Monday, August 13, 2012

Motivational Monday

Change your life by Monday, September 3rd!

Your life? Well, one well-honed new habit can absolutely be life-changing, wouldn’t you agree?

Take a minute this morning and think about a practice/routine you’d like to either add or eliminate from your life. Start small – it doesn’t have to be huge – baby steps. Many people would like more time in the morning to either exercise, give yourself some breathing room, pray/meditate, or work on a personal goal. So how do you begin?

I use a concept called “Forest, Trees, Branches, Leaves”. Your forest is the main goal, which in this case would be having more time in the morning. Your trees would include going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Select the tree of getting up earlier. One branch of this tree would be preparing the night before. A few leaves on this tree (also thought of as triggers to get you started)would be setting your alarm clock for 15 minutes earlier, setting out all your clothes the night before, showering before bed instead of in the morning, having your breakfast and lunch ready to grab and go, and having all your bags ready by the door for when you leave (or if you have a garage, toss everything in your car the night before so you have even less to pick up and take with you as the door closes behind you).

Select a new leaf to turn over as you begin – just one, you can choose a new leaf each day and build upon your daily successes. If you’re like me and need a crow bar to get you out of bed, perhaps setting the alarm (and getting up of course) just five minutes early would be an easier way to start building the habit. In a few days, do ten minutes, and so on.

Naturally, if you have someone else in the house that is willing to make you a cup of coffee/tea and gently open the curtains and come over, serve you, and whisper sweetly in your ear “Good morning”, you might want to think about using these methods.

Additionally, there’s a fun website called www.habitforge.com which is designed specifically to help you track your goals. Finally, if you’d like to do a brain dump of all the things you’d like to put in your bucket list, there’s a website called http://www.superviva.com/ which will help you do exactly that!

Okay, I’m off for my third cup of tea (did I mention I’m a diehard wanna get up early but my body is rebellious kinda gal?), and the leaves I will be turning over tonight are setting my alarm clock 15 minutes earlier. I’ve already started laying out clothes the night before and putting everything I can into my car. Hmmm... I wonder if leaving a self-propelling crow bar at the foot of my bed would be a good visual trigger??? Not so much...

Join me in exercising your 21 days to a life-changing new habit muscles and let’s get started! Please be sure to email me at linda@coachlindabush.com or post a comment here to tell the community about your successes along the way!

Blessings,
Coach Linda Bush

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57488558/how-to-create-a-new-habit/?tag=nl.e713


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