The quality of your life simply comes down to the quality of your habits

This post was inspired by a Reddit thread (since now deleted) which reminded me of something I did near the beginning of my journey and was crucial in me turning my life around without having to overcomplicate the process: Assessing my current habits and behaviours (good and bad) to see where they will take me in 5 years.

If you've been following the page for even a short amount of time, you know how much I stress the importance of our habits within our daily routines. I'm a firm believer of the quote—thought to be said by F.M Alexander—'People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures'. I adopted this idea early into my journey and so I knew the key to changing my life for the better rested in the quality of my current habits and behaviours in my daily routine.

Given the above, a good way to answer the question of 'Where do you see yourself in 5 years?' is to rephrase it to 'Where will your current habits and behaviours lead you in 5 years?'

To do this, simply get 2 pieces of paper, one for a list of all your good habits, and the other for the bad habits.

After you've filled your 2 lists, go down each one and ask yourself 'Where will this habit will lead me in 5 years if I keep doing it on a regular basis?'

When I did this myself, I found that a continuation of all the good habits (working out, meditating, self reflecting, acting on how I'm feeling internally, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, investing, etc) would have me in a much better position physically, mentally, emotionally and financially in 5 years. Whereas the bad habits (smoking weed, porn, doom scrolling, not going out with friends, staying in my comfort zone, etc) would have me in the same position I was currently in, except the only difference being that I would be 5 years older and a hell of a lot more miserable of a person.

Whilst this may seem obvious, there are quite a few people, including me for a very long time, that haven't given much thought or consideration as to the path their current habits are leading them down and may not even be aware of their bad habits and the effect it's having given how routine it's become in one's life.

When deciding whether a habit is good or bad, think of it in the same way as instant and delayed gratification. Instant gratification gives you the reward straight away (drugs, porn, doom scrolling, snacking, etc) without having to put any real effort in. Whereas, delayed gratification (working out, meditating, self reflection, etc) you put in the work before you receive any rewards.

"The road to Heaven feels like Hell, but the road to Hell feels like Heaven" - Unknown.

Instant gratification gives you short term pleasure in exchange for long term suffering, whereas delayed gratification gives you short term suffering in exchange for long term pleasure.

Another way you can see the difference is by thinking about how high the ceiling is when looking at a habit. If the ceiling is low and can be reached almost instantaneously, it's most likely a bad habit as opposed to habits classed as delayed gratification which tend to have much higher, and really limitless, ceilings. If it's easy then hard, it's a bad habit. If it's hard then easy, it's a good habit.

Having a list of the good and bad habits that you indulge in and more importantly, the effect they will have on your life in the future, will make it immediately obvious as to what habits you need to reinforce and continue to do and which ones you need to discard and forget about.

If you find it hard to build a daily routine where the good habits shine and the bad ones invisible, I'd recommend aligning yourself with the kind of person you want to be and what you want from life. In doing this myself, it made it easier for me to pick and choose habits to be apart of my daily routine in order to help me become the person I want to be and work towards getting the life I want.

As much as we would like, there is simply not enough time in any given day to integrate every single good habit in the world into to your routine. This is why it's best to pick ones that are most in-line with the kind of person you want to be and the life you want.

Additionally, putting your focus on improving your life one day at a time is a lot more manageable and less overwhelming as opposed to constantly looking at the bigger picture and believing you have to have the end goal accomplished by tomorrow.