By Mark Kaplan / February 28, 2020
Habits can be the strategy to reach a goal. Great habits are created to reach goals extremely important to us. Bad habits are often a result of not setting important goals. a result of lacking important goals.
Health is my most important habit alongside creativity. I must have both of these in my days to feel purposeful. When I work hard all day without either, I probably need a negative habit in the evening for relief. Most of my days in my plan start with creativity in the morning and include a bout of exercise during the day which for me is biking, swimming, or the gym.
What Are the Important Goals?
We have to set goals for work and in our lives everyone mentors us to set goals but we rarely take them to heart. The most heart felt goals are the activities we want to engage in everyday to make our life feel meaningful and meet our expectations. The further we get from these activities the more distraught we feel at the end of the day.
What is it you want to be doing every day? This is where your passion hides, your purpose lies, and your happiness resides. Passion, purpose, and happiness. The result of these feelings is dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and in physical exercise, endorphins.
One problem with some goal setting is you don’t get happy until the end. Great goals include happiness in the process of engaging. The engagement becomes a habit. The habit is the strategy to reach the goal. Sometimes, the goal may not be defined, but the continuous movement toward improvement will reach milestones along the way.
Some people who practice sports never imagined the success they would attain someday. They just engaged every day. Bill Gates never imagined the result of being fascinated with computers. Warren Buffet developed disciplines and principals for investing before he had money.
Why Won’t We Change Habits that Keep Us Stuck?
As a Certified Health Coach and Personal Trainer in addition to being a Lifestyle Coach, I know about sedentary behavior, obesity and other negative behaviors which can include drugs, shopping, and gambling.
Negative behaviors can have a great allure because like positive behaviors, they can stimulate happiness brain chemicals. Overeating can be very pleasurable. Negative behaviors can be addicting. Breaking negative addictive behaviors means we lose the pleasure they provided and sometimes we won’t let go.
Creating Keystone Habits
The number one way to break bad habits other than just great will power, is to create a new habit that is healthy or creates growth toward a new personal goal. Keystone habits often begin with 5 minutes a day or eating one new food, taking a ten-minute walk, enjoying 10 minutes of solitude, or learning more about something that excites us,
Numerous studies have shown that engaging in one positive behavior and making it a habit can start changing all our habits. My life turned around when I started eating better to get back to my high school weight. I had a great goal and the habit had continuous positive feedback rewards and soon started creating other habits to support the main goal.
What Are Great Keystone Habits?
Great habits stimulate the happiness brain chemicals mentioned above. This is why good habits can become addicting. Learning, creativity, contributing, health and fitness all qualify. They each can create dopamine and serotonin. Serotonin is the good mood hormone that can come with progress toward a goal. Oxytocin floods our system when we feel we are contributing to the greater good. Endorphins result from working our bodies.
Dopamine results from good intentions toward worthwhile goals and while engaged in the activity without disruption. The practice of engaging in challenging endeavors without disruption can create the state of “flow”, the grand daddy of blissful enjoyment.
Read Habits of a Happy Brain by Loretta Graziano Breuning Ph.D
Read The Good Life Plan by Mark Kaplan See Excerpts
Read Creating Your Own Happiness- Lifestyle Self-Coaching Course by Mark Kaplan See Excerpts
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See Post Happiness, Fitness, and Mindfulness
See Post How We Enjoy Intensity without Stress
See Post Life Style and Work Life Balance
See Post Creativity Can Be Career Changing
See Post Increasing the Flow in Your Life
See Post Fitness Nutrition and Weight Management
See Excerpts for my Book “The Good Life Plan”
