We all have them: habits that hinder us. Often, your next level of income or impact is on the other side of breaking up with the habits that are holding you back.
Congruent with the world of neuroscience, Joe Dispenza – author of ‘Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself’- preaches the philosophy that your brain is a record of your environment. Therefore, if you want to change your future, hit a new level of success, improve your physical fitness, or have a better marriage, your thoughts must accurately reflect that which you desire.
Thankfully, as Dr. Dispenza says; “you are not doomed by your genes and hardwired to be a certain way for the rest of your life. New science is emerging that empowers all human beings to create the reality they choose.”
It may also be comforting to know that many of the habits inhibiting your potential for exponential growth, sustained success, and a life well-lived, are probably not unique to you, and are likely to read like the daily narrative of many an entrepreneur’s sagas. Most habits share threads of similarity in their cause, process, outcome, or in their antidote, and maybe surmounted by shifting your perspective.
So how do we diverge from a life of ‘settled or regular tendencies or practices, especially ones that are hard to give up’? – as defined by The Oxford Dictionary of English.
Waiting For Inspiration
According to Adriana Monique Alvarez, a USA Today bestselling author and the CEO of the award-winning publishing house, AMA Publishing, one of the most prolific habits amongst entrepreneurs is to depend on external inspiration in order to be of service and create forward motion in their business.
“Waking up in a good mood or feeling inspired is a choice. Most people are waiting for it to strike, while others manufacture it through what they focus on. Right before falling asleep, try practicing the ‘Highlight Reel’ by reliving all the best moments of the day, expecting the next day to be filled with more of the same.”
Alvarez touches on some monumental concepts that have continued to fascinate academics and philosophers for thousands of years. And yet we still understand relatively little about the true power of the mind. Our ability to create change through visualizing the desired outcome is well documented and practiced religiously by high-achievers the world over.
If you find that revelation alone to be too little to get you out of your funk on the daily, and if visualization isn’t working its magic, read on …
Time To Innovate
One of the hallmark traits of an entrepreneur is the ability to find solutions, even in the most unlikely of circumstances. So when something isn’t working for you, exercise your entrepreneurial genius by forging new paths toward your Shangri-La.
Blair Kaplan Venables, President of Blair Kaplan Communications, and a leader in the realm of Social-media marketing are accustomed to watching both aspiring and seasoned leaders alike succumb to the ever-present lure of ‘Copycat Syndrome’.
“It’s easy to fall victim to the glitter and gold; watching successful people on Social Media and trying to replicate what they do. Sadly it leads to a massive lack of innovation. Desire to be unique and experiment more.”
It’s fair to say that we all have moments of wavering confidence in our abilities, and no one is completely immune to the fear of failure, but as Kaplan Venables points out, what the world needs now is not more of the same, more of the old, or more of anyone other than you. Your uniqueness is the key to your success. Innovation from that perspective, takes on an entirely new meaning; from a question of “what can I do differently?” to “what can I do to show more of what is uniquely me?”.
Raise Your Frequency To Finish Each Day Empowered
To end on a practical, readily implementable strategy, this one addresses a trifecta of habits that when combined lead to a colossal case of unproductivity. Procrastinating, Improvising and Multitasking have been the undoing of many a high-hoped career. We’ve all been there: in the pursuit of getting it all done, we instead end up achieving nothing, wondering where the day went.
Taryn Lee, is the Global Brand Ambassador of Healy World, the founder of ‘Awakin’ where a new paradigm movement for female leadership is awakening: she says a woman’s Superpower can also be her greatest weakness.
“Women are masterful Multitaskers, but while we may think we’re being proficient by ticking things off our to-do list like Wonder Woman on a humanity-saving mid-morning mission, in reality, the quality of our work becomes anything other than stellar.”
Instead, Lee recommends dedicating 40 – 50 minute time-slots to every single element of your business, in order of priority. “If you’re working on creating copy, for example, don’t check emails or social media, or receive phone calls until the 50 minutes are up. Then take a short break and move on to the next project.”
Before embarking on your new intentional and focused day, Lee also shares ‘start empowered and with a higher frequency to finish empowered and aligned’, her words echoing the energy that is cultivated from within when every day begins with a powerful morning routine.
In Closing
Old habits die hard and progress is not linear, but while the road to lasting change can be slow and fraught with challenges, we should remember that it can equally occur in quantum leaps.
Realize that it’s a process, not a quick fix. Resist beating yourself up when you find yourself reverting to old habits. An improvement, no matter how infinitesimal, is still a step in the right direction.