You don’t need a new life. You need new daily choices.

If I asked you today where you wanted your life to be in one year from now, would it look different, or exactly the same?

If that answer is different what if I told you that the only person holding you back is, you. This sounds cliche but the truth is our daily habits can take us closer to or farther from the person we become and a lot of us don’t even realize it.

Every action either says, I am someone who gives up, or I am someone who keeps promises to myself.

Every habit reinforces an identity.

Before your life changes, your identity has to change.

Evey habit begins as a choice.

When I started my journey to try and change my life, I would change it all for a day and then I couldn’t maintain it.

The reason I wasn’t able to maintain it is because I expected my life to dramatically change all at once. I think social media can make change look dramatic., but in reality, it’s in all the little things most people don’t see.

This reality looks like one walk, one healthy meal, drinking more water, etc. None of things seem important at quick glance, but after weeks to months of doing these things they’re life changing.

Research on habit formation and skill development consistently shows that small improvements compound over time.

First, I want to note, stop trying to copy other routines and habits.

There are some influencers I have followed for years and tried copying their routines because they made me inspired. These lifestyles, routines, and habits weren’t wrong, but they weren’t built for my life. Not all of my values will be the same as everyone else’s therefore my routines or habits aren’t going to work for everyone else.

You have to ask yourself, what kind of person do I want to become?

When I first embarked on this journey it was because I was tired of ending every day feeling like I had broken another promise to myself. I also was constantly feeling fatigued, had constant headaches, felt disconnected and like I didn’t know anything about myself, I wanted more energy to play with my son and be a good example for him.

Find things you value whether its fitness, creativity, faith, family, adventure, peace, etc. and your habits should reflect those things you value.

So, if fitness is your value do your daily habits show it? For the longest time I kept telling myself I want to be more active and stronger, but none of my habits or life reflected that. I could say all day I wanted to be healthy and fit but eating junk food and making excuses to not get up and move my body told me and everyone else that I didn’t really value fitness.

You also need to start with sustainable habits. This is where we all tend to fail at the beginning. For me I started right out the back doing intense workouts 30 minutes long, but that wasn’t sustainable. Instead of trying to build my perfect routine I needed one I could actually keep. So instead of working out for 30 minutes I stretched for 10 or went for a walk. Eventually my walk around the block became 1 mile, then 2, then 3.

You also can’t let one bad day turn into more. My motto is that it’s better to do it half assed then miss it completely, but if I have to miss a day, I never miss two in a row. Everyone will miss a day; the successful people just start back up faster.

One thing that helped me on this journey that I know everyone talks about is the book Atomic Habits. This book taught me so much and helped me improve my habits. One of my best take aways was the two-minute rule. It taught me that starting something is often harder than continuing it once you have started.

My first habits weren’t dramatic. I drank more water. Chose fruits instead of chips. Went for short walks after dinner. None of these changed my life that day, but together they have slowly changed me.

I had to choose these things time and time again until it became who I was.

There were plenty of days I didn’t want to go for a walk, drink water, or make a healthy meal. I didn’t suddenly become disciplined. I simple stopped asking myself whether I felt like it. I decided these were the things the future version of me would be grateful I did.

Every time we repeat an action it strengthens a neural pathway in our brain. The more often we repeat this behavior, the less mental effort it takes making the habit automatic over time.

If you want to start building habits I’m asking you to start with ONE habit this week.

One year from now you’ll be living with the results of the choices you make today.

Not because one choice changes everything.

But because thousands of ordinary choices quietly become your life.

So, tomorrow morning, ask yourself one question, what would the future version of me thank me for doing today?

Then start there.