The Power of Positive Habits

Psychologists and neuroscientists say that building habits is our brain’s way of saving energy. Turning something into a habit or a routine allows our brains to run on autopilot, making us more efficient at important things, like, perhaps, survival. Because of this efficiency, we have become more resilient over time. You don’t brush and floss your teeth because you spend time scheduling those activities into your day, you just do it because they are habit. Because of that habit, your mouth is more resilient to the threat of tooth and gum disease. It’s just one of the amazing ways our brains have helped us along our evolutionary path.

Positive habits are those that make us healthier and happier people. For example, the above-mentioned dental care, quality sleep, healthy foods, or an exercise routine are just a few examples of these positive habits. Just as these habits make us more physically resilient to stress and sickness, there is an entire group of habits that help us mentally and emotionally. These can include a daily meditation practice, volunteer work, or connecting to our loved ones and fellow community members, and these are the habits that make us more emotionally resilient to the stress and craziness around us.

High-performance coach and author Brendon Burchard has a wealth of experience in teaching his clients just how important these habits are to our overall health and resilience in life. In his Positive Habits presentation, he teaches his GrowthDay crowd how strengthening our connections and our relationships is what will build us a strong enough foundation to weather the storms that are inevitably going to happen. Check out this brief and fun video for some tips on how to cultivate more resilience in your life.

Strategic Planning and Vision Boards

Strategic planning is something that likely everyone in business is familiar with. Its value in the corporate world has been known for years, and there are countless firms and consultants for hire that will help a struggling business find their footing. One of these consultants, Mr. Rainer Strack, has extrapolated this strategic planning from the corporate world into the lives of individuals. The purpose? To create the lives we want to be living.

As Strack explains: “Life strategy is an integrated set of choices that positions a person to live a great life.” By using tools from the corporate world, his method helps people find answers to the questions below so individuals can make better decisions that ultimately lead them down the paths they would ideally choose to walk. Basically, Strack and his team broke down the questions they pose to a business:

1. How does the organization define success?

2. What is our purpose?

3. What is our vision?

4. How do we assess our business portfolio?

5. What can we learn from benchmarks?

6. What portfolio choices can we make?

7. How can we ensure a successful, sustained change?

…and adapted them for individuals:

1. How do I define a great life?

2. What is my life purpose?

3. What is my life vision?

4. How do I assess my life portfolio?

5. What can I learn from benchmarks?

6. What portfolio choices can I make?

7. How can I ensure a successful, sustained life change?

With this method, users can examine which areas of their lives need improvement (positive emotions, relationships, vitality, etc.). They can then get into some self-reflection on what makes them tick, what their skills and values are, and will come out of this step with a statement of purpose and vision. In an even deeper level of self-examination, Strack and his team have users actually break down how much time they spend on common things in the 168-hour week. Everything from health and wellness activities, to time-wasters like excessive social media use are on there. Once those are quantified, users can decide on which of these areas actually need the appropriate amount of time, and which things they can kick to the curb. As Strack explains in the accompanying video, some users actually uninstalled their social media apps from their phones during the consulting process once they realized how much time they were spending on things like Instagram and TikTok.

This incredible approach to self-reflection will take a few hours, but in the end, it’s possible you’ll end up with a single page summary of what you want your life’s plan to look like. There’s even a printable worksheet to go along with it that can be filled out to help the process along. Check out the full article here and get ready to strategize your life in a whole new way.