Mind the Habit

People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures.

F.M. Alexander

I found this quote in the book that has been the starting point of my journey in personal development, a journey that took me all the way to something completely unimaginable for me at the time….. writing this blog.

In August 2018, at the end of a Florida and Bahamas holiday tour, I was sitting with my wife and my two little girls at a gate in Miami international airport, ready to fly back to Italy.
Bored by the wait I went to browse the small shop nearby and there it was, with its B&W, simple but eye catching cover, The One Thing book, by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. https://amzn.to/494N43F

I wasn’t a reader, I had never listened to a podcast (I didn’t even know what a podcast was), I had no idea about self growth, morning routines, journaling, neuroscience, meditation, psychology, philosophy, introspection….. and habits, before then. Now I am passionate about anything related to personal growth.

It’s all thanks to The One Thing book, which has literally changed my life! We’ll talk about it in the blog, because I’d like to share my intake on all the books that have made such an impact on me.

Personal growth is a never-ending journey that I find fascinating and enjoyable. This blog is going to play a big role on my growth, because I am stepping completely outside of my comfort zone writing it.
But you know that growth happens away from comfort, right? If you don’t, no worries, because we are going to cover it in the blog.

Why habits? You may ask. Because humans are living by habits. Think about how your days unfold: don’t you notice the same patterns and actions repeating many times a day, or daily, or weekly?

This is a blog about self growth and it’s called Mind The Habit because any kind of activity that makes you grow has to be performed repeatedly, it has to become a habit.

Thanks to my habits, especially my morning routine (wake-up at 5:30 AM, drink a glass of water, meditation, exercising, journaling, reading and taking a cold shower), I am the driver of my life now! Before I was just a passenger, waiting for things to happen to me, thinking I couldn’t control any of them. Now I know I can!

The problem is that many of the habits we live by are not so good for us, even bad or dangerous sometimes.
But if you start building the correct habits for you, you will experience positive incremental changes which will completely transform your life.

It is a real domino effect…. but you have to start SMALL! More on that later…

Ok, I think it’s time to introduce myself. My name is Andrea Bianchi and I am 51 years old. I am from Carrara, a town in Tuscany famous for the white marble. I have a lovely wife and two beautiful daughters, that have been very kind with me accepting the many changes I went through in the last 5 years.

I am happy with the new me, but I realised that although you make positive changes to improve yourself, these will have an impact on the people who know you best and they can at times destabilise the relationships with your spouse, your children, your family and friends. I just want to say THANK YOU to Federica, Emma and Giorgia for allowing me to be who I am now.

A big thanx also to my friends Riccardo and Francesco for supporting this idea and for motivating me to act on it. Thanx buddies!

Next we are going to dive into what habits really are and how they work. It’s going to be fun!

Be mindful.