The following is the second in a series of guest posts on leading a productive life by Bojan Dordevic. Bojan is an Internet marketing professional with a passion for all things productive, and is the co-founder of Alpha Efficiency Magazine (I make an appearance in the second of issue of said publication). You can invite him for a Hangout on Google+ and follow him on Twitter or App.net.
Depending on the habits you currently have and the goals you want to pursue, there is an absolute necessity for you to choose your battles carefully. Unlike popular psychology claims, it takes more than 21 days to build a habit, and it very much depends on the complexity of the habit. Choosing the right habits at the right time has always been critical component of success for me, and the same goes for friends and family members I’ve coached about productivity over the past couple of years.
In order for habits to have any meaningful effect, they need to be in alignment with the goals you’ve designed for yourself. Every day is a battle, and pushing through with mandatory habits is the reason why some people succeed despite their shortcomings. Dedication to your goals and persistence gets things done. Your initial set of habits needs to support three areas of your life:
- Health
- Wealth
- Relationships
The problem is that these are the habits that are hard to get on track. Some people struggle with these habits because they didn’t implement them to begin with, while others are in the process of acquiring them without a clearly formulated strategy and detachment from the negative outcome. Some people just don’t have what it takes to change (and I hope that you are not one of those people).
To combat this problem, numerous followers of self development, life-optimizing, and productivity started looking for a set of habits to drive those habits. Upon finding those “driving” habits, they end up designing an approach to systematically achieve their goals.
Integrating new habits into your life can be challenging, but it’s very well worth it. Habits aren’t something you do, they are something you become after a lot of repetition. Integrating a habit means changing oneself, and with every change there comes a price. You are the one who needs to determine if that price too steep for the dreams you want to achieve. Don’t be afraid of embracing your destiny through embracing the habits that you are integrating into your life plans and goals.
Taking care of your own destiny has never been easy, but the difference between those that make it and those that don’t is hidden in those little steps taken on a daily basis that get us one step closer to our destination.
Photo credit: bha100710 via SXC.HU
