Habits & Rituals

I love Elliot Hulse's stuff!

Watch this!

My wife is always losing her keys… and, well, pretty much most of her stuff (cell phones, books, DVDs, etc.)… on the other hand… I don’t… I know where my stuff is…

And it drives her crazy!

See, in our marriage, she is the "organized" one… the planner… the process person - if you have to move or have a yard sale or do a fundraiser… she is THE person you want. In fact, her career was process development, change management, and continuous process improvement systems. She consulted for years in both "white collar" and "blue collar" environments. She is pretty much amazing at her job.

And yet… "Madame Organization" can't find her keys… (I love it!)

And what really frustrates her is my stuff never gets lost (UNLESS SHE BORROWS them… but I wont go there)… because I have created a ritual around where my "stuff" goes and if I don’t put things in their spot I just know that something is not right… by creating a ritual I have removed clogging my conscious brain with lots of meaningless info…

So, all of this stuff - these rituals play into my work and my workouts. And now, instead of my "opinion" there is some science to it… Form a Habit!

Make it a habit. Create a ritual! Take it out of the "conscious" space and put it in the "sub"conscious or "un"conscious and take "will power" OUT of the equation. I'm reading a great book about food and nutrition called "The Foodist" - by Darya Pino Rose - you should buy it here… she is a neuro-scientist who happens to love food and has done some interesting work on why we eat what we eat… the choices we make… our "will power". It is fascinating and very helpful in the world of nutrition and food… but the same principles can be applied to creating a habit out of anything.

I don’t care what anyone says… workouts and working out regularly is not easy or simple… you don’t just have the gene to enjoy it or not… it takes discipline to get to the gym, I don’t care who you are… but as it is now a habit for me, NOT going puts me just out of sorts and I have to go! In fact, the willpower has to kick-in when I need to make my body take a break to recover…


Learn to make HABITS and RITUALS of the things you say you WANT - your life will change…

Awesome Article here, too!