One summer, when I was a youngster for those three months, I would wake and start my day memorizing a new bible verse. Over time I was able to recite from memory a good deal. Believe me, when I say it wasn't easy as at first, I was reluctant to do it, looking for a way out of it, or sometimes I didn't feel like it at all. My incentive to doing it was the church my family attended at that time its Sunday school was running a contest awarding the student who could memorize the most scripture would win a new bike. That as a driving force helped, and through as it turned out, I realized something compelling even at that young age.
I am sure you may be thinking this post will be something on spirituality or religion, being I mentioned memorizing bible scripture, but you'd be wrong. The thing I'd like to talk about is the power of creating habits. I know we all have habits because they are sometimes easily made, yet it can be hard to break once they become a part of our lives. In this piece, though, I want to focus on how habits can improve our lives and become our best versions.
The key I found in the book Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield another book I'd recommend reading and have done a book review on that you can find here BOOK REVIEW. In the book, Steven Pressfield talks about habits in this way.
"The difference between an amateur and a professional is in their habits. An amateur has amateur habits. A professional has professional habits. We can never free ourselves from habits. The human being is a creature of habit. But we can replace bad habits with good ones. We can trade in the habits of the amateur and the addict for the practice of the professional and the committed artist or entrepreneur."
Even another way to look at habits comes from the author of Atomic Habits, James Clear. I have yet to read this book but have watched a TED talk with James Clear, and he described habits as votes for the type of person you'd like to become.
So in a sense, if you want to be athletically fit, the right votes to achieving that would be eating right and training in some specific way to attain the results you seek. If you wanted to be a writer, reading and writing regularly, if not daily, would be the votes set forth to achieve that.
Furthermore, over time your results may vary due to the level at which you did them. Were you the amateur, or were you the professional? Did you take days off? Did you only do them when you felt like it? Or did you do them regardless, day in and day out, when you felt good and when you didn't?
These minor details are vital to forming habits that produce the best outcomes. And the most rewarding results come with taking a professional mindset and seeing them through. These books discussed here are great reads with tons more ideas on creating habits that help develop you.
My point to sum this all up is that no matter what you are looking to achieve in your life, the essential thing you can do is create habits that will help you move in that direction. And by sticking to them as a professional will further put the odds in your favor, the outcome will be all you desired.
As for that scripture-memorizing contest so many years ago, I am proud to say I won, beating out the pastor's son by sticking to my plan. I didn't get the bike, though, as I opted for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, a big deal back in the day. I hope this article has been helpful to you somehow; thanks for stopping in. God bless, and I will see you on the flip side ...Let's GO!!!
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