“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” ~Aristotle
You can train your brain for success and happiness.
By retraining your brain to live a more positive, productive and happy life, you can live the life of your dreams. Even if you have done the same negative routine for decades, your brain can be reprogrammed through deliberate practice.
In an MIT published book titled Neuroplasticity, Mohab Costandi says,
“Neuroplasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned.”
To train your brain to live the life you dream about and see in your thoughts, it takes deliberate practice to set new habits. That is the point of my debut book Be the Light in the Mirror; to take the actions necessary to create new neuropathways that become positive habits which bring you to a state of love, happiness and bliss.
It was the end of 2019, little did we know that the COVID days were fast approaching. But in our prepandemic innocence, we were going about our lives as normal. At my company BlueSky Power, we had begun a new 3 year strategic planning process for reaching our 3 year goals. By March 2020, the plan got blown to hell by the pandemic, but the process was incredibly productive and taught us a great way to plan for growth.
From that 3 year strategic planning process, one great practice we implemented as a team was an Education Program to watch a video or read a book each week collectively as a team and then discuss it for 15 minutes at our weekly meeting. We had a lot of fun with it and learned a lot.
One of the first books we read as a team was the Excellence Dividend by Tom Peters. We had been inspired by his video about it. Tom is a leading business culture and management guru, who excites leaders to do business differently by putting people as the primary focus for success. We loved it so much, that in our strategic planning process, we made Excellence one of our BlueSky Core Values.
As the holidays approached, we had our annual holiday lunch and exchanged gifts. Nicole, my assistant, had just started with the company in November, but she gave me the incredibly thoughtful gift of a nicely framed and matted quote by Aristotle that reads,
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
It has hung prominently next to my desk ever since. It reminds me every day to stick to my good habits that I have laid out and track daily in my Habitually Inspired HabiTracker.
“We are what we repeatedly do.” It is not dissimilar from WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) described in a prior article. If you want to see things differently and be the person you know you are meant to be, then set new habits and do them repeatedly. It doesn’t happen overnight, but with practice, you can retrain your brain for love, happiness and positive habits.
To get into a routine of positive habits, it is worthwhile to track effective habits. I am not saying that you need to track each day when you say, “its going to be an amazing day” or “I love you” in the mirror. We are moving beyond these two simple practices also discussed in previous articles, which you are undoubtedly already doing if you have read those articles. If you need routine and personal accountability to start those practices, then by all means track them too.
We are now getting into habits or practices that make it easier to expand on that love you are generating and transform into the person you are meant to be.
“You can’t improve what you don’t measure.”
This is an often recited quote attributed to the famed management theorist of the 20th century, Peter Drucker. Measure your progress toward becoming your future self. Track your habits to make your future come to life.
When you see love in the mirror and see the person you are meant to be looking back at you with pure love, no regrets and a desire to create your life so you become that person, you have to take steps to live that way. Don’t wait for the future to happen, start being that person now. It helps to measure and track your progress toward being the person you are meant to be.
When you see yourself in the mirror with love, you are able to see your future self and do what that person does. To race toward your future, it is much easier to create and measure the habits that bring you closer to the person you want to be. Everyone struggles with improving themselves and being who they want to be. Even the most noted figures in history struggled to do better.
Benjamin Franklin in his Book of Virtues describes his attempts and methods undertaken to improve his character and live by a set of virtues. In Franklin’s words,
I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct. For this purpose I therefore contrived the following method.
Franklin’s method was that he made a list of 13 virtues, described them briefly and then made a daily chart for each week to track how he did at mastering each virtue. It looks very similar to the Habitually Inspired HabiTracker I made.
I had tried this for a short time many years ago but did not stick with it. Perhaps I had not listed the right habits or was not ready at that point, I do not recall the reason. But when I tried again a few years later, I was ready.
I had seen love in the mirror and I was already doing some of the daily practices that were in keeping with that happier person I saw in the mirror who had forgiven himself for his past failings or misconceptions of himself. It does not have to be profound or difficult, the HabiTracker is simply a way of tracking up to 12 daily habits and a few weekly habits if you wish.
Download your free Habitually Inspired HabiTracker here.
You just write the habits you want to work on, practice regularly or improve. Those things that improve your mind, your body and your spirit. Maybe you want track progress on a work goal or a fitness goal. Just focus on what you want to improve and start tracking it.
The HabiTracker is a great way to do that on paper or a computer. Remember though, if you track habits on your phone, do not use your phone for the first hour you are awake except to turn off an alarm or play positive music or listen to a book while you work out. You may get stuck on the app then switch to checking email, socials or texts.
Orienting your day properly is essential to living a life of joy. If at all possible, do not check email, texts, social media or communicate with anyone other than yourself for the first hour you are awake. I do not track this, but it’s worth tracking if you find the phone addiction taking you from setting your intention for the day.
I have been tracking daily habits for 5 years now.
“We are what we repeatedly do.”
It changes slightly from quarter to quarter based on what I am working on or trying to improve, but most of these habits have been the same for years.
For example, I used to wake up and meditate and journal, but for the last three quarters, I was writing my book Light in the Mirror, so I added “write from 5:30–7” as my first activity of the day when there are no disruptions and my brain is in the right state.
Here are the habits that I am currently tracking each day:
→Sleep by 10
→Wake by 5
→Write from 5:30–7
→Meditate
→Journal
→Read Golden Teachings
→Read a Spiritual Book
→1 Hour of Flow [top work priority for the day]
→30–60 minutes of positive content [Read or listen]
→Exercise or yoga
→PM Journal [daily wins, how I show up tomorrow; and BIG 3 things I will accomplish tomorrow]
Is it perfect? No! Do I get to every single habit done every single day? Sadly, no. Life gets in the way and I miss one or two of the habits, but on the days when I am at my best, I hit them all. And those days become more frequent the longer I track my habits. I make time for them. I make sure I do these like my life depended on it. And my future self does depend on it. As I go along, I have more days at my best and I hit them all more often. That which is being measured, is actually improving.
Track what works best for you. See where you want to improve and make those areas your daily habits.
What does the person you dream of being do each day?
Pick those things and be that person by practicing each day and you will quickly become that person. My life is improving each day because I am tracking that which matters most to me and holding myself accountable by tracking it. This has helped me live my life of love, happiness and bliss.
This is the fourth of a series of articles about how to live a life of love, happiness and success by seeing Light in the Mirror. The articles are excerpts from the book Light in the Mirror by @benparvey author & inspirational speaker. Visit BenParvey.com to download a free chapter and learn more about Ben Talks.
