How I have changed my habits using a simple system I call the five minute miracle.
Each year on January 1, people tell themselves, they are going to start exercising, or reading more, they are going to keep their house cleaner, or get outside more often and they fail by January 5. Why this is and what can we do to change it? The reason people fail not only at their New Year's resolutions but at many goals they set up is not because they are destined to fail but simply because they set the bar to high. For example, many people set a goal of exercising one hour five days a week, they may stick to this for a few days but ultimately they fail. Their muscles begin to ache, they can't find the time or they are too tired. If we know this is what is happening, how can we change it?
I have in my own life set up a no fail way to change any habit or create new ones. I call it my five minute miracle. How it works is you decide what you want to change for instance you want to begin exercising. Now instead of saying you will exercise this enormous amount of time each day, you have to start small. I start every new habit with five minutes a day, everyone can do something for five minutes at a time! So you will set your goal to exercise five minutes a day for five days a week. Each day you accomplish this goal you will feel a boost of self-esteem! After the first week, I add five minutes. So on week two you would exercise every day for ten minutes a day. I continue doing this until I feel I have reached a point I a stratified with such as thirty minutes a day for five days each week.
This can be used for many different parts of your life, if you hate cleaning, you can try this system. It also helps kids when it comes to doing their chores, it is amazing how they don't notice the extra five minutes added on each week. One final tip about using this system, only work towards one goal at a time, if you set too many goals, they will all fail and the system will do you no good.
Using this system will begin to affect many different parts of your life, you will begin to feel like you can accomplish anything as long as you set your mind to it. People will begin to see a change in you as your self-esteem rises, and they will want to know what changes you have made.
This simple little tip has affected me in so many ways I can't begin to list them, I am more efficient in getting my work done because I used my five minute miracle, I am healthier, and my home is sparkling clean all because of a simple system that popped into my head one day. I hope you are successful in trying the five minute miracle!