Let’s try something new.
As a regular writer on Quora, I come across diverse questions, all linked by a common theme: how can I feel better about myself and my life. Here are some of these questions:
- How can I be a friendlier person?
- How can I feel less lonely?
- How do I become a more open person?
- How do I be more successful?
- How can I think less / worry less?
- How can I give up a bad habit?
- How can I be a happier person?
- How can I make life more interesting?
- So on and so forth
These are valid concerns, useful pursuits. But there’s a catch. Needing to feel different involves the willingness to do something different that has not been done before. Otherwise these wishes will remain wishes.
So what needs to be done?
New habits, new thought patterns, new routines.
It’s always a pain. But research proves it takes about 21 days to inculcate a new habit, to rewrite a subroutine or process in the brain.
So, why not start a 21-day project built around addressing one of these questions in your life?
Pick something that is bothering you. Here are a few scenarios:
1. Need to enrich your mind? Build the habit of reading for an hour every day, for 21 days.
2. Need to be more productive in the morning? Get family help to ensure you wake up at 6 am for 21 days.
3. Need to be more fit? Sign up for a personal trainer and do the work every day, for 21 days.
If you were waiting for a magic wand somewhere in this article, then I’m sorry to disappoint you because there is no magic wand. There is only the magical 21-day test. But to make it happen, you have to make the effort. And stick to it.
While I decide on what I will deal with first, why don’t you think about what your first 21 day project is going to be?
About the Author:
Sandhya Reddy is a Life coach and Leadership coach based in Bangalore, India. She is the Founder and Principal Coach at Chapter Two Coaching, a coaching consultancy that enables everyone from CEOs to work-from-home parents to achieve their goals by replacing self-imposed limitations with enabling stories.
Sandhya, a life coach in Bangalore, who runs a life coaching academy, can help individuals with a desire for change to examine their beliefs – or their ‘stories’ – and change them for the better, so they can achieve their goals.
Many of us in our thirties experience a disquieting realization: what brought us to middle-management may not take us to senior-management. This is true. To chart a new career path, one needs to think and do things differently. This is where Sandhya can help. She is a coach. Life coaching, executive coaching, personality development, leadership coaching… they are all part of her forte. Her Executive coaching programs helps tomorrow’s leaders set new goals, make new plans to achieve those goals, get that elusive promotion through a blend of knowledge, action and image-building, enhance influence among the leadership team, be more productive, get more out of one’s team, and be known in the company as an indispensable performer and future leader.