Do you feel in control of your life? Are you confident that your life is proceeding just as you would like? If not, it’s time to examine why and get back on track, my friend.

Today we will help you get back on the right path by laying out a roadmap for you:

• Accept full responsibility for your path.
• Identify your goals.
• Identify and evaluate your daily habits.
• Be strategic with your habits.
• Do regular evaluations.

Accept full responsibility. This requires you to acknowledge that you are in the driver’s seat and it’s all up to you. No blaming other drivers, no excuses, just an honest self-evaluation of your choices and behaviors that have set you on your current road.

 It may be time to take the next exit and study your map. Correct choices and behaviors now before you get further down this road.

Identify your goals. Remind yourself of your desired destination. Is it to be healthier? Get a promotion? Complete a degree? Buy a new home? Be the best parent you can be?   Whatever your goal is, it needs to be front and center in your mind, my friend, programed into your GPS.

Identify daily habits and choices that are derailing you in your pursuit of that goal. These daily habits have a way of sneaking up on you without you even being consciously aware you are doing them, or how they are affecting you.  Are you stopping at the gas station for a 64 oz soda on your way to work every morning? Are you consistently letting work interfere with at home time? Are you sitting in front of the tv too much?

Be strategic with your habits. Often, making small daily changes will recalibrate your path. One way to shed light on these daily choices and actions is to use a method Darren Hardy recommends in his book, The Compound Effect. He calls it The Tracking down method: choose a habit you want to improve and for a week write down every time you do that habit. Often, we are not aware of the reality of our habits until we see them in black and white.

This self-awareness can give you a feeling of control, helping you realize you are where you are at because of your own doing, and you have the power to change direction.

Once you track your daily habits for a week, decide how you want to see things change so that you reach your goals. Write down one or two ideas that you can start implementing immediately. Perhaps you substitute water or iced tea for that daily soda. Maybe turn off your phone for several hours of focused family time each evening.  These will have to be deliberate choices that will help you reach your goal.

Do regular evaluations. After several months of these new habits, do another evaluation. Perhaps there are other daily habits you can implement.

The bottom line is that you will reach your goals, your chosen destination, by keeping those goals in front of you and choosing daily behaviors that will move you closer to them. Become aware of habits that are derailing you and eliminate them.

Daily habits compound and should be strategic and positive. Remember, only YOU are in the driver’s seat of your life, so be deliberate with habits.

-Jan Jones

For a proven method to help build good habits check out this video: