The Single Most Important Life Skill
There’s one universal skill that impacts everything you do.
It can give you more of what you want in life, and less of what you don’t. You can use it to become wealthy, get in remarkable physical shape, strengthen important relationships, and achieve even your most ambitious goals.
And here’s the thing — it’s not a secret. In fact, there is a good chance you’re already familiar with the basic principle. But that’s not enough, because most people that know about it don’t understand how to use it.
The mistake they make is treating it like an “idea” instead of a developing it as a real skill. In other words, they don’t put in the time to practice and apply it. As a result, they never benefit from any of its incredible potential.
I’m talking about the ability to intentionally modify your habits.
Stay with me, because I believe this is the single most valuable life skill that you’ll ever learn. But only if you’re willing to take the time to develop it.
What Makes This Concept So Powerful
We all have habits. Patterns that we go through on a daily or weekly basis with little to no thought at all. Some examples might include:
- What time you wake up.
- How you spend your morning.
- What you eat.
- How often you exercise.
- Where you go to work.
- What books you read.
- Who you hang out with.
- And what you do for fun.
These routines say a lot about you. A thorough review can be used to estimate your future health, finances, job prospects, and overall happiness.
Habits are powerful because they are incredibly easy to maintain. You don’t have to remake the decision to shower, brush your teeth, or head to work every single day. And yet, these actions have a profound impact on your life.
Habits are choices that have been put on auto-pilot.
Once established, they take very little willpower to maintain.
It’s easy to imagine how slight changes to your habits could make your life healthier, happier, and more rewarding. You could thoughtfully prioritize the things that matter to you, and carefully remove those that don’t.
There are good habits, bad habits, and aspirational habits. The goal here is to keep the good, minimize the bad, and add aspirational habits — based on your most important dreams and goals.
It’s all up to you. This isn’t about conforming to someone else’s expectations for your life. It’s about being intentional when it comes to how you use your time and choosing the activities that bring you real happiness.
Why You Should Treat This As A Skill
There is one BIG problem.
It’s very difficult to change well-established habits.
This is both the blessing and the curse of dealing with habits. They’re easy to maintain once established but extremely difficult to change once they’re set.
Being able to intentionally add or remove a habit is a skill. It doesn’t just happen overnight. There are tips and strategies that make it much easier, but like any skill it takes practice and dedication if you want to get better at it.
The good news is that you can’t be bad at it. You can only be inexperienced or unprepared. And that is something you can change by committing to learning and practicing this skill.
This isn’t about willpower. In fact, willpower alone is almost never enough.
What it comes down to is understanding how the brain works, and learning the most effective ways to permanently modify your habits.
It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now
If you are reading this, you now have life-changing knowledge.
It’s up to you to decide how to use it. You may just tuck it away as an “idea” to be explored in the future. Or you might realize this is a skill with incredible potential, and set out to master it with all of your energy.
The choice is yours.
If you want to get in shape, improve your finances, reinvent your career, strengthen your relationships, or take on an ambitious goal — you now know that it’s a matter of practicing and applying this one critical skill.
