Habit Making (Originally posted on 2/19/09)

As I have stepped from book to book, class to class on my journey to enlightenment, one of my greatest ah-ha moments was when I thought about stopping the self-development freight train all together. (Thank goodness I didn’t!) I was famous for taking my problem, whatever it may be, chewing on it, searching endlessly on the internet for any and all answers/books/advice and then devouring what I could find. Once I knew what I thought I should know, I would share it with the world and then move on to something else. It was like a fix for me. I would get so passionate about the book I was reading (this hasn’t changed) and then share with everyone how much I had learned and how THIS book was going to fix my problem!
When I realized that this was becoming a bit of a cycle for me, I thought maybe I should lay off the self help stuff for a while. I thought that I should just stop and see what happens. So, I did--for a bit. And I found I was just as unhappy and missing my “fix”.
However, the answer finally came to me. I decided that I will always read, search, research, and reflect on all that I read and find. That is just who I am. I enjoy getting passionate about finding out things about myself and others. It ABSOLUTELY fascinates me—always has. The difference now, is that I know I have gathered enough information and released enough fear (this is the important part) to start applying it.. This time, for real, not just trying it for a few days, talking about it to a few people and then moving on. It was time to take what I know to be true and begin building it directly into my life--day by day--habit by habit. It is said that the most successful of positive thinkers and law of attraction experts must create positive habits in their life. You can be inspired to no end, but without application, your learning is temporary.
Here are some things I am currently building into my life:
Reiki
Affirmation statements
Exercise
Gratitude
Accomplishments
Goal Setting
Writing
Meditation
Vision Board/Movie Focus
Positive Thinking
Releasing Negative thoughts
Eating properly

These are all items I have chosen to build into my life. One of the habits I have adopted over the years is negative thinking. In fact, negative thinking doesn’t even have to make it on my list of “to-do’s”. I had become so good at it that it just seemed to make it into my daily habits. So, my thought was if my thoughts were habitually negative, then I create positive habits just as easy. I just have to re-train myself the same way that I built the negative habits.
Another truth--I already have the good in me. It already exists. In one of my favorite books…”When Love Meets Fear” by David Richo, he says...”Our personality is made up of a combination of opposites. Our challenge is to create syntheses, order from chaos, unity from diversity. If there is fear in us, there MUST be fearlessness too! If there is violence, there is non-violence. If there is grudge and vengeance, there is compassion and forgiveness. EVERY characteristic has an opposing side, potentially accessible.”
To add to that, you can’t really “stop” doing any of these “dark” habits you have built. I am not a believer in will power. It only lasts so long and then you come back to what your beliefs are or what you know. All of your beliefs come from past experiences and knowledge.
So, there are two things you can do; RELEASE the old mental aspect of the bad habit and FEED the positive one. Bob Proctor, a well-known expert on the laws of attraction said that you can’t do anything about the cold. If your house is cold and you can’t seem to get warm--you can’t stop the cold. You can’t stomp it out, push it out the door--it is just there. So, what can you do? You TURN UP THE HEAT and bring on the warmth (i.e. positive habits)! Grab a blanket , grab a sweater, snuggle! You can’t stop the cold or the negative behavior. You can only replace the negative with the positive!
Okay, with that said. Here is some tips that I have researched and tried when trying to build new and positive habits.
HABIT TIPS
• The age old--Try it for 21 days! That is the general rule of how long it takes to form a habit.
• You must replace an old habit with a new one. Let something go that is not working. Do not just keep adding new habits.
• Start small, start slow. You will see your success quicker and be able to add more. After all, when you build a fire, you want to start with kindling or you might singe your eyebrows!
• Give yourself a time frame and then re-evaluate if you even LIKE the new habit! A big mistake people make is setting yourself up in a no-way-out scenario. Tell yourself it’s an experiment, just try it out! Say to yourself; “I am gonna do this for 30 days and see what I think.” If it isn’t something you like--stop doing it.
• Laugh when it gets hard! This is the best way to keep yourself on track and keep the joy wrapped around it. Keep it light! MAKE IT FUN!
• Push yourself a little. Don’t berate yourself as that may de-motivate and make you quit altogether. But pep yourself up! Every time you push yourself and succeed, you build more confidence!
• Write it down. REPEAT--Write it down. It has been proven that a great and larger percentage of people that write down their goals and put dates by them, achieve them.
• Visualize the habit (even if you haven’t started doing it yet). This will make it happen faster.
• Write down your reasoning of why you want to change. This is very motivating. Note: When writing it down, keep it positive. Write down why doing this habit will BENEFIT your life. Keep the “I want to exercise because I am ugly” stuff out of it.
Overall, just start with something--anything. You are always growing and always moving into a new realm of consciousness. Every time you read something new and do something different, you are changing! There is NO way you can possibly be the same as you were yesterday. Celebrate that! You have already changed…