Men. Intelligent.™

 

Challenge #23

 

Don’t start before completing Challenge #22.
If you want to join the IntelliMen Project, start from Challenge #1.

 

Challenge: Adopt a new, good habit.

Explanation: We are so dependent on habits that it is practically impossible to eliminate a bad habit without substituting it with another habit – preferably a good one. In the previous challenge you worked on eliminating a bad habit. How are you doing? If you have succeeded, chances are you have been able to exchange your bad habit for a good one. If you have failed, chances are you need to adopt a good habit to replace the bad one.

We can never have too many good habits. The more we have, the better off we will be. Successful people have very different habits than mediocre people. That’s why your challenge this week is to identify a good habit that will bring you results, and develop it until it becomes a part of you. This normally takes 21 to 40 days.

In order to identify the new habit that you will adopt, think about what you want to achieve. Then think about the habits that you will need to reach those goals. For example, a person that wants to pay off his debts and never be in debt again, will need a few new habits, which include: keeping track of expenses, avoiding impulsive shopping, living a simpler life, making sure to have money left over at the end of the month, avoiding credit cards, only using cash, among other things.

If someone wants to be the best student in their class or school, they will have to develop a couple new habits to achieve this. The same goes for the man who wants to be an excellent husband or father – or the man who wants to be a man of faith who is spiritual and close to God.

Think about what you want, and ask yourself: “What new habits do I need to develop to reach this dream?” You’ll probably identify more than one habit, but choose one to begin with (later on you can work on the other ones.) From there, begin to work on this habit every single day. A habit is something we do repeatedly, 100% of the time, always, no exceptions. For example, if you want to create the habit of waking up early, you have to program your alarm for that time and wake up immediately, it doesn’t matter how sleepy you are or what time you got to bed the night before. (This discipline will teach you to get to sleep earlier, creating then another good habit.)

Remember, use your brain to outsmart your bad habits. Do things that force you to practice the good habit; don’t leave yourself any other option. For instance, to wake up early, putting your alarm clock on the other side of the room will force you to get up to turn it off, instead of simply reaching out your hand to turn it off and go back to sleep…

Whenever you lose heart, remember your goal, and remind yourself that you need this habit to achieve it. Persist. Start over if you fail. Forty days passes by quickly… but the rewards will last a lifetime!

Notebook: Write the goals you want to accomplish and list the habits you will need for it. Write down the habit you have chosen and what you will do every day to develop it.

Official Partner: Speak to your partner about the challenge. Talk about the good habit and identify what you decided to do in order to develop it.

Deadline: You may begin working on this task immediately and complete it within a week. Then go on toChallenge #24.

Post: After – and only after – you have completed the challenge, post your comments – on the IntelliMenWorld Facebook or Twitter page, (not on your own page) and write the following:

IntelliMen Challenge #23 done: I began to develop a new, good habit. (Add more comments if you want.)

Links:
www.facebook.com/IntelliMenWorld
www.twitter.com/intellimenworld (when tweeting, use @intelliMenworld)

 

Verification Checklist:

☐ I identified the goal I want and the new habits which I need to reach it
☐ I chose a good habit to develop
☐ I took notes in my Notebook
☐ I spoke to my Partner about the challenge
☐ I posted my comments in Facebook/Twitter

 

Reflection:

We are what we repeatedly do. – Aristóteles