What Do Your Habits Say About You?

Aristotle said, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” We’ve entered the time of year where well-intentioned people fall off the resolution wagon and revert back to the same old comfortable habits they’ve always had in the past. Whether you know it or not, you have habits. Good or bad, we are creatures who thrive on consistency. It’s up to you to choose healthy habits that will lead you to a life of success and happiness.

Starting a habit isn’t always easy, and to be honest, it’s not always going to be the thing you want to do. But the secret to habits is to build such a strong foundation that you go into autopilot and make the choices you want to make even when you don’t feel like it. Ultimately, your life will get busy and you’ll have bad days and your autopilot program will kick in. When you develop positive habits you get to determine whether that autopilot has you staying up late eating mint chocolate chip, or getting plenty of sleep, eating well, and exercising.

There are endless ways that you can develop healthy habits, but these are the three main categories that mean the most to me.

Physical Habits

How you treat your body has an unbelievable impact on how it treats you back. If you’re eating foods that don’t nourish you, or not getting enough exercise you’ll likely never perform your best in your career, relationships, or home life. That said, I do not believe there is one way that a woman should look. Treating your body with kindness has little to do with appearances. I also do not believe that the same diet  (I used the word diet to refer to the food you put into your body, not a specific program) and exercise works for everyone. It’s up to you to build habits around the lifestyle that brings the most happiness to your life.

Spiritual Habits

I truly believe that you must be in the habit of pursuing something greater than yourself. If you’re a religious person that may mean going to church or praying. If you’re not, you may choose to spend time in the morning journaling, meditating, or reading an inspirational book. Either way, I believe that the best way to grow as a leader is to focus first on your own spiritual growth.

Emotional Habits

In addition to taking care of yourself spiritually, you must commit to caring for yourself emotionally. Being a leader can be extremely draining, and your team needs you to be at your best. What are you doing to care for yourself? Often women, especially mothers, find ourselves constantly giving to others. We have to learn how to give back to ourselves, emotionally, so that we can continue being effective in the areas that are most important to us. Some healthy emotional habits are carving out time to spend alone and going to therapy, but you’ll also find that maintaining healthy physical and spiritual habits will help to maintain your emotional health.

I could give you some examples of the habits that make the biggest difference in my life, but ultimately you have to figure out what works best for you. If you have big goals, I urge you to begin focusing some of your energy inward so that you can be at your best as you try and take over the world!