You can be defined by your habits, but YOU ARE NOT YOUR HABITS.

This is something I realized; and ever since discovering this revelation, I have been more at ease with critique/criticism and facing my bad habits.

One thing I conditioned myself into thinking is that I was born unorganized. “There is no way I can fix this problem. This is who I am.” This previous mindset left me with this bad habit for an extended period of time.

Recently, I really wanted to fix this problem; and the mindset shift really accelerated my progression. I was able to separate me from my habits so I could tackle my habits head-on. I am not my habit.

With this in mind, I read the book “the life-changing magic of tidying up”. The combination of Marie Kondo’s teachings and my willingness to change helped me improve my lifestyle to become more organized. Although I still have room for improvement, I can now confidently describe myself as organized.

So what steps can you take towards eliminating bad habits?

1. Separate you from your habit(s): This is a liberating feeling, as you don’t feel belittled by your poor habits. Instead, you are pulling the habit outside of yourself, replacing it with a much better habit, and ingraining that new habit into your system.
2. Educate yourself on how to take steps toward a better habit. This can be reading books, watching videos, looking through blogs of people that have been-there-done-that. This step can cut a lot of wasted time that you might have spent on mistakes or wrongfully pursuing the habit-changing process.
3. JUST DO IT! Only action will yield results.
4. Consistency through the habit-changing process. At first, you will not be used to change. But that will change with time.
5. Congratulations! You have successfully changed your bad habit. Now you don’t have to think about doing the new habit… you just do it, naturally.

Do not get stuck on Step 2. Do your research, but do not procrastinate on getting to the real deal. There is no avoiding Step 3.

So there you go! I have shared how I was able to change my HABIT (not character) of disorganization into a more organized me. You will be able to face your bad habits when it is detached from your character; and once you do have a good habit, you can use it to boost your self-confidence.

If you want to improve your organization skills, I highly recommend Marie Kondo’s “the life-changing magic of tidying up” (as previously stated). I will provide a link below:

the life-changing magic of tidying up