Habit KickStarter

Say , you want to kick-start the exercise habit….one fine day,you were hyper-motivated and did a 3 km Jog. You felt really superb that day! …Then, for some reason or other , you did not turn-up for the jog the day after …and the day after….slowly a week went by ...you lost touch with your running habit  …until you are hyper-motivated again ...don't know by when!

Lack of consistency is the reason No.1  for habits getting killed…on the other hand, even if it may be as brief as 5 minute step out on the road , it helps in habit formation!

Jerry Seinfeld, the famous American comedian, had come up with the following famous productivity hack to create habits:

• Take a print of the monthly calendar;
• Paste it in a prominent wall
• For each day you get to do the exercise (or whatever the good habit) ,Put a big red “X” over that day
• After a few days , you will have a chain…
• Your only job next is not to break the chain!

If you would like a software version of this hack, I have a simple MS-Excel spreadsheet utility ; If you need  a copy, mail me : mukundcs76@gmail.com

Meditation!

Meditation is the medication for the mind and soul…For beginners, check out this nice article on quieting the mind: Meditation for Beginners …

Start your day with Meditation…You might ask..”But, Meditation seems to be under a controlled environment…What about the rest of my day? …It seems to be not be in my control…distractions, traffic, climate….”…phew… I agree it is a definite issue that modern life endowed Humans with!!!… all that stimuli, are beyond an individual’s control. With my limited experience at meditating, I can tell you that it provides one single handle to face all external triggers: Focus; Focus on the task at hand;

For  example, say coming into the morning,  you have 3 tough things to do for the day, you might try the following:

1)      Pick one among the 3 tough things to do as the first thing for the day (equivalent of deciding to start the day with meditation!) …this step is important …your mind can easily fool yourself to push this tough task to later in the day

2)      Set aside the next 15 minutes for this one thing only …suggest using nowdothis to track this one activity

3)      Immerse yourself in this task…just focus on the task (equivalent of focusing on your breathe & breathe alone during meditation)

4)      After 15 minutes, Relax and take a pause…reflect on the past 15 minutes…It is pretty important not to rush off into the next stuff which is a definite source of stress

Try meditation and application  of meditation to daily work through the above 4 steps…It is definitely tough..but doable....If you can create a habit of it, you will have a feel of bountiful energy through the day…irrespective of the environment!