Habits are things that we do unconsciously because we do them so often and don’t have much of a thought process.
A good example of a habit would be something like brushing your teeth. Most of us will brush our teeth when we get up in the morning and at night, without much thought to it.
That doesn’t mean that we are acting like robots, as there are obviously thoughts going on, but it’s more that we don’t have a “should I, or shouldn’t I?” moment each time.
As habits are quite an automatic process that we go through, this does mean that habits are difficult to change.
What it doesn’t mean, however, is that they are impossible to change. It’s definitely possible to change them, but it takes practice and time.
There’s a process that you can follow to change your habits and therefore change your life this week.
They don’t need to be really dramatic things either. There are small habits that can make big changes, you just need to figure out what they are.
In this article, we are going to look at how you can set yourself up to change your life by following our process for changing habits.
The point of this is to take you out of the rut that you may find yourself in and start to work towards your dream life.
3 Habit Changing Components
When it comes to habits, there is an author called Charles Duhigg who says that they have 3 components.
In order to successfully create a habit, you need to have all 3 of these components on the go.
The Cue
The cue part of the habit could also be called the trigger. It’s essentially where there is a cue that triggers us to perform a specific action.
Going back to the example of brushing your teeth, the cue could be waking up in the morning and heading into the bathroom.
The cue is something that tells your brain that you need to carry out a specific action.
This one is really important because when it comes to creating new habits, the cue is something that a lot of people forget about.
The Reward
The reward is the thing that you get in exchange for carrying out the habit. With our teeth-brushing example, the reward is having clean teeth.
There are other rewards that you can get from your specific habits, and it’s important to keep this one in mind.
The Routine
The routine part of the habit process is where you put it all together. Creating a routine is important because you need to make it automatic.
10 Simple Habits That Will Change Your Entire Life
There are some simple habits that you can change your entire life that doesn’t require that much effort to get started with.
As mentioned, you don’t need to try and change all of your current habits and have a massive overhaul.
This can be a bad idea because you will start to rebel and find it too difficult. There’s no need to change a bunch of things all at once.
With that in mind, we can take a look at how to change your life:
1. Keep Things Clean & Organized
Have you ever heard the expression, “tidy room, tidy mind?” When things are tidy in our environment, it makes us feel much calmer, and it’s easier to get things done.
When the house needs a big tidy up and clean, it can have a negative effect on the rest of your life.
So home management is important to make sure that you keep on top of things and keep things tidy in your living space.
This doesn’t mean doing a huge deep clean (although that may be needed in the beginning!) but creating some new habits.
The habits that you can look into doing could be things like making sure your kitchen is clean at night-time so that you wake up to a clean kitchen.
This could also include things like putting the dishwasher on before you go to bed.
Have a think about the things that you need to do and the habits that you can create. Maybe after you brush your teeth, you can do a wipe down of the bathroom.
2. Get Up Early
Getting up earlier and getting a morning routine started before the kiddos are up can be such a game-changer when it comes to changing your life for the better.
The reason for this is that you can get started on the day before you have a bunch of distractions.
Perhaps you even want to get up early to work on the other life-changing habits that you want to start doing.
That doesn’t mean that you have to get up at a crazy early time, as it will be a shock to your system if you do that.
The best thing to do is to slowly increase the time that you wake up, slowly e.g. in 15-minute increments.
Getting up early is a good habit to get into because you will get so much more done before the chaos of the day begins.
3. Plan Your Days
Don’t underestimate how important it is to plan out your days. If you don’t have a plan for your day, then you will find the time passing with nothing to show for it.
There are ways that you can get better at planning your days, such as using planners or a digital calendar.
Planning your days doesn’t mean that you have to work on a really tight schedule. It just means that you have a plan for what you are going to do each day.
If you are trying to change your life, there will be certain things that you want to change from what you are currently doing.
4. Choose Gratitude
This may not sound like it has much impact, but you’d be surprised by how much of a difference it can make.
Choosing gratitude means that you make sure that you remember to be grateful for the things that you have in your life.
This may sound like the opposite of what we have been discussing in regards to wanting to change your life.
But it’s important to remember that you shouldn’t want to change your life because you hate what you have now.
Coming from a place of gratitude will make things much easier and make you happier.
You can make this a habit – many people write down 3 things that they are grateful for in the morning or before they go to sleep.
There are a lot of ‘change your life’ quotes, and these will generally mention choosing gratitude.
5. Make a Plan for Your Money
A habit that you need to work on to change your life is to make a plan for your money. You may not think that money isn’t important but don’t underestimate how much it can affect things.
Making a plan for your money means thinking about how you want to use your money and what for.
If you are making changes in your life, then it is likely that money will be at the core of this. Therefore it’s important to have a good plan.
Start with thinking about the changes that you want to make in your life and create a plan for your money around this.
Some habits that you can create are things like checking your bank balance, tracking your expenses, and other parts of your finances.
6. Put Your Family First
Throughout this article, we have been discussing a lot about the things that you can do to change your life.
But what about your family?
The habits that we are suggesting aren’t to the detriment of your family life, but it’s important to remember that they should also be your key focus.
When it comes to creating habits to change your life, think about the things that you could change to benefit your family as well.
This could be habits such as reading with your children each day or making time for some one-on-one time with your partner.
7. Prepare for Success the Night Before
We spoke about getting up earlier to have a good start to the day, but preparing for success the night before is a great habit to start.
We can get caught up by telling ourselves that we’ll do the thing that we need to do tomorrow instead of doing it today.
One of the keys to success is preparing the night before. The less that you have to do the next day, the more likely you are to achieve your goals for that day.
That doesn’t mean burning through tomorrow’s to-do list now but thinking about how you can set yourself up for success.
There are some small things that you can do that will help, such as preparing lunch or getting your clothes ready and laid out for the next day.
8. Stay Hydrated
A great habit that many of us should add to our list of what to do each day is to stay hydrated.
Staying hydrated is important because you need to make sure that you are physically well, and water will help with that.
It will help you have a clearer head to make better decisions, as well as help your body function well.
It can be difficult to suddenly start drinking a lot of water when you are not used to it, but this is something that you can gradually increase.
Drinking more water will also hopefully stop you from drinking other things that aren’t as good for you – swapping a bad habit for a good one.
9. Get Moving
When it comes to changing your life, most of us want to be more fit and active. Who wouldn’t, right?
If exercise is something that you aren’t really used to, this is something that can be gradually increased.
There’s no need to start planning to run marathons if you aren’t an active person at all.
Start with getting moving – this is something that you should aim to do each day as a minimum. There are even companies that will literally pay you to stay fit.
There are different ways that you can make this a habit, such as using apps or trackers.
You could make this part of your morning routine as well – and it’s easier to exercise first thing as your brain doesn’t come up with excuses!
10. Get Lots of Rest
As well as all of these things that we have been talking about doing (a lot of action-taking!), it’s so important to make sure that you take time to rest.
Rest can be taking action as well in terms of doing something physical such as a walk, or it could be literally doing nothing.
The way that you want to rest will depend on how you like to personally rest.
Make sure that you make time for yourself and factor the rest into your schedule.
11. Bonus: Start a Money-Making Online Side Hustle
When it comes to changing your life, we are big fans of encouraging people to start an online side hustle. Here are some of our favorites:
Blogging
Starting a blog changed our lives forever. We love blogging and would suggest that anyone starts a blog if they are willing to put in the work.
There are many different topics that you can blog about, and we suggest you think about how you are going to make money from it before you start.
Freelance Writing
Freelance writing is another good way to make money, especially if you want to work from home.
This can change your life because it can bring in more income for you and broaden your skills. You could even use these skills to quit your job in the future (if that’s what you want to do!).
Proofreading
If you are looking for something else that you can fit around your other commitments, then proofreading is another good one.
Proofreading is where you check over a piece of content to make sure that there are no errors.
Final Thoughts on Changing Your Life
When it comes to changing your life, habits are an important part of doing that.
We need to look at the habits that we currently have and think about how we can change them or create new ones.
