7 Simple Micro Habits for Success

“Motivation makes us start to move toward our goals, but it is our habits that determine if we reach them.”

Habits are the way we think, feel and react to different situations based on repetition of certain mental experiences. Old habits are very hard to break, and new ones are even harder to form as the certain patterns we use to repeat are set in our neural pathways in such a way that it is difficult and time-consuming to break and form new ones.

Therefore, we have to carefully choose the habits that will in grain in us the ability to react in such a way that would be beneficial for us.

Seven habits have had a major impact on my life.

All of them can be completed in individually in 20 minutes or less so, they will not take up to much of your time. That why I call them my micro habits.

They have ingrained in me the qualities I would need to succeed and if you adopt these habits, there is a very good chance you will feel the same way as I do.

1) Reading

This may be the most important of all the seven micro habits, just 20 minutes of daily reading could have massive benefits.

Reading is a strong mental activity and it builds fundamental skills that one would need, it wards of diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, while building up your self-discipline as although everyone knows they should read most of us have many distractions and taking out even 20 minutes a day can be difficult.

Other than self-discipline, reading also builds up our self-esteem as the more you read, the more you know, and would be considered as an expert on the topic you read, which could be quite a confidence booster.

2) Power ups

Power ups is a thing I do, which raises a person’s testosterone levels, giving them higher confidence and self-belief.

So how to do Power ups?

Well, power ups are a certain physical and verbal acts that can be done anywhere.

You may be feeling nervous and you need to give a very important presentation in front of your boss or maybe in front of big prospective clients, do a power up before going in to give the presentation.

You can go to the washroom and in front of the mirror do the Rocky victory stand and visualize yourself giving the best presentation of your life.

Psychologist Amy Cuddy has found out in her research that by doing power positions you are able to increase the Testosterone level by 20% and decrease your stress hormone Cortisol by 30%.

3) A page a day

Try maintaining a personal journal and to at least write a page a day. Keeping and writing in a journal has many benefits to stop.

By writing your thoughts, your beliefs, and values you better able to understand who you are? What you want in life? What you are willing to do to achieve it? And to many other such questions.

The other main reason for maintaining a journal is that you’re able to track your mental and emotional development and that by doing so are able to steer your life in a positive direction achieving real personal growth.

4) Gratitude Beads

Get a pair of prayer beads and just as soon as you get up and go to sleep, for one whole round on each bead say one thing that you are truly grateful for in your life.

Doing this reminds you daily of all that you have, you could be grateful for good friends, family, business/job, health and all that which is important to you.

No amount of words would begin to describe the feeling of relief and happiness you will get from doing this.

5) Smiling

Well, this is kind of a given everyone knows how important it is to smile to laugh, but I would like to add some of the benefits of smiling here.

The act of smiling is very pleasing to the eye and attractive to everyone and would draw positive vibes from all those with whom you may come in contact with.

Smiling also reduces the level of the stress hormone Cortisol, While triggering the release of endorphins which increases our level of happiness and the best thing about it is that the triggering mechanism is the movement of the muscles in your face so your brain can’t really differentiate between a true from the heart smile or one in which we are trying to lift our mood by just trying to stay positive, and releases the endorphins in both cases.

So even if you are sad, disappointed, and depressed smiling will help elevate your mood.

6) Mental detox

Just like our bodies need to detox from all the toxins produced by eating fatty foods and alcohol, our minds also need to detox from all the negativity, stress, and anxiety.

I have a 20 minute detox routine that I do daily, which consists of a 5 minute Scottish shower of which 3 minutes of hot water then 2 minutes of ice-cold water, the Scottish shower helps reduce stress and increase ones level of alertness(Kind of jump starting your brain with ice-cold water shock).

The next step is to for 10 minutes of positive visualizations and the last five minutes are spent reading inspirational, motivational quotes and short stories.

7) Pause to wonder

“He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”- Albert Einstein

When is the last time you have taken a moment’s pause to admire the beauty around you.

Do you remember the first time you felt rain? The First time saw the ocean?

Most of us wouldn’t be able to forget such moments, even if we tried too.

So, what is stopping us now?

Why can’t we connect with our environment in our daily hustle and bustle to make ends meet all really worth it, if only even for a second you are able to take a Pause to wonder?

Hope you all would find my micro habit’s bringing a positive change in your life, do feel free to ask or express your views in the comments.

-----

Aly Shah is the Founder of The Determined Capitalist. He always had a keen interest in Business management, Entrepreneurship, and achieving financial success with a strong belief in the potential of a determined individual, he has started his website with the aim of providing Motivation and Guidance for such individual. You can contact him through his website.

The post 7 Simple Micro Habits for Success appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.