“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”~Aristotle
We often have the best intentions yet fail to stick to our commitments. We decide to change our behavior – to act differently or treat someone with more care and concern – and we do… but only once or twice. Then we wonder why things aren’t different and nothing gets better.
In order to truly transform our behavior and to make a noticeable difference we need to repeat an action so many times that it becomes a habit. I’ve heard that if you do the same thing every day for thirty days it becomes habitual. If we truly want to be excellent at something, if we want to see an actual difference in our behavior and the reaction we get from others, we need to do something so many times that it becomes a part of who we are.
So often I work with coaching clients who want to be perceived differently by their manager, or sincerely want to improve their self-care with exercise or meditation. Their first step is to make commitments to small behavior changes, but it is only when these small behavior changes happen over and over again that they achieve the excellence they desire.
Determine the new habit you want to acquire, commit to the necessary behavior, and do it – repeatedly.
Where have you been taking singular actions when you’re hoping for a true change towards excellence? How can you commit to making those actions a habit?
Click here to leave a comment.
If you enjoyed this post, you can read more like it in our book, The Power of Thoughtful Leadership: 101 Minutes To Being the Leader You Want To Be, available on Amazon.
Click here to receive The Thoughtful Leaders™ Blog posts via e-mail and receive a copy of “Ending Leadership Frenzy: 5 Steps to Becoming a More Thoughtful and Effective Leader.”
Photo Credit: Flickr.com
