Developing positive, healthy habits can benefit your personal and professional lives. It takes practice and patience to integrate such practices into your daily life, but that patience pays off – you’re cultivating healthy habits that allow you space to be your best professional self and elevate your career.
Try these easy six daily habits that will help you grow your career.
1. Ease in and Out of the Workday
It takes a while to start the day when the alarm goes off, and you have to drag yourself out of bed. It gets easier when you add in a hot shower, strong cup of coffee or a few asanas to stretch the body.
Similarly, you should use mini-rituals to ease in and out of your workday. When you transition from a heavy-traffic commute to the office, don’t carry that negativity in with you. Take a moment to do a breathing exercise in the car each morning before you head in and at the close of the day before you head home.
Other mini-ritual ideas include: writing down tasks for the day, organizing your desk, watering your plants, stretching, making tea or reading a chapter of a book.
2. Get Out Into Nature
You wake up only to sit down all day. Make a change to better your health. Some studies reveal remaining seated all day is worse than smoking, raising your risk of mortality. Standing in place for a significant amount of time likely isn’t a smart idea, either.
So, get out into nature. A walk in nature improves short-term memory by 20 percent over strolling a busy urban street and walks in nature provide relief for mental fatigue, inspiring emotions of awe. Consider a weekend day trip to get in some forest therapy to benefit your career when the stress adds up.
3. Focus on Connectivity
With the growth of the technological age, the world continues to connect at a rapid rate globally. What do you think of when you hear the word connectivity?
When you network, how you connect matters, such as through being a member of a nonprofit or trade association. Outdated ways of thinking about connectivity lend pressure to harmful networking habits by “faking it until you make it” and misrepresenting yourself.
Look beyond “how things are done” in networking to make authentic connections. Bad networking makes you feel dirty, and others sense this awkwardness. It affects making a positive impression. Focus on connectivity by building real rapport. Start by connecting with old college friends and inviting professionals you know and trust to a coffee meetup — plus ones welcome.
4. Ask Open-Ended Questions
Not everyone needs to know your business, and that makes it easier to go about your day. Or, does it?
There’s more to a simple “yes” or “no.” If you fail to understand a fellow professional or issue affecting the company, you fail to move forward productively and successfully. Take a day and pay attention to how you phrase and respond to questions. What do you notice?
Now, challenge yourself to ask three open-ended questions a week. Open up by asking “How do you feel about that?” You can also try “What did you take away from today’s workshop?”
5. Actively Listen
It’s easy to get lost in a conversation during a meeting or feel left out and clueless when it comes to networking. Silence holds power, but you need to use it wisely.
Attentively listen with your whole body, turning it toward the speaker, with open arms and uncrossed legs. Take in what’s said, and when appropriate, paraphrase what you understood, reply to further the conversation and ask for clarification when needed.
About 52 percent of employers prefer those who go the extra mile, and actively listening and responding is a powerful daily habit that will build your career and show how much you care about your job. This habit enables you to look for areas of concern and become a part of the solution.
6. Write It Down
When you write down your goals and dreams, you’re 42 percent more likely to achieve them. Give your smallest goals importance by writing them down, even if you must readjust the details or timelines later.
Utilize this habit for anything you want to give more consideration and importance in your life. Carry around a pocket notebook and watch your stress decrease as your dreams come closer to reality.
From mini-rituals to writing down your goals, these daily habits will fast track you to becoming the best professional possible and excelling in your career. Healthy habits and routines are important in both your personal and professional lives. Apply these tips to your life this month, then share with us what happens!