Six habits that should be in your daily routine.

Let’s talk habits. These are things that you do everyday day in and day out that help you to keep your needle of life moving forward.

Yes, building habits can be a challenge and so it should be but conversely when the fruits of your habits are helping you achieve the results that you are looking for it’s just smashing. I have spent 3 years in cognitive behavioural therapy with an awesome life coach after I suffered from emotional and physical burnout back in 2012. This was one of the hardest times of my life and I found that no matter how hard I was working, I was getting sick often, my moods were up and down, I had panic attacks, heart palpitations and often found myself pulling the car off the road just to calm down. I needed to change the way I was doing life. The change had to happen there was no way that I could continue I needed to realise that the only person responsible for my actions was me! I accepted the responsibility after my life coach told me this, “If your wife was to shoot and kill somebody, who would go to jail?” The answer is obvious, but the reality that set in was that I cannot control anyone’s actions or inactions, I could only control my own. And that was where the formation of daily routines started.

Habit #1 – Make Time to Pray or Meditate

If you believe in God, Jesus, Allah, Mohammed, Buddah or  the Universe or whoever it does not matter to me. Just find a connection. The routine of connecting your Creator has some powerful truths and can help you to change the direction of your life. Sometimes you don’t need to say anything, just sit and listen. Let the silence speak, it can be deafening!

Habit # 2 – Make Time to Move

Moving your body exchanges distress for eustress. Distress is bad stress and this leads to an increase in blood pressure, sleeping problems, bad eating habits, inconsistent bowel movements, chest pains and prolonged effects have been known to cause cancer. Eustress comes when you challenge your body to do more slightly more each week and in time you will find that can do something amazing that you could ever do before. Feelings of inspiration, contentment and happiness are produced when your exertion levels are matched to your level of fitness. Ever noticed how happy you feel after a good workout? Ever heard anyone saying that I wish I never did that workout?

Habit # 3 – Make Time to Connect and then Disconnect

In the world of smartphones, social media, zoom meetings we have the ability to connect with anyone at anytime. Yes, this is amazing and it so important to do this. Having a chat with mom and dad, close friends, clients and business partners is vital to progression so keep doing that. But take the time to put it all away. Turn your phone on AIRPLANE mode, close that laptop and disconnect. Enjoy the silence, step outside, go and listen to birds, get some sun, put on the kettle and have a good cuppa with nobody around. Go and connect with yourself. If, all you are doing is connecting with others are you not neglecting the most important person?

Habit #4 Eat and Drink Well

Making sure that you are recharging your body with good wholesome nutrients will allow your body to heal faster, increase energy output and delivery optimal performance. In sport, this is the key between being able to finish stronger or just limping across the line. As a female, make sure to include 4-5 C-shaped portions of fruit/veg per day, 3 portions of palm-sized protein, 3 C-Shaped hands of carbs and 3 thumbs size fats and you are well on your way. As a male, make sure to include 8 C-shaped hand portions of fruit/ veg per day, 6 portions of palm-sized protein, 6 C-Shaped hands of carbs and 6 thumbs size fats and you are well on your way. Hydration is simple, whenever you go to the bathroom have a look at the colour of your urine if its closer to brown you are dehydrated and if it’s clear or translucent then you are well-hydrated. But on average aim for 8 cups, 1 to 2 with every meal and then you are sorted.

Habit #5 Think about your Future

What has this got to do with lifestyle? I would say everything. Dreams produce hope, hope produces belief, belief accompanied by action is where the magic happens. Do you want to travel to an exotic location? Do you want to fit into a smaller dress-size or just simple lose the unwanted midsection? Now ask yourself this, ‘What will that feel like if I did it?’ Did you just crack a smile? When you start to dream about something that you have never done before your mind can take you right there and see it as done. Now it’s your responsibility to relentless pursue that! Write it down, commit to it and then go and SMASH-IT! If you need help in making these dreams a reality…I know an amazing coach!

Habit # 6 Rest and Repeat

Go to sleep. Get that solid 8 hours of quality shut-eye so that you can come back the next day and SMASH-IT! But Sid, I struggle with sleep. I did too until I worked on my sleep routine. Go check it out, and apply this to your bedtime routine going forward. Lastly, building habits and routine takes time, lots of self-love and discipline. You will fail, you will want to give up, you will breakdown but then, You will RISE, HEAL and OVERCOME!

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