How to use the "power of routines"?

It is so easy for you to get caught in routines. This can be good or it can be bad. It depends on the nature of routines. Most of the people underestimate the power of routines and its influence on their lives.

Routines can either make or break you. Routines can keep you healthy or put you on to the path to illness. Routines can make you rich or drive you down to poverty.

What are the different kinds of routines you follow? Understanding the types of routines is the first step to mastering them.

See the picture before you read further.

There are four kinds of routines:

• The blind routine: These are the routines that has been set unconsciously and you have been following without examining them. They are dysfunctional- On the softer side they can cause hindrance and on the harsher side they can cause great harm. Example: Throwing your important papers around your home; Swiping your credit card mindlessly.
• The lucky routine: These are routines that are very useful for you but they have been set unconsciously. You are lucky to have these routines and they help you every step of the way. Going for a walk with your spouse daily-you both get an opportunity to talk and and additionally get the benefits of walking; This routine happened naturally, as both of you never planned it consciously.
• The dumb routine: These are routines you have consciously set up that are useless or harmful-Your colleague and you go down to the smoking area for a smoke; Both of you want to catch up and talk, and you consciously decided that meeting in the smoking zone and smoking together is the best way to accomplish both-talking and smoking.
• Smart Routine: Example: You set up a routine of listing the goals you want to achieve the next day, the previous night. These are the routines you have consciously decided and they lead you to your goals.

It is important to examine the mix of routines you have; Weed out the dysfunctional routines, both conscious and unconscious ones, and replace them with beneficial ,conscious ones.

Set your routines right! You will be well on your way to abundance, health, success, and happiness.

What is your experience? Do share your thoughts here!

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Are you aware of the basic, powerful principles of action?

How is it that we do some tasks very easily and they become habits? Why are some tasks so difficult that they don't stick as habits? What are the principles that will convert useful tasks to become sticky habits of a lifetime?

Here are the powerful principles for you:

• Higher the value you attach to an activity the more chance it becomes a recurring habit
• Breaking down an activity into 5 minutes sequential steps enhances the chance of it becoming a habit
• Identifying a milestone for every 5 minutes, till you reach the final milestone of that activity, enhances the chance of it becoming a recurring habit
• Going through the sequential steps every day for the next 21 days enhances the chance of it becoming a habit
• Visualizing discomfort of not going through the sequential steps of the activity enhances the chances of it becoming a habit
• Having tools and other resources ready and having them placed spatially and contextually in a manner conducive to the ease of execution of the sequential steps of the activity, will enhance the chances of it being done everyday, forever
• Monitoring the availability of the resources and tools and consistently replenishing them when they get depleted goes a long way in helping the activity to become a habit

Put these principles to steer useful activities to become habits of a lifetime.

Do share your experience here.

Do you slacken your vigilance with respect to newly acquired good habits?

Sometimes we slacken our vigilance and let our hair down, so to speak, with respect to dysfunctional habits. We think that if we indulge in one bad habit just for once we can quickly get back to our new healthy & productive ways by refocusing and redoing the new habits that have just got installed.

Days pass by and we suddenly realize that not only do we have to deal with the dysfunctional habit we chose to do for sometime, but also we have related set dysfunctional habits to deal with.

We need to be very careful not go back to the old dysfunctional habits.

If we have careless then we will have to put in herculean effort again to get back to our good habits.