Now when it comes to habits, we’ve talked about them quite a bit so far together don't
you think?
I’ve shared some habits with you that I’ve implemented into my life that I feel are changing
my life.
We’ve also talked about systems.
You know what are they and how they support the habits we’re building.
The other key piece in this that we’ve talked about, is the importance of habits and how
they really do shape our lives.
Imagine that this glass of water is you, or me.
It represents how our life stands today.
It's cool right.
There's nothing wrong with it.
Now imagine if we allowed the wrong habits to find home in us.
Things would suddenly change right.
How we think.
How we act and react to situations around us.
Things would just be different and headed down a dark path that's not truly meant for
us.
BUt see the key is building the right habits and allow those to find home in us instead,
because when we do.
Our journeys and our life remain within our control and we then have the power to decide
which direction we want to head in because we're the ones stirring the boat so to speak.
Now with all of this habit building talk we’ve done up to this point, leads me to another
key piece in this puzzle that I’ve yet to share with you.
See maintaining and building the right habits is only 1/3 of the battle.
Creating systems that support our habits is another 1/3 of the battle.
See the final piece in this that we’re missing comes from something I like to call micro-habits.
These are the little things right.
Small actions we take consistently, both physically, mentally and emotionally, that fill in the
gaps to create this bigger picture.
A meaningful and intentional life.
The very thing we’re working towards on this journey.
So what are some of these micro-habits or small actions that I’ve been implementing
consistently that are legitimately changing different aspects of my life for the better.
Number one is observing my patterns.
See to be completely transparent with you, something I use to struggle with being way
too hard on myself, even critical of feelings and actions at times.
I mean in hindsight, I was my own worst enemy by far, because all of that energy I was wasting
on beating myself up, was just making things worse honestly.
Now instead of being critical and hard on myself, because like I said, it wasn't helping
at all.
I actually had to learn how to step back and take note of what was prompting every feeling
and emotion and reaction I had.
So I was seriously taking notes on everything like in what moments do I feel most inspired
or frustrated and overwhelmed, or energetic versus moody right.
It was almost like was observing myself and my patterns so much that I was basically getting
to know me, myself.
Learning who Ronald L. Banks was or is.
And trust me, you’ll be surprised by how much you don’t know about yourself, until
you start paying attention.
And that’s exactly what I did and it’s helped then and it’s still helping me now.
Alright, number two is curating my circle of influence.
Now what does this mean?
We’ve all heard the saying that says you are an average of the 5 people you spend the
most time with.
Which is a very true statement.
But it’s also true and important to mention that the things we surround ourselves with
or the things we feed ourselves with mentally have just as much influence over us as our
friendship and relationship do.
Which is why we have to be intentional about every aspect of our lives.
And I’ve been doing this by building a micro-habit out of is curating my circle of influence.
So any thing or person that I no longer found value in using or associating with or if I
noticed that it’s presence made me feel a feeling I didn’t want to feel, I took
action to remove that item or relationship from my life.
Now this is not meant to be a harsh statement by any means.
It’s just the truth that comes with growing right and apart of that is being observant
of our surroundings and curating any and all things we allow to impact or influence our
lives.
Alright, number three is being a student of life.
See I love learning.
There's so much information out to absorb and use in our lives and because of this,
I believe that we all have a talent of some sort, or a skill or a creative interest that
we’ve yet to discover and explore.
But why is that!
Now speaking from experience, the one thing that I feeling is standing in our way and
preventing us from discovering and exploring these talents and skills, is ourselves.
See I truly believe that the largest road block we’ll ever face in life, is the person
we see in the mirror.
Which means we’ve allowed our comfort in our current routine of life to hinder us from
exploring new things and skills.
And this is why I’m a true fan of Skillshare, who is actually sponsoring this video, because
it helps make the micro-habit of being a student of life easy to implement.
Now if you don’t know, Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of
inspiring classes for both creative and curious people.
You can explore and learn new things from design and photography, to business, to productivity,
to even writing right, literally anything you want to learn and like I said, it makes
it easy to become a student of life.
For example, as you know I'm also published poet and I love storytelling and using poetry
throughout all of my content.
So I've been taking this interesting class called Writing For Expression by Hanif Abdurraqib
and I have to say it resonates with me on so many levels.
Using poetic language allows you to break free from a rigid structure and give your
ideas and concepts and curiosities more breathing room.
Which gives the reader more space to enter and potentially see themselves in your work.
Once you make yourself comfortable with this language, you can use it in forms of writing
that may have more structure to them and learn the stretch those structures out further and
further.
Now the thing I like about this class is it speaks to exactly how I've been using poetry
in my life, within my content and in everything else I touch really.
I mean truly the poetic language is so beautiful to me if you haven't noticed.
But I've also been checking out a few other classes on creative writing and creativity
in general.
Roxane Gay has a good one, Danielle Krysa has a good one as well on creative breakthrough.
I've even been diving into a few business topics as well.
And believe it or not, Skillshare is actually very affordable costing less than $10 a month
and since Skillshare is sponsorings this video the first 1000 of my subscribers to click
the link in the description will get 2 months of Skillshare premium for free.
And trust me, if I was on the other side of this screen right I would definitely click
the link myself, because I am truly enjoying all of the class I am taking.
Alright, let's get back to the micro-habits I've been implementing.
Number four is taking action when I want to do something, but also taking action when
I don’t feel like it.
Let that sink in for a second.
Taking action when I want to but also when I don’t feel like it.
See I’m human just like you are and I have plenty of days where I’m feeling lazy and
uninspired and unmotivated.
But I also have days where I’m overflowing with inspiration and energy so much so that
I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day.
Now the key to this has everything to do with mindset, everything, because our minds are
very powerful and they truly influence how we feel and how we act.
I know for me personally when I first implementing this micro-habit into my life awhile back
it opened my eyes to the true power of consistency, momentum and hard work regardless if I felt
like it or not.
A good example of this is training my body.
A habit of mine I’ve talked about in a previous video.
Now there are plenty of days where I simple don’t feel like it.
I don’t want to run, I don’t want to squat, do push ups, pull ups, none of it.
But I do it because maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle is important to me and
a part of that means building consistency around those things.
The same can be said about my debt free journey.
I didn’t always feel like paying extra on my student loans every month.
Especially seeing how my money would come in and go right back out the door, but I did
because I knew the consistency, momentum and hard work would pay off.
And it did, because I'm sitting here today 100% debt free.
Number five is listening to and trusting my heart.
This little thing beating in the middle of my chest.
See to keep this simple, many of us struggle with trusting ourselves.
Which makes it very difficult to grow on this journey we call life.
To try and experience new things, to learn new skills, or to just open ourselves up to
the possibility of achieving anything.
But see trusting and believing in yourself is all you really need to get started down
whichever path you choose to travel.
Whether it’s minimalism and living an intentional life or pursuing a creative passion you have
or whatever that thing is for you.
Listen to and trust your heart.
It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself.
If you enjoyed this video, make sure you give it a thumbs up for me.
If any of these micro habits sound interesting ant are things you want to try out in your
life, let me know in the talking about them.
If this is your first time tuning in, welcome.
I'm really glad to have you here.
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Always remember to stay true to you and I'll see you in the next one.
Peace!