Habits of Happiness ... or Habits of Ruin?

Have you ever considered home chores as habits?  This is the kind of stuff I ponder every day.  Why do we do what we do and is there a better way?  Last night I did a presentation on clutter for the city of Federal Way.  Most of my talk was on habits...because....

The Habit Poem

I am your constant companion

I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden

I will push you onward or drag you down to failure

I am completely at your command

Half of the things you do, you might as well turn over to me 

and I will do them - quickly and correctly

I am easily managed- you must be firm with me

Show me exactly how you want something done

and after a few lessons I will do it automatically

I am the servant of great people

and alas, of all failure as well.

Those who are great, I have made great

Those who are failures, I have made failures

I am not a machine though

I work with the precision of a machine

plus the intelligence of a person

You may run me for profit or run me to ruin

it makes no difference to me

Take me, train me, be firm with me, and 

I will place the world at your feet

Be easy with me and I will destroy you.

Who am I?  I am Habit.

Author unknown

By shifting our habits we create our future.  For some, the daily grind of caring for a home becomes a depleting burden... by shifting our habits we can take what we thought of as a chore and turn it into a practice that works for us. 

Life is precious.  Let your habits work for you.

Action:  Notice what you do, how you think about your home? What habits do you have?  This is where I can help.  We rarely see ourselves.  It's a blessing and curse.  By having an outside and kindly soul help you see, you get to start shifting and creating a life and home you love.

     happy habits...lead to happy lives,

          Denise Frakes

               Home and life coach at your service

Use your chores to make your New Year's Resolutions stick

  I know I've talked about our chores as a gold mine of possibilities before... for years.  As this new year cycled around I read that the average New Year's Resolution only lasts 18 days.  Not only that but we keep repeating those same resolutions 10 times with no success!  I was lightning struck!

    A friend of ours was at the gym the other day. Normally, gyms are notorious for being packed with New Year's Resolutions... not this year. It was empty. I think we are giving up.  We know new years resolutions don't work... And they don't...unless you give them a home. 

Don't give up on your dreams.  Dreaming is essential to being alive

For our New Year's Resolutions to succeed...we need to think habit. 
We need to give our dreams a home

   It doesn't matter how busy we are …. we all have habits.  One place we overlook as a help is our  home habits, life chore habits... These old chore habits can give us the space, time and focus we need to create the life we dream of.  One secret to making a new habit attach it to an existing habit...

Did you know...

  "On average 40% of all daily human activities are habits"

And from of a study of 50,000 American families - 

Our habits are pretty much set by the time we are 9 years old!

                                                           Tom Corley's Book: Change your habits, change your life

Habit:  consistent and persistent practices, routines and tendencies

 done overtime that become automatic

Our success and failure are dictated by our habits. 

   Healthy habits uplift our lives bringing us happiness and success 

 Poor habits throw us under the bus causing stress and failure

What does this have to do with resolutions and chores?  Everything!!!!! 
Our probability of sticking with a New Year's resolution is more about our habits than our will power..

     We are creatures of habit.  

Three ways to let your chores...support your dreams

1.
Realize we have a gold mine of existing habits in place.  We have space to create new habits.  

Use our ingrained healthy habits as triggers to create more healthy habits.

2. 

 Take your dreams and simplify them into daily bite sized actions 

3. 

Attach these daily actions to a current habit..  Stay consistent with an action toward your goal for at least 66 days and wala…  
your chances of actually seeing your dream come into reality... sky rockets!

Start Here:  First we have to notice our own habits.  What is familiar is lost to us.. 40% of our actions are unconscious- habitual actions.  For 2-3 days simply notice your own habits.  Ask questions... Notice...What do you do everyday?  Which habits are brilliant, supportive and which are un-necessary or even detrimental to the life you dream of?  What do you do at specific times of day, when you wake up, get home from work, after supper?  Pick a habit that works and add your new habit to this one. Keep it simple, doable in any weather and life happenings.

Happy New Year!  

    Denise Frakes  Life and Home Coach for Creating Space

FYI:  If you want to hear more from me, hire me to speak or as your own personal coach. Buy products or books (if they support you) through my site (I'm an affiliate of Amazon and sell Norwex)  Please share my posts and let me know how your doing.   We are here to work together- thank you and happy New Year!