Essential Lifestyle Habits: 5 That You Can Start Today

Essential Lifestyle Habits – Why?

Why are essential lifestyle habits so important?

Habits are are important because they become the cornerstone of our routines. Lifestyle is anything that relates to how you live your day to day life. Outside of exercise and nutrition.

Lifestyle habits combined then becomes the everyday habits that you complete to live life. Reflecting on these habits can be a way to increase your health and performance. Also once these factors are improved we can see fantastic changes in body composition.

Today we are going to look at some habits that you can easily implement today

ESSENTIAL LIFESTYLE HABITS – 5 TO START TODAY

SLEEP

It is well accepted that sleeping 7-8 hours per night is what will be best for your health. Therefore you would think that such an accepted fact would be easy to implement. Unfortunately, too many people suffer from ‘futureselfitis’ where you place the consequences of your current actions on your future self.

Short-term we know that turning up to work having less than 7 hrs of sleep is like turning up inebriated from the night before. Long-term lack of sleep has been linked to any manner of conditions such as obesity. For an amazing resource on the subject check out Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker

#1 Habit: Create a sleep routine and aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night

RELATIONSHIPS

You end up being the sum parts of the 5 people you hang around with the most. That is because humans are social creatures who are at their best when part of a community. Look at the people who you hang around with and do they allow you to the best version of yourself. Do they have a positive impact on how you view things and what you look to achieve?

Dr Jordan Peterson has a fantastic book 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote To Chaos and while you may not agree with him on all of his opinions. He has fantastic advice on relationships. Our next habit comes from one of his rules

#2 Habit: Make friends with people who want the best for you

BALANCE

We all end up chasing balance in our life and there are definitely several areas that we have to cover. These include though not limted too

• Business/Career
• Finances
• Health
• Family and Friends
• Romance
• Personal Growth
• Fun & Recreation
• Physical Environment

Just looking at that now I can feel a bit of overwhelm myself. The really cool part is though you don’t have to focus on everything at once. Importantly that is why as your priorities change and passions some things will be more important than others. A really great tool to understand how you think balance is going in your life the “Wheel of Life”

If you google the term several pages come up. I personally use it as a simple reference point to see how I think each area is going out of /10.

#3 Habit: Take an overview of your life and find a balance between what is important and what is not

SELF-REFLECTION

One of the best habits I implemented in 2017 was starting to keep a journal. Mainly because one day it dawned on me I was getting so much success keeping a journal for weights and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Why not implement the same things for my thoughts, dreams, fears and ambitions.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy and there is no need to write in it every day. All I do is take note each month of the things  that happen that I think will be good for self-reflection and growth.

#4 Habit: Use a journal to reflect on your thoughts, dreams, fears and ambitions

WORKING TOWARDS SOMETHING

The moment I started living was the moment I looked ahead and set goals and dreams for myself. From being a lost 20 year old who had left school and had no direction. My first goal was to get a profession I loved and I became a personal trainer. Fast forward to now I am 32 years old and still setting goals and ambitions for myself that scare me.

Make a habit of creating the bigger picture for yourself and what you are working towards. This is one of the greatest habits you can implement right now with some careful thought and consideration.

#5 Habit: Understand what you are working towards in the bigger picture for most things

ESSENTIAL LIFESTYLE HABITS – IN CLOSING

I hope the habits that we went through are things that you can implement today, to recap we covered

1. Create a sleep routine and aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night
2. Make friends with people who want the best for you
3. Take an overview of your life and find a balance between what is important and what is not
4. Use a journal to reflect on your thoughts, dreams, fears and ambitions
5. Understand what you are working towards in the bigger picture, for most things

Take time and consideration on each one and start with the one that is most important to you.

If you need help with your journey we would love to help you