Adopting a good practice requires willpower and perseverance.
We want to improve certain aspects of our lives, so we make good resolutions. But more often than not, they are quickly abandoned. “Chase away the natural, it comes back at a gallop“, as the proverb goes, which takes up an expression of Destouches, a French author of the eighteenth century and the Latin poet Horace. So, how do you go about evolving?
Routines are the key to personal and professional growth
A proven solution is to adopt a daily routine that allows us to progress little by little, regularly, and to persevere: once the habit is anchored in our daily practices, there is no longer any need for willpower effort to continue. After all, you probably brush your teeth every day without thinking about it and without any effort of willpower.
A personal routine is a bit like a business process in the professional world, which you execute every time a triggering event occurs, with activities that you follow by applying certain rules. For example, for each new order from a customer, the company applies the process of taking the order into account, preparation, delivery and invoicing.
In my personal organization, what is going well? What could I improve?
To achieve my goals, could daily , weekly, monthly routines help me? Could I fight against waste in my activities? How to prevent procrastination? Or, on the contrary, how can we avoid spreading ourselves too thin in useless activism?
A personal routine is essential to your personal and professional success !
A personal routine is a habit that you anchor in your daily life to achieve your long-term goals, and that you commit to following no matter what.
Perseverance (through routines) is the key to success, so including activities in one or more routines, especially a morning routine, i.e. one that is carried out every morning, makes it easier to stick to them. The activities to be included in this routine can vary according to the desires of each person, however they must remain brief otherwise it will be difficult to keep in the long term.
These activities can be for example: Learning (combining practice and theoretical reading), Recapitulation (of previous actions and successes by noting points for improvement), Daily Plan (list of things to do), Diary (dreams, questions, experiences to remember), Fitness (with physical exercises), Mental Preparation (visualizations, positive affirmations, meditation), Gratitude (thanking the universe, life or God for our progress and all the small or big happiness he brings us).
SOME TIPS:
- Choose a long-term goal that motivates you (and preferably also contributes to the common good).
- Define a “SMART” routine (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic/relevant, time-bound, etc.).
- Plan for a triggering event (such as when you get up, brush your teeth, go out, etc.) — this is very important.
- Stay alert and persevering while you anchor the daily routine (this takes 3 weeks to 3 months).
- Never break the chain : don’t miss a day (or two maximum), beyond that you risk giving up!
- Review and adapt your routines regularly according to the circumstances and your goals. Stay flexible and don’t force yourself to be too rigid, leave “air” in your agenda, to stay open to the unexpected and be creative. You can write down your routine in your diary as well as your thoughts, attempts, more or less successful experiences, desires, wishes. You can add photos, drawings, anything that inspires and enchants you to this journal. This intimate logbook makes it easy to anchor and follow up on your decisions with your own feedback.
” Laziness and cowardice are the reasons why so much of humanity, while nature has long since freed it from external tutelage, nevertheless remains under tutelage for life and why it is so easy for others to impose themselves as its guardians.”
Immanuel Kant (philosopher of the Enlightenment)
How can this be done in practice?
What if you’d like to… but that you can’t do it? Rest assured, you are not the first to have this experience. As Paul says in the Epistle to the Romans:
For the good I will, I do not practise; but the evil I don’t want, I do.
Paul, Epistle to the Romans, 7:19
This is the subject of change management, of transformation, a vast subject for natural persons as well as for legal entities (organizations). Ask yourself these two questions: Is the change I want to achieve really important (for me and/or for others)? Is it urgent?
And if you answer yes twice, then what would stop you? Wouldn’t these be “excuses”? Or ingrained habits that have become limiting? It may be time to re-consider your life strategy, your identity, to get help, to be creative and persevering etc.