http://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/12/02/coffee-cup_f1t6dQdO1cc826.jpg

>A habit  is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

# Habits are the small hinges that move big doors.

I've been engaged in the last month or so to really consider what I am doing on a daily basis and to find strategies to motivate myself to do something long enough so that it becomes second nature.

**Why do I bother with doing certain things daily and tracking them?** Because a small thing repeated enough time makes a huge difference. 

# The Compound Effect:

If I read 5 pages of a book everyday, that's 
- apprx 150 pages a month 
- apprx a book per 3 months
- apprx 4 books a year
- apprx 40 books per decade
- apprx 160 books until I reach the age of 70

All that from sitting for 10 minutes per day to read 5 pages of something that I may find useful to read to improve my finances, my relationship, my career, my health...whatever.

# The Catch:

http://www.steemimg.com/images/2016/12/02/Couch-potatoe1a8d1.jpg

The catch is that habits goes both way. It may be an incredible force for good...but also extremely destructive. A habit of drinking a 6 pack of beers per day (which was a habit when I was a cabinet maker in my early twenties)...is a sure way to for long term impact on all the other spheres of my life. 

- 6 bottles of beer per day ($7)
- 42 per week ($49)
- 180 per month ($208)
- 2160 beers per year ($2505.60)
- 21,600 beers per decade ($25056)
- 86400 beers until I am 70 years old ($100,224!!!)

Take that same amount of money and make it compound over that same period of time at 5% and you get $315,282.24 that could have been in the bank! (You can fell off your chair now)

# Strategies

There are 2 things when it comes to habits. The first thing is to be able to create positive habits. Habits that are good on all level:

1- Good for me
2- Good for me and my close relationships
3- Good for me, my close relationships and my community
4- Good for me, my close relationships, my community and the society in general.

All those levels need to be at play when I consider something to be added to my life as "good".  

The second part is to identify those habits that have a negative outcome overtime and kill them at the root. It's one thing to smoke a cigarette one time. It's another to smoke a pack of cigarette everyday for 40 years. 

## Starting Small

How I went about tackling the issue of building positive habits is to identify 5 spheres that I believe I need to nourish within myself:

1. My Body
2. My Mind
3. My Spiritual Life
4. My Social Life (My Relationships)
5. My Professional Life (Skills)

And what I did was put 1 daily habit in each category and try to identify what that habit would do to me over a long enough period of time (like I outlined before). 

Then I use this little app to gamify the process and make it fun. (See previous article [Today I Learned That I Could Turn My Life Into a Role Playing Game](https://steemit.com/til/@cryptoctopus/today-i-learned-that-i-could-turn-my-life-into-a-role-playing-game) )

# Conclusion

I'm going to try to cover the how to get rid of bad habits in my next article. I hope you find it as important as me to tame our habits and to make it work for us rather than against us. Feel free to add your own tips and tricks below! I'm curious! :-)