The Art of Forming Habits for Successful People

Last time you wanted to form a new habit, did your smash it or did it smash you? The culture around goals and habits is backwards. It’s a real challenge for most people to start drinking more water or getting a fitness routine in place, why do we think we can triple our income or scale our business in three months?

From my experience over 15 years running Bloom Business Development, here are a few words of wisdom from my business coaching vault that will actually support you to reach those bigger goals in a way you feel good about and don’t get burnt out in the process.

Here are five tactics for forming that new habit to spark change and lead a more authentic life and business.

Tactic #5 ~ Think smaller

Of course the end goal is to do incredible things and make more money, but as the saying goes, every marathon starts with the first step. Just like the front door feels like the heaviest weight at the gym, your aspirations for your business can feel too big to be actionable. A habit needs a few core elements, you can read more about that on my blog detailing the anatomy of a habit here. Keeping it easy to do, is at the top of the list.

Rather than committing to reading a business book every month, start smaller. Commit to placing a book in a place where you’ll actually pick it up and have time to read. If you’re really keen to create space for reading, reducing screen time has a way of increasing meaningful connection. Storing the remote control for your tv in a drawer is an easy and effective first step. If you’re A Type and really want to go for it, I know of people who position their furniture so it fosters conversation, resulting in that meaningful connection and rich memories.

Anchor tiny new habits to an existing habit; for example, commit to reading during lunchtime and pick up your book to read one page during lunch. Or maybe you want to watch a Ted Talk over lunch, so your new habit is to open the Ted app after you sit down for a meal. That is such a low barrier action, it’s hard to talk yourself out of it and once it’s open, you are primed to consume some engaging content.

Actionable steps will take you where you need to go, not big salacious goals that overwhelm you.

Tactic #4 ~ Habits are all about doing

What you do today becomes what you do everyday. If you’re constantly stressed, distracted and worrying, this forms undesirable patterns of behaviour and ultimately become part of your personality.

When thinking about entrepreneurship and how to scale your business and run a business that doesn’t run you, what kind of leader, practitioner, boss, listener, mentor, parent, friend and partner do you want to be? How you are being informs what you are doing each day. Getting clarity on the values and non-negotiables for how you run your organization, lead your team or handle client files changes everything. You’re in charge of how you spend your precious time and attention, what do you need to start saying yes and no to as you bring your habits into alignment?

Tactic #3 ~ Get curious

In moments of stress, doubt or tension, check-in with yourself and ask, “What would a confident {fill in the blank} do in this situation?” So often, clients create even more incredible business models, opportunities, collaborations and outcomes by checking in with their inner wisdom and staying true to their North Star. Personally, in the years after motherhood when I was coming back from putting everyone else’s needs first, I would ask myself, “What would a man do?” It was a powerful centering question that allowed me to say no without explaining, delegate with greater ease and realize how much I was doing that I wasn’t giving myself credit for.

Tactic #2 ~ Celebrate the small stuff

Working with so many business owners, I see how we climb a huge mountain, and rather than celebrating the monumental strides, we’re already casting our gaze on the next summit without a moment of celebration. Research is showing that just like mindset and gratitude hardwire change, celebration is the next big thing in optimizing habits and behaviour.

If celebrating your efforts makes you uncomfortable or feels silly, you’re not alone. Yet, the power of taking a moment to celebrate cannot be ignored as science proves that neorons that fire together, wire together. Whether you give yourself a silent “atta girl” or get down with a dance break, celebrating your win in the moment hardwires habits into your brain, laying down new neural pathways.

Tactic #1 ~ Delegate for the win

If you want to stay small in your business, keep doing everything yourself. When you invest in professionals, as your clients do in you, you are freeing up time to work on your business. Great places to start are platforms to automate systems, cleaners, bookkeepers, admin support, social media assistance and for the parents, increasing your kids chores and being okay when things are done imperfectly.

The time you spend on these tasks is then re-directed into clarity, creativity, mindfulness, business development, revenue producing tasks and streamlining your operations to be truly profitable. And by truly profitable, I mean money in the bank and fuel in your tank. Your brain is operating in its most optimized state for the first three hours of the day, and that is a great time for what I refer to as CEO Time. Block it off on your calendar and decide in advance what you will do during that time. This idea that hard work + suffering = success is just plain WRONG.

Having an expert by your side to collaborate on your business development and help you avoid the pitfalls above is essential. Check out my Private Coaching here.

Onwards & upwards,

Your Coach,