[bctt tweet=”Creating new habits and breaking the ones that no longer serve us should be top of mind in any role, especially when leading others.” username=”Renee_Giarrusso”]
There has been a hive of interest – a resurgence, on the topic of habits and one of my favourite books this year, Atomic Habits by James Clear has had a bit to do with this.
James puts a fresh perspective on habits. He has bought in new and old methodology of understanding how habits work and the importance of creating small changes that can lead to big results and shifts in any area of your life.
All habits, good or bad, are made up of 4 parts. This concept was devised by Charles Duhigg, who wrote a brilliant book many years ago called The Power of Habits.
The Recipe
If we look at habits a bit like the ingredients in a cake, there is a four-step pattern – four ingredients, needed to bring a habit to life. Just like a cake, if one ingredient is missing, such as the raising agent, the cake won’t rise.
Understanding these steps or recipe if you like, is vital in order to peel the layers off and identify the root cause of many of the things we do and think – our habits.
Habits help us focus on our lifestyle or what James Clear calls ‘the system', instead of just focusing on the end goal.
[bctt tweet=”Real change can happen by focusing on being 1% better each day as all habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” username=”Renee_Giarrusso”]
The Cue (trigger)
- This is what triggers your brain to initiate a behaviour. It is usually linked to a
certain time, place, person, emotional state or a pre-event
The Craving
- This is what fuels the habit, the motivation.
The Response
- This is the actual habit itself.
Reward
- What the habit gives you the output of the response.
[bctt tweet=”In order to change any habit you need to know what triggers it and look at changing your response to it.” username=”Renee_Giarrusso”]
I believe if you are looking at creating new habits or changing old ones, it all starts with self-leadership. By creating the right habits to serve you, you are setting yourself up to be the best you can be.
We have been busy running a plethora of workshops and masterclasses delving into the eight key areas of Whole Self-Leadership and creating habits and skills to optimise success in each of the areas. One of the key areas of the eight that has been a common focus is that of Personal growth.
[bctt tweet=” When not developing yourself, how can you give, share and add value to others?” username=”Renee_Giarrusso”]
Lack of time, focus and a conscious effort to develop yourself can lead you to being ineffective by not adding value, growing yourself and above all not creating your own thought leadership and building your knowledge base.
Key tips to build personal growth habits:
Align your priorities with your values and goals
Make sure what you are looking to grow in is relevant and aligned with what you need and where you are going. How will it serve you and your team/business?
Create a reading habit
Reading not only increases your knowledge base, but it also helps you learn new words, create thought leadership and actually grows your brain and memory function. Knowledge is power, and sharing what you learn can evoke thought and conversation in others.
Adopt a bursting mindset
By believing you can grow and continue to improve yourself, you are opening the space to be receptive. Never stop learning and educating yourself.
Get a Coach or a Mentor
Find someone who will challenge and grow you and is honest and invested in your success. Recent ICF studies showed that 70% of the executives receiving regular formal coaching experienced improved work performance, and 72% said it directly impacted their communication skills in a positive way.
Know your learning style
We all have a preferred learning style, be it visual, hands-on or by listening. Know what works for you so you can be as receptive as possible to learning.
The world is your oyster when it comes to learning. Read real books, listen to Podcasts, Skype or Zoom in to webinars, and attend face-to-face meetings and association events. Choose what works but make sure it's relevant!
Create 2 new habits
Using the below prompters create 2 new habits to accelerate your personal growth.
Ask yourself:
- What is the habit I’m going to create/change?
- What is the trigger for this habit?
- When this trigger occurs, I will?
- What will my reward be?
As always I would love to hear what comes up for you.
Lead to be Limitless
If this article has resonated with you in any way – I’d love to hear your thoughts – get in touch. Being in service to my clients is why I do what I do, and your feedback, insight and any suggestions are always embraced.
Find out where you sit on the Leadership Ladder, your responses are anonymous, and the results summarised to help us better understand where our market sits so that we can continue to provide, insights, tools and solutions to assist you to move up to be LIMITLESS, co-creative and stand out.
Renée is a mentor, coach, expert facilitator and keynote speaker. She is the author of ‘Limitless Leadership’ and co-author of ‘Leaders of Influence’.
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