Are Your Habits Setting You Up for Success?
Maybe you skip breakfast even though you know it will give you the energy to conquer your day. Maybe you don’t back up your data despite understanding that losing key documents could damage your business. Or maybe you check your Facebook feed a little too frequently instead of making the sales calls you’ve been putting off.
We all have our own habits. While one habit alone may have little impact, the collection of our habits creates patterns that directly and dramatically impact our successes or lack thereof.
By now, many business owners and sales professionals have set personal and professional goals for 2017.
But it’s important to ask yourself: Are my daily habits setting me up for success? Will they help or hold me back from achieving my goals?
Successful entrepreneurs understand the critical importance of their daily habits. Even more importantly, they know that their habits aren’t set in stone. You can break bad habits, even habits that feel like second nature, and replace them with productive habits you never thought you could master.
Often, the time it takes to break a bad habit and develop a new one depends on the power of the emotion that drove you to develop the habit to begin with.
Let’s say you want to lose 20 pounds, but you’ve continued to take the elevator instead of the stairs and order greasy takeout for dinner instead of preparing healthy meals. One day, your doctor tells you that if you don’t lower your weight and get into better shape, you’re at a heightened risk of cardiac issues, diabetes and dying at an early age. This type of news can have an emotional impact so strong that you immediately make changes to improve your physical health.
My friend’s father – a lover of Coffee Haagen Dazs, Fettucine Alfredo, and steak and potatoes – transformed his diet drastically after being told he had prediabetes. After decades of unhealthy eating habits, he has lost 20 pounds in two months simply by making better choices like cutting out white flour products and replacing juice with water.
Why now? Because he was driven by the fear of what a diabetes diagnosis might mean. And motivated to be around long enough to enjoy his young grandchildren.
Early in 2017, you still remember the bad habits that held you back from greater success last year, and the painful disappointment that came from failing to reach your goals. You don’t want to find yourself at the end of the first quarter with a less than stellar sales performance.
But how can you develop simple productive habits – and ditch your destructive habits – in order to reach your weekly, monthly and annual goals?
Experts say it takes about 21 days to make or break an average habit, whether you want to kick-start your day by tackling your most difficult task, listen to educational business podcasts in your car instead of tuning into the radio, or get to bed before 11pm. With the right motivation and sufficient repetition, new habits can be formed that will have a powerful impact on your performance THIS year.
But what practical steps can you use to form these healthy habits?
Step 1: Make a Choice.
First and foremost, you have to make a clear, conscious choice, preferably recorded in writing, to adopt the habit on a daily basis. Once you’ve decided to create a new habit, create a routine that makes it a reality.
For instance, let’s say your goal is to make 3 sales calls before checking your voicemails or emails. The evening prior, record the names of the 3 people you’ll call the next morning and leave it on your desk. When you sit down at your desk the next morning, put away your phone and leave your computer off until you’ve made your calls.
Step 2: Don’t Give Yourself An Out.
One way to ensure your new habit sticks is to tell yourself there are no exceptions or excuses anytime, for any reason. Don’t let your mood or schedule impact your commitment to sticking to your habit. Discipline yourself to perform the actions you chose to adopt. Repeat the behavior long enough and it will become second nature.
Step 3: Make it Public.
Another strategy that will help you stay on course is telling someone you trust, such as a seasoned accountability partner with business expertise, about your plan to adopt the habit. At Celeste Giordano Coaching, I serve this role for many of the entrepreneurs I work with. When you share your commitment to adopt a new habit with an accountability partner, you create a relationship that will keep your honest and help you stay on track.
Step 4: Picture Your Way to Success.
Visualization is a powerful tool that will help you stick to your new habit. Visualize yourself performing each of action steps that comprise the habit. The more you do this, the more your subconscious mind accepts it and it becomes easier to consistently perform those steps.
Step 5: Speak Your Way to Success.
Words have tremendous power. When you create a positive affirmation and repeat it again and again, you accelerate the speed with which you adopt your desired habit.
Say, for instance, that you want to become an early riser so you can incorporate a jog into your daily routine. By regularly expressing that “I get wake up every day at 6:15 AM and go for a jog every morning”, you subconsciously boost your ability to wake up early for your jog, even without having to set an alarm!
Step 6: Commit to Staying the Course.
This strategy seems obvious, but it isn’t easy to stay on track. We have bad habits for a reason! Creating positive and productive habits requires resolve. Commit to staying on track even when the going gets tough and you’ll eventually feel “off kilter” if ever you skip out on the responsibility you took upon yourself.
Step 7: Celebrate!
When you stick to performing your new behavior, it’s important to reward yourself. This will reinforce the behavior at an unconscious level, as you begin to associate pleasure with the behavior itself. For example, after you successfully make 3 sales calls before responding to your emails or checking your Facebook, take a short break to indulge in a cup of your favorite gourmet coffee.
At Celeste Giordano Coaching, I work one on one with entrepreneurs and sales professionals to develop the daily habits that will generate the RESULTS they seek.
If destructive habits or a lack of positive habits are holding you back from reaching your goals, it’s time to make a change. With the right habits, you can still make 2017 a productive and prosperous year.
I’ll end with a powerful quote by American author, speaker and pastor John Maxwell: “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.”
What life-changing habit will you introduce today?
Up Next: You’re Invited
We invite our local community to visit us on February 22nd, 2017 from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the 1818 Club for the WGC Atlanta Chapter meeting with Shellie Hunt as guest speaker. Dr. Natalie Forest will be present. Pre-registration for the event is $25.00. Click here to pre-register. If you are interested in being a sponsor, please contact celeste@thewomenofglobalchange.com.
We are also opening up several other chapters across the United States. I am honored to help launch the Toronto, Ontario Chapter in March, 2017. To become a presenting sponsor or sponsor at this premier Toronto event, contact Celeste Giordano here. For additional information about WGC, please visit our website!
Celeste Giordano’s mission is to help business owners develop the skills, knowledge and attitude necessary to “double-plus” their income and become effective and inspirational leaders in their fields. Whether it’s taking your successful business to the next level or starting a new venture, she will teach you the exact skills and strategies you need to enroll more quality prospects, build a rock-solid team, and break through obstacles to achieve real profit and lasting success. Celeste is a professional business growth specialist, a master sales strategist, and dynamic speaker with almost 40 years experience in direct sales and managing high-performing teams.
To learn more about Celeste, click here.
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