Habits Maybe More Important than Results

Habits Maybe More Important Than Results if we want to improve our lifestyle. Aiming for a result makes it a milestone. Forming a habit of improvement may make the end limitless. A result might have a definite end point in time. A habit may make it a lifetime endeavor.

To get results above our current level of behavior, we need to set a goal and instill some discipline. I started blogging every day with no real goal other than expressing myself. Soon it was a daily habit and I had a lot of followers. Then I decided why not take it to the next step and write a book.

The daily habit of blogging continues, but I also set out a daily habit of working on a book. Ten books, later I still do both. The habit become something different than I anticipated. I know a road biker who started out riding daily. Soon he decided to enter some races. He wound up riding in a 500 mile race. He said, I discovered I had the riding gene.

Then he entered and completed the Race Across America which is a 3,000 mile race. Bill Gates loved computers and started in college entering one line programming cards into a computer because that was how slow it was to program then. He was at the front edge of a developing industry then and, of course, the rest is history.

Developing The Discipline First

A behavior becomes a habit when it is repeated. We form good and bad habits the same way. We develop our perspective the same way. A person who has gratitude and a person who thinks the world is out to get them developed these patterns in the same way. If you look for the good or the bad in things every day, it will have a result.

Years ago when I was 225 pounds, I wanted to get back to my high school weight of 175 pounds. I started eliminating my addictions and bad foods. I began substituting good foods. At first, my mind fought me all the way testing my will power. After a time when I had achieved results, my mind jumped on board and loudly discouraged thoughts about bad foods.

I did the same thing with exercise. I built conditioning making it a habit. I was already an exerciser, but as I lost weight I got to be more intense. I had less weight to carry and by now, I was more capable of adding to my routine. In 4 years, I did reach my goal of 175 pounds. When I put on weight again, I have the discipline to go through the same routine.

The important start is to select the first step that is necessary to reach the improvement you want to see. Expertise is always built in this process. Few people are naturals. Naturals need to select goals that are more challenging. Challenge is the real excitement of life and the brain explodes in growth when we keep challenging it with mental or physical goals.

Improving or change seems like a risk to humans. Risk can be exciting. Risk can be addictive. It doesn’t have to be a mortal threat. There are the extreme athletes who put it all on the line, but there are the extreme entrepreneurs as well. Writing is a challenge and most writers say at the beginning they were afraid of sounding stupid. It is a risk to put your thoughts out into the world.

Pick goals or think about who you want to be or how you want to live. Sometimes you arrive at your purpose. Nothing is more motivating than finding your purpose. Then it becomes a passion and it is hard to defeat a person with passion. Most of my habits have become passions. I have so much to do each day and each activity builds who I am. I am not sure where any will wind up, but I keep changing for the better.

See the Home Page for some books to read.

If Fitness is a Goal, see my website Get Fit to Surf