One Habit for 15 Minutes!

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Ronald T. Brown, Ph.D.

“Small seldom-seen habits have the power to drive us irresistibly toward a successful destiny.” – William James

It is fine to have positive thoughts about the future, but it is concrete actions that make the difference. The people who are most successful at achieving their dreams and goals are those who are actively moving toward them.

In addition, when a person transforms their actions into habits – they have then equipped themselves to make their success automatic.  And... these daily habits do not need to take much time either.

One simple, yet critical habit is to set aside just 15 minutes… to devote about 15 minutes every day to focus on your goals by considering how your current actions are helping (or hindering) the achievment of your goals - and deciding what you can do to improve. Spend this time analyzing how you can better align your daily actions to where your want to go - both personally and professionally.

** So the challenge is this:
First, start spending 15 minutes each day thinking and analyzing your goals.

Second, implement new habits into your daily and weekly routine that will help you stay focused on, and move toward your goals.  Some examples include:

• Before leaving for work each morning, start a habit of looking at your Day Calendar to pre-plan your day.  Decide what you really need to do, and what can be delegated, or not done at all.  In addition, pre-determine what specific steps you will accomplish that day to proactively move you toward one, or more, of your goals.

• Another critical habit could be to get up ½ hour earlier each day for physical fitness. Knowing that this habit will boost your energy and self-confidence.

• The habit of reviewing your day each night is another very useful discipline. A friend uses the following acronym as a guide to review his day. After he has put his kids to bed, he takes out his journal and writes down along one side of a page the letters B, A, G, E, L, S (spelling the word “bagels”). Alongside each letter he writes a one-sentence response to the question each letter represents. The acronym is as follows:

o B (Behavior) — What is my goal for tomorrow?
o A (Attitude) — How do I feel about yourself? (Write in the present tense)
o G (Major Goals) — What are the major goals I am presently focused on?
o E (Key Experiences) — What was the key experience of the day?
o L (Lesson Learned) — What were the lessons I learned today?
o S (Success) — What was the success of the day?

Taking time to complete this list each night will help to refocus your mind on how you are growing, and where your life is positively headed.

Challenge: Start spending 15 minutes each day doing… well, what was just described above.