The Real Truth About Establishing Habits

Creating a habit board is a powerful and visual way to remind yourself of the habits you are aiming to cultivate on your journey towards your ideal life. Much like a vision board that portrays your dreams and aspirations through images and affirmations, a habit board focuses on the daily actions and routines that will propel you towards those dreams. Here's a guide on how to create a habit board that complements your vision board, ensuring that your dreams and the steps to achieve them are always in sight.

1. Understanding the Power of Habits

Before diving into the creation of your habit board, it's crucial to understand the power of habits in shaping our lives. Habits are the small decisions and actions we perform daily. Over time, they dictate the course of our lives, almost on autopilot. By consciously choosing the habits we want to develop, we take control of our trajectory towards success and fulfillment.

2. Setting Up Your Habit Board

Choose a format that resonates with you. Your habit board can be a physical board—like a corkboard or a magnetic board—or a digital one, such as a dedicated Pinterest board or a digital collage. The key is accessibility; it should be in a place where you'll see it every day, ideally next to your vision board.

3. Selecting Your Habits

Start by listing the habits that will lead you closer to the life depicted on your vision board. These should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, if your vision involves being in excellent health, your habits could include "30 minutes of exercise daily" or "drinking 8 glasses of water a day."

4. Visual Representation

For each habit, find a visual representation. This could be an image, a symbol, or a word that vividly reminds you of that habit. The visual element is key to quickly and effectively recalling the habit without needing to engage in deep thought every time you see your habit board.

5. Organize Your Board

Arrange the visuals on your board in a way that feels logical and inspiring to you. You might group them by categories such as health, productivity, learning, or by the time of day they should be performed. The organization should facilitate a smooth flow that mirrors your daily or weekly routines.

6. Incorporating Affirmations

Next to or beneath each visual, you might add a short affirmation that reinforces the habit and its importance in your life. For instance, next to the visual for "30 minutes of exercise daily," you could write, "I am strong, healthy, and full of energy."

7. Interaction and Adaptation

Your habit board is not set in stone. As you grow and evolve, so will your habits and goals. Make it a practice to review and update your habit board regularly. This might mean adding new habits, removing ones that no longer serve you, or adjusting your visuals and affirmations to better align with your current path.

8. Accountability

Consider sharing your habit board with a friend, coach, or mentor. This adds a layer of accountability and can provide you with support and encouragement on your journey. Discussing your habit board and the progress you're making can also offer new insights and motivation.

9. Celebrate Progress

Lastly, remember to celebrate your successes, no matter how small. Each time you consistently perform a habit, it's a step closer to the life of your dreams. Consider adding a system to your habit board that allows you to track and celebrate these victories, such as stickers or checkmarks.

Your habit board is a living testament to your commitment to personal growth and the life of your dreams. It serves as a daily reminder of the small steps you are taking towards big dreams. By visually aligning your daily habits with your ultimate goals, you create a powerful synergy that propels you forward, turning the life of your dreams into reality.

I invented the habit board when I was researching the psychology of task initiation to accomplish goals. As a life coach I am always researching better ways to become more effective. As it turns out visual reinforcement in our environment has a powerful and complimentary effect on motivation and task completion. Having been a long time user of vision boards (to great success) I knew this to be true so I simply made a habit board next to my vision board. 

If vision boards contain the prize, goal setting is the path. However the foundation of all success are strategically created and implemented habits. The vision board is a map of what we wish to be do and have. Goal setting is a map of what we wish to accomplish, but our habits determine who we are. The contents of our diet, the workouts we take, the quality of our sleep literally create our bodies. Our spending habits determine whether we achieve financial success, and of course who we schedule time with determine our happiness, who we meet, and how we feel about ourselves.

 Finally, the habits of visualization and affirmation will quite simply determine whether or not we achieve our big goals all together. 

Successful Habit creation and maintenance gives you the springboard to catapult you into the person and life of your dreams. 

While reading books with hundreds of pages about what worked for someone else may be reassuring, as an expert in the subject I know for a fact that habit creation and maintenance is dependent on every individuals interests, strengths, skills, pre existing habits, psychological makeup, environment, relationships, and even spiritual state of consciousness. This is why the surest way to build and maintain the habits that will either give you a life of happiness and fulfillment or not is to work with a qualified professional with the experience and skillset to accurately observe your unique qualities and goals and create a bespoke plan based on that to ensure your success. 

At luminous prosperity we have an arsenal of cutting edge coaching techniques that allow us to provide you with just that, as well as the experience and impeccable success at exceeding our client’s expectations. Schedule an appointment today-can you afford to put off achieving the life of your dreams and fulfilling your full potential?