How To Create A Better Life And Become Happier Through Building Positive Habits

At the start of the year, I set out to change my way of life and my overall mindset. While it was a struggle initially to incorporate all these changes into my life, I knew they would ultimately help me in fulfilling my dreams and becoming a happier person. I have changed so much that one of my first thoughts now is to help others, and in writing this I hope that you all can take something out of it that catapults you to a place you have never been. After being in the dumps for the good part of a year, I knew I had to make a change in my life and that it started with me.

At the end of last year I had come across a group of guys that go by the name of Yes Theory. These 3 guys are doing some remarkable work in the space of mindfulness and human connection, sharing wonderful stories that I highly recommend you go and watch (after you finish reading this of course!). Why is this important you may be asking ? Well one of the members of Yes Theory, Ammar Kandil, put out a simple yet daunting challenge for all of their followers. 100 days of sweat. Yes, 100. While it seemed so ridiculous to me as I had never embarked on such a relentless goal or habit, at the time I also had nothing to lose.

Insight And Ways To Start Building Some Positive Habits

The hardest part is always the start. No matter what it is that you are doing, you are most likely in a place of unknown, trying to find the perfect way to start something new. This right here is exactly why so many fail in trying to establish new habits. By simply thinking too much into creating the ideal situation and outcome of a certain habit, we place ourselves into an endless thought cycle, dragging us further away from actually taking action. The time spent doing so could be put to much better use if you just got up and said F**k it, and started. Why I think the 100 days of sweat works so well is because it is as simple as it gets. There is no overthinking of what excercises to do, what weights to lift, or even how long you have to do something for. It is as simple as getting active and breaking a sweat.

Before I get into the habits that have changed my life I want to put you on the way to implemting them yourself by helping you intially set up whichever habits you would like to include in your life.

• Whatever you think you are capable of achieving, half it. If you think you can meditate for 20 minutes, do it for 10. Once you feel you are consistently developing and doing the habit you can decide how long you want/need to do it for
• Don't try start every single habit you can think of as you wont be able to build them all. Focus on developing one and gradually introducing more as you go. Many of the habits below will all have a flow on effect in developing other new habits
• Share your journey with your family and close friends and get others involved. I constantly documented and checked on on my progress during my 100 days of sweat and seeing how far I came from day 1 made a huge difference and kept me motivated
• Don't beat yourself up if you miss a day. A study of peoples habits shows that it takes 66 days for a new behaviour to come automatic , however some may come sooner or some may take longer, however long it takes you, never get discouraged

If there is one thing that I can not stress enough about building positive habits and creating a happier life for yourself, it is that you can't change your life with a negative mindset. It's like saying you want to go for a drive around your area, so you go down a no through road just to come all the way back. There is no point in striving to make changes in your life if you aren't open and willing to change who you are and the thoughts that you allow yourself to consume. All you have to do is believe in yourself and if you can, you are already 50% of the way to completing something extraoridnary.

1 - Exercise

I wont bore you with all the findings and positive impacts that exercise has on your life, but if you are unfamilair about the benefits, click here. Whether it by through bias or not, I strongly beleive that physical health attributes to a large amount of overall happiness and spearheads your health and perception of health to the forefront. From my experiences with building a reguluar exercise habit through the foundations set by my 100 days of sweat, exercise is where you should be starting. When you think of health you most likely think of physical activity and this is why you need to adopt this first. Don't get me wrong I dont go to the gym 7 days a week, but I try to adopt a 2 day rule where I cant go two days in a row without going to the gym (some circumstances may impact this which is perfectly acceptable!). Following on from what I said earlier, dont think too much about what to do. You dont need a gym membership to get active, it is as easy as walking, running or even using some household items as weights, just do something and take action! What I have found by making exercise my first succesful regular habit, is that it opens you up to the endless amount of other habits and factors that contribute to your health such as sleep and healthy eating, that can ultimately change your life and create a better you

2 - Meditation

Although exercise can be done anywhere whenever you have time to do it, meditation can literially, and I mean literally be done anywhere. From the comfort of your own room, at work or even on a 16 hour flight, you have the ability and resources to meditate. While initailly this may seem like a walk in the park compared to exercising, it isnt quiet as easy it seems. For something that you only have to do for as little as 5 minutes, you will struggle to sit their in silence and focus on your surroundings. I attributed a large amount of this to my constant connection to my phone and social media. Without thought or reason, we pick up our phones and start scrolling through our feeds, most of the time through boredom. We are so used to doing this that anything else, like putting our phones down and meditating for 5 minutes is a real challenge. The first few times will be tough, but eventually you will start to build the habit of meditating, whether it be in the morning or at night, for 10 minutes or an hour. In the morning when we wake up, most of us will pick up our phones and check in on wants happened over night. Because of this I suggest starting meditation at night as the temptation of picking up our phones is neutralised because we are putting it down to sleep. There are some great apps like Smiling Mind and Calm that have all types of meditations, with specific ones to help you get a better and calmer nights sleep.

Building these habits doesn't come easy for anyone. So what I suggest you do after you successfully complete a workout or meditation, is give yourself a treat. It can be a small piece of chocolate, buying a small accessory or anything that wont make you go broke if you do it multiple times. The more you manage to do this and give yourself a reward, the more likely you are to keep going back to the habit, because giving your self that reward tells you hey, I'm doing something good for myself, I want to do it again. Eventually what will happen over time is that you will become accustomed to attributing the reward to a positive activity and that habit will start to become engrained in your mind.

A Full List Of Habits You Can Start Implementing Daily Now

I don't expect you to do every single habit on this great list that Lewis Howes has created (believe me no one is perfect in life). I do however highly recommend following like minded people like Lewis as they promote positivity and will help you create a better mindset. Surrounding yourself with this kind of stuff will no doubt make you a better person as the content you're consuming is much more meaningful and helpful. Many of these habits listed below may seem simple, like being kind and judging less, but I myself have realised the nicer of a human you are, the more you get in return. Many of these are very important in terms of how you will feel from day to day. Drinking lots of water and sleep will play a pivotal role in how your body functions. We have all been moody from time to time and a lack of sleep is proven to make you more aggitated and the smallest problems can be blown out of massive proportion because of this.

Rather then comparing ourselves to other people in the world and in our lives, we need to be focusing our attention to simply improving ourselves and being better then we were the day before. If every individual in the world changed their lives and became a better person, the world would instantly be a happier place and we would all feel a sense of accomplishment and shared happiness. My goal in writing this, as is with all my past and future content, is to simply positively impact people, whether it be 10000 or 1, if I put someone on track to create anything better then they currently, that makes me incredibly happy.

Everyone is special in their own way and you all matter :)

As always Be nice, be happy, be positive, and most importantly, have an amazing day ! You all deserve it

gv :)