Self Development Best Practices

21 Days To Change
By Bevv Beirl
Published: June / July 2008

Summer is the perfect time to make a change. Summer is the perfect time to commit to a 21day challenge that will enhance you personally and readjust your success meter for your business. Summer is the perfect time because you usually have less contact with your business colleagues and your normal business patterns are interrupted by vacations.

Have you ever walked through the woods or a field on a path? Have you ever walked through the woods or a field without a path? Which was easier? Every behavior has a seasoned pathway crisscrossing through that great, gray matter. Scientists have found that our habitual behaviors actually have formed neuropathways, grooves that we can sometimes call ruts.

Do you go to the same place every day for lunch? Do you take the same route to work everyday, even though there may be a different, longer way that will get you there in less time? Do you have a routine when you walk into the office each day? Do you say the same thing to people when they ask you how you are or how your day is going?

As business owners, most of us have at one time or another written out our goals. (Or at least I hope you have!) Most of the time it was done when we were attending some continuing education seminar or a business building boot camp. Many of us will accomplish those goals by sheer willpower. However, most of us will actually need to change some habits once and for all. We will need to blaze a new trail or neuropathway through that human computer.

So how do we begin to blaze new pathways through our gray matter – how do we begin to make behavior changes that will help us reach our goals and beyond? How do we replace our rutty habits with enriching behavior?

• Begin by identifying an attitude that has been crippling or stifling you. Many times we have to actually ask a friend, spouse or co-worker what that attitude is because it has become so much a part of our being that we have no idea the damage it is causing to our lives and businesses.

• Next, decide on slight daily changes in behavior that will affect the negative attitude. Choose five behavior modifications that you will commit to for 21 consecutive days.

• Circle day one on the calendar to commence when you awake the next morning and circle day 21 to celebrate the new path you’ve cleared to success.

Studies have shown that doing something for 21 consecutive days will create a new habit. The goal should not be to “stop” doing anything. The goal is to replace a poor or bad habit with a healthy, good habit. Take path B instead of path A. At first it will be unfamiliar and maybe even difficult. If you can stay the course, in no time the underbrush will be beaten down, the protruding branches snapped away and by the 21st day your path will be comfortable and inviting.

Here are some familiar, less-desirable habits and suggested new habits:

If you find that you are a person who practices the above habits, the suggested modifications are a good starting point. Then you can move on to the more serious changes you want to make.

The key is to identify the habit that is causing the problem, think of a
replacement habit that will help you to reach your goals and practice it for at least 21 consecutive days. The goal is to abandon the old neuropathway rut and create a new, smooth path to success.

Meanwhile, back at the old path -- well, from lack of use -- the rut has filled in with new cells, the pathway has new grass, new branches, and you have a new healthy habit.

Bevv Beirl is a successful businesswoman who has written and spoken on human potential for over 25 years. Bevv is also the editor and CEO of BABM and can be reached at: editor@BABM.com

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