Habits: 25 small habits, to improve wealth, health and happiness

by Manoj Chenthamarakshan

Furthermore, writing your mind down helps in keeping you on top of your memory game longer.

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” - Brian Tracy

The secret to achieving anything that matters most to you is making an effort to write down your goals.

When you write down your goals, you are forced to choose something specific and determine what you want.

Jotting down your goals is just the beginning. It is important to articulate your intention but that is not enough. You have to execute on your goals. You have to take action.

The more success you get, the more opportunities come your way. As a matter of fact, such new opportunities can become distractions real quick that draw you off the course.

Each important dream, intention, or objective comes across as resistance. From that moment you set a goal and write it down, you’ll start feeling it. If you, however, focus on the resistance, it only becomes stronger. The best way to overcome it is by looking at the written goal; that thing you really want.

Life is hard, but it gets worse when you cannot see any progress. This is where you feel as if you are working yourself to death, moving nowhere. However, written goals are much like highway mile-markers. They assist you to see how far you’ve come and the far you have to go. They also give you a chance to celebrate when you accomplish them.

“Visualization is the human being's vehicle to the future - good, bad, or indifferent. It's strictly in our control.” - Earl Nightingale

By gazing at the vision board on a daily basis, you make your subconscious realize what your goals are.

The simple act of having a space where you have displayed what you want somewhat brings it to life. When you have a vision board in a place where you can see it often, makes you to take action to achieve your goals.

“The law of attraction is forming your entire life experience and it is doing that through your thoughts. When you are visualizing, you are emitting a powerful frequency out into the Universe.”

The so-called Shiny Object syndrome is real. You begin with good intentions and sooner or later, something appears and steals your attention and all of a sudden, you are doing that thing instead. A vision board is bound to keep you focused; it assists you to remain on course when something else is vying for your attention.

When you create a vision board, you include images and words that inspire you.

On those difficult days when you are experiencing a lot of discouragement, only a vision board can remind you of how you felt when your levels of hope were soaring and nothing felt unmanageable.

Gazing on your vision board can act as a catalyst to fire up your motivation and keep you from getting stuck and going forward.

Gazing on it every now and then offers the incentive to take action to reach this goal.

“Motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.” - John C Maxwell

A to-do list puts all your tasks in one place and from there, you can be able to prioritize them and tackle the important ones first.

This helps you focus on those items that are most important

With to-do lists, you are better able to follow up on things you have set out to do. Such lists let you mark off the activities you’ve completed and at the end of the day, looking at the list gives you a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

When you make it a routine to write, you get to understand what makes you confident and happy.

A habit of writing about sadness, anger and other emotions that can cause pain to you assists in freeing the intensity of such feelings.

self-affirmations are statements that you would tell yourself with an aim to spark self-change.

“It’s not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the most power.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Affirmations are basically more than just self-help statements to make yourself feel better. They can have a great impact on the overall quality of your life. Regular affirmations let you become more in tune with your thoughts and how you think about yourself.

“The nap is a sort of easy version of meditation.” - Tom Hodgkinson

Napping basically improves your working memory; this is the kind of memory that is typically involved in working on intricate tasks where you have to focus on one thing as you hold many other things in your memory. Napping also boosts your retention of memory.

Serotonin, the neurotransmitter we’ve already seen invoked in various habits also plays a role here as a mood and sleep regulator. You know that it offers a feeling of contentment and well-being. When our bodies get stressed out, we have higher levels of serotonin being used rapidly and the production of more getting blocked.

Drinking a lot of water tends to delay hunger pangs, reduces the cravings that occur randomly and increases the body’s metabolism.

Getting enough hydration prevents blood clots that can easily jeopardize the supply of oxygen in your body. It also ensures the excess salt is excreted from the body and blood pressure is normalized to reduce the risk of suffering

Your skin is the largest organ you have. Taking water regularly improves your skin’s texture and elasticity.

Water ensures the cartilage around the joints is kept soft and hydrated. When the cartilage is hydrated, your joints are better able to move with ease.

Besides causing muscle fatigue, lack of water leads to headaches, not to mention reducing the capacity of the brain

regular walking slowly modifies your entire nervous system so intensely that you get to experience a reduction in feelings of hostility and anger.

While exercise is good for the brain, walking, in particular, is great when it comes to boosting your memory.

taking regular brisk walks can slow down a shrinking brain and the waning of mental skills usually brought about by old age.

moderately paced walks taking about 30 minutes each day can increase the number of immune system cells in the body.

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”

Morning questionnaire: How am I going to make the most of my day? What is the agenda for the day? Did I meditate and exercise? What are the top 3 priorities of the day? How would I celebrate once it is accomplished?

Night Questionnaire: Did I have fun today? How effective was I today? What did I learn today? How can I be more effective tomorrow?

"If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough." - Meister Eckhart

The message is very clear. When you neglect or forget to say thank you, you are perceived as being rude, and not only does it annoy and upset people around you, it makes you look bad.

Make sure you appear sincere by making eye contact. Smile In a friendly voice, try speaking the words clearly. Don’t mutter. Tell the person what you are thanking them for (be specific)

Sitting has been linked to problems usually associated with sedentary lifestyles such as poor metabolic health, increased risk of heart disease as well as cognitive and memory loss.

“Be mindful of your self talk. It's a conversation with the universe.” - David James Lees

When you talk through your thoughts, it can be really beneficial to your cognitive functioning and memory, and your physical and mental health, just to mention a few.

Therefore, when you get frazzled up and need a motivational pep talk, you could consider giving it either in the third or second person, which can help you look at the situation from an objective, logical perspective instead of an emotional, subjective one.

talking to yourself about what you are doing can make you stay focused.