What habit changed your life?

[eliquid]

taking time to LISTEN and comprehend what someone smarter than me was saying

 

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[BigRomeDawg]

Eating right. Once I started eating for fuel instead of fun and found out what type of foods work best for me, my energy increased significantly. I owe my business success to food, when your brain is fed right you have more energy and a clearer mind, it's easier to focus and GSD.

 

[Andy Black]

1) “Yes, and” instead of “Yes, but”.

2) “How?” instead of “How!”.

3) Looking for the silver lining in *everything*.

4) Beating people to it (e.g. saying hello or smiling at people before they do it).

5) Seeing obstacles as stepping stones and barriers to entry.

6) Enjoying the awkward silence (when you’ve stated your price for example).

7) Producing more than I consume.

8) Trying to find the thing that makes whoever I’m talking to open up and get excited.

9) Assuming that *everyone* is interesting (and that it’s up to me to find their thing).

10) Looking people in the eye and saying “Sorry” or “Well done”.

11) Posting daily in this forum.

12) Taking time out to observe the wind blowing through the trees.

13) Allowing myself to get giddy with excitement when I talk about *my* thing.

14) Always chipping away.

15) Staying in my lane.

16) Listening to smart people yet completely ignoring them.

17) Saying “ok” or just not replying when folks look for an argument (that I don’t want to be dragged into).

18) Documenting as I go along, not after.

19) Saying Please and Thank You.

... loads more I’m sure.

 

[DonTriumph]

Reading. My life changed when I began reading.

I learned a lot of new things, opened myself to new ideas. If not for reading, I wouldn't even know about TMF - and I wouldn't be here (I discovered TMF through a blog, by the way).

Reading will also improve your comprehension. You may think it's a small feat, but I see people who are either not confident in their comprehension or they don't just bother to understand what they read at all.

As for what I read: books and blogs.

 

[raad182]

Planning

I didn't realized how much my life was on my control since I've started to plan my days with simple to-do lists, Why?!

- Already know what I expect to accomplish that day.
- Freeing my mind from concerns about what should I do next.
- Avoid wasting time with meaningless tasks.
- Personally, gives me a motivational boost to achieve things as I really dislike to leave a task unchecked.

One tip is to reserve the winner hour at the end of the day, like a prize. So if you accomplish every task on your list, you win an hour at the end of the day to spend how you please without guilt, just give yourself an award for the hard work.

 

[Vadim26]

*Being 100% responsible for everything you do* has helped me tremendously

- bad job - don't blame the economy, it's YOU who are at fault;
- not satisfied with the relationship - it's not "happens to everyone", but YOU who left it stagnant.


Take full responsibility, and lead life, not the other way.

 

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[Kak]

Very cool thread!

When I started picking up the phone and making phone calls... It moves business along far more quickly.

Also, adopting Skype for faster information exchange.

I try to only use email for data heavy reference, or when my words need to be perfect and it gives me time to think.

I will probably think of more... but just particularly happy with those.

 

[Process]

Doing AT LEAST ONE THING a day to put opportunity in my pipeline.

-gives me constant feedback loops. Constant action used to make me uncomfortable.
-can be a call, an email, direct mail, etc. It just has to solve someone's frustration.

 

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[Sander]

Tomorrow I'll set my 14th day checkmark for a handful of new habits I'm building (reading, writing, meditation, no alcohol, healthier eating etc). Going really good so far.

That got me thinking.

Any new habit/habits that changed your life for the better or had a positive major impact?

 

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[Fox]

It seems whatever strict habits I make I usually break or drop off a little on.

One thing though that maybe is a habit is “daily action”. Just doing my best everyday to push things forwards one way or another. No matter how terrible I feel or how small it is I try to always do one little thing everyday towards my goals.

Usually those little things add up in a big way and over time there is real progress.

 

[CalinPop]

My complete change this year!
Things I stop or cut down on
-Since I was 13 years old I heavily smoke and got drunk at least once a week (I'll be 33 years this August)
- I have quit smoking (hardest thing I ever did) not a single cigarette this year and any kind of nicotine
-I used to smoke marijuana heavily about 7 years but quit that in September 2018
-I had only got drunk once this year (record in 19 almost 20 years) I want to avoid alcohol now at least until summer and make it a rare thing in my life
-I quit porn
-I stop taking sugar and any kind of stupid unnatural drinks more water
-I stop eating bread and cut down on carbs as much as possible (keto diet 2 weeks less then 25g of carbs/day) now just natural carbs and some pasta from time to time

Things I started to do
-Hit the gym at least 3 times a week and Dry sauna after
-Read more and listen to an audiobook per week
-Learn something towards a business every day at least 2 hours minimum
-Spend more time with my Family

I have an intense labour job manipulating more than 1000kg sometimes 3000kg and a regular daily basis (work hours 5/day maybe 6 when busy ) I`ve got so much energie now I don`t remember having when I was 20
This is just the begining want to work on my self to become a better me and recover all the years I had neglected doing stupid things

 

[ZF Lee]

Writing.

You'll be doing a lot of work for copywriting and selling via email, social media, forums and text.

In general, all writing:
- Caters to an audience with a need
- Offers content that is uniquely focused on solving the need
- Has a call to action/conclusion that sets the catalyse for the reader to take a different course of action, preferably in the direction put by the writer

You have to train the writing muscle every day. It's not enough to write shit in a blaze and drop the pen. That is what exams in school and university have trained us to do, I'm afraid.

 

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[jesseissorude]

Loving this thread. I'm using it to find new habits to steal from others

For me:
"win the morning"

It's from a Tim Ferriss blog post, but the gist is that you have 5 tasks each morning:

Make your bed
Meditate
Exercise (minimum 10 pushups)
Hydrate (+bulletproof coffee or tea)
Journal
​

If you do 3 of the 5, then you "win".
I'm allergic to fad-blog-post-meme-tasks, but this one actually works great for me. Maybe it's the mindset of "winning" and the fact that it can be a little flexible. It's also great to start the day with an accomplishment. I dunno, it's small but it really works for me.

Another great habit I've heard of:
Picking up habits

I had a friend who made it a habit to pick a new habit to focus on every 2 weeks. He'd pick a useful habit, focus on it 100%, and after 2 weeks decide if it's helpful and worth keeping. No matter what, when the 2 weeks were up, he'd pick a new habit to add for the next 2 weeks.

 

[Andy Black]

Waking up at 4 AM and making my bed

My goodness. You make your bed before rolling over and going back to sleep?

 

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[csalvato]

When feeling the urge to respond, taking a deep breath and listening/processing what the person was saying. I started this with the goal to focus on their intent, and not my reply based on a quarter of their message.

After learning to do this, it struck me that this is what really competent, composed and influential people do.

For example, watch how Steve Jobs processes and responds to this question at 4:12:

View: https://youtu.be/qw7VrZSAUEU?t=256

 

[wade1mil]

The mindset that everything you do for the first time is awkward/uncomfortable, and it's completely normal. Accept the fact you'll look/perform like an idiot, and feel great knowing it's ok, even expected.

 

[rwhyan]

• Waking up at 5am (and going to sleep early)
• Going to gym first thing in morning
• Cold showers in the morning
• Daily journaling
• High protein meal as first meal of day (don't start your day with a crash)
• Zazen practice (highly recommend "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind" by Suzuki if you're interested)

 

[El Príncipe]

- Cutting all sugars, carbs and grains. Eating lots of high quality animal foods.
- Cutting out porn and masturbation.

 

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[Ecom man]

So I started this in December (didn’t want it to be a New Years resolution lol)
1. Exercise first thing in the morning 50 minutes a day 6 days a week.
2. Intermittent fasting (16/8)
3. Eat 2 meals a day and one of them is a salad. (Normally lunch)
These 3 habits combined have caused me to lose 25lbs in a month. I still have more to go but my energy is way up and I feel better about my day as well as knowing that I’m working towards a better future.

Seriously if you don’t eat healthy and exercise you are missing a huge chance to make your life better.

 

[Royce2]

There's a habit I know that most likely changed everyone's life here for the better or worse.
And that habit is Repetition.
Every kid that tried to ride a bike without training wheels for the first time most likely failed. And every kid that kept getting back on that bike eventually learned how to ride it.
There's a fun and enjoyment aspect of learning how to ride a bike which makes the learning stick forever I would say. Reading every book on how to do something is not going to change anything. The body needs experience, as the wobbly riding goes, the body and mind calibrate to balance and smooth itself out.

So for me personally, I have yet to achieve conscious repetition of certain things as habit, but I'm getting there. I'm beginning to consciously tell myself to breath deeper and capture my thoughts and my mind it its current state. I will say, so much more has been opened up to me recently because of that. I would read a book or forum while breathing deeper and I would notice myself remembering more parts of what I read and actually understanding the content more.

So I guess two things: Conscious repetition of things, and breathing deeper heh

 

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[Digamma]

I got a good one for this.

I am naturally lazy and really struggle to focus. I used to get nothing done.

If you are the kind of person who struggles with productivity, and you'd like to become super productive...

Take a sheet of paper (or build it out in a word processor and print it).
Create a table. Each row is an hour. Each column is 15 minutes in that hour.

Basically you have something like this:


Track what you do by the 15 minutes.

Use this to identify your time wasting.

When do you get distracted and drift off?

 

[Olimac21]

Meditation and journaling, it gives me more perspective and allows me to be more self aware. Before meditation I was still quite an organized way but my emotions would affect me 5x more, especially anger.

 

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[Jello]

1. Working out three to four times a week.

2. Eating healthier, less meat more vegetables.

3. Getting out of my comfort zone and actually reach out to people to ask help or offer them your help / product/ service.

4. Reading more and listening more. But staying critical.

4. Not taking everything so personally. In business sometimes you have to deal with customers or employees who are easily light tempered and say all kind of things. No problem, resolve the problem and don't take it personally. This applies to my personal life too.

Great thread btw

 

[Sheens]

Complete one action every day for your significant other.

Not to get a thank you, not to store up favors for the future, nor to get an action in reciprocal; do it for them. It becomes incredibly easy over time and can be big, small, by surprise, physical, kind words, ask how to help.. an endless list. Also a solution for excess physical energy?

 

[LRG]

Here is a summary after reading through the thread. The popular areas where you tried to break old habits are (mentioned once in this topic means one point):

1. Healthier eating (13 points)
2. Waking up early/early morning stuff/cold shower (12 points)
3. Gym/working out/exercise (12 points)
4. Meditation/awareness (11 points)
5. Reading (9 points)
6. Writing/journaling/diary (8 points)
7. Listening (7 points)
8. Daily action/kaizen (4 points)
9. Planning (3 points)
10. Full responsibility (3 points)
11. Stop procrastinating (3 points)
12. No alcohol (2 points)
13. Gratitude (2 points)
14. To do lists (2 points)
15. Taking deep breath/breath control (2 points)
16. Getting out of comfort zone (2 points)
17. No porn/fap (2 points)

Mentioned only once:

- stop watching TV/video games
- better sleep
- making phone calls
- repetition
- daily tracking
- turning sexual energy into focus and drive
- daily learning
- more time with family
- keeping piece of mind
- never giving up
- stop making excuses
- glass of water in the morning
- not quitting

Change your life and be happy. Every day is a new start.

 

[Zcott]

Doing something productive as soon as I wake up.

I noticed that back in uni I'd be a lot more productive if I woke up and read something or did some work straight away, compared to doing whatever and then starting to work. I'd get so much more work done. I would become literally obsessed with it. To be honest, I loved it. This would last until the work was finished, could be a day or so, or could be a week or two.

I noticed similar trends when working too, but it's hard to be like that when you are working, because you don't wake up to start working, you wake up to commute like a lamb to the slaughter. But now I am working on something, I am reintroducing being productive as soon as I wake up back that into my life. For the first time in five years, I finally feel happy about working on something.

Typing that made me feel nostalgic for my student days, sad at my recent work life, and excited for the future.

 

[Suzanne Bazemore]

Since the new year, I have been following the Kaizen Principle, working toward goals a little every day. I have accomplished a tremendous amount in 3 weeks. It's amazing how quickly the little steps accumulate into real progress.

 

[SquatchMan]

Going to the gym at 7AM. More specifically, doing heavy compound lifts.

Seriously, starting the day with a heavy squat or deadlift feels great.

I'm sure there's some unknown psychological benefit to getting a big physical victory in the morning. Or maybe it's just the increased testosterone from being stronger.

 

[Kak]

Waking up at 4 AM

WOW... I have tried the wake up early thing... What I have realized that since I am not beholden to some sort of authority figure that needs me somewhere, I can't bring myself to care.

I am usually up by 7 with no alarm. It just happens now. Sun comes up, I wake up.

 

[ExaltedLife]

WOW... I have tried the wake up early thing... What I have realized that since I am not beholden to some sort of authority figure that needs me somewhere, I can't bring myself to care.

I am usually up by 7 with no alarm. It just happens now. Sun comes up, I wake up.

That's actually the reason I do. I still work a job where I leave at 7, and I hate the feeling of having to jump up and rush out the door to meet somebody elses expectations. Waking up at 4, I at least get to own my morning.