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Marc Reklau is a coach who helps people to transform their lives using the power of habit. For more than 20 years he has studied the work of philosophers, scientists and psychologists to learn what makes people tick. Marc put all these insights into his Amazon bestseller book: 30 Days – Change your habits, Change your life: A couple of simple steps every day to create the life you want
“The biggest mistake people make when trying to create new habits is to give up too early.”
In today’s interview Marc talks about how to create and implement a strategy around changing one’s habits. Whether you want to get rid of an unhealthy habit or you want to create a new one enhancing your life – you need to load yourself with tons of commitment, patience and discipline. To create a new neural pathway network in your brain, AKA habit, your brain needs 21 to 66 days, depending on the complexity of the habit and the level of your commitment.
The easiest way to get rid of a habit is to replace it with a new one. If you want to stop drinking soda, the best way to go is to find a substitution and just use that when you start craving for coke.
Another important thing is to become aware of your excuses and counter act them with possible solutions.
If your excuse for not drinking fresh squeezed fruit juices is that you don’t have fruits at home all the time, then go to the market right away and make sure you are fully loaded.
Don’t try to change too many things at a time because it will become overwhelming and pointless. If you have a long list of new habits to develop, pick the 3 you need the most and start with them. Introduce new 3 things every month.
It is very important to switch your mindset to a positive perspective. Researchers have shown that changing your thinking and emotional habits about the way you look at pain can have a tremendous positive effect on people who suffer on a daily basis.
The ultimate human freedom is to choose your attitude regardless of the circumstances. The key is to take responsibility for your reactions. You need to understand You are in charge of your thoughts and emotions. Even if a negative thought forms and present on autopilot, you are still FREE to create a new one.
To create a habit of falling asleep easily you simply need to realize that all you need is to quite the chatter in your head. You need to stop dwelling on thoughts about what happened in the past or might happen in the future.
Think of your sleeping time as the time you are entering a sacred place. Leave all your worries and hopes outside your head and focus on your breathing. It also helps if you tell yourself positive affirmations just before you go to bed: “I always have a good night sleep”, “I am easily falling asleep every time” etc.
Sleep like a dog – a dog is not thinking when it lies down “I want to sleep, I want to sleep I want to sleep!” or “Can’t I just sleep now?”, it simply goes to sleep.
If you find it difficult to silence your mind, try to relax it before you go to bed by reading a book or by listening to a guided meditation. What you should avoid before going to bed is to watch the news or to “quickly” finish something for work.
If you struggle with committing to a regular exercising habit, you can trick your mind by decreasing the exercising time you initially planned to half.
Let’s say you are not feeling like running for 45 minutes, and then tell yourself you will only go for 20. This will ease your mind from the thought of putting too much effort in a 45min run and your body will still get the so needed movement.
With time, if you do this every day, your body will feel like it wants to run more and more and you will naturally complete the 45 minutes without struggling.
Make writing gratitude notes daily one of your new habits. Spend some time, ideally two times a day, writing down 3 to 5 things you were grateful for today. It might be anything like being grateful to the person who smiled at you today. Making your brain work to recall these moments helps it focus on the positive outlook.
Love yourself like you love your neighbor. Try to also treat yourself well and with care, look for the goodness in yourself. It is sometimes to easier to see the goodness in others than ourselves.
To learn more about Marc’s work, visit his website: www.marcreklau.com
