Developing Good Habits

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle

I found this quote on the internet. From my recollection of having read Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" as a student many years ago, it does sound to me like the sort of thing that he might say.

Good habits - and excellence - generally take time and practice to develop.

Musicians and athletes often break down what they are doing into small parts or actions and practise those parts repeatedly until they become natural (of course in practising them you need to be sure that you are practising them the right way, rather than the wrong way -even if that means going slower intially - you want to develop a good habit rather than to ingrain a bad habit).

I remember seeing Andy Murray play an incredible tennis shot which seemed inspirational. Afterwards he was asked about it in interview and he said 'I've been practising that shot a lot in training.'

If you are trying to develop a new good habit, remember it often takes time, patience and conscious effort:

- Work out what actions are involved in the new habit:
- Practise them at a level you can achieve
- Repeat them
- Repeat them again
- Give yourself credit when you succeed
- Be patient at times you don't
- If you get into a bad groove, change something
- If you get into a good groove keep it up.

Blog Post Written by Life Coach David
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