You're Wasting Your Summer If You Aren't Building These Habits

It's time to stop going out every night and thinking you "function fine." Change your habits to see what "functioning fine" actually looks like.

It is finally freaking summer break after what felt like the longest semester ever, so pretty much what we say after every semester.

What does every one have planned for the summer? I hope you have some extra time because summer is when you have the time to nail down the habits that will help you not just next year but also the rest of your life.

Oh, and don't worry if you are thinking "but now I'm working full time, I might not have extra time for habits." It only takes an hour or less every day to focus on your habits, if you plan then right and take control of the crucial times of your day like in the morning before you have real responsibilities.

We can all find an extra hour or two each day, just stop scrolling through social media all day. Maybe cut it back to scrolling for one hour instead of three, it won't kill you, or at least it hasn't killed me yet!

So, once you admit to scrolling through social media to way more than you should be, just turn on "screen time" on your iPhone and it will show you your real totals for how long you are on there each day, start trying to add these habits.

Overview

1. The Importance of Habits
   
2. ​Where Many People Go Wrong With Habits
   
3. ​Why College is the Best Time To Build Habits
   
4. ​The Habits You Should Focus on Building
   
5. ​​Why These Habits Though?
   
6. How to Effectively Build and Keep Habits

The Importance of Habits

They run every aspect of your life whether you realize it or not.

Whether you realize it or not, or if you want to admit it or not, your habits control your life. Yes, that means your bad habits are holding you back in some way or another even if you think you are "functioning just fine."

​If you have been living your whole life thinking that when you go to bed super later, wake up early and are able to make it through the day, and still have the energy to go out at night, you are "functioning fine," Then wait until you feel what "functioning fine" actually feels like.

This is going to be a game changer this summer as your habits are going to build momentum in any area of your life that you are looking to change. There is a reason that things such as the "Miracle Morning" or even just so many articles on the importance of a daily routine, they don't just write these because they are fun to write, they actually help.

Yet, so many people think that they are not seeing results because of some other reason, some skill or strategy they are missing.

Well, newsflash here I guess, you are not where you want to be because your habits are holding you back. That is too much for people to come to terms with because they think they are functioning "just fine" yet they really have nothing to compare to so how would they know?

This is how to actually function better than "just fine" and see what it feels like to have powerful habits that actually lead to results.

You just can't get the results you want with your s**t habits, that is not how it works.

Where Many People Go Wrong With Habits

There are reasons why so many people can't break those bad habits.

They want to see the results right away and 99% of the time that is not how it works. Even that 1% of the time where you do see some results right away, you are likely just seeing very small results compared to what you will see in the long run.

If you think you want to add a new habits and then just do it for a month and then quit, like every one does when they set a New Year's resolution, when they don't see the results they just quit because they are doing this extra work for "no reason."

You have to be patient, not just with habits but with anything in life, if you are expecting rewards right away without some struggle, then you are going to be disappointed with every area of your life for your whole life.

This leads to the next thing, they are not comfortable being uncomfortable. So many people just do what is easy and what is comfortable and never really push their comfort zone because it is hard and it sucks. That is also why so any people are unhappy, a direct correlation (according to me and not scientifically proven).

All the best rewards in any area of your life come after the struggle and sucking at something, yet so many people don't do what they suck at or what is hard for long enough and that is why they never see results in any area of life.

They have average jobs, average lives, average relationships, and average vacations, never really experiencing what there is out there because they were too focused on being comfortable and doing what was easy.

Why College is the Best Time To Build Habits

The longer you wait the more ingrained your bad habits become and the less likely you are to keep the new ones you try to form.

What point in your life can you name where you have the amount of free time that you do in college, and the intellect to be able to craft these skills, there really is not a better one than college.

Sure, you could when you are older but by that point your habits are so set in stone that it is going to be damn near impossible to change them.

Or you could argue you have more time when you are a child, which is true, but you really don't have the knowledge or intellect to build these powerful habits into your life.

So, that leaves us here with college, where you go to class for a few hours per day, go to the gym, eat and pretty much have the rest of the day to do whatever you want because honestly homework doesn't take that long if you aren't constantly getting distracted.

​Start cutting down on the amount of times you go out drinking each week and start spending more time focused on yourself and your growth in these important years of your life. 

If we are being honest, drinking every single night of the week might be fun the first few months but it gets very boring and repetitive fast, that is not what we are about at MMNTM, we are trying to experience as much of this life as possible. 

On top of that, you don't really have a family, or anyone depending on you, other than maybe a significant other, which leaves ample time and money to invest in yourself once you start cutting down on the amount you spend at the bars.

The Habits You Should Focus on Building

These are the ones for your summer.

Alright now onto all the good stuff, what habits you should actually be building.

• ​Always my go-to first habit to add... meditation.
  • Start by just doing simple guided meditations on YouTube and then as you start to improve your practice then you can move on to just sitting in silence and meditating that way.
  • I would recommend at least a morning meditation for 10-15 minutes but if you are having trouble sleeping, try a sleep hypnosis or sleep meditation to help you reach a deeper sleep.
• Get your diet right.
  • ​You might think that you are fine eating what you are eating but try changing up the diet with some new vitamins, supplements, foods, etc. and see what you are really missing.
  • Especially in college, we are just feeding ourselves crap, it can be a total game changer to cut those heavy carbs out of your diet and add some real food. 
• Get Outside Every day
  • Go for a walk or just do something outside, it is great for your mental health as well as your activity level in general, we were not made to sit around all day.
  • Go outside every day no matter what the weather is, those rainy and cold walks will build resilience like nothing else can.
• Take a 5 minute cold shower
  • This will also help you build resilience, be more comfortable in uncomfortable situations and help your mental clarity and energy levels.
  • It is one thing to take a cold shower, take that one step further by instead of going as quick as you can, embrace the cold and learn to lie through the "suck" because you will realize it is all mental and the cold really won't kill you.
• Learn every day.
  • Whether it is though podcasts (my favorite) or reading a book or just watching videos on an area of life that interests you, spend at learn 30 minutes to an hour each day learning about something.
  • The learning never stops outside the classroom you should always be curious and pushing yourself to know more because that is where results come from, more knowledge (and better habits).
• Develop your cognitive function.
  • You can learn a million new things in college but you likely wont remember as many of those as you should or be able to problem solve in your niche as well as you should if you don't have a brain that you are optimizing at the same time.
  • Here is how to do that >>
• Do something you suck at every day.
  • ​This allows you to see your progress and growth and shows your brain that the hard stuff or the stuff you aren't good always comes first before greatness.
  • This could be anything from writing to making a podcast to working out or even playing an instrument.

Why These Habits Though?

For a multitude of reasons, but here are the main ones...

Why these habits though, they seem pretty easy an simple?

You probably came to this post looking for some crazy or out of this world habit that will totally change your life, well even though these habits sound boring as f**k, they are actually those habits.

It is almost always the most simple things that work the best, yet every one thinks that there has to be some complex habits that will solve all of their problems. That just isn't how it works.

You do the small things day in and day out for months and years and that is where you start to build the momentum you need that leads to great results.

People never try the small things though because it seems "too simple," yet these are what actually work.

These habits will teach you the importance of taking care of your body, doing the things that you suck at for long enough until you are great, embracing the hard and uncomfortable things and so much more.

How to Effectively Build and Keep Habits

It's one thing to try a habit a few times, it's another thing to keep a habit.

Here is how to not give up on the habits like so many people do.

1. Stop expecting results right away.
2. Schedule out your day and plan when you are going to focus on these habits, then you have time blocked out to focus only on these.
3. Don't try to add 800 habits at once, start with one or two each week so that you aren't trying to turn your life around in one day, you will just get brunt out after a few days of that.
4. Ease into the habits, for example maybe start adding a minute of cold water at the end of your shower and the build up to a full cold shower by the end of the week.
5. Document and write down what you are feeling and how you hope this habit will help every night. Or what you are doing wrong while trying to build this habit so you can improve that for the next day.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you got a ton of value from this and look forward to seeing you back tomorrow! If you found any value or think your friends need some of these habits as well, give this article a share it would mean the world.

Thanks again,
​Taylor

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