Everyone has been told that habits are important, but have you ever figured out why? Habits are personal, and they relate to people in different ways. Sometimes it is obvious like maybe you need to shower more often so that you don’t stink. Maybe you need to wake up early so you can get to work on time and make your boss happy. But for other times, it isn’t so obvious.

When you read any self-help book, or listen to any motivational speaker, you are going to hear something about habits and consistency. It may not be obvious why you need to build better habits, but hopefully with some reasoning, you will see why.

Reason 1:  To Change Your Belief About Yourself

Every time we participate in a ritual, we are expressing our beliefs, either verbally or more implicitly.

• Tony Schwartz

By changing our habits and what we do every day, we change who we are. When we change to someone that we like more, we will have a more positive belief in ourselves. When we have a more positive belief about ourselves, we can accomplish much more.

Reason 2: To Spend More Time Focusing on Higher Level Activietes

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

• Gustave Flaubert

We can automate routine activities and spend more time focusing higher level activities. For example, every 11,000 signals we receive from our senses, our brain only consciously processes 40. That means that if we make important processes habits, then we can make those processes an unconsciously and leave more room for our brain to process other things consciously like chasing our dreams.

 Reason 3: To Improve the Quality of Life

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

• Aristotle

By building good habits, we improve the quality of your life. If you are doing better things, and you are living better, then you are going to be better.