The power of a habit

It was so fun to play soccer with my Buffer co-workers in Singapore.

I believe that we are a product of the habits we form and creating the right habits early on is a great investment for personal growth. I don’t mean that there could be a time when building a new habit would be too late but as an investment, it’s better to start early in our life if you want to accumulate compound interest.

Today I’ve been thinking about habits and in particular how one single habit could trigger other stand-alone habits. You may think why would I think about this. But let me tell you a short story from my personal experience.

I’ve been exercising regularly for almost a year. I go to the gym 5 times a week and play pickup or competitive soccer at least twice a week. In the summer this number goes as high as 4-times due to the outside soccer turf availability.

Exercising has become a habit. It doesn’t feel like work anymore. The same way I know I have to brush my teeth every night and morning I know I should exercise. I don’t really think about it anymore it just happens naturally without me putting too much effort into it.

Today I wanted to share a little bit about the power of a single habit, exercising and how it changed my lifestyle. With it, I noticed how other small habits started to form as well.

• I started to wake up early so I can go to the gym in the morning. I usually wake up around 6:45 and at 8 I’m in the gym.
• I started to sleep around 8 hours so I have to go to bed early. I go to bed at 10 then read about 40 minutes before I sleep.
• I started to cook and eat very healthy because I care about my fitness results. I have set some goals and want to hit them.
• I started to consume less sugar because I don’t feel 100% at the gym when I had too much sugar the day before. It affects my performance by a large margin.
• I drastically limited my alcohol intake. I have maybe 1–2 glass of alcohol in a week. I know alcohol is high in calories so I try to limit it to stay in the range of my daily calory intake.

All these are related to each other and came from a single habit. Who knows maybe these small habits will branch out some day and create their own small ones.

I think building a habit is a process and it takes some time to fully own it. If there are some habits that you want to build then start now!