Successful Habit Changes

by Medicate. Meditate. Educate.

I used to have a lot of bad habits. I still do, but I am conquering them one step at a time. Here’s a few:

• I woke up late and went to bed early.
• I neglected my relationships.
• I bit my fingernails.
• I bought worthless things I didn’t need.
• I ate tons of junk food.

I could go on, but none of that’s incredibly important. What’s important is that I used to have a lot of bad habits, and now I have fewer. Now we are creatures of habit and this is true this is why we must change our bad habits to good habits, Productive, positive and healthy.

I spent years discontented with my habits and never made much progress changing them. Yes, sometimes I’d make a small step forward, but it usually wasn’t long until I was back to square one again (thanks, procrastination habit). However, I am very lucky to know it does not have to be this way.

I always thought I could change things myself — so I never gave a second thought to any other way.

The thing that helped me finally knock out that above list I have mentioned it took a real leap of faith; I let someone help me.

It started as a practical matter. Joined a gym and met really motivated people, aspiring to be like them. Then finally I had a few buddies and we trained together until I was content enough to go my own way life a wolf. I do this a lot, I go to be who has the habit or I know that will help me keep right. I tell my friends what I am going to do and I am held accountable. I post up what I am going to do on social networks and other forum sites – I found this great help at the start, as people are on the same boat who wants to help, motivate and give feedback of how you are training and eating.

For the very first time, I was developing habits that I created on purpose. It felt great — like I was really in control of my life after years of spinning my wheels.

How could I keep this going?

I was so fiercely independent that I hardly realized what had contributed to the success. It took a few more heart-crushing failures with other goals before finally getting the picture. A friend mentioned he wanted to wake up earlier to get more work done in the morning. I remembered how much I enjoyed waking up early when I actually did it, and my new habit is I wake up at 7 am 5 days a week preparing my food for the rest of the day that it became a great therapeutic habit.  It’s pretty amazing what a little accountability can do for your motivation.

Since then, I’ve wised up and started recruiting partners (bros) to help me with all of my big goals -The difference is incredible.

The secret is that, for some of us, successful habit change is not something to be tackled alone. If you’ve struggled with habit change yourself, recruit some help.

But who do you ask? And how do you find the right partners in crime? Unfortunately, not just anyone is a good fit. Picking the right person that will compliment you is just as important as picking someone at all.

Fair warning: Friends and relatives do not always make the best accountability partners.

Through plenty of trial and error, I’ve found a few characteristics that I look for in someone I’m about to partner with to make an important life change. Perhaps they’ll help you find a good fit, too.

They’re a little ahead of you, but not too far ahead. In a good accountability partnership, one person is usually at least a little bit further beyond the other. It’s the blind leading the blind. And you don’t want your partner to be too far ahead of you, or the relationship is unbalanced and feels awkward.

They’re a little bit competitive – Friendly competition. You probably don’t want someone who’s looking to stick it to you every chance they get, but you’ll get a lot further a lot faster if your accountability partner isn’t satisfied with self-defeat and is willing to actually hold you accountable. My friend says to me every time we go into the gym – “All I expect is 100 percent”.

They have similar goals to you. You don’t have to be working on the exact same thing to work well with a partner — it can be great to work together on separate goals and endeavours — but there should be an obvious overlap of your big goals. There needs to be something that ties you two together beyond just “wanting to change something.”

They’re focused. If you agree to meet each day, but never seem to get anywhere because your meetings are unfocused, first look at yourself. Are you dragging things off course on a regular basis? If not, then it’s probably time to find a more focused partner.

They’re supportive when you need it.  This goes back to competitiveness or with me and my friend I term it health competition. You want your partner to push you and hold you accountable — that’s what they’re there for — but a good one also has your best interest at heart and knows when you need a little lift instead of a scolding. “Come man you are stronger than this, you will walk away now and regret this and you know you can already do this – already seen you do it”

They show commitment. The truth is that you can usually tell if a partnership like this is going to work within a week. If your accountability partner can’t even get it together at the very beginning when excitement is running high, that’s a pretty good indication they’re not committed to change. This doesn’t make them a bad person, but it probably makes them a bad partner for now.

If you’ve ever struggled with making an important habit change in your life, then I challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and ask for help. If you’re like me, it could turn everything around.

What do you want to change? Who can help? – Think carefully.