10 Daily Habits List

An excerpt from Dr. Paul on the GraceConnexion website:

"Change your habits, change your life! We all know that it is the little habits that powerfully impact our life - for good or not so good. Some habits are life-giving and some are life-taking. Changing them is an inside job.

I have not found any amount of "should, ought to, must, have to" energy that has been enough to change my habits over a sustained period of time. I'll bet it's the same with you. Doctors can tell us, parents and spouses can nag us, we can use God to guilt us, even children can beg us to add or drop a habit and it's rarely successful. What is missing is the "want to."

Negative energy has to come from outside us and there is a cost - guilt, shame, pressure, fear, anger. Ever know anyone who seemed to need to be angry to get something done? How often do we use the pressure of some deadline and the adrenaline-rush to accomplish something "just in time?" But what is the cost to us and to others in our life affected by our need for negative energy? The most frequent emotional payback we get from doing something because we "have-to, ought-to, must do" is relief that it's over and we don't have to do it again for some time period. "Thank God that's done. I don't have to do that until next _______."

Positive energy comes from finding the "want to" in the tasks we choose and the habits we create or drop. The energy comes from the process itself and does not need an outside source. The emotional payback in usually a sense of healthy pride and accomplishment. In fact, we find ourselves saying, " I look forward to doing that again."

A 10 Daily Habits List is a tool I use and recommend to the people I coach. I confess that my pattern in actually using it has been inconsistent. What I know is that whenever I am not using the 10 Daily Habits List my life is less fulfilling, more pressured and chaotic.

It is not rocket science but it is a helpful tool. Simply make a list of 10 Behaviors or Choices that would improve the quality of your life and begin to practice them. These are not the 10 Daily Habits someone else wishes you would develop! This is not an "OUGHT TO DO" LIST but a WANT TO LIST! Remember the BT 1 exercise "What do you want?"

They don't have to be huge changes to make a significant difference. Start with what may seem small things (floss daily, make bed daily, drink more water daily, walk daily, etc.) that you want to develop into routine actions that happen almost automatically. Do them for at least 30 days and when they become routine add another one.

What is on your 10 Daily Habits list? You can add a 10 Daily Habits list for a specific area of your life: work, relationships, spirituality, etc. What would yours be?" Dr.Paul Fitzgerald