Day 7: New Habits, Slacking off vs Persistence and Discipline: How to follow through

In the morning of Day 7 my daily challenges started to get to me. I currently have four things that I am supposed to do every day for 30 days

1. Revise 50 GRE words
2. Write a blog article
3. Gym/Train
4. Read for 1 hour

This morning, thoughts of not following through, slacking off slowly wanted to creep in. I tried to be mindful and observe them. "They were saying. Maybe not today. You don't have to keep writing every day. What is the point? Write whenever you are feeling to. U will have to stop eventually. Soon u will be on a work trip and not even have the chance to write during that day, how are you even planning to keep this going and etc..." Mindfulness practice teaches the importance of distancing your Self from the thoughts. They are just thoughts and that's what they do. They come and go. First and foremost rule is thoughts are not You. You are different to the thoughts that you may have. Try to watch them as an alien observer. So, that is what I did... I observed them.

My knowledge about creating new habits says that if you do a certain action continuously for long enough it turns into a habit and your brain starts performing that action effortlessly in an autopilot mode. That is the main reason why I have been doing these 30 day challenges, to add new effective habits to my arsenal and to get rid of old and bad habits. To live a more productive life and to have the control over my future.


I knew if I stick to it for long enough it will get easier and once 30 days are finished I will have less pressure on myself. My main question was how to Follow through thou? As always I reverted to reading...

I found this great book called "Finish What You Start." - by Peter Hollins at Z-library and downloaded to my iPad immediately. I think this is one of my most handy habits. Whenever I have a question or a problem I go find a book or several books on subject and devour them.

Peter Hollins formula for Following Through is composed of four elements: 1. Focus 2. Self-discipline 3. Action 4. Persistence. I drew a road map of the application of these four elements to my life.

First- Focus. I  make sure that every day i remind myself my goals. Every morning first thing i open my notebook and write down the 4 things i should do.

Second, I make sure to follow through with the help of will power even on the days i don't feel it. it is especially important with gym and training. some days you are just to sore to train or you are tired. It is absolutely a must to train on those days even if its a light workout as well.

Third, I have experienced this with blog posts. Some days my mind went black until the very moment I started typing. As soon as you do some kind of action though After a while u see that the momentum builds up and thoughts appear out of no where. That's why I always say its important to take action even if you don't have a clear plan of what you are going to do. In fact you shouldn't have.

Fourth- be persistent. I associate this one with Patience mostly. I am not the most patient person. I love seeing the outcome and the result of my work. When its easier I am the type of the person that doesn't need much time to decide and take action. I would say following through is the hardest for me. I guess for everyone also. I am a killer of short-term projects. However marathons seem harder. Sometimes you need to be patient and take your time just to keep going even if you move slowly move toward your destination.

By the end of this article, I am very much pumped to keep going and to add new habits to my life. As long as this formula works this means that I can pretty much do anything with my life as long as I am persistent enough to stick with it.