One of the most important aspects of success and failure resides in our habits. It really boils down to good habits versus bad habits. We all have habits. If we solve this habit riddle, we find our success. If we have a bad habit it will not just go away. A bad habit must be replaced with a good habit. Sometimes forming a good habit can be uncomfortable or even painful. We must keep in mind this discomfort is necessary in order to make this necessary change and it is only temporary. How temporary you ask? Let’s look at a scientific study about habits.

In the early years of the space program, NASA was concerned about the physiological and psychological effects of space and weightlessness on the astronauts. One of the many training programs included making the astronauts wear convex goggles 24/7 including while they slept. These goggles caused everything to seem upside down, a complete 180 degrees. Was this uncomfortable? You bet it was. The astronauts experienced symptoms of anxiety and stress. Physically they experienced high blood pressure, elevated respiration, vertigo and even panic attacks.

But something miraculous happened to all of the astronauts between the 26^th and 30^th day of wearing these goggles. The astronauts began to see normal even with the goggles on. Their vision returned to normal. Their brains had created new neural pathways and literally changed the astronaut vision 180 degrees back to normal. Psychologists learned from this experiment that our brains are incredible. With intense focus for only 30 days straight, new neural pathways, which are just habits, can be created. In other words, we can replace a bad habit with a good habit with just 30 days of focus.

We must have habits to function as human beings. Habits are so common most people don’t recognize the vast majority of them. Habits allow us to do more than one thing at a time. As adults we don’t focus on tying our shoes, taking a bath, putting on clothes or for many driving a car. Our habits allow us to accomplish these tasks while thinking about more important things.

We are successful or failures just by our own habits. Success then becomes simple, change bad habits into good habits. When the good habits out weight the bad habits success will come. This can be applied to everything, business, weight loss, exercise, learning, it is an endless list. It is best to start a new habit on the first day of the month. That way by the end of the month, you have a new habit and you won’t wonder when you started. Tuesday is November 1^st, what will be your new habit?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”-—Aristotle

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Tim Wilhoit is owner/principal of Your Friend 4 Life Insurance Agency in Nashville, TN. He is a family man, father of 3, grandfather of 1, entrepreneur, insurance agent, life insurance broker, employee benefit specialist, salesman, sales trainer, recruiter, public speaker, blogger, author and team leader with over 29 years of experience in sales and marketing in the insurance and beverage industries.