4 Quick Tips to Improve Your Life...FAST!

I recently wrote about how your beliefs ultimately become your destiny through the chain of thoughts, words, actions, and habits. I asked, "What's the number one behavior you could STOP doing and START doing that would have the biggest impact on your life?" 

We are addressing the fundamental, foundational behaviors that, when practiced consistently, enable you to live at your fullest potential. These foundational behaviors are breathing, sleeping, eating, and moving. That seems like a big DUH, doesn't it? We all do them daily, after all.

Sure, you do them all, but are you doing them mindfully or mindlessly? And are you doing them the best they can be done? For example... 

Are you breathing through your nose into your belly?

Are you sleeping enough and with good quality? 

Are you eating well and in the right amount? 

Are you moving every day with intention (even a little)? 

No matter what other empowering self-mastery habits you already have in place, if you don't give attention to your breath, sleep, food and movement, you won't execute optimally on the other things you want to do with your life. How can you be fully present with your kids when you're tired and maybe cranky? How can you exercise if you aren't properly rested and fueled? 

When we talk about improving your fundamentals, the first step is bringing their current status into awareness. You've heard me say that before. You can't change something you aren't aware of. 

So how are you doing in each area? Be honest. You can lie to yourself, but why would you do that? The next step is figuring out how to improve each of them. 

Let's say your current self-ranking in each area is a 5 out of 10.  What could you do to make it better? Here are four tips that should help...

1. Notice. Tuning into and observing your behaviors and the results of them helps you course correct them at the moment. Heightening your awareness gives you the power to shift direction at the moment.
2. Design. One key to habit and behavior success is to make the habits you want to adopt easier. Remove the friction between you and your practice of going to bed a little earlier by putting a recurring appointment called "Bedtime" in your calendar a half hour before you want to be asleep. Make healthy eating easier by filling your kitchen with healthy foods; avoiding temptation is far easier than battling it.
3. Track. What you measure, you improve. Don't track it to punish yourself, either. When you track your sleep, food and movement, you're simply collecting data to evaluate your progress over time. 
4. Persist. Any time you make a change, it's new and by default it's unfamiliar. Consistently and consciously course correcting over and over (and OVER!) again to the NEW behavior helps create new neuropathways. Be persistent. When you slip, just get back to it.

Focusing on the fundamentals every day builds trust and self-efficacy. It demonstrates your ability to keep your promises to yourself, which creates personal momentum and perpetuates your upward power spiral. 

 Health and Arȇte,

Monica