7 Small Habits that Will Change Your Life

Your outcomes are a sum total of your habits. Your weight is a result of your eating habits. Your net worth is a measure of your financial habits. Your knowledge is a measure of your studying habits. And so on. You get what you repeat, consistently.

Let me take you right back to 6 years ago I used to think it was the ‘big’ things that made a difference e.g. a full day of work (read: staring out the window) was making the difference, running a marathon once a year rather than walking for 30 mins for each day would make me fit. I didn’t know anything, I just wanted to be like the ‘Insta Girls’ who had hours to spend in the gym, when I didn’t. I wanted to walk across that graduation stage achieving my 2:1, I wanted to impress my family, I wanted to post a marathon completion photo on social media for external gratification. I wanted to achieve these ‘big things’ without consistently doing the little things.

I mean I was quite literally running into a wall, I didn’t have the time to exercise for hours, I rarely had uninterrupted days to study for hours between lectures, socials and just having fun. So I ended up falling behind and achieving nothing. If I didn’t have time for the ‘big things’ it wasn’t worth it, right?

I began realising that having huge amounts of time to do the big stuff was not real life. I will never have all day to run or to study. I ended up spending days, weeks even months not studying and not exercising because 30 minutes was not worth it.

My grades were falling, I was losing my fitness.

Something had to change so I began learning about how these successful people fit it all in. They ALL sweared by the small stuff, so I began implementing this… I walked for 30 mins in the morning, I did a focused hour of studying a few times a day and everything started to take shape. I had to take baby steps each day towards my end goal.

I planned my time, I planned my morning, I began researching and learning about habits, their creation and how powerful they are, and gradually my grades improved, my fitness improved and I felt unstoppable and empowered. I began ingraining habits.

The habits eventually lead me to crossing the half marathon line, walking across the graduation stage with my 2:1 law degree and it was due to the sum total of small, ingrained habits and not the ‘big actions’.

The process of habit creation is for another blog, so instead I have summarised by top habits for you to implement today, below:

1. Push yourself to complete a task even when you don’t want to

For me, this is making my bed. Every morning I have this inner battle, why should I bother making the bed when I’m just about to get back into it tonight? Here’s why: it’s a little task, once you’ve done this little task it will encourage another little task. If you don’t care about the little tasks, you won’t care about the big tasks. It reinforces the little things in life matter, and even if the day is awful, you will have still achieved a little task.

2. Prepare your day the night before (make decisions)

We have a limited decision making ability in a day so we should try and shift these decisions to the night before so in the morning and during the day we ‘don’t think, just do.’

Lay out your workout clothes the night before…a confused mind always says no. In the morning if its pouring with rain and you’re in two minds whether to go to the gym and then you have to get your clothes out, you are more likely to say no.

3. Use a timer for your task

Pomodoro technique. This is the master of all habits. If there was a habit I’d say is a must, its this. A timer keeps the mind focused — work expands to fill the time so if you have all day to do a task it will take all day to do — if you have 2 hours — it’ll take 2 hours. You get the gist.

4. Utilise your mornings

There is no right way to morning — but scrolling on social media won’t make you feel energised. There are no set ways to do the morning right. The focus should be on the outcome rather than the action. If the outcome is to feel energised — some may find running does this, others it might be yoga or journaling. Find your thing and stick to it consistently. I love lifting weights — but this might not be for you.. a little trial and error.

The focus is the outcome rather than the action.

5. Eat a live frog in the morning

Not literally but the theory is do the worst task first, then it’s done. The day can’t get any worse. This is another must do habit.

6. Write down every idea

Brain wave at 2am? Keep a notepad by the bed. Even if the idea sounds silly — write it down — you don’t know what it could become!

7. Avoid your phone first thing

I’ve eluded to this — the morning is among the worst time of day to scroll. It won’t achieve anything, you may start your day comparing yourself and that’s beneficial for no one.

The little things turn into big changes and achievements. Focus on these and become unstoppable.

Hannah