One of my favorite personal development books is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
He explains why we do the things we do, even when we want to change.
You can consider all of our behaviors as some sort of habit. In this book he explains how to change a bad habit into a good habit.
I talk a lot about rituals and habits in this series. You might think, what does this have to do with “confidence”?
Confidence, to me, is a strong sense of self. It’s knowing who you are and being comfortable within your own skin. To be this kind of confident, you need to become aware of who you are right now, so that you can identify what you might want to work on.
Saying you want to be a better version of yourself, but having no self awareness will have you repeating the same behaviors. Which results in the same person.
Something has to change for you to have a different outcome.
These don’t have to be big changes. Big changes in habits often lead to failure because it’s too big of a change. Small habits are best. When you can master a small change, then you can add on another small change. Eventually, you’ll start noticing evidence in your life of the work that you’re doing.
Let me give you an example of how this plays out.... and I think this is an example he gives in the book... but it’s been a while since I’ve read it.
Let’s say you decide to do one jumping jack every morning before coffee. Just one. Seems simple enough. I tried this by the way.
I did it for two mornings and then forgot about it. Never did it again. How many times have you tried to introduce something new into your life and it is simply dropped?
But let’s pretend that I stuck to it. Let’s say I had set a goal for one jumping jack each morning for 30 days. And I did it! On day 30, I did my thirtieth jumping jack and I can celebrate! I accomplished my goal.
What really happened is that I told myself and showed myself that I take my promises seriously. That I do what I say. I gave myself a success every single day.
It doesn’t matter what the success is! Your brain doesn’t care. It only cares that you did what you said you were going to do. That you were successful by implementing your new habit. And now, you are reprogramming your mind for success.
A success mindset.
This is powerful. Now, when you choose to add in a habit or replace one with another, your chances of success are higher.
This is a fun exercise and very very enlightening. You will be amazed at how quickly you don’t stick to something. Or maybe you won’t be amazed. I kinda was because it seemed so simple.
For the sake of becoming more self aware, choose something super simple that you commit to doing every single day. Maybe it’s writing a positive mantra in your journal. Or doing a push up. Or eating a banana every morning. Or NOT doing something you want to break the habit of.
Aim for seven days. See what happens. Stay aware. Pay attention to the noise in your brain and all of the excuses and reasons you will come up with.
Talk to you tomorrow!
*HUGS*
Jen Thoden
PS. Sharing is giving which is just good karma. Share this post so that others can benefit from this positive message. Thanks in advance :-)
Do you like this content? Enter your name and email below to receive Daily Confidence in your email. Give yourself a positive boost every morning!
One of my favorite personal development books is The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.
He explains why we do the things we do, even when we want to change.
You can consider all of our behaviors as some sort of habit. In this book he explains how to change a bad habit into a good habit.
I talk a lot about rituals and habits in this series. You might think, what does this have to do with “confidence”?
Confidence, to me, is a strong sense of self. It’s knowing who you are and being comfortable within your own skin. To be this kind of confident, you need to become aware of who you are right now, so that you can identify what you might want to work on.
Saying you want to be a better version of yourself, but having no self awareness will have you repeating the same behaviors. Which results in the same person.
Something has to change for you to have a different outcome.
These don’t have to be big changes. Big changes in habits often lead to failure because it’s too big of a change. Small habits are best. When you can master a small change, then you can add on another small change. Eventually, you’ll start noticing evidence in your life of the work that you’re doing.
Let me give you an example of how this plays out.... and I think this is an example he gives in the book... but it’s been a while since I’ve read it.
Let’s say you decide to do one jumping jack every morning before coffee. Just one. Seems simple enough. I tried this by the way.
I did it for two mornings and then forgot about it. Never did it again. How many times have you tried to introduce something new into your life and it is simply dropped?
But let’s pretend that I stuck to it. Let’s say I had set a goal for one jumping jack each morning for 30 days. And I did it! On day 30, I did my thirtieth jumping jack and I can celebrate! I accomplished my goal.
What really happened is that I told myself and showed myself that I take my promises seriously. That I do what I say. I gave myself a success every single day.
It doesn’t matter what the success is! Your brain doesn’t care. It only cares that you did what you said you were going to do. That you were successful by implementing your new habit. And now, you are reprogramming your mind for success.
A success mindset.
This is powerful. Now, when you choose to add in a habit or replace one with another, your chances of success are higher.
This is a fun exercise and very very enlightening. You will be amazed at how quickly you don’t stick to something. Or maybe you won’t be amazed. I kinda was because it seemed so simple.
For the sake of becoming more self aware, choose something super simple that you commit to doing every single day. Maybe it’s writing a positive mantra in your journal. Or doing a push up. Or eating a banana every morning. Or NOT doing something you want to break the habit of.
Aim for seven days. See what happens. Stay aware. Pay attention to the noise in your brain and all of the excuses and reasons you will come up with.
Talk to you tomorrow!
*HUGS*
Jen Thoden
PS. Sharing is giving which is just good karma. Share this post so that others can benefit from this positive message. Thanks in advance :-)
Do you like this content? Enter your name and email below to receive Daily Confidence in your email. Give yourself a positive boost every morning!
