Habits worth fighting for

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom
At the start of every week I sit down at my computer and draw up the framework for this column. The simple act of sitting down to write has become part of my routine, a habit if you will. We all have habits – those actions that are so routine that they barely take any thought to do.

Some of them are good, some of them are bad. All can be broken, forgotten and replaced. A friend of mine wrote a book by setting down the habit to write for 15 minutes a night. It took him 18 months to finish. Then he stopped the habit, he replaced the time with something more mundane like television – he hasn’t written any more books as a result.

So with that in mind I want to share with you some of the habits that are worth engaging in. These are habits that are worth fighting to preserve the time for lest you replace them with something else.

Read a blog. Find people whose writing interests you. Personally I follow Seth Godin on a nearly daily basis, Emerging Ideas write twice a week, James Altucher’s Altucher Confidential provides a different take on life as a whole. Reading takes time. Blogs make it a little easier because of their bite-sized chunks. Find your own list to follow. Find the person who is the top of your field and see what they may have to say. Picking up a book is a pretty solid habit as well.

Blogs are not the only source of information. Many podcasts and vlogs are there online. I download podcasts to listen to when I drive. Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series is a great start but there are literally thousands of options out there.

When you look at habits the positive ones can be placed into two categories: those that involve you receiving and those which involve you giving.

With that in mind write your own blog, start a podcast, upload a vlog to YouTube. Commit to sharing yourself on a regular basis. Try the thirty day challenge of posting something online daily for a month – be it on a dedicated blog or on social media like Facebook.

Face the fear of rejection and put your thoughts out there publicly where people can see them. Be generous with the wealth inside you. This is not an excuse to create daily blurb about your life that fills news feeds with drivel. No, this is setting time aside to create your best possible work and share it.

Learn something. Make an effort to attend or do courses. Pick two a year-one that grows you personally and one that will help your organisation. Websites like Udemy offer a whole bunch of affordable courses. Global Entrepreneurship Week is this coming week-there are activities on offer for that.

Connect with someone, preferably face to face. Coffee, a lunch, or a Skype call all work. Touch base with a friend and find out how their life is going. Set up a weekly or daily slot to do this. Tied in to connecting with others is spending time with your spouse. This one needs to be daily – trust me. Find out how their day went, see what is on their mind.

Make time for you to think. Cut the distractions, turn off your phone, and create a quiet atmosphere. Make an appointment with yourself to engage in forethought and planning. Weekly at least is a must for this.

Get physical. Exercise has more benefits than this article has scope for. Do some. Be it running, yoga, weightlifting, team sports it does not really matter, just get active.

Embrace gratitude daily – be thankful to others for the work they are doing for and with you. Simple appreciation goes a long way. Pray – take time to express gratitude to your Creator.

It’s easy to forget these things in the chaos and mania of a busy life. Time can be swallowed by the creep of other things. Extra time driving in crazy traffic, that new meeting that accomplishes nothing but that you cannot miss are the sort of time stealers that replace our habits if we do not guard them carefully.

Some of the above you can combine-some people find that a team sport allows them to connect with others for example. Others find that combining personal time with a spiritual activity gets them out of the mundane. Embrace a positive life, schedule it, make it routine, and then enjoy it.