21-Days to a Habit

Well, 2021 is underway and we have a month and a half in the books already, which means that it’s time I get talking about changing some habits.

What is a habit?

Let’s talk about habits for a moment. First of all, a habit is a noun. Its dictionary definition is: “a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.” I especially like the last eight words.

A habit is wired in an area of your brain called the basal ganglia. The more often you perform an action or behave a certain way, the more it gets physically wired into your brain with new neuro connections.

Habits can be good for you, or bad.  The cool part is we get to choose (with the exception for addictions that can be traced back to genetics; which we can control with support and discipline).  Good habits are hard to form but easy to live with.  Conversely, bad habits are easy to form but hard to live with. (Example…  I love chocolate and it is easy to wander into the kitchen and get some but as I get older, my waistline is not loving chocolate).

How do we form habits?

It takes each of us about 21-days to form a habit – or wire new connections in our brain, so habits are not one of the those things that we do once and we have it mastered.

Here is my List of 21 that have become habits for me.  Pick one, two or all and re-wire your brain over the next 21-days:

1. Give yourself more time each day by waking up earlier
2. Make your bed
3. Determine the evening before what your most important tasks are for the next day
4. Journal
5. Mediate
6. Skip email first thing in the morning
7. Do the bigger more difficult things on your to-do list first
8. Schedule breaks into your day
9. Group similar work together
10. Set hard limits on certain activities (like watching TV)
11. Schedule your email and device time
12. Develop your system for staying organized
13. Give your eyes a break every 60-minutes
14. Schedule time in your week to ‘goof off and do nothing’ (nothing means nothing)
15. Spend time on a hobby
16. Prepare for a good night’s sleep with a ‘shut-down’ ritual
17. Turn off devices 30-minutes before bed
18. Always be reading or listening to a book
19. Drink 3-litres of water a day
20. Regular exercise (5-days per week minimum)
21. Practice gratitude – what are three things that you are grateful for each day.

Let me know how it goes with your 21-in-21 (or one or two in 21).

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based Business Strategy Consultant, #1 Best Selling Author, International Keynote Speaker, and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, follow Robert on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

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