Did you realise that in many ways, you are probably self-sabotaging and setting yourself up for failure rather than success?

By reflecting on areas of your life, where you may be doing or not doing certain things, it will start to become obvious where you are letting yourself down and in what ways you are not living up to your true potential.

Working on your limiting beliefs and having a better understanding of the reasons why you have been sabotaging your efforts will be of great advantage in order to directly impact your future.  Taking small steps to improve your habits and change these automatic patterns, you will inevitably begin to create a more productive, successful life for yourself.  

Feeling like you can do anything you set your mind to takes great strength and discipline. This is something I work hard at, as disorganisation causes me inner conflict and is very unsettling. The chaos causes overwhelm and procrastination and then nothing gets achieved. Setting up some good habits has helped me stay on the right path. In order to do that, I have had to create rules to apply to my life. Being strict with myself and following through makes me feel so much better and life is much easier. Just the way I like it.

The habits I have set up for myself and the rules I live by include:

Do not get into bed unless you have cleaned your teeth. Once I am in my bed at night, it is a signal to my body that it is time to unwind and turn off. I will usually read a couple of chapters of a book before falling into the theta state. Once I am relaxed, warm and cosy, I struggle to get out of bed to do anything. If I haven’t cleaned my teeth before getting into bed, the chances of me dragging myself to the bathroom are very slim. So, I really try to consider everything I need to do before signing off for the night and jumping into bed. And I always clean my teeth now before going to bed.

After dinner, wash up. Somehow, I have taken on the role in our household of washing up, though I don’t mind at all. I enjoy it. As its usually only the two of us, there is never a lot to wash and I can knock it over quickly. If it was up to my boyfriend, he would pack the dishwasher each night to save time, but just the noise of the dishwasher makes me anxious as a highly sensitive person. I feel stressed if the dirty dishes are left on the sink and I am not to wash up and it is left to the next day where food is harder to wash off plates and pans, it adds stress.  Turning off the light to a clean kitchen at the end of the night gives me great peace.

Don’t put off till tomorrow, what you can do today. I make a real effort to not put off things. I consider what is important right now and where my focus should be. I value my connections with family and friends, my health and my personal growth so I ensure I spend time on these areas. Any five-minute jobs or things that I can get done today means a lighter load for tomorrow. I do allow for white space and doing things for myself however, I like to keep on top of things and cross off as many things on my to-do list as possible.

Use alarms as reminders. I must take a tablet each day. Without an alarm, I would easily forget. Just having faith, you will remember by instinct, has never worked for me. I’m a busy person with a lot on my mind, so I have set up an alarm to go off each day at the same time to remember to take my tablet. I set alarms, not just for taking medicines but also to remind me to do other things such as to take my lunch break (or I’m tempted to work through), as well as to look at my photos for my daily exposure therapy task. I do not want to sabotage myself and my health.

Everything has a place, return it there. Putting things back in their place at home saves a lot of time, stress and hassle. It does take time to return something to where you got it from but this time pays off in the end. For next time you need it, it will be right where you returned it to. So much valuable time is wasted looking for misplaced items or otherwise, money is wasted buying a replacement because you don’t have time to look for it.  It is as simple as putting your car and house keys in the same place every time you enter the house. Valuable item such as your birth certificate, passport and Will benefit from being kept in a safe place, you just have to remember now where you put it.

I have found that by changing certain behaviours, you can make a real difference to your life and achieve your true potential. Do you have your own life rules? What are some things you try to live by in order to set up good habits and live your best life? Or is there one of the above rules you would like to try out. Feel free to add your comments below and add to the conversation.