Habits play an important role in our lives. In fact, habits are so important that they can actually determine our success or failure. If you develop the wrong habits, failure is right around the corner. On the other hand, the right habits will bring you more success in life than you ever expected. The question is, how do you develop life-changing habits and is there an easy way to do this?

According to Maxwell Maltz, a plastic surgeon in the 1950’s, it takes about 21 days of continuously doing the same thing to turn it into a habit. For example, if you smoke cigarettes for 21 days continuously, there’s a good chance that smoking will become a habit. If you read a book for the same length of time, then reading will become a habit.

Good habits can make significant improvements in your life. It’s just a question of finding out what those particular habits are and incorporating them into your daily routine. So, if you’re looking to make positive changes in your life, follow these 3 easy steps to develop life-changing habits.

Step #1: Assess your strengths

Everybody has strengths. However, not everybody knows what their strengths are, thus they’re not able to utilize those strengths to the fullest.  The first step in finding out what particular habits will benefit you the most is to first find out what you’re good at.

Are you good at talking? Do you find it easy to convince people? Do you have an uncanny sense of determination? Take the time to assess yourself to determine your strengths.

Step #2: Become determined to change

The only way to create positive changes in your life is through determination. However, it’s not easy to create the determination. You may be willing to change, but that’s different from determination. If you’re just willing, the first time you encounter failure, you’ll likely give up. But if you’re determined, no matter how many times you fail, you’ll continue pursuing your goals.

Step #3: Define your goals and decide what habits you’ll need to reach them

Every goal or objective in life requires the formation of one or more habits. For example, great leaders have a passion for reading. Leaders like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Mark Cuban are only a few examples. There are certainly a whole lot of other people who have become extremely successful leaders by first developing a habit of reading. 

Therefore, if your goal is to become a great leader and be successful in life, then it’s critical that you develop a habit of reading books.

Define what your goals are in life and find out what habits you’ll need to form to achieve those goals. Fortunately, these days information is at our fingertips. With a few strokes of the keyboard, you’ll be able to find out every habit you need to form to become successful.

With the information in hand, all you’ll need to do is to develop those habits and keep practicing them even after you’ve become successful.

A coach can help you to identify your goals and help you to develop the habits necessary for reaching them.