成功源于积极的习惯

爱思英语编者按：引导成功的唯一最重要的因素是你每一天所做的事情。就这么简单。你的习惯将会决定你成功与否。如果你有强大而且健康的积极的习惯，你现在是否失败都无所谓，因为你将来注定会成功。保有积极地习惯并不意味着你每一次都会成功。然而，从长远看来，毫无疑问你将会实现所有的目标，成为成功人士。相反，如果你有强大的消极的习惯，你将来注定会失败。无论你现在成功与否。如果你的习惯是自我毁灭性的，你将来必定失败。

The single most important factor that contributes to success is what you do every single day. It is as simple as that. You habits will determine whether you are successful or not. If you have strong and healthy positives habits, it does not matter whether or not you fail today because you are guaranteed to succeed in the long run. Having positive habits does not mean that you will succeed every single time. However, in the long run, there is no doubt that you will achieve all you goals and be successful. On the other hand, if you have strong negative habits, you are guaranteed to fail in the long run. It does not matter whether you succeed today or not. If your habits are self-destructive, you will fail in the long run.

Why are Habits so Important?

Because you repeat the same actions and the same behaviors every single day. A single positive action will not change your life, but the same action repeated 1 000 times will have a significant impact on your life. For example, if you go to the gym one time, you won’t see a big difference in your life. However, if you go to the gym 1 000 times over a five year period, you will see a big difference in your body. The same principle applies to finance, health, relationships, work, career, and school. Simple positive actions repeated every single day will have a tremendous impact on your life in the long run.

Guaranteed Success

When you have strong positive habits, it does not matter whether you fail right now or not, because you are guaranteed to succeed in the long run. Do you know the law of sowing and reaping? The law of sowing and reaping states that you reap what you sow. If you are always sowing good positive actions, the only logical result will be success. A man who has a strong work ethic and who has a clear goal will succeed no matter what. This man has developed the habit of working hard. It does not matter whether he fails an exam or miss a sale. The man will keep working until he succeeds. I am not worried about this man. He will be successful.

Guaranteed Failure

When you have negative habits, failure is guaranteed for you until you take the conscious decision to change you habits forever. Negative habits include overeating, gambling, smoking, drinking and taking drugs. However, let’s not forget those other negative habits that are often the real cause of failure. These negative habits are character traits that will stop you from achieving success. I’m talking about mental habits such as procrastination, laziness, fear, shyness, lack of courage, etc. Procrastination is the worst negative habit. It is a dream killer. Instead of taking action and working hard to achieve his goal, the procrastinator decides to delay and to wait until tomorrow. However, when tomorrow becomes today, the procrastinator keeps delaying. The only solution to his problem is to start taking action right now.

How to Develop Positive Habits

There’s nothing easier than developing positive habits. You simply have to do every single day the action you want to make a habit. If you want to develop the habit of running, run almost every day. If you want to develop the habit of eating healthy, eat healthy every day. If you want to develop the habit of reading, read every day. Habits are created by repetition. The more you do an action, the easier it becomes in the long run.

How to Eliminate Negative Habits

The only way to destroy negative habits is to stop reinforcing them. If you are a smoker, stop smoking. If you are a drug user, stop using drugs. If you are a procrastinator, stop procrastinating and start taking action right now. Yes, it will be very difficult at the beginning. The first week will be very hard. After three weeks, you will feel a lot better. Eliminating negative habits is hard because you associated a lot of pleasure to these habits in the past.

How Psychology Can Help

If you want to be successful in changing your habits, you should think about changing your inner beliefs about your habits. For example, your old belief was: “I love cigarette because it makes me feel good and relaxed. I need cigarette to be happy and relaxed.” If you keep this belief, you won’t be able to keep your resolution to stop smoking for very long. Instead, you should adopt this new belief: “I love yoga because it makes me feel good and relaxed. Cigarette is toxic and destroys my body. Yoga makes me happy.” You should analyze your beliefs and make sure they won’t stop you from changing your habits. The same is true when you try to form positive habits. If you want to start eating healthy food, here are some positive beliefs you should start thinking about: “Healthy food is very good for my health. It gives me a lot of energy and I feel very good.”

Action Plan

It’s now time for you to develop positive habits in your life and eliminate your negative habits. Write down 3 positive habits that you would like to develop and 3 negative habits that you would like to eliminate. For each positive habit, write down exactly what actions you’re going to take every single day in order to develop the new habit. For each negative habit, write down exactly what actions you’re not going to take in the next weeks. Here are some positives habits that will lead to success: exercise, healthy food, reading, saving, studying, healthy relationships, hard work, etc. Here are some negative habits to eliminate: gambling, drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, procrastination, shyness, etc.

You Can Do It!

Everybody can change. All it takes is courage and commitment. Decide right now to improve your life by changing your habits. Take action right now! Don’t be afraid. Yes, you will probably make mistakes along the way. But never forget that success is guaranteed for you if you have positive habits in your life. If you refuse to quit, success will be yours.