Humans Are Creatures of Habit. Managing Your Habits Can Change Your Life.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

I originally posted this article on Medium.

Intro

Small actions can make a huge difference if taken consistently. And what is life, but a series of actions? A lot of the things we do every day we don’t even think about. We just do them. We have formed a habit. What we should strive for is to align our actions with our goals. And to be able to do that we need a couple of things. We need to set goals we want to achieve. And we need to be accountable for our actions.

Forming a new habit can take some time, but once a habit is formed it is hard to break. To form a new habit, you need to choose something that you know you can stick to. Don’t try to change everything at once, that’s a recipe for disaster. Keep it simple. Easy to stick to. In my experience, I have found that the best habit to begin transforming my life is journaling.

Why Journaling

Journaling is easy, you set the rules, you do it your way. It’s something that doesn’t take a whole lot of time. And it’s easy to stick to. Even if you keep it super simple it can impact your life in a meaningful way.

It’s Simple

You can make an entry every evening about your day, and your actions that day. Were these actions aligned with your goals? What did you do right? Where could you improve? Or you could write a plan for your day, and check it again in the evening. You can come up with your own systems or follow the footsteps of someone you admire. Either way, even simple daily entries can have a huge impact on your life in the long run. Don’t go in over your head and overcomplicate things when you begin. It’s better to start small and be consistent, than doing something complex for a while and then quitting.

Provides Accountability

Writing down a list of goals is more powerful than just having them in your head. It puts it out there in the physical world and makes it more real. Seeing your goals daily can help you not to lose track along the way on your life’s journey.

Reflecting on your daily actions every day puts you in control of your life. It gives you the ability to decide what’s good for you and what’s bad for you. And then you can decide what you need to work on to substitute the bad with more good.

Tweakability

There are no set rules on how to do it. No wrongs or rights. You can find a way to do it that works for you by adjusting the frequency or focus. Experiment. You got nothing to lose and everything to win.

Conclusion

I see journaling as a habit to rule them all. Journaling has helped me develop other life-improving habits. By keeping me accountable for my actions and making me see the things I need to work on more clearly. And helping me stay focused on my long-term goals. I will continue to use this habit as a powerful tool to steer my life in the direction of the life I dream of. And I hope it can help some of you to do the same!