Mirrors and Bridges
Coaching, Training & Organizing
3 Ways to Make Habits Stick
Have you ever reached the end of the year wondering why you could not reach some of your goals? Me too. That is why I am committed to making this year the most productive year of my life. And you can too. Join me as we learn the tools needed to make habits stick and crush our goals every time. This simple, three step process has made all the difference in my life.
Without structure or a framework, it will be easier to give up and give in to distractions. We cannot haphazardly throw our goals in the air and see what sticks.
So how do we make habits stick?
We schedule time to do these three things: reflect, plan and connect.
1. Reflect
In order to reach our goals, we need to take time to think. Take time to focus on our thoughts, desires, passions and identify what we want to accomplish. Reflection brings new ideas, purpose and buried dreams to the surface and helps weed out distractions.
- Reflection can include prayer & meditation. Spending time alone with God has made all the difference in my life and business.
- Reflection could include journaling our day, looking back on where we spend our time and seeing if what we did brought us closer to our goals.
2. Plan
After reflecting on how we spend our time and getting direction, we need to plan a course of action that gets us closer to achieving our goal. If we spent all day yesterday reading books (guilty as charged), hopefully today, we will take action on what we learned.
When I think of the goal achieving process and making habits stick, I think of gaps. There could be a learning gap, a resource gap, a skill or growth gap. We fill the gaps by planning time in our schedule to do tasks that move us closer to our goals.
- Plan according to energy levels and learning gaps. Adding new tasks and routines to our schedule requires more energy and time. A good rule of thumb is to remove two commitments for every new one.
- Plan for down time in our schedule and reward ourselves when we reach a goal. This helps to prevent burnout and encourages self-care.
3. Connect
Connecting to resources is crucial in making habits stick. Resources are the bridge we need to achieve our goals. The bridge represents our external walk, a pathway that crosses over barriers to a future destination.
- Resources could include learning new skills by taking a class or reading a book. Use the knowledge learned to break down your goal into tiny achievable steps.
- People are valuable resources. Participating in networking events or joining online groups geared to your profession (life coaching) or the personal results you want (organizing tips), will give you support as you navigate through the process to successfully achieve your goals.
Let’s reflect to see what is working and change what is not working, plan for learning gaps and our next steps and connect to resources that will get us quickly to our goals.
I am a certified life coach and organizational specialist and founder of Mirrors and Bridges – The Transformation Company. We transform your mental and physical spaces. We study your life or business and remove blocks that are keeping you from achieving your goals. We create systems to help you work more productively and effectively. We provide success tools and services that save time and money so that you can reflect, plan and connect to a better life.
If your life feels out of order, or if you don’t see the results you were hoping for, reach out to our company. We have different classes, resources and one on one coaching programs that can support your growth over the next year. Please check out our store or services to see which tools work best for your life and schedule a call today.
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I would love to know which tips you are interested in trying or have tried in the past to connect to your goals and make habits stick. Please let me know in the comment below.
Photo credits: Emma Matthews on Unsplash
5 Steps to promote new Growth
For new growth to happen, we need to cut or prune areas in our life that are no longer working.
Vocabulary.com says prune means to clip, crop, cut back, and weed out.
Removing dead, diseased or unproductive wood, strengthens the limbs and produces new growth.
This is in reference to a tree but can be applied to our life in areas where we need to prune.
When is the best time to prune?
- Prune during a dormant period.
Since we are in a dormant period locally and nationally, it is the perfect time.
- Prune when there is no growth.
Each time you make a cut, you stop growth in one direction and encourage it in another.
- Prune quickly anytime there is disease attacking the tree.
This is regarding our health in all areas of our life.
Pruning is crucial. What our life looked life prior to the beginning of the year, will not get us to the goals and dreams, God has placed in our hearts now.
The PRUNE process is an acronym and five step process to help us cut out the places that are not producing fruit or the results we desire to see come to pass.
- Purge – The P in Prune is for Purge
Remove excess and declutter (mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually). When we purge, we remove things that are not working and draining our time and energy. With each part of the process, continue to use them throughout the process. For example, we purge and take out what is not working from P to E in the process.
2. Reflect – The R in Prune is for Reflect.
The best tool that I have found for reflection is an online or journal notebook. During this part of the process, we need to answer some tough questions. What are we doing now that is working? What’s not working?
Cutting out some of the projects on our “to do list” that is no longer serving us, will help us to focus on our current commitments and promote growth.
3. Unbury – The U in Prune is for Unbury. Look for the root cause and fresh ideas.
Dig to find the root cause (what is causing us to be stuck) remove it (old plant that I planted) and seek out fresh ideas (collaboration with God and others). I have seen the root cause revealed within a few months, or years depending on the obstacle and how long it has been in my life.
4, Next Steps – The N in Prune is for Next Steps – Plan and Act.
Determine the next step we need to take to get closer to our goal of decluttering and organizing our life so that we can have new growth be able to successfully take on obstacles that come our way.
That is where Planning and Executing the plan comes into play.
We all organize and process information differently and what works for one person, may not necessarily work for another. Example: notebook vs online, visual abundance vs. visual simplicity.
5. Evaluate – The E in Prune is for Evaluate. Did it work? What changes need to be made? How much is it going to cost? All organizing systems take time to implement and need to be evaluated and maintained. The PRUNE process is circular and can be repeated in different areas of life and business.
We are all leaders. We all can influence others by our words and actions. As leaders, it is crucial that we take the time during this dormant season to go through the PRUNE process and examine our life and cut out what isn’t working, so that all is left is a healthy, organized life, ready to impact God’s kingdom and grow our business.
What tools have you tried that help you PRUNE and your goals? Comment Below.
Follow us to receive more success tools to organize your life and motivational content to help you reflect, plan and connect to the life of your dreams. (PRUNE Process worksheet download) https://mirrorsandbridges.com/
Sign up for a complimentary organizational or life coaching discovery session to determine areas where you need to declutter mentally or physically to promote growth. https://mirrorsandbridges.com/lets-connect/
Photo by Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash
5 Things to Consider Before Partnering With a Life Coach
Is hiring a Life Coach the best decision for you? Consider the purpose, benefits and investment of partnering with a coach.
The purpose of a life coach is to help you create a better life, one where you are actually able to accomplish your goals quicker and over time will develop life changing habits that will pay off in the future.
Many people have raved over the benefits, saying that their life coaches have been the catalyst for them to be able to finally achieve their goals.
If you are thinking of working with a life coach, consider the following points:
- You will have the opportunity to stretch beyond your comfort zone and learn new skills. If your life is the same as it was a few years ago, you’re either not learning new skills or not applying what you’ve learned and wishing will not get you the results you desire.
- Your life coach will get you from what you should be doing and what you want to be doing but can’t quite get yourself to do on your own.
- You get to design a better life and be who you have always wanted to be. Creating new habits takes time and can be overwhelming to try and figure everything out on our own.
- Coaches are great at getting you to choose what you want and can customize action plans that work for your individual learning style and strengths.
- You will develop a vision of a better life. Many of your challenges result from not taking the time to think before making decisions. You may take the first job offered to you or get into relationships that don’t add value. Your boundaries may not be defined or may be too weak.
- A coach will help you overcome these challenges and help you recognize when you are settling for less than the best.
- You will be held accountable. One reason this partnership works is because most of us hate letting other people down. It is easier to cancel an appointment and talk ourselves out of things if we are alone. It is another thing to cancel on someone who we were scheduled to meet.
- A coach will keep you focused on the tasks and will expect you to report your progress.
- You will identify other goals you didn’t even realize you had. Typically, a coach is hired for a specific area or reason. But through the coaching process, you’ll find other things that come up that need to be addressed. A coach will help you focus on other areas of your life and brainstorm ways to achieve your goals.
- A coach will help you unbury hidden dreams and remove obstacles from your past.
Do you recognize yourself in one or more of the points listed above?
Have you been trying to change your life but don’t know how?
If so, a life coach is likely to make a significant impact in your life.
On the other hand, if your life is exactly the way you want it, or you don’t have the time or money to invest into making big changes right now, a life coach might not be what you’re looking for.
Consider your desires and your ability to bring them about on your own.
If you feel you need someone to guide you and hold you accountable, partnering with a life coach might be one of the best decisions you’ve ever made.
Contact us today for a free discovery call and speak with a certified life coach.
We can’t wait to meet you and partner with you to help you achieve your goals and dreams.