Simple Sustainable Sovereign

These habits will change your life in a positive way by boosting your productivity and resilience.

Why do we need habits?

I love habits. When I create a new habit and stick with it consistently, I not only find that my life runs more smoothly, but I also feel a greater sense of assurance in my ability to truly thrive. The way I see it, habits are a huge part of living simply, sustainably, and sovereignly. For me, maintaining this type of lifestyle means living your daily life in a way that can continue to flow, without breaking down and falling apart. Habits are vital in accomplishing this.

We all have habits, both conscious and unconscious, and these either have a positive or negative impact on our lives. If we live unconsciously and follow detrimental or unsustainable habits, life will begin to feel confusing and overwhelming. However, if we intentionally cultivate and practice simple and sustainable habits, I find that we can move through moments of  stress with more ease and peace. This is not to say that life will never feel complicated, but cultivating sustainable habits like those listed below will help to create more stability and openness when the need for change does arise.

5 Habits that have changed my life:

Here are five life-changing habits that will increase your productivity and assist you in cultivating a life that is easily adapted to both the big changes and the small daily stressors.

Habit #1: If it will take you five minutes or less, do it now.

This habit is ridiculously simple but has had an overwhelmingly positive effect in keeping me motivated to accomplish the little jobs in life. 

If you’ve finished your ice cream and you put the bowl in the sink, don’t just leave it there for later, wash it up now. If there’s a couple of other dishes sitting in there, wash those up too. When you change out of your clothes for the day, don’t throw them on the floor or the chair, either toss them in the hamper or hang them up. If you use the last of the toilet paper, put on a new roll. When you take off your shoes, put them in the closet. Unload the car as soon as you get home. Feed the dog when the bowl is empty. 

I used to find myself avoiding these small tasks, which just caused them to stack up and feel overwhelming. However, by simply adopting the above habit, I accomplish small tasks much faster and spend significantly less time thinking about them, which creates more time for the more important things.

Habit #2: If you’re thinking about it, act on it.

Everyday we have a myriad of thoughts coming to our minds. If we don’t do something about them, we either forget them, which can have a negative impact later; or we continue to think about them, which creates a mental burden. I used to spend a lot of time doing this, but eventually I got sick of the pattern and decided to do my best to adopt a Nike-like slogan of “just do it”. 

Thinking about a friend you should reach out to? Pick up the phone. Did you remember you need to buy more flour? Put it on the grocery list. Did you just open a text? Send a quick response. 

Now, obviously not everything we think can or should be acted on immediately, but by acknowledging your thoughts when they come up, either by acting on them or writing them down to act on later, you clear up mental clutter which paves the way for a better flow throughout your day. 

Habit #3: Stick to a routine, not a schedule.

Having a schedule works very well for some people, but many find it to be unsustainable because of the reality that life is always shifting. When I am trying to follow a set schedule but find myself failing to do so, I experience significantly more stress throughout my day. However, having no order in my daily tasks does not work well for me either, as I end up forgetting things or taking significantly longer to accomplish them. This is where I find having a routine to be extremely helpful, as it keeps me motivated and accountable to complete tasks, but removes the stress I experience from the rigidity of a schedule.

Routines are easily formed by writing down all the tasks you’d like to accomplish, deciding on their order, and then beginning to practice moving from one thing to the next in sequence. You may not always follow it perfectly, but by setting yourself up with a routine that flows from one task to the next and is easy to remember, you will be more efficient and better able to sustain your productivity.

Habit #4: Don’t miss more than one day in a row.

This is a habit that pertains to making habits. It’s a pretty simple rule that allows for grace when life gets in the way of our best intentions, but helps you to regroup and refocus so that your past shortcomings don’t impede future progress.

If you’ve ever tried to create a new habit in your life, you may have noticed that when you miss one day it is difficult to start up again. We so quickly lose the motivation to try again because it feels like we have already failed. This is where having a mentality where starting again is not just okay, but required, will make a huge difference. For me this looks like making a habit of not missing more than one day in a row. Forget to go on your daily walk? That’s okay, but prioritize it tomorrow. Couldn’t find the motivation to read today? Okay, just make sure that it gets done tomorrow. 

This habit, like all others, really only helps if you commit to it, but when you do it is powerful in helping you to make sustainable change and practice resilience. 

Habit#5: Focus on one change at a time.

In our culture today, we are constantly bombarded with information about the many things we should either start or stop doing. It’s often an overload of information, but it can be tempting to try to make positive changes as quickly as possible. It may seem like the best way to get results is to start all of your positive new habits immediately, but making multiple lifestyle changes at one time is not a healthy or sustainable way to make modifications. In fact, doing so will probably cause you to feel overwhelmed and give up. Instead, by choosing to implement just one habit or lifestyle change at a time, you will be better able to integrate these shifts and see more results over the long term. 

That said, the incongruity of encouraging you to only make one change at a time while providing you with a list of multiple habits is not lost on me. If I were you, I’d start by choosing one that resonates with you and trying it out in your daily life. If it works for you, great! Maybe choose another to start integrating. If it doesn’t, that’s okay too. It’s important to follow your intuition and try out new ideas so that you can find what is most functional for where you are at in life. 

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There you have it, five habits that have changed my life. I hope you find they do the same for you.

What are some intentional habits that you have? I’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment down below and let me know.

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