Do You Aim at Extraordinary Success?

As an ambitious individual, you may have set your eyes on high goals. But if you have average habits, it may be very difficult for you to achieve those goals. In other words, you should get rid of those average habits, and only then, you can cultivate extraordinary habits. Only after you "imbibe" these extraordinary habits, you can become a high performer and achieve your big goals. 

The question now is what are the habits that make you an average person. Let us find out.

"Average" Habits

Unfortunately, the impact of these average habits is too subtle to be felt which means you will not be ashamed or feel guilty about following those habits or behaviors. Thanks to such obliviousness, you will continue with these behaviors. Therefore, you may often be wondering why you are not able to move even an inch towards your goals despite putting forth the so-called required efforts. This may lead to frustration. Some of you may even decide to quit as well. 

As experts point out, these habits are likely to become an integral part of how you lead your daily life. That is why they call them day-to-day habits. A few examples of such habits are detailed here:

1. You set the alarm at a particular hour but do not stir from your bed. This habit will never help you because it will lead to procrastination or what is known as the last-minute rush.

2. Allowing temptations and distractions to play spoilsport to your focus is another awful habit of an average person.

3. Not listening to people when they speak is yet another habit that may retard or nix all your efforts to succeed. 

4. When things are not happening as you desire or if things move at a slower pace than you expect, you get angry, curse, and lose your composure. One of the classic examples of such a day-to-day habit is becoming impatient when you are caught in traffic. 

You may not realize that these habits can negatively impact the very core of your persistence, perseverance, focus, and health because they are capable of causing mental stress. So, you may not be able to perform to your optimum capability and therefore, this may retard your progress.

You may argue that these habits are not responsible for your failure to achieve your goals and that there are several other factors. But you are only partially right. You are advised to try for a few days and act differently by not complaining about your day, getting up as soon as the alarm goes off, listening attentively when others speak, and adopting patience even when things are not happening according to your plans. You will find that the quality of your performance goes up by several notches.

The good news is that you can make small tweaks to how you behave and get rid of these habits. The first step is to pause for a moment and observe yourself and your activities and behaviors. This self-awareness alone will help you realize that you have unconsciously been allowing these habits to spoil your focus and decelerate your growth. Let us now discuss a few practical steps to get rid of these habits.

1. Seek the help of your spouse, a friend, or confidant.

The purpose of this step is it will improve your accountability quotient. As Brendon Burchard puts it in his book, "High-Performance Habits," this step will teach you the concept of "performance necessity." For example, if you tell your spouse or friend that you have set the alarm at a particular hour because you have to complete a few important tasks, and that she or he should not allow you to sleep beyond that hour, you can gradually quit the habit of hitting the snooze button. Remember that criticism by your spouse or close confidant that you have shown scant regard to your own promise of adherence can be more humiliating than anything else.

2. Be creative.

You may be aware that creativity can help in every aspect of our lives and this includes quitting average habits as well. For example, if you get distracted easily and quite often by the noises your mobile phone makes while receiving messages, you can turn off the device while you are working. Another innovative step is to keep the phone in another room so that you may not like to get up every time you hear the sound of a WhatsApp message or SMS.

Another example is to start working on your laptop or reading your files whenever you are caught up in traffic.

3. Change the channel in your brain.

The brain is said to love familiarity. That is the reason we repeatedly do certain tasks without realizing that they can be done in a different fashion. Since we are used to doing certain tasks repeatedly and as a habit, we may not realize that the tasks themselves are useless. The best way to change such a habit is to have a dedicated hour of the day for doing such tasks. The tasks include checking your WhatsApp messages, gossiping, watching television, or reading news stories about the celebrities or film personalities you like. But you should guard allocating frequent hours of the day for these tasks. 

For cultivating any new habit, you should allow your brain to get familiar with it. Consistent practice alone will help you accomplish this aim. Once your brain gets used to the new habit, you will find it easy to quit the old average habit.

4. Use positive triggers.

Most of the time, you behave in a particular manner only because there are triggers that induce you. You can use the same trigger-principle for quitting average habits and embracing extraordinary ones. For example, when you are caught in traffic and you become conscious of the frustration that is brewing in your mind, you can use it as a trigger for doing constructive tasks. You can read important documents, work on your laptop, or dictate your notes.

The above steps are simple ones but they can go a long way in helping you rid some of your average habits. Once you bid adieu to them, you can imbibe extraordinary habits by practicing them regularly. These extraordinary habits will get you extraordinary success.