This one habit maybe the solution that you have been searching for.
I have started and failed at hundreds of transformation attempts, I finally landed on this one habit that if followed serves as the foundation for continuous improvement.
Personal transformation is hard work. We tend to take on far more than we can handle and suffer through starts and stops that leave us really frustrated. If you are like me, you have been left despondent when one of your attempts falls flat. Perhaps you bought a new gym membership, a new treadmill, or a new set of workout clothes, only to use them for a few days and then quit. I have repeated this cycle most of my life until I finally landed on this one habit that served as the foundation for future improvement.
*Even after having tremendous success and consistency in the last few years, at the beginning of this year, I found myself starting to fall apart. Despite all the best intentions, life just gets in the way, and soon enough, habits that you thought you had mastered start to disappear.
You may wonder why I might be someone to listen to on this subject. I question that as well. I have had far more failures at personal transformation than I can count. However, I feel that through repeated failure of five decades, I have started to draw some valuable conclusions.*
This last year I have been diving in to various podcasts and writings on this same subject. What is the best set of core habits that you can develop? I have been testing my ideas against some noteable personalities. BJ Fogg and Tiny Habits, The Huberman Lab, Atomic Habits by James Clear and many others. I have poured through their material, considered their advice and interviewed various people.
Though all this advice, I still remain convinced that the habit that I started on January 7th, 2018 is the best one. If you want to secure the start of a personal transformation, then join me by starting with this one habit.
Most of us know what we want to be. We have an idea of what we would want the future to be. What we want to look like. What we want to be like. Life would be so much better if I…
Here is a simple fact. You will not get there all at once. You will get there incrementaly. One small step at a time and you will build yourself into that person by engaging in small incremental habits. Here is the rule by which you must build a foundation of solid, consistent habits. You must never take something on that you will not actually do. You should engage in the smallest workload that you will actually achieve.
The person that you want to be will be built, incrementally and with consistent small habits. The small things, done consistently, will always outperform any one big thing you only do once.
Interested in starting a personal transformation journey that is actually successful this time? Join with me as I reengage in what I call “the 365 commitment.”
Here is the one habit that I believe will lead you toward whatever transformation that you want to achieve.
Every morning when you wake up, find a quiet place and contemplate what is the most important thing you can do today to get closer to your goals? What is the one most important thing? Write that down in a journal. Call it Day 1. Write down other things to do if you want, but do not distract from the most important thing.
Then sit quietly, all electronics down, and pray, meditate and focus on what you are trying to accomplish, what you are going to do today, and make a firm resolve or commitment to get it done.
Follow your own pattern, but this is what I do:
1. Create a journal entry in a notebook – Today’s Date – Day 1
2. Write down my Core Habit that I must keep – I call it The 365 Commitment.
3. Write down the One Thing that I can do today that is most important for achieving my goals.
4. Commit to my One Thing via Prayer / Meditation
I sit quietly with my back straight and start breathing through my nose, taking nice full breaths.
I imagine a place right above my eyes and behind my forehead. I focus my mind on that. This is the frontal lobe area of your brain.
For at least 15 minutes, I sit quietly and focus my attention in this manner. As I focus, I run through the following sequence:
- Try to think of nothing for several minutes.
- Focus on my breathing, taking deep, easy, and relaxing breaths.
- When I am relaxed, I remember the one thing I wrote down for today. I think about it and how important it is.
- I commit to it. In my case, I do this through prayer.
- Allow myself to just float there, keeping my mind focused on that one spot in my mind. As I wrap up, I care less about where my mind wanders. Over time, this ‘wandering mind’ improves.
This is meditation. This is prayer. This is not hard, does not take a lot of time, but has a significant and very real impact on your day and ultimately your life.
Try doing this every day for a year and see what happens. I’m pretty sure you’ll succeed in making the change you want.
This is my first-ever daily habit and the start of my 365 commitment. If you’re interested, begin now by trying this habit every day. I’ll give you more areas for improvement as we go along.
