Intentions vs. Reality

Most people have great intentions. We intend to be happy, work hard, and live an amazing life. However, intentions are not always reality. We let feelings get in the way of reality and an amazing life. Very few people intend to sabotage themselves. Nobody intends to break a New Year’s diet in the first week of January. Nobody intends to sabotage their marriage.

Gratification

Human beings seek gratification. Part of having disciplined habits is being able to understand that positive habits don’t pay off right away and negative habits pay off almost immediately. For example, putting a cookie in your mouth, taking a sip of a cocktail after work, or turning on the television is immediately satisfying. On the other hand, going to the gym, reading a book, or any other positive habits take time to reap rewards. If you go to the gym and eat healthy, you might not see any results for a couple of weeks. You may even feel sore after the first few workouts or feel hungry for the first couple of days.

Whether it is to put that cookie in our mouth, whether to have that tough conversation, whether or not to pick up the remote or a book, whether or not to hit the snooze button. Anytime you are faced with moments of indecision, counting down from five and taking the right action prevents the brain from coming up with excuses as Mel Robins writes in her book The 5 Second Rule.

The fact is that having amazing habits and routines is challenging. When you have a challenging day, it’s more difficult to have positive habits. Most habits occur without us thinking about them. When we become more intentional about our habits and replace our habits with more positive ones, we have to work our brain in different ways. Your feelings are always going to be a powerful factor in your everyday life. Human beings are always going to come up with reasons why you should not take positive actions because the instant gratification can be here now.

While it’s true that part of an everyday life is having positive habits and routines, it can be one of the most challenging parts of an amazing life.