Create One Great Habit a Month and Have a Great Year

You don’t need to have 100 good habits to make your life better. Just 12 habits are plenty to completely turn your life around.

Of course, it’s important to choose effective habits. The right habits put your success on autopilot. If you’re doing the right things each day, good things happen. It’s as certain as gravity.

Use this process to enhance your life one habit at a time:

1. Know your goals. You can’t choose the best habits to add to your life without knowing your goals. The best habits support your goals and make them much more likely to come to fruition. Make a list of your goals and prioritize them.
2. Make a list of all the habits that would aid in reaching those goals. Take a look at your most important goals and consider all of the habits that would help you to reach those goals. List every possible habit you can think of no matter how small it might be. We’re not judging them yet, so list them all.
3. Prioritize those habits. Some habits are far more effective than others. Take your list of habits and put them in order from most effective to least. Take as much time to do this as you need. Be honest with yourself. The most effective actions are often the least enjoyable.
   – Choose the 12 habits that will make the biggest impact in your life over the next year. Make sure that you have these 12 habits in a logical order that makes sense for you.
4. Make a plan. Start with the first habit and develop a plan for how you can implement it in 30 days. Let’s suppose that your first goal is to go to the gym each day for 45 minutes and alternate days between cardio and lifting weights. You might decide to proceed this way:
   – Day 1. Find a gym close to the house that is convenient for me and affordable.
   – Days 2-7. Go to the gym for at least 15 minutes. I’ll let myself do whatever I want when I get there.
   – Days 8-14. Go to the gym for at least 25 mins. At least half of that time must be spent on cardio.
   – And so on. Just be sure to be at full speed by day 30.
5. Start with only one goal. Keep it to one goal. It might seem more effective and much faster to put all the habits into action at once, but it works better, and the results are more long-lasting to do it one at a time. Twelve good habits over a year are life changing.
6. Put all of your energy and focus on that one goal. That one goal has to be a huge priority. This is your life you’re talking about. Be 100% determined to be successful this time.
7. Do it daily. Daily actions are easier to turn into habits that things you only do a few times a week.
8. Plan your energy. People often plan their time without considering their energy levels. For example, going to the gym in the morning is either much better or worse than going to the gym in the evening for you. Everyone is different.
   – Plan your time, but plan around your energy.
9. Keep your eye on the big picture. These habits might not be enjoyable in the short term. However, if you keep your attention on the benefits you’ll gain, it will make things easier.
10. Track your results. Track your results. You might be tracking pounds of body weight, dollars, pushups, or hours of piano practice. Tracking your results is motivating.

After 30 days, add another habit. Keep going until you’ve added all 12. Just 12 habits will make a huge difference. Instead of trying to change everything about your life at once, try tackling life one habit at a time. Which habit will you choose?