“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Our habits can either help us climb the ladder of success or can slowly drag us down to failure and self-destruction. It is like a car ride, good habits push you forward, while bad habits drive your life towards the wrong direction. So this is what you are to do: break a bad habit!
We make habits, and then you take over our life, and make us. If you have a habit of staying up all night and sleeping till the noon, you will do it unconsciously, no matter how many times you say you will go to sleep by 10 at night. You haven’t realized the seriousness of this bad habit, you are just vaguely aware that this you are spending your sleep-time doing things you can do in the day time. But how much time is ‘too’ much? When should you go to sleep? When should you get up in the morning? What happens after a few months, a few years? Tension headaches, anxiety disorders, low blood sugar, nervous breakdowns. After you realize the gravity of the situation, you can move on to find your motivation to change this habit. So you prepare yourself a routine (a kind you would actually stick to). You don’t have to stick to this routine forever. Try to make it work for a month. It takes about 30 days to 6 weeks to develop a new habit. If this isn’t working you amend your routine, and if it does you have changed one bad thing about yourself. What is the most important thing: you have to be committed to changing yourself. Self discipline = self improvement. Those who really want to change their lives will actually replace their bad habits with good ones.
Excellence isn’t repetition. Excellence is practice. What is practice? Practice is perfecting a habit. Practicing is putting your words into action, not faking or pretending who we are, being proactive instead of procrastinating about what we really want to accomplish. Change your mind set. You are a person who can and will succeed. Truly believe. It isn’t about repetition of the same thing every day. Innovate, don’t imitate. The easy roads to discipline are focusing on habits by replacing your bad habits and thought patterns, one-by-one, over time, with good habits and thought patterns. It is different applications and use of an idea, belief or procedure to get results. You achieve what you want by challenging yourself in every practice. You don’t necessarily have to be talented; you just have to find ways to use your potential and maximize your capabilities. Be ambitious. And never stop learning.
