How to Get New Habits to Stick — a Guide for Women Entrepreneurs
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This morning while I was running, I was listening to a personal growth podcast. Suddenly the podcast stopped playing, and I had about 6 minutes left in my run. So I turned on some music and kept going.
Then the strangest thing happened. I saw an outline of my body outside of myself as I was running. This outline came towards me and I stepped into it. Suddenly, I felt this new feeling of connection with my younger self. I was filled with new energy, and I felt like my twenty-year old self again.
When I was in my twenties I had a ton of energy; I used to do triathlons. I was really active. I also did tons of volunteer work, and I had so much energy.
You might say, “well that happens when you are in your twenties,” and I would agree with you. But what I felt in my body was the energy and identity of a healthier me, and I haven’t felt that in a long time.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love who I am today as a woman entrepreneur, but there was definitely a part of her—her energy, her consistency, her strength—that had gone by the wayside. It was so amazing to realize that I could embody her again.
After my run I stopped by the grocery store and I picked up some healthy food. I felt myself embodying “I am an athlete. I am full of energy. I am consistent. I am healthy.” I started to see and feel that girl who used to run miles, and then bike miles, and then swim miles. I began to embody a whole different identity, and feel a different level of personal success. And instead of it being hard to change my actions—suddenly the new actions of eating better seemed perfect. They were in alignment with my new identity.
It got me starting thinking about what “identity” means for women entrepreneurs, and how at any given moment in our lives we have the power to change our identities. We just have to change our words (oh, and do check out my whole series on money and women entrepreneurs here).
You choose your identity with every “I am” statement you make.
When you say things like, “I am bad at business” you are going to be bad at business, meaning you are going to take actions that are consistent with you being bad at business.
If you say, “I am terrible with money” then you are going to take actions consistent with you being terrible at money.
Whenever you are trying to change your actions—you must first start with changing your identity, to start by stepping into a different “I Am.”
The way it works is you start with a new identity, a new “I am” and it leads to a new set of qualities. Those values lead to a new set of beliefs. Those new beliefs lead to a new set of habits. The new set of habits leads to a new set of actions.
It is so much easier to change your habits and actions, when you first start by changing your identity. This is such a powerful shortcut to huge success!
Identity—qualities—beliefs—habits—actions.
Let me give you some examples.
Let’s say that you are like me and you are working on releasing some weight and getting healthier, so you start saying to yourself and others: “I am a healthy person” or “I am an athlete.”
So the next step after taking on this new identity is to ask yourself what does this person do? what are their qualities? If I truly was an athlete, if I truly was a healthy person, what would my qualities be?
Here are three qualities of an athlete or healthy person:
- Consistent: I am consistent in my workouts every day. I eat healthy every day.
- Delay Gratification: I delay gratification because it might take months before I see weight come off or muscle develop. An athlete practices every day but doesn’t see instant results.
- Habit oriented: I am good at creating new habits and following through on them.
You could pick different values, but these are just a few as an example.
Let me give you another example—that of a successful woman entrepreneur.
- First, you love tracking! “I am good at tracking.” Tracking your numbers, tracking your habits, tracking your time—so you can see where you are going.
- You are intentional with your time. “I am intentional with my time.” When you are working you are always aware of what time it is and what you are doing. The point here is not to make yourself wrong when something takes longer than you think it will, just be aware and endeavor to stay on track.
- You are resilient to disappointments. “I am resilient.” You can come back from things even when they don’t go your way.
- Another quality of an entrepreneur is that you assess. “I assess my behaviors every day.” You assess how you are doing daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly.
One of the things that you will hear me talk about time and time again is that being a successful entrepreneur is not about perfection. It is about tracking and assessment.
What did I do today? What went well, what didn’t go well? What needs to change and shift to make it better?
Tracking, assessment, problem solving.
Another quality of a successful entrepreneur is consistency. Being consistent with your sales conversations, tracking your numbers, doing your marketing activities.
In the RISE Business Academy I teach my clients all about tracking the activities that they are doing daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly so that they can start an automatic marketing plan. You want to do the same for yourself; what are you doing daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly that is generating leads for you?
To review, your identity is “I am a successful woman entrepreneur.”
Your qualities are that you love tracking, you are intentional with your time, you are resilient to disappointments, you assess, and you are consistent.
Now of course you can come up with different qualities that are better suited to you. The key is to be consciously stepping into your new identity and qualities every single day. I also encourage you to write your new identity and qualities down and read them every morning. Perhaps even put them on pieces of paper that you can hang around your house.
This is the first step to rapid change for us as women entrepreneurs. It starts with identity. Then it moves on to embodying new qualities. Then it moves into actions. Trust me when I say that this process is so much easier when you embody the identity first, rather then just brute forcing the actions. My challenge for you is to try it this week and let me know how it’s going in the comments below.
Don’t forget to head over to see the entire video at the Revenue Breakthrough Facebook group and join if you haven’t already.
