I recently read that up to 90% of what we do everyday is habitual. In other words, a great majority of your day is a sum of habits that you do. Think through what you do every morning when you wake up and how you go about your day. Life is a sum of your habits. Many of these habits are formed in the context of relationships. We imitate behavior in the words we say and the actions that we take. This is why better understanding your environment and culture is so important. This leads us to the #3 mistake that people make in trying to change their behavior.

Habit Mistake #3: Ignoring How Environment Shapes Behavior

Parents that are in-tune with their kids understand this principle. Actively involved parents are aware of the type of friendships their kids are forming. Isolating their life is not the answer but guiding them to positive friendships is healthy. To take this a step further one study said that your yearly income is usually an average of the type of friends you hang out with. If you consistently hang around someone who is inspiring you to take action toward owning a business like they have, they will invariably pull you up with them. At the same time, if your friendships consist of people who walk around as victims you will develop the same world beliefs as them without realizing it.

Change Your Context & Change Your Life

Image via Wikipedia

As the Stanford University survey suggests, the only way around the environmental influence is to change your context. This can be painful for many people as it means creating distance between certain friendships. Yet, it is absolutely critical that you surround yourself with positive influences. This is why the concept of mastermind groups have been such a success for many people. It is an intentional formation of a group of people that are all wanting to head in the same direction.  What about you? are you in need of a mastermind group that can help you to overcome the current challenges that you are facing? Mutual accountability is a powerful tool in mobilizing people to take action toward their dreams and goals.

Question: Have you ever benefited from having a mastermind type group to speak into your life?

Related articles

• Relying on Willpower Will Not Change Your Bad Habits (simplelifehabits.com)
• Attempting Big Leaps Instead of Baby Steps (simplelifehabits.com)