Mind the Habit

Quitters never win, Winners never quit!

Vince Lombardi

Why starting with this quote?

Because it takes time before you can see the results of your habits. It might seem that you are getting nowhere for a while, but if you believe in your routine and you stick to it, soon or later you’ll break through the ice and a new version of you will emerge.

Think at the water freezing process, for example.

Imagine that it’s winter and it’s freezing cold outside, there is snow everywhere and you go for a cold plunge in a lake. You may find that the water is not an ice cube yet, although you feel like you are inside of a freezer.

When you go in you feel your entire body pressed inside a crusher made by glass spikes (that was my sensation when I did it 🥶), the bones in your hands and feet are aching like crazy and you may wonder (apart from why you did it) why the water hasn’t turned into ice yet.

That’s because the turning point from its liquid form to ice is 0 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and even at 1 degree above that threshold the water is as liquid as it was during the warmer months. Then, when the water temperature reaches 0 degrees Celsius, you suddenly see ice crystals appearing on its surface, like magic.

But this magic happens thanks to a process which takes time, and effort (in this case from the weather). During all this time the water hasn’t changed either its appearance nor its physical state, although it’s getting colder and colder, moving towards the threshold of 0 degrees Celsius.

Do you get my point?

All the hard work you put in might seem wasted, because you don’t see any results for weeks, months or even years, until one day you finally realise the true value of your repeated effort, looking at your achievements.

Don’t quit, stick to your habits, be consistent and soon or later you’ll have your breakthrough!

From that moment onwards your growth will be exponential….

It’s a real DOMINO EFFECT. You may not realise it during the process, but when after a while you look back at yourself, at what you’ve accomplished in the last year for example, you may be surprised how far you’ve progressed on the right path. 

For this very reason it’s important to keep track of your progress by journaling or filling in a habits tracking chart. 

I remember when I had my a-ha moment… It was the 1st of January 2022 and my family and I sat together to do a review of the previous year, talking about what we were grateful for and what we achieved.

I took out my last 411 of 2021 (the 411 is one of the best accountability tools I’ve learned from The One Thing) and I read out my achievements of the previous 365 days:

Even now that I am writing about it I have goosebumps, because before starting my journey in personal growth I was spending my free-time at home binge watching TV, complaining about my life and rarely reading something that wasn’t related to my job. My wife, who believed that reading about personal growth was only a waste of time, sincerely complimented me for my achievements and she asked me to help her to do the same.

That was my breakthrough: I HAVE NOT LOOKED BACK SINCE!

One of the best thing is that I don’t even track these established habits anymore, because it’s not the score that matters, but the identity:

I am a Meditator, I am a Fit person, I am a Reader …… and now I can say that I am a Writer!

Decide who you want to be, then build the habits to support your identity!