3 tips to dramatically transform your life ✨
It’s much simpler than you think
“Too often, we convince ourselves that massive success requires massive action.” - James Clear on Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results
How do you dramatically transform your life? At the risk of reinforcing the cliché: start with small habits.
The Science-Backed Formation of Habit
James Clear, the author of multi-million-copy bestseller Atomic Habits, mentioned four stages of forming a habit:
Cue: the trigger to start a behavior
Craving: the motivation behind your habit
Response: the actual habit you develop
Reward: the end goal of your habit
What do you do when entering a dark room? Usually flip a light switch on.
It’s been built in your reflex that you don’t even think of doing that, you just automatically reach for a switch.
In this case:
noticing the dark room is the cue
wanting to get out of the darkness is the craving
flipping on the switch is the response
being able to see your surrounding is the reward
When your brain registers the reward you get from forming a behavior, it stores it as worth pursuing.
It remembers the flipping on the switch as behavior that delivers a rewarding result, and tries to repeat it in the future.
“Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop—cue, craving, response, reward; cue, craving, response, reward—that ultimately allows you to create automatic habits.”
Three Habits You Could Start Today
When you think about it, there are lots of good habits you can develop to improve your life.
Here’s an idea: start practicing these three tips over the next week, and see if they work out for you.
1. Have a morning wake up routine
Have you ever woke up feeling sluggish and unmotivated, then the rest of your day went down in spectacular flames?
Or, in contrast, woke up feeling energized, then the rest of your day went awesome?
How we start our morning determines how the rest of our day goes. It is our chance to figure out our goals for the day and set our priorities.
When you go about your day prepared and relaxed, you feel more in control and less stressed out.
Here are 9 ideas of morning routine to start your day the right way.
2. Read 20 pages of fiction every day
If you’re looking for a sign to get back to that one novel you’ve kept at the back of your mind, this is the sign.
Truth be told, reading any other books would do. Books are awesome and cool like that. However, we would strongly recommend fiction.
Aside from transporting us to a magical landscape, reading fiction makes us more in touch with our own feelings, heightens our sense of empathy, and improves our emotional intelligence.
(Also, the satisfaction of finally tackling that mountain of young adult to-be-reads? Unmatched.)
3. Jot down your thoughts and feelings
There’s a reason why journaling is used in therapy.
Writing down your thoughts and feelings helps you reflect, process, and understand your emotions.
Essentially, you’re labelling your emotions, and this is the key to understanding why you’re feeling them in the first place.
If you often feel out of touch with your own emotions, or have a hard time processing your feelings, try writing them down. You’ll be surprised how helpful it would be.
Thanks for being here. We hope you find these tips useful.
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