What are you married to…

Ok, maybe not married to, but fully committed to?
 
What gets you up, out of bed in the morning and motivated to get going?
 
For me today, it was the start of my marathon training (Ok, the 14 week programme officially starts Monday but I thought I’d get a head start and dust off some cobwebs with a run around Gretna Green so come Monday I can hit the ground…err...running!).
 
What I’ve also realised is that I am so committed to learning and continuous improvement that it is without question or hesitation that I listen to an audio book whilst on my run. This morning I started re-listening to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
 
This habit I have formed is great and starting the day with a run and an audio book definitely sets me up for the day. And that’s all this is, a habit that I’ve formed.
 
So what can you start each morning that will set you up to have an effective, productive day that you can form into a habit? What Morning Routine can you form?
 
Apparently, the average amount of days to form a habit is 66 days. I would guess that this varies hugely dependant on the level of commitment and enjoyment of the task. I found it very easy to start and continue to listen to audible and learn. Why? I’d been highly recommended to start listening to audio books (I was enrolled), it was using up no extra time and I enjoyed the first book I listened to.
 
On a side note, I recently started to track my habits using an app called… ‘Habits’! It’s user friendly with widgets you can put on the home screen of your smart phone to easily tick off when you’ve done them. Is anyone using a different app to track habits and how have you found it?
 
Anyway, back to commitment and what are you married to?
 
In business, I found that:
 

• I wasn’t committed to building a huge property portfolio
• I wasn’t committed to turning over a high amount in eCommerce sales
• I AM committed to creating businesses that continue to profit without me

 
The realisation of the true commitment in what you do and why you do it can help drive you on to reach your goals, and having the commitment in line with your values will make it easier to keep working at it day to day until you get there.
 
Creating businesses, that eventually do not need me in order to run, link to my values of family, freedom and travel – without the businesses needing my constant input gives me the freedom to spend time with my family and travelling. Planning out my 4 hour work week and structuring how I’ll get there, keeps me on track, motivated and in tune with my commitment and goals.
 
So, link your commitments to your values, get “married” to the idea, link those to goals that drive you, create an empowering context around the whole thing, and go out there and achieve it.
 
Thanks again for reading and have a great week,
 
Steve