*** IN THIS ISSUE ***

– Are Bad Habits Getting in Your Way?
– Be Patient with Thy Self
– A Formula for Change
– Back Track to the 1.5 and 3.5 Issues!

Are Bad Habits Getting in Your Way?

Although it may appear differently to you, life doesn’t just happen. The choices you make every day in every situation ultimately determine how your life will play out. The habits you’ve developed over time are a part of how you make choices. This is true whether it’s a habit that is so ingrained in us it’s second nature and we don’t give it much thought, or if it’s a habit we know we have, we consciously think about it as we go about performing it. And these habits play a big role in how your future will unfold.

Some of the habits we give the least amount of thought to are those surrounding how we actually process our thoughts. Do you habitually think negatively or is it more your habit to think of the positive side of things? Do you habitually run tomorrows “to-do lists” through your mind as you lay in bed at night? Do you find your thoughts wonder to specific things when you’re working on a certain types of projects? I let my thoughts work through color schemes when I first sit down to design a project. When I’m brushing my teeth in the morning I’m always internally asking myself if I took my vitamins that day and when I’m brushing before bed I’m asking if I left cloths in the dryer or made sure the
dishwasher is set to run.

These habits actually help me getting my day started on the right foot and end my day with a feeling towards relaxation. These are what I refer to as some of my good habits. But I have some pretty bad habits too.

To me any habit that is working against me or holding me back - keeping me from accomplishing goals or feeling good about things, is considered a bad habit. These are harder for me to recognize sometimes. I have a habit of not getting birthday cards in the mail on time. Socializing too much on line; eating at irregular times throughout the day; talking when I should be listening and procrastinating on pieces of business projects that I don’t find enjoyable - to name just a few.

It’s important to make a point of periodically taking personal inventory of our habits. When I do this, I like to chunk my habits into categories. I look at ‘relationship habits’, which are those that have a direct affect on the relationships in my life. Then there are ‘health habits’ - ones that affect my mental and physical well being. I also look at my ‘business habits’ - anything that relates to my work.

I mark my calendar so that each quarter I do a personal review and check my progress on the habits I’m working to change. What habits do you have that are good for you? Which ones are not? If you haven’t done so recently, now would be a good time to take a moment and identify a few of the good habits you have and some that are holding you back as well.

Be Patient with Thyself

After taking stock of your habits you may decide it’s time to change something. Maybe you’ve identified a habit you want to improve on or one you want to completely do away with. Developing habits take time. It is said that it takes about 21 days to replace one habit with another. Then after 21-30 purposeful experiences with the new habit, it’s actually harder not to do it than to do it. If you are working towards developing a habit that you want to become so ingrained in you, that it is performed almost unconsciously, then you’re really going to need to focus on it for about 3-4 weeks.

Keep in mind that if you have been doing something repeatedly for 20 or more years you may not be able to let go of it in a few short weeks. The fact is that deeply entrenched habits are more difficult to re-mold. But don’t let this discourage you if you have a difficult one you are working on. Imagine if you only changed 2 habits every year. In five years you’d have 10 positive new habits working in your favor and helping you to have a better life.

A Formula for Change

Many of your daily activities are simply routines. From the time you get up in the morning until you go to bed at night, there are many things you do the same way. They involve every area of your life. Your everyday normal behavior has a lot to do with the results in your life and can make a huge difference in how successful you are with meeting your business goals too. If you want to see your digital scrap business realize a positive change, then here’s a formula that may help you:

1. Clearly identify your bad or unproductive business habits. It’s important that you really think about the future consequences of these habits. Write out what the habit is and then state how your business will be affected if you continue this habit.
2. Define the habit you wish to replace the bad one with. Then give a vivid description of the benefits you’ll have as a result of the adopting the new habit. The more vivid you can be with the benefits the more likely you are to action!
3. Create an action plan. Outline at least three things you can do to correct the old and develop the new habit. For example if you want to stop getting side tracked with non-business related chats while your working you may consider, leaving your instant messaging software turned off so you don’t see any live chatter going on or who’s online. Consider setting aside a specific time of day for checking in at bulletin boards and blogs. Look at chat times as a reward for yourself once a project is completed. Set a timer for 20 minutes for your chat sessions so it doesn’t cut into your work related activities.
4. Review your success as often as necessary for the habit you are working on. You may want to do a checks and balance after each work session at your computer. Then again maybe a quick review at the end of the day is sufficient. At a minimum, look at your progress weekly and tweak your action plan as needed to help you accomplish your habit-changing-goals.

The important thing is that you make a decision about a specific habit change you want to make, and then commit to specific actions to help make that change. Check your progress and give yourself the time needed to turn this into a new habit.

Back Track to the 1.5 and 3.5 Issues!

I sneaked a couple extra business reports into my auto-responder series.  If your sign-up time clashed with my updates, you may not have received the notification.  Just in case you missed them, here’s where you can find them online: Issue #1.5  (Info about RSS and why you should offer it) and Issue #3.5 (Information about the STOUI project).

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I hope this issue has given you good food for thought on how to make sure your daily habits are in line with and helping you work towards your business goals!

Very Respectfully,
Cindy Angiel (aka - Paint Chip)
paintchip[at]dsd-professionals[dot]com

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