Business Marketing Magazine Summer 2017 Summer2017 | Page 29

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Firstly, identify your priorities, use a blank
sheet of paper and at the top list your top 3
priorities of things you most want to give your
time and energy to.
Next, identify a habit where you can do, one
simple thing daily that will support your prior-
ities. For example, Anna wanted to read to her
son every night before bed.
Now think of the cue that tells your brain
when to run the habit. In Anna’s case, she
chose the clock as a visual cue to remember to
read with her son.
H
ave you struggled to change a habit?
We often think of the habits working
against us, but what if you could create
habits that work for us?
Habits are wired into our brain and can seem
difficult to change. When we learn something
new, the brain links up neurons into a chain.
Each time we repeat the new learning or the
action, that pathway is reinforced. If we re-
peat it enough – the brain turns it into auto-
matic.
Often people think habits are hard to change.
However, with what we know now about the
brain and how it works, ‘30 days to make a
new habit’ is simply outdated. We can set up
a new habit quickly and easily, just by thinking
about it.
Now think of your response you’d like to
change. What would you like to be thinking or
saying to yourself? What would you like to be
doing differently? What would you like to feel
instead?
Now imagine the cue and then mentally imag-
ine going through the motions of what you’ll
be doing differently. As you see it in your
mind, you are activating the visual center of
the brain. When you think about what you’ll
be thinking or saying to yourself, you activate
the speech and hearing centers of the brain.
When you feel instead, you activate the emo-
tional center of the brain.
Now you’ve set up a new neural pathway. To
get the brain to turn it into a habit, all you
need is a little repetition. Now, go through the
mental exercise 5-6 times in your mind and it
will set up a new response to the cue.
Sometimes creating a new habit is as simple
as remembering to do it. Use this recipe for