How to Change Almost Any Bad Habit in 30 Days

Posted in Life, Motivation | No Comments »

A new habit takes 30 days to form, which means in 30 days you can either start a new bad habit or change a bad habit into a good one. If you have ever tried to change a bad habit such as be more organized, eat better, or start exercising, you probably tried to do it all at once and failed. A war is won by winning many battles, if you want to win the war on your bad habit, let’s start by winning little battles.

You know the routine, you say to yourself; “from now on I’m going to be more organized, I’m going to eat better and start exercising. I’m going to start on Monday and I’m going to do it this time!” Monday comes around and you’re motivated to start your new good habits. You grab an apple and some toast for breakfast, you organize your desk, and you take the stairs, you started off right, but as the day winds down you find yourself falling back into some of the old habits, maybe you hit the vending machine in the afternoon, soon you take the elevator again because your just too tired, by the end of the day you’re back to square one.

Why does this happen? You say to yourself I just can’t stay disciplined enough to change what I want to change. The answer is you are trying to change too many things at once, remember little battles mean little victories.

So today , not tomorrow or next week , pick one small thing you want to change, for example keep an organized desk. That is going to be your focus for the next thirty days. Don’t worry about diets, exercise, or anything else. Everyday before you leave be sure to clean off your desk. Trust me it will pay off in the morning when you walk in and have a clean slate to start on.

Now take this and apply to every other thing you want to change, except only do one thing at a time. Remember little battles. If it’s a diet you want to change start by changing only one meal in the day, breakfast for example. Rather than trying to change your entire eating habit at once, start with one meal. Do that for 30 days, by the end of the 30 days, if you have been having something healthy like grapefruit, it is very unlikely that you will go back to something fattening such as bagels or bacon. By this time your body won’t want it anymore, when your battle with breakfast is won, now its time to attack lunch.

The plan I have laid out is not a quick fix solution, there rarely are. Bad habits form over time and so it takes time to undo them and form good habits. One day at a time, in 30 day succession and you can overcome anything.

How to Learn Almost Anything

Posted in Brain Power, Creativity | 1 Comment »

If you are like me, you find yourself interested in almost all subjects. While you can’t be an expert in everything, you can learn about a lot of things you otherwise would know very little about.

The trick to learning about new areas, subjects, or fields is to get involved with them. More specifically, write about what it is you want to learn. When you are forced to write about something, you generally have to have a decent understanding of the subject in order to express your point in writing, thus learning in the process.

Think about lawyers, many of them become semi-experts in many fields. For example, to prosecute a criminal case a lawyer needs to know about forensics, bullet trajectory, and the psychology of criminals to name a few.

So if you want to learn about something, force yourself to write about it. Let’s say, you want to know more about the history of the United States. Well, the first thing I would do is get a couple of books (having varying sources always helps). Next I would start my own blog (blogger is a good place to start). Why a blog you ask? Well, if you have a blog, you can potentially have an audience and if you have an audience it is more likely that you will be more thorough in your research.

Speaking of audiences, learning new things is made easier if you imagine you have to teach it to some one. This is why the blog component is very important.

The same rules apply if you want to learn more hands on things such as fixing a car. Explaining in writing helps you understand whatever it is you want to learn better because it forces you to really think about it.