Develop Courage by Doing Small Things

By Ambila Nath.

Maya Angelou said, "Courage – you develop courage by doing small things just as if you wouldn't want to pick up a 100-pound weight without preparing yourself".

The importance of what Maya is saying is that it's your small daily habits/actions that bring the most significant changes to your life.

In my journey to build my business, I realised just how important my daily habits were, both personally and professionally. So I want to help you to further your business and implement small daily habits in your life to help you.

What is a habit?

Habits are the small decisions you make and actions you perform every day. Your life and where you are today are the total sum of your habits. So whether you are rich or just getting by - is a result of your habits. How happy or unhappy you are - is a result of your habits. How in or out of shape you are - again a result of your habits.

What we repeatedly choose to do ultimately forms the person we are, the things we believe in and the personality we portray. Every change you want to happen in your life depends on the habits you are willing to change.

In his book "Atomic Habits", James Clear talks about a four-step pattern to every habit, which your brain runs through in the same order each time.

Cues | Cravings | Response | Reward

Rewards are the end goal of every habit. The cue is about noticing the reward. The craving is about wanting the reward, and the response is about obtaining the reward.

We chase rewards because they serve two purposes:

They satisfy our cravings - for that instant moment, you feel contentment and relief from the craving.

They teach us which actions are worth remembering in the future - your brain is continuously monitoring which actions are helpful and which are useless.

If the behaviour is insufficient in any of the four stages, it will not become a habit.

- Get rid of the cue, and your habit will never start.

- Reduce the craving, and you won't experience enough motivation to act.

- Make the behaviour difficult, and you won't be able to do it.

- And if the reward fails to satisfy your desire, you'll have no reason to do it again in the future.

Without the first three steps, a behaviour will not occur. Without all four, a behaviour will not be repeated.

To summarise, the cue triggers a craving, which motivates a response, provides a reward, satisfies the craving, and ultimately becomes associated with the cue.

So given all this practical knowledge, how can you create positive habits that will help us to move forward?

Start with a tiny habit

Make it so easy you can't say no —Leo Babauta

Pick an easy new habit, and you don't need the motivation to do it. I.e. Rather than walking 1 hour per day, start with 15 minutes per day. Rather than trying to meditate for 10 minutes per day, start by meditating for one minute per day.

Increase your habit in tiny ways

Success is a few simple disciplines practised every day, while failure is simply a few errors in judgement repeated every day —Jim Rohn

You don't need to be an expert from the beginning; the importance is in starting and then gradually improving. When you see changes happening, your willpower and motivation will automatically increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.

As you build up, break habits into chunks

It is essential to keep each habit reasonable to maintain momentum and make the behaviour as easy as possible. When working up to losing weight, rather than focusing on the end goal, focus on what you need to do daily to lose weight.

When you slip, get back on track quickly

The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control —Kelly McGonigal

When you fall out of your new habit, take some time out to see what is preventing this habit from happening. What are some of the things that are getting in your way? What are some daily emergencies that are likely to pull you off course? How can you plan to work around these issues?

You need to be consistent, not perfect—work on never missing a habit two days in a row.

Be patient. Stick to a pace you can sustain

Learning to be patient and kind to yourself is probably the most essential skill of all. You can make incredible progress if you are consistent and patient.

Start with a fast pace walk and intermittently run if you start running. If you add daily sales calls to your business strategy, start with fewer than you expect to handle. Patience is everything. Do things you can sustain, keep you still feeling good, and give you results.

New habits should feel easy, especially in the beginning. If you stay consistent and continue increasing your practice, it will get easy and fast enough and become a part of something you do every day without any resistance.

Ambila Nath is a serial entrepreneur, certified coach, spiritual teacher, international speaker and an avid follower of her passions. She is known by her clients as ‘The Girl Next Door of Spirituality’.

With a corporate background in management consulting, Ambila is far from your stereotypical Spiritual Coach. She went from a 6 figure corporate job to having a spiritual business. She has worked with clients spanning 4 Continents and she knows that the greatest journey you can take is the one to build a relationship with yourself. Life isn't complicated - we are!

Ambila helps you to fall in love with your business again by aligning your energy, shifting your mindset and creating positive daily habits to grow your business using the 8-step Elevation process. The key to manifesting the Business you dream of. . . is knowing who you are!

You can find more about Ambila and her work here or look her up on LinkedIn, drop by on Facebook or Instagram or even watch her on Youtube