Entrepreneurs earmark a new business year as an opportunity to reassess, forecast, and improve their business environment. Part of that assessment is to audit the prior year's activities, mostly about sales, conversions, social media activities, and financial health. CPR portends that the reassessment of professional development within the most valuable asset, themselves and the team, should be incorporated into the equation. For leaders, this may signify self-assessment of character traits that emanate from habits. Are you aware of the habit(s) that contributed to your triumphs or defeats in 2022? Although Monday's post-CPR introduced a standard definition for habit, today we will explore habits further and consider how we arrived at our present destination on our journey called life.
One must initiate and perform a set action with many repetitions to form a habit unless the activity is met with rebuke or chastisement. If the action continues without resistance, eventually, the act becomes a habit. Whether it's a parent, supervisor, or anyone with authority, disciplining or failing to discipline a particular act will likely continue until it becomes as natural as breathing. If the habit is identified as good, then there are positive outcomes; conversely, providing the habit is identified as bad, it can wreak havoc if not checked or altered.
Modifying behaviors that become habitual requires work, but it can be done. The goal is to take small baby steps to reverse the habit you desire to replace. Throughout life, we have learned many good and bad things. Changing the negative to a positive requires tiny intentional steps toward your goal. An excellent place to start is by conducting retrospection and taking a walk down memory lane to determine how, when, where, and why the negative habits took form. Providing the history is traumatic; please seek professional counseling before moving forward. The goal is to turn the clock back to determine when that change occurred, identifying the trigger points. In understanding the initial trigger(s), you can comprehend the current triggers when tackling negative habits.
In adhering to Biblical + Business principles, Eccles 3:1 reminds us, "To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." One thing is sure; everyone is experiencing a season. We know the core principle about seasons: that it comes and goes. Similarly to seasons, we are privy to the principle of gravity; what goes up must come down. How we equip ourselves to handle the seasons that we are in or gravity dictates our character, driven by the habits we elect to practice daily. To overcome corrupt fruits, we must intentionally replace them with good fruits. CPR recommends the following steps to replace a harmful habit (corrupt fruit) with positive habits (good fruit):
Be intentional about eliminating your negative habits (corrupt fruits).
Self-reflection cultivates self-awareness; self-awareness fosters corrective action and acceptance of constructive feedback.
Through self-reflection, you can assess and identify your negative habits. The goal is to tackle the most egregious habit first. Please visit CPR Moral Leadership Coaching tidbits # 3 https://youtu.be/ZVIfUwHzQGM and #4 https://youtu.be/UKkH1MBZak0 to go through the exercises. Providing the habit is identified as an addiction, please also seek professional assistance.
be sure to prioritize the habits that must be urgently addressed that are wreaking havoc on your character
3. Identify the underlying cause or stressors linked to that habit.
retrospective review will help you recall what occurred when this habit first emerged
4. Determine the good habits you desire, then incorporate the excellent habit as a core value. Be intentional
Aligning your actions with your words can construct the core value.
5. Model the behavior of the habit you desire to adopt. Understanding what habit emanates in the workspace is helpful. For example, if you desire to become more organized, you seek the habits of an organized person. Part of the organization comes with punctuality and paying attention to details. Enlist assistance from the organized person that you admire.
6. Post reminders, meditate, and pray for the desired outcome.
7. Do not stress if you fall off the horse. This is not about perfection; perfection is not attainable at this time and space. So, get up, dust off, and start over or pick up where you left off. If it took time to adopt the negative habits, it would take time and patience to break and replace them. So, the first step is to be intentional about the change you desire.
If investing in human capital, aka professional development, is a metric within your small business or for your personal growth in 2023, keep it locked into the CPR LLC blog Moral Leadership series. Also, visit us on youtube for the CPR Moral Leadership Coaching tidbit series.
Warm Regards,
CeeCee
