite beneficial to you, as long as it serves you to prepare yourself and your brain for reaching maximum productivity. But if you constantly putting things off until the last minute you slowly turn into a chronic procrastinator.
In such a case, procrastination is no longer a momentary blip but a personality trait. And when that happens, it’s really hard to turn back and be again a highly productive person. Because we’re not talking here about making a small adjustment to optimize your performance but about breaking negative patterns of behavior. And we all know that change is difficult, lengthy, and sometimes even costly.
If you’re wondering why I am talking about procrastination, it’s because this habit is a silent killer of our time, opportunities, and deepest dreams, thus it should be avoided.
After everything that happened in 2020, you may not be in the mood to work towards your goals and dreams. If that’s how you feel right now, then continue reading this post to discover 11 powerful habits to make 2021 your best year ever. It’s time to shift into action mode and move towards your goals.
11 Habits To Help You Shift Into Action-Mode
1 Habit: Be Intentional
The first powerful habit to develop in 2021 to make this year a successful one is to be more intentional with your life.
Living an intentional life means being proactive, using your inner power to create the reality you want and making conscious decisions and deliberate choices to ensure that you are going in the right direction. Because every second of your life you choose what to focus on. You may not be aware of this, but everything you do, think or say is solely the result of your conscious individual choice.
To control your life and become the master of your fate, you need to control what you pay attention to. That is why, if you constantly focus on what’s missing from your life and what went wrong in the past you will feel powerless, hopeless and depressed. But if you consciously redirect your thoughts on the things that you are grateful for and the difference you can make your entire life will improve immediately.
“Focus equals power” and living with intention is, without doubt, is the easiest way to use this power to turn your life into a masterpiece. So stop wasting your time, energy and attention on things that don’t bring value to your life and focus on what’s truly matters. Make a focused list of what you want to achieve, experience and do in 2021 and plan on how you’re going to accomplish that. Be specific. Be intentional. Control your focus and become the master of your fate.
2 Habit: Learn Something New Each Day
The habit of learning something new each day is a powerful one. Not only because it improves one’s brain powers but also because it increases hunger for knowledge and encourages individual exploration which in itself is extremely beneficial because it helps you to discover your true self.
Learning new things each day is a powerful way to break the monotonous routine, shape your perspective and cultivate a beginner’s mind so much needed for having a fresh perspective and being open to change. And without change, there is no growth, and without growth, there is no happiness. Because only by learning new skills and progressing in your life you can make your dreams come true.
That is why I made a promise to myself, that I would learn something new each day and I must say that it’s going well. Today is January 7th and I’ve already taken 2 online classes on Skillshare, listen to some interesting podcasts on mental self-care and listen to an audiobook on personal finance. Not to mention that I took my cooking extravaganza to the next level by making a healthy Lava cake and Creme brulèe. So as you can see, I am committed to fulfilling the promise that I gave to myself.
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3 Habit: Practice Positive Self-Talk
The way you speak to yourself truly matters. Because, first of all, you are listening. Second, you probably believe everything you tell yourself, especially the negative stuff. Because for some reason, the bad stuff is easier to believe. Probably because we’ve been conditioned to give more importance to negative experiences than to positive or even neutral ones. But that’s a subject of a different discussion.
The third reason why your self-talk is extremely important is that you create your own reality with the power of your thoughts, words and actions. Because you think in terms of how you feel and you act based on your current mental state. That’s why when you constantly telling yourself that you can’t achieve something you probably won’t. But if you reprogram your mind to positive your chances for success will increase dramatically. And if things don’t go as planned you you’ll find a way through.
Positive self-talk is a powerful tool for increasing your self-confidence, hacking your happiness, improve your problem-solving skills and motivating yourself to achieve your goals. So, if you’ve been talking to yourself in a nasty, unpleasant and unfriendly way, now it’s time to change this. Start practising positive self-talk, pay attention to the tone of your inner dialogue and make sure to take 5 to 10 minutes every day to say out loud and write down positive affirmations.
4 Habit: Live A Healthier Lifestyle
Scrolling through social media profiles of fitness guru can give you the idea that living a healthy lifestyle is about spending hours of training at the gym and eating a calorie-restricted diet. Well, that’s probably the biggest misconception about health and wellness that may be holding you back from improving your lifestyle.
Although good nutrition and consistent workout routine have the potential to improve your health and wellbeing in a relatively short period of time, it doesn’t mean that you have to put your blood, sweat, and tears into your workouts or eat 100% clean diet. What you need instead is a healthy balance. Balance, not deprivation is the key to a long, healthy and happy life.
To create that balance you need to focus on living a healthier lifestyle and learn to make easy-to-manage healthy choices. Start small but be consistent. Add whole food to your diet, avoid highly processed carbs, create a positive morning routine, get quality sleep on a regular schedule and keep your body moving. Get rid of habits you know are hurting you and start taking better care of yourself. And focus on:
- Healthy nutrition
- Physical activity
- Healthy routine
- Self-care practices
- De-stress and relaxation rituals
- Work-life balance
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5 Habit: Prioritize & Simplify Every Area Of Your Life
Another powerful habit to create and master in 2021 is to prioritize and simplify your life, pretty much every aspect of it. I am sure you’ve already heard that simplicity is the key to success. But have you ever tried to apply this strategy to your every daily life? If not, it’s the perfect time to do that.
Mastering the art of making things much more complex than they ever need to be is what we all do to some extent. As if it was some kind of competition and who makes the simplest things the hardest wins.
As human beings, we have the tendency to overthink and overanalyze everything to the smallest details hoping that it will make things easier. But it’s exactly the opposite. Only by simplifying and prioritizing your tasks, activities and ideas, you will increase your chances of success. Not to mention maximizing your productivity levels and boosting your wellbeing while reducing your stress levels. Because when things are simple (don’t confuse simple with easy) we don’t feel anxious, overwhelmed and terrified. So if you want to a happier, more fulfilling and much less stressful life you should prioritize and simplify your life.
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6 Habit: Increase Your Financial Literacy
Financial education is the best investment you can make because your whole future depends on it. And remember that you don’t need to be an accounting nerd to be on top of your finances. All you need to do is to find the right people and surround yourself with great financial information that will help you to make the right financial decisions starting form today. So instead of leaving your financial performance to fate, take a proactive approach and get educated.
Take advantage of the Informational Era we live in and start increasing your financial literacy without leaving your home the easy way, via the Internet. Read, listen, watch high-quality content on personal finances and start applying what you’ve learnt to not only improve your financial wellbeing but also to avoid financial problems that you had in the past.
Whether you want to get out of debt, build up savings, improve your credit score, start investing with little money or financially secure your child’s future you will find excellent pieces of advice online. Need some guidance? Here are the best (not only in my personal opinion) resources on personal finance you can find:
Best Resources On Personal Finance Of 2021
- Personal Finance Books
- Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
- Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad’s Guide to Financial Freedom by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- The Richest Man in Babylon Paperback by George S. Clason
- The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing by Mel Lindauer
- The intelligent investor by Brando Graham
- Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century by Napoleon Hill
- Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz
- Your Money or Your Life: 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money by Vicki Robin
- You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth by Jen Sincero
- The Total Money Makeover Workbook by Dave Ramsey
- The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss
- The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy by Thomas J. Stanley
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works by Ramit Sethi
- The Total Money Makeover: Classic Edition: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness by Dave Ramsey
- Start Your Own Corporation: Why the Rich Own Their Own Companies and Everyone Else Works for Them by Garrett Sutton
- Youtube Channels
- Bloomberg TV Markets and Finance
- MoneyTalks News
- GoldSilver (w/ Mike Maloney)
- Bigger Pockets
- The Financial Diet
- SeedTime Money
- Podcasts
- Financial Times – Banking Weekly
- Morgan Stanley Ideas Podcast
- Bloomberg Masters in Business Podcast
- Bloomberg P&L
- Exchanges at Goldman Sachs
- Financial Times News Briefing
- Financial Modeling Podcast
- Motley Fool Money
- Blogs on Business & Personal Finance
- Financial Samurai
- I Will Teach You to Be Rich
- Business Insider
- Real-Time Economics
- Freakonomics
- The Consumerist
- Calculated Risk
- The Conscience of a Liberal
- Board games
- Cashflow
- Monopoly
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7 Habit: Set Up A Reward And Consequences System
There is no self-discipline without a reward and consequences system. This handy discipline tool can help you guide yourself towards making better choices. Because let’s face it, being rewarded for following the rules and mastering positive habits encourage you to keep doing a good job while experiencing consequences for difficult behaviour prevent a repeat of the same mistake. So basically, you keep yourself accountable for what you do while you improve your personal development skills.
Without accountability for actions, there can be no progress nor achievement. Because if there is nothing or nobody that hold you accountable what’s the point of even get out of bed? If you carry no responsibility you can just observe how your life is just passing by. But if you are ambitious, you want to take full responsibility for your life because you know that it’s your chance to make the most of this incredible journey.
Responsibility is power. Responsibility is freedom. Responsibility is the key to success. So if you want to enhance your chances for success and stick to your most difficult goals you need to take responsibility for your actions. No more excuses or blaming others for your mistakes. No more minimizing your achievements. It’s time to create a clear system of rewards and consequences!
8 Habit: Keep Challenging Yourself
Life is more than survival. Life is a true adventure. An incredible journey of self-discovery. That’s why it so incredibly precious to explore yourself, stretching your boundaries and stepping outside your comfort zone even in those moments when things do not go as planned.
Every single day is your chance to expand your mindset, develop your skills, stretch your abilities and train your courage muscle. You have the potential to create your happiness, make your deepest dreams come true and start living a full rich life, but only if you willing to challenge yourself.
Stepping outside your comfort zone, trying new things, stretching your boundaries is exactly what you need to make 2021 your best year ever. Pushing your boundaries and making yourself uncomfortable is actually more beneficial than you think. Because if you learn to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable you will not only eliminate your fear of failure but also you will boost your courage. And courage is exactly what you need to turn your dreams into reality and create the life that you want to live.
Posts On How To Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever
- 9 Best Financial Goals For 2021 & Powerful Tips To Actually Achieve Them
- How To Organize Your Life For 2021: 7 Simple Steps
- 8 Steps To Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever.
- How To Set Goals For 2021 And Achieve Them
- 8 Steps To Reset Your Life For A Successful 2021
- A powerful method to simplify & prioritize your life
- Making your productivity skyrocket
- Managing your time wisely and effectively
- Increasing self-motivation
- Lists to level up your life
- Lists to organize your life
9 Habit: Practice Gratitude
Remember the time when we could travel without limits, spend Christmas with our family, meet our friends without worrying about “socializing safely” or watching TV news without risking a major panic attack?
Well, that was before the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic. Then suddenly, everything changed. The entire world has changed. Our daily habits, customs and attitudes had to change. We had a different kind of Easter. A different kind of vacation. A different kind of work environment. Kids have a different kind of school. I could keep that up forever.
2020 has made it quite clear that nothing should be taken for granted. We should learn to appreciate more what we have instead of fueling the sense of entitlement that is making us ungrateful, spiled, passive-aggressive and just extremely unhappy.
Practising gratitude and becoming a more thankful person will not only make you realize how lucky you are but also it will drastically improve the quality of your daily life. That’s why I highly recommend you to start a Gratitude Jurnal to develop a practice that keeps you accountable for developing an appreciation and enjoying happier days.
10 Habit: Make Wise Decisions
“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.”
Every second of your life you make some decision. One decision after another. You choose everything you do and you do a certain thing because you’ve chosen to do it.
Most of the decisions you make on a daily basis are rather trivial but still, they are your decisions. Because even if you eat the same exact thing for breakfast, drink always the same type of coffee drink or you wear the same outfit to work you more or less consciously choose to follow this pattern.
Basically, your whole life, every second of it, is a big decision-making process. You just stopped paying attention to that. And that’s a problem because every decision you make has the potential to change your entire life. But only those decisions you make consciously and deliberately has the power to uplevel your life and make your deepest dreams come true.
Success is built on a conscious decision, commitment to your goals and massive action. So instead of living on autopilot, choose mindfulness mode. Take charge of your own destiny and making wise decisions your new habit.
11 Habit: Boost Your Happiness (each day)
True happiness is coming from inside and it’s self-created. What comes from the outside world and it’s entirely dependent on external factors it’s not happiness but pleasure. And that’s not the only difference between these two concepts. Because while pleasure is a temporary feeling, happiness is a state of mind that you achieve.
You’re happy when you feel that you are progressing with your life, achieving your goals and growing as a person. It happens because when you make progress in life you feel satisfied and proud of yourself. Not to mention that every single achievement improves your self-esteem and makes you realize that you are capable of much more than you think.
True happiness is self-created. You have the power, ability and capacity to create your own happiness but first, you need to take responsibility for your own experience. Your life is in your hands. But if you need some help to hack your happiness and boost your happy chemicals here is how you can easily do it.
Stay positive, be mindful and make 2021 your best year ever!
xo Kate
12 thoughts on “11 Powerful Habits That Will Make 2021 Your Best Year Ever.”
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