10 HABITS THAT WILL HELP YOU MAXIMIZE 2018 (PART ONE)

Great habits are the foundation for a great life. According to Aristotle 
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit”
Related Post: Are-you-player-or-spectator

It’s not just my passion to help you maximize 2018, it’s a duty and a covenant. The concept and frame of this particular post is based on this popular saying 
“Sow a thought, reap an action, sow an action, reap a habit, sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character and reap a destiny”
Great habits make a great destiny,  a bad habit makes a destructive life. Therefore, your habits in 2018 will determine your outcome in 2018.

Excellence and success are no products of luck, they are produced by good and productive habits.

Related Post:Managing-change-in-leadership-in-life.

But, what is a habit? You may ask me. Can I break out of my bad habits if I have one? How can I break my bad habits and build good ones? This post will help you answer all these question in a bit.

So let’s start from what a habit is. It is defined as internalized principles and patterns of behaviour. In the words of Stephen Covey “It is the intercession of knowledge, skills and desire.  To simply say
 “it is what we repeatedly do without much consciousness”
Secondly, YES! You can break the cycle of bad habits. Habits are learnt and they can be unlearnt. I must confess however that bad habit are easy to pick up but difficult to break. Actually, I will prefer to say, habits are rather replaced.  You want to break a bad habit, just found a good one to replace it.

Thirdly, how do I replace bad habit with good ones? Let me quickly take you through some seven simple steps you can use:

     • Total dissatisfaction of the former habit: Whatever you condone you cannot change. If you keep tolerating a habit it’s because you are satisfied with it. You must get to a point when you have a personal irritation for such behaviour.

      • Withdraw emotional reward attached to such habit: We often got sandwiched within some actions because they give us some kind of emotional pleasure or relief.
"We get trapped in some bad behavioural cycle not because we feel right doing them but because we feel good"
So, you must withdraw such emotional feeling of pleasure, relief or satisfaction.

        • Attach emotional hatred for such habit: Withdrawing emotional feeling of pleasure or satisfaction is not enough. You must hate that behaviour. What you hate you can’t tolerate, neither can you stand it. Develop an internal hatred for it. 

        • Make a covenant to break it: I recently learnt this approach from Sharon Abraham a minister and a friend in Abu Dhabi. For several years, she makes New Year resolution to lose weight, but she couldn’t. In 2016 she decided to make a covenant with God that she was going to get her diet and fitness right. So, between December 2017 and December 2017 she was able to reach her amazing health goals by losing several pounds. Here is the difference, personal resolution demand personal disciplines but covenant attracts God’s input-GRACE. Most habits like masturbation, drugs, gluttony takes more than bodily discipline to break. You need God’s grace to replace them.

        • Take practical actions to break it.
“You want to break an habit? Don’t just tell me show me”.
You need to take practical steps. Take steps to stop it. If you masturbate, stop watching porno, if you drink,  stop going to bear parlour, if you need to change your friends, jobs, music or movies,  do it. 

         • Be Accountable. I’m not talking about money here. All am saying is, if you can’t be accountable to yourself, find someone you respect and will honestly monitor your progress. If possible too, find someone who also want to do the same thing and commit yourself to that process. 

       • Reward Your Progress: Anthony Robins always says
“What you reward you reinforce”. 
Psychologically, we all tends to do what brings us reward over and over again. So, attach an emotional, financial, mental or material reward to your newly learnt habits. Reward every step. This also means that you must find and attach a feeling of pleasure, relief and satisfaction to the newly formed habits.

Not to bore you with too many info, I will discuss the 10 habits that will help you maximize 2018 in my next post.

Watch out.

That reminds me, have you registered for #MAXIMIZE 2018? It’s coming up next week Saturday, 13th of January 2018.
For more info visit: MAXIMIZE 2018

Once  again i wish you
HAPPY NEW YEAR


Juwon Owolabi
Pastor, Author, Speaker. 













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ARE YOU A PLAYER OR A SPECTATOR?

Image
There are various categories of people in the world. Some categorize people into: • Rich and  Poor • Aristocrats and Commoners • Leaders and Followers • Believers and Infidels/Gentiles/Unbelievers • Great and the Lowly Just to mention a few.  However, in this post I would categorize people into  PLAYERS and SPECTATORS. Whether you are in business, banking, politics, ministry, entertainment, photography, engineering, medicine, law, education, government or whatever you’re into. You are either a player or a spectator. Here is how to know which category you belong. Either in the game of football, tennis, cricket, or any other game, spectators are always 99.9% while the players are just 0.01%. If you are among the crowd, sorry you are a spectator. If you are part of the majority, you are still a spectator. If you are part of the normal people you’re a spectator. Let me show you quickly some distinguishing characteristics between players and spectators. 1. ...
Read more

7 THINGS A LEADER MUST AVOID

Image
7 THINGS A LEADER MUST AVOID When you follow the way that leads to your destiny there are always some barricades. If a path is so smooth without temptations and challenges it’s because it probably leads to nowhere. . Once t enemy sees you on motion going to the place of your destiny, he begins to set road blocks, and obstructions to make sure you don’t get there. You need to discover them to be able to avoid them 1. Sin The first attack the enemies launch on your way is sin. Sin sinks destiny. It sinks great dreams and visions. One of the things that can make us stoppable is sin against God. The devil knows that once he can introduce sin into your life then he can stop you. The number one threat of man is not the devil but sin. Once we open the door to sin the devil automatically gains influence. Sin turns a giant into a piece of bread; it has buried many great destinies in the graveyard of life.  Many have sunk in the ocean of life. Sin can stop the swiftest man; it can w...
Read more
Image
MANAGING CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP In life the only constant thing is change. Change is an inevitable event in the history of man. Certain changes have drawn mixed reactions from individuals. Unsettling times throughout history have resulted in societal fear, panic, distress and confusion. Many people were not prepared for these changes; some reacted with suspicion, contempt and violence, others simply surrendered to the inevitability and became victims of the force of change. We live in an ever changing world. There are two kinds of people that change not; fools and the dead. Fools won’t, dead men can’t.  When you refuse to change you end up in chains. Your ability to manage change as a leaders determines your ability to maintain relevance and progress. Life is difficult to many people because they don’t want to change.  As a leader, how do you manage change? 1 . Anticipate Change Expect change to come. Know that change is inevitable. Your expectation of c...
Read more