Often, we are highly motivated to make habitual changes to improve our life. We set big goals to kill some poor habits, and we cannot wait to become better versions of ourselves. And off we start…

Unfortunately, many of us end up losing our mood halfway through and surrender to our previous damaging behaviors. Why? Mostly because… 

1. We don’t know the proper strategy to develop good habits.

2. We set too big goals and want immediate results. Consequently, we give up too soon.

3. We don’t want the change bad enough.

Many of us don’t even get started out of fear – fear of the hard work, fear of not being good enough, and fear of failing.

The secret is to do it anyway, but through small changes. They are much more attainable while having a tremendous impact on our wellbeing in the long run.

The magic to cultivating life-changing habits is to strengthen your willpower. A strong mind wins over your lack of motivation and ensures that you keep on practicing your daily habits to improve the quality of your life.

Stop motivating yourself with daunting goals and take one step at a time. Even the smallest changes will benefit you. 

Today, I want to present my top 10 impactful habits to improve your life. 

They include simple habits with tiny daily fixes that bring massive results.

In This Post

How Can I Improve My Habits?

What Are Some Life-Changing Habits?

10 Daily Habits To Improve Your Life Starting Today

1. Start Your Day With Gratitude

2. Love Yourself

3. Develop A Powerful Morning Routine

4. Keep A Journal

5. Simplify Your Life

6. Be Present

7. Invest in yourself

8. Improve Your Physical Health

9. Strengthen Your Emotional State

10. Detach Yourself From Your Phone

How Can I Improve My Habits?

Three simple hacks helped me to develop new habits with ease:

1. Finding value-aligned habits.

2. Making mini steps for big results.

3. Strengthening my willpower to conquer my lack of motivation.

We all do things regularly that we regret, like eating unhealthy, complaining too much, or overdoing it with social media. It is human nature and we cannot change that with a finger snap.  

The good news is we can get rid of them but it takes practice and determination.

For me, one of the most effective ways to improve damaging habits is to find values that support my intentions to change. They help tremendously on the path of making intentional decisions. 

When times get tough, and your bad habits make their way back, you can always remind yourself why you started in the first place. Ask yourself why you want to change so badly. 

Your values are the super fuel for your habit-changing journey. 

Better than finding motivation for your actions is to strengthen your willpower. The lack of motivation often holds us back from our plans.

On the other side, willpower helps you succeed in executing habits when your motivation lets you down.

Train your ability to do things anyway no matter what mood you are in.

What Are Some Life-Changing Habits?

Often we wonder: what are the daily habits of successful people? What is the secret to reach their life-changing habits?

Life-changing habits are day-to-day practices and simple daily fixes that enhance the quality of our life.

Many of them are tiny tweaks in our behavior. Some require a little more effort but are yet to be started with mini-steps.

The magic in cultivating good habits lies in substituting poor, unhealthy habits with better ones. And all you need is willpower and patience to make them stick. 

I could give you a big list with hundreds of great daily habits that are worthwhile practicing to benefit your wellbeing. 

But today, I want to share my favorite 10 habits that have impacted my life most. They include ways that improve your health, wealth, productivity, and happiness.

So let’s jump right in.

10 Daily Habits To Improve Your Life Starting Today

Here is my shortlist of simple and attainable habits that made my life tremendously better. I am certain that you will find all of them helpful.

Remember that every habit takes time to its fruition. Starting with mini-steps is the key to success when it comes to changing your behavior and sticking to the better ones.

1. Start Your Day With Gratitude

Many of us start our day with unproductive thoughts, anxiety, and a lack of motivation. Why? Because we have gotten so used to letting those weak feelings into our life. 

That, too, is a habit and gets programmed in our brains if we allow them to. No wonder that many of us already self-sabotage our days in the morning.

Instead, you can start your day by appreciating your life. Think of events, people, and thoughts that make you smile and be grateful for them. 

It will incite an immediate mindset shift towards positivity and motivation. Finally, your day starts more empowering, and you lift the odds of triumphing over whatever life throws at you.

I cannot emphasize enough how uplifting it feels when you wake up in the morning and appreciate the simplest things like being alive after a good night’s sleep.

It is such an easy task to do that can massively impact your state.

2. Love Yourself

We are what we do, a collection of our habits formed by our thoughts (good and bad). We are the result of our thoughts. 

Negative and weak thoughts result in an unsteady character. Uplifting and productive thoughts form a powerful and joyful one. 

Luckily, we have the freedom to decide what thinking we tell ourselves.

So when it comes to self-love, it is vital to understand that our behaviors are thought-driven. For this reason, we need to work on our thinking first to raise our self-love.

And the first step is to accept and believe in yourself. Build the habit of telling yourself powerful affirmations every day. At best, during your morning routine.

Tell yourself that you are unique, healthy, intelligent, helpful, successful, and joyful. It may feel ridiculous at the start. But you will eventually start believing in your words and shield your mind from pessimistic and weak thoughts. 

If you cultivate the habit of loving yourself more, you will also find it easier to build other good habits.

Loving yourself is one of the most valuable foundations in building better behaviors.

3. Develop A Powerful Morning Routine

Everyone has an automated ritual after waking up. Even if this looks like sipping coffee, smoking a cigarette, and showering before heading to work.

But what I am talking about is winning the first hour (or hours) of your day by developing a routine that includes empowering habits. 

Doing things that you love and value first thing in the morning makes you work towards becoming a better version of yourself before all chores and obligations kick in.

So after your daily morning appreciation in bed, move on to activities that make you feel great. It can be anything from making your bed (always!) to drinking a big glass of water, going for a walk, or working out. 

The biggest advantage of morning routines is that you get tons of things done by the time other people crawl out of bed. 

Remember to start small and only increase the load when you get used to your habits. After some time, you will develop enough willpower to overcome any lack of motivation.

So go and win the first hour to win the whole day!

Oh, and if your excuse is that you have no time for that in the morning, go wake up 5 minutes earlier and do one single empowering activity. Then 10 minutes and two, and so on. 

Fact is, you will need a lot more willpower to execute tasks in the evening when excuses get more challenging to resist.

4. Keep A Journal

Journaling seemed silly to me before until I tried it out for a longer time. 

I realized that it helped me keep my thoughts organized and released my mental blockades. It also helped me understand myself better, which enabled me to make value-aligned decisions.

On the very first page, I’d always note my value list. I then focus on planning every day according to those values.

The result: I get things done that matter to me most more effectively, and I look forward to every single next day.

Journaling has so many benefits and helps to:

• Understand priorities, worries, and desires

• Plan days and set achievable goals

• Improve writing

• Have a clearer mind

• Use creativity

• Track progress

• Self-reflect

Again, I encourage you to start small. Write down only the essential things that bring you forward.

That will consume less of your time and ensure that you enjoy and stick to this powerful habit.

5. Simplify Your Life

One of the simplest habits that makes a massive difference in my life is simplifying life every day for a few minutes. You don’t have to be a minimalist like me to hate mess, be it physical, mental, or digital. 

The best way to keep your sanity is to simplify and reduce clutter in all areas of your life? Why? Because you gain clarity, time, and energy by getting rid of overwhelming stuff and activities.

Every day, I look around my home and tidy up my rooms, get rid of unused things (and they keep showing up, that’s just the way life is), simplify my calendars when too full, delete emails, and organize the digital devices that I use daily.

All it takes is 10 minutes. You may take a little longer if you are getting started but don’t overdo it.

More important is that you keep doing it on a smaller scale to stay motivated to declutter. Regard it as a meditative and relaxing process.

6. Be Present

In our fast-moving and hectic times, we can hardly focus on what is happening in front of us.

Our thoughts are either dwelling on past events, worrying about the future, or focusing on the things we lack. Our attention span is lower than ever, stress-levels higher, and we feel discontented though we have everything we need. 

But we cannot change the past, nor can we know the future. We cannot control what is out of our hands.

That is why practicing being present is one of the best habits to improve your health and critical and happier life. 

There are several ways you can help yourself become more present-centered. I find the simplest method is to focus on your breath.

Every time you inhale, count to 5, and do the same while exhaling. Concentrate on the process of breathing. Listen to the sound of your breath and the movement of your body when your lungs fill up with air and then releases it.

This simple practice alone can make you feel so much calmer and strengthen your mental health. And it helps maximize your productivity and your happiness while enjoying the present.

7. Invest In Yourself

Another powerful habit is to stimulate your brain with new knowledge. How? Educate yourself with books, blogs, podcasts, online courses, tutorials, or youtube videos. Anything that stimulates your brain and helps you get closer to your goals. 

It may sound tedious, time-consuming, and hard to achieve. Tell me about it! I hated reading. The reason was because I was reading the wrong books. Today, I love to inform myself. The main point is to pick the information intentionally.

Once you have determined your values and goals and written them down in your journal, you know what knowledge to choose. Develop the habit of learning what brings you closer to your goals.

8. Improve Your Physical Health

Needless to say that exercising can change your life. Our bodies need movement, and if it lacks exercise, it degenerates. As a result, we feel tired, stressed, and discontented.

The reason why many don’t stick to their new year’s resolution to move more is fear. Fear that training is too hard and fear of not reaching that beach body. 

Yes, exercising can be challenging, and it may take months or even years to reach your goal. However, getting started is crucial. How to stick with this habit? Again, make it a mini-habit.

I encourage you to follow some simple ways to exercise like a minimalist.

No matter what kind of movement you want to exercise, start with a few minutes a day. You will more likely go on with your good habits. Your health points will compound over time, and you’ll see improvement that will boost your motivation to keep going. That is how all those beach bodies started.

Do yourself a favor and get started with short and sweet workouts. Stick to your mini-habit, and you will reap the benefits of keeping your body fit.

9. Strengthen Your Emotional State

Fear is the most basic answer to why we don’t build or stick to good habits.

And there is a simple way to instantly conquer fear and overcome overwhelm, stress, worry. By changing your emotional strength by improving your state and physiology.

From one second to another, you can transform yourself from feeling unworthy, fearful, weak to valuable, brave, and capable by changing your body posture.

Try it yourself. Look at the mirror and stand tall, chest and head up, like a superhero. How do you feel? Now, combine this with being grateful for your achievements. Tell yourself stories that make you believe in yourself, and you will gain certainty.

Are you feeling empowered, confident, and ready to rock? Now do this daily!

This certainty will get you to do the actions you kept avoiding. And that makes the difference whether you reach your goals, develop and stick to good habits, and become who you want to become, or not.

10. Detach Yourself From Your Phone

We all spend too much nonsense time on our digital devices, especially on our phones.

Most of us don’t even question the impacts on our well-being when used excessively. 

1. We end up stressed and unhappy because we compare our lives to others on social media.

2. We lose the ability to focus due to the sheer amount of information we get from numerous sources (mostly useless).

3. We give up a significant amount of time and energy browsing through the net. Mostly for entertainment.

That’s where digital minimalism comes in handy. Learning to be intentional about our screentime usage is key.

The most effective way of using our digital devices is to use them less.

The point is not to deprive ourselves of the benefits of technology. But to learn how to use them wisely and in moderation. That way, we keep control over them and not the other way around.

Final Takeaway

No matter what good habit you want to cultivate, it is vital to know your values first so that your actions make sense for you.

Always think big, but start small – this enhances your chances of success and improves your life quality.

Instead of working on keeping yourself motivated, work on your willpower.

Willpower can be automated and triumphs over lack of motivation, which we all have from time to time.

Lastly, work on conquering your fears. They paralyze us from getting started with anything.

The more you strengthen your emotional state and physiology, the more you can build new and better habits.

What habits changed Your life most?

Related Posts:

How To Stop Always Wanting More?
Simplicity and Happiness: Why A Simple Life Is A Happy Life
How To Learn To Live With Less For Beginners

Ray Arya

Ray is a frugal minimalist who loves to travel and live in his self-converted camper van. He writes about the benefits of downsizing, decluttering, saving money, building wealth, and the freedom that results from the power of less. Minimalray.com is for everyone who seeks a meaningful life and is committed to contentment.