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If you’re looking to change yourself through habits, it’s essential to understand that habits are powerful tools for shaping your life trajectory, driven by the brain’s reward-seeking mechanisms. Here’s a breakdown of how to use habits to achieve personal growth and self-improvement: 

1. Understand how habits work

Habits follow a three-part loop: 

• Cue: This is the trigger that signals your brain to initiate the habit.
• Routine: This is the behavior itself.
• Reward: This is the positive feeling or reinforcement that encourages your brain to repeat the habit. 

2. Start small and focus on one habit at a time

Trying to change too many things at once can be overwhelming and lead to failure. Instead, focus on building one small, achievable habit at a time, such as meditating for a few minutes daily, before moving on to others. 

3. Identify triggers and create cues for your new habits

Find specific cues in your environment or routine that you can attach your new habit to. For instance, you could choose to meditate immediately after brushing your teeth in the morning. 

4. Make it fun and easy to repeat

Connect the new habit with something you enjoy or find appealing. Consider using temptation bundling, where you only allow yourself to enjoy an indulgence while performing the habit. To make it easier, remove obstacles and anticipate challenges, preparing solutions beforehand. 

5. Find the right kind of social support

Surround yourself with people who already embody the habits you want to cultivate. You can also leverage social support by sharing your goals and intentions with friends and family for accountability and encouragement. 

6. Track your progress and celebrate wins

Seeing your progress can be highly motivating. Use a journal, app, or simple chart to track your adherence to the new habit and celebrate milestones, big or small. According to My Best Self 101, you can use tools like the WOOP approach to track your efforts and notes on insights and lessons learned. 

7. Practice self-compassion and learn from setbacks

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of progress. Be kind to yourself when you experience setbacks and focus on what you can learn from them. Remember that it can take time to form new habits. 

Examples of habits for self-improvement

• Exercise regularly
• Practice mindfulness and meditation
• Read books or articles
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat healthy meals
• Get enough sleep
• Learn a new skill
• Cultivate positive relationships
• Journal or reflect on your day 

By consistently applying these principles and embracing the journey of building new habits, you can create lasting change and foster significant personal growth. 

Step 2 – Habits

Inventory your present Habits – make a list.

Decide Who You Want to be – Again, write under the label “The New Me”

Begin working on the list of habits you want to have.

Some possible Habits:

Watch TV every night before going to – or – after going to Bed.

Read your Bible at a particular time each day – Devotional time & Prayer

Snack – favorite food

Exercise routine

List as many as you can. It’s OK to add to the list as you work on other parts of the Plan.

IMPORTANT

Habits that you currently have cannot just be eliminated.

They must be replaced.

Habits have precursors – something that you do (or another person does) that triggers the brain/nervous system to respond in the habit way. These precursors must be re-trained to point to the new habit.

This takes time. Habits are easy to form – but difficult to change or undo.

Plan -in writing- your work with each habit and as you form new ones. You can select a new behavior/response to an old habit.

I recommend working with God through prayer and Bible study/devotional reading.

Family can be a benefit also.

As a couple or family talk about habits and goals for change.

Talk/ write to me about your plan and work progress.

Be careful what you read and watch on TV. The Devil is a crafty being that doesn’t want you to be successful in change.

What may be assumed to be the first step to take is:

Decide what the Better You will do differently than The Old You.

That seems to require an analysis of the current you.

Step 1

Buy several (at least 7) composition notebooks.

How do you spend your time? Is each day of the week pretty much the same?

Begin with one day of the week then repeat answering for each day.

Step 2

What skills do you currently have? List them in your notebook.

What skills do you want to have – different from current? List them in your notebook.

List the books you have read in the past 3 months.

Get a Library Card. Use it to find books to read. Librarians can be ver helpful in this process. Explain to him/her what you are doing (and Why).

Select one book to begin with. Label one of your composition books for that book.

As you read, take notes – keeping in mind that you want to become a “Better Me.”

Take one of your composition notebooks and label it “A Better Me Plan”.

It will take about 3 weeks of daily working/reading/writing in order to set up your habits that are aimed at the New You.

For most people it takes a repetition of about 15-21 days to establish new habits.

Part of Habit Building works better when you are working on a schedule – same time each day for the same amount of time.

If possible have a place where you will work. Routine helps to establish the new habits.

I get up each morning at the same time.

I have my study materials already in that place.

Notebooks and writing instruments in place so you don’t waste time searching for your materials.

Journal in one of your notebooks as you find special ideas and goals.

If you have a significant other who will enter this event with you: establish the roles that he/she will play. Ask for his/her support and encouragement.

Courage! Vision!

Welcome to the Eldon Roberts Blog, EldonUp, a home for you to embark on an extra-ordinary journey to the success you’ve always dreamed of achieving. We will battle against some of the conventional beliefs and practices found in Education today. On this adventure into your potential, we will focus on three areas: academic foundations, personal development, and professional achievement.

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Who is this?

I am an educator.

I entered the classroom for the first time as a student when I was seven. Fifteen years later I drove away from the college campus and entered the classroom as a teacher. Forty-eight years passed. Looking back it seems like last week that I began this journey. I had no intention of getting old and retiring.

My forty-eight years took me into a one-room-all-eight-grades experience, a few middle grades classrooms, elementary school administration, a few high school classrooms, two colleges as professor, a consolidated school (Pre-K thru 12^th), then back to a middle grade classroom. Most of these years I was on contract for 10 months of each year.

My areas of expertise: History, English, Bible, Math, Composition, Literature, technology, success for students-with-disabilities.

During the summer months, I obtained a Master’s Degree, worked construction, sales, CNA, traveled, and planned and wrote curriculum.

My wife and I have adopted and raised three children, been foster parents, and many times taken our consolidated family of seven kids camping.

As a teacher I was an early adopter of technology as instructional tools. I blogged with and for my students. I have created and maintained websites for instructional purposes and for personal interests.

I have created and blogged in the areas of Motivation, Opinion, Instructional Methodology, Poetry, Music, Philosophy, and Photography.

Three years ago I was forced into retirement. I had planned to continue teaching until I was 70. That was a dramatic blow to my ego.

After my retirement I worked in the wedding industry for a year, as photographer and videographer. Then, a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. That was strike two to my ego.

Teaching forced structure on me. I came to depend on that structure to orient my life.

Cancer treatment forced structure on me. The doctor visits, the treatments, the tests, the schedule of appointments, making it through this one-day-at-a-time created structure and routine that I needed. I am now cancer free. Doctor visits are fewer. Treatments are concluded.

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