Hopefully the answer to that question is never with rare exception (i.e. you get drunk the night before, sleep somewhere you didn’t intend to, and don’t have a toothbrush). I’m not speaking through experience 
. Ok, I’ll get to the point since I’m sure you are wondering what the hell this has to do with personal development.
In order for anything to be completely effective, you have to do it consistently. If you want to lose weight, you have to exercise consistently. If you want to become a good writer, you have to write consistently. If you want to have clean teeth, you have to brush your teeth EVERY SINGLE DAY. Yet, when it comes to making changes in our mind, we tend to be a bit more inconsistent. Sometimes you wake up in the morning and say to yourself “Shit, I don’t have time to do affirmations today.” Can you imagine waking up in the morning and saying “I don’t have time to brush my teeth today.” That would be ridiculous. All of these things are simply rituals and your personal development efforts need to be a ritual as well.
4 Personal Development Rituals that should be a Part of your Daily Life
Affirmations: In order for an affirmation to work it needs to be something you do consistently. So, how do we make it effortless? Combine it with something you do everyday, brushing your teeth. Conveniently, the best time to do affirmations is right when you wake up and right before you go to sleep (the two times you are usually brushing your teeth).
Power Questions: I am a huge fan of power questions because I’ve found them to be one of the most effective personal development techniques. This should be another habit that you incorporate daily. You can write them down and paste them on your bathroom mirror or just remember them. Ask yourself these questions in the shower and you’ll start your day off in a very powerful mood.
Visualization: You do this all day long. You simply are making pictures in your head and thinking about what it is you want to experience. Arguably you can do this almost anywhere. You don’t have to close your eyes to visualize. Take 15 minutes in the morning while you are having your coffee or breakfast and just think about what you want in your life. Make sure you are in a good mood before you do it.
Goals: The other day I was talking with a friend about goals and he mentioned something interesting to me. He’d been wanting a promotion at his job. So, for the last month he wrote down his goals every single day. Now, he’s actually on the verge of promotion in exactly the position he wants. I realized in that moment, I had completely forgotten about my goals. I wrote them down, but I only reviewed them every so often. Now I just sit and read through my goals during my visualization practice, and I kill two birds with one stone. Just reading them through them every single day, you will likely make much more progress towards them because they will be fresh on your mind.
Treat your mind like you treat your teeth. Clean all the crap out if it EVERY SINGLE DAY.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
These are four fundamental personal development methods. I recommend a book called, “The Answer” by John Assaraf and Murray Smith. It goes into detail why these work and how to make them super-effective.
Uh oh. I’m in trouble. Everyone talks about making habits as routine as brushing your teeth.
I never learnt that routine. One parent was working 3 jobs to make ends meet, so never there. The other one didn’t care. I (we) were never pushed to do it. Being kids, that meant more often than not we didn’t.
I’m stuffed, aren’t I?
BRILLIANT post! That last part — “Treat your mind like you treat your teeth. Clean all the crap out if it EVERY SINGLE DAY.” — was perfect!
Gordie: Thanks for the recommendation on the book
Dani: Glad you liked it
. I noticed something really interesting last night. I actually was having dreams about some of my goals and how to accomplish them.
Srini,
I really like the ideas you presented in this post.
Could you expand on the idea of Power Questions?
Maybe an example of one.
Thanks!
Hey Ken,
I actually wrote a post about power questions. But the concept is pretty simple. Every morning you wake up and you ask yourself empowering questions (i.e. What is it about me that is freaking awesome?, etc, etc). The brain is very literal in that it will give an answer no matter what question you ask it. The problem is we normally are not consciously aware of this. You ever done something really stupid, and then you find yourself saying something like “Why am I such an idiot?” While that seem small, when you do that your brain comes up with answers to reinforce it. So, with a power question you just take 4-5 empowering questions, and after 30 days, eventually your mind will associate being awake with the state created by those questions you ask.
Always good stuff here. Dan John is my favorite strength coach, and one of my favorite people in general. He always says, “if something is important, you do it every day.”
He said it talking about certain movements the body should perform every day, but the applications obviously go much deeper.
Good habits start early. So do bad ones, unfortunately.
Great post.
What are examples some of the power questions? Visualization is one the best way to see yourself achieving your goals. The more detailed oriented you get the better. When you give attention and focus to achieving your goals then you are more likely to attract them to you.
Hi Srini,
This is probably the shortest and most effective post I read in months. Well done!!
Hey Srinivas.
Great point here. I just made a comment earlier today about getting to our goals being like pushing a ball up a hill. If we cut back on our routine for a day or days, the ball rolls back down the hill. This matches in line with what you are saying here. It reminds us that it is not worth it to start doing something if we plan to continue it with wacky consistency.
Solid material here.
I agree that having goals is a huge part of successful personal development and also helps with motivation. I loved your “teeth brushing” analogy as well. This all relates to my personal issues related to having adult ADHD.
Thanks for another well-written, thoughful article.