The Power of Positive Habits

Outstanding performance is one of the five keys to success that I discuss in “Straight Talk for Success.”  If you want to become an outstanding performer, you need to become a lifelong learner, set and achieve high goals and become highly organized.  In order to do this, you need to develop a set of positive habits.

Dan Robey, my friend has a great eBook out entitled “The Power of Positive Habits.”  Dan says:

“Your weight and health are determined by your eating habits.  Your relationships with people are determined by your social habits.  You success at work is determined by your work habits… Our character, health and virtually every aspect of our lives are indeed determined by our habits.” 

I agree with Dan.

What do you think?  Do you have any habits that contribute to your success?  Do you have any that hold you back?  Please feel free to leave a comment on your habits – both positive and negative.

Because this post is about outstanding performance, I will focus on work habits.  This blog has become a work habit for me.  I am committed to writing it every day.  Usually, I write in the late afternoon or evening and post in the morning.  This blog writing habit has helped me build my consulting and coaching business.

On the other hand, I have not been able to get into the habit of regularly commenting on other people’s blogs.  I know that it would help build readership of this blog, but I have not been able to get into the habit of doing so.

Dan defines a habit as, “An acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.”

At this point, writing this blog is almost involuntary for me.  Commenting on others’ blogs takes voluntary action on my part.

Can you help me?  I’d appreciate any advice on how I can build the habit of commenting on other people’s blogs.  Please send me your thoughts and comments on this one.

The common sense point here is simple.  Outstanding performance is at the heart of career and life success.  Positive habits are at the heart of outstanding performance.  If you want to become an outstanding performer, you must develop a set of positive work habits.  Developing positive work habits takes effort, but once you develop them, you will find your life on auto pilot.

Those are my thoughts on positive habits?  What do you think?  I’d really appreciate your thoughts on and comments on this post – especially any advice you can give me for creating the positive habit of commenting on other people’s blog posts.  As always, I welcome and treasure your comments.  Thanks for reading – and writing.

Bud

Comments

[Eileen]

You need to do two things:

1) SAVE TIME by finding a few blogs you like and sign up for their RSS feed in a location like My Yahoo Beta format(which I think has the best format, and shows you the blogs you like, with their articles, just like news articles).

2) First make your own post, then go to one or two blogs you like, and when you read something that strikes a response in you, comment. Perhaps start with other business bogs? Here's one that always has something interesting:

Brazen Careerist

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/

OR, start by visiting a few of the blogs of people who have commented on your blog.

3) Start by commenting on only one blog each day. That way you will not get overwhelmed. Once you develop the habit, (like after a month), if you have time, you could raise that to commenting on two or three a day. Don't set your sites too high, or you will get overwhelmed.

4.) Try to make your comments worthwhile and interesting enough that the person will be intrigued to check out you blog, or want to find out more about YOU.

Please let me know if this helps!

Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

[Bud Bilanich]

Eileen:
Now there's some common sense! I will put your ideas to work beginning tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on how I'm doing.
Thanks so much for the comment and the great advice.
All the best,
BB

[Eileen]

You're welcome, Bud. Please let me know after a month or so how it works out (perhaps by email).

Best regards,
Eileen

[Eileen]

I forgot one last comment:

I usually sign my posts with my name, my blog name, and my blog address. It's not just for the blog owner, it's for other readers who may come to the blog, like my comment, and want to visit my blog as well.

In one year, I've never had anyone voice an objection, or not post my comment because of my signing it this way, but that's probably because I make a real effort to make the CONTENT of my posts something that the blog owner would WANT on his site--nothing that looks just like an advertisement! (I also add "in the Middle East" to catch attention of a different type of reader than who might be interested in just elementary education. Think about these factors when you sign your own posts on other blogs -- such as "Business Consultant/CEO in Denver" or something similar.)

Best regards,
Eileen
Dedicated Elementary Teacher Overseas (in the Middle East)
elementaryteacher.wordpress.com

[Bud Bilanich]

Eileen:
You are a true font of information. I really appreciate all of your help. Look for changes in the signature soon.
All the best,
Bud Bilanich
The Common Sense Guy
Coach, Consultant, Speaker, Author and Blogger in Denver Colorado

too much???

[Success Warrior]

Bud,

One thing that I had to do was reframe the purpose of commenting for myself. Commenting for the purpose of getting return clicks did nothing for me. However, I absolutely love getting comments on my blog. They mean so much more to me than a hit counter. Knowing this, that's why I leave comments for other people now. If I get a return click, great. If I don't, that's okay too. At least they know that a real person read and thought about their post and took a couple extra minutes to leave a comment.

The other thing I did was sign up for a few google alerts on topics that I was interested in. Once a day, I receive an email with a list of blog posts on the subjects with a headline and a senctence from the blog so I have an idea of which ones I want to visit.

I haven't noticed any great change to my hit counter but I feel good about showing support to fellow bloggers on subjects that we have in common.

One other thing that I do when I have time is go to a couple of my favorite blogs and scan through their blog rolls if they have them and pick a couple to visit. It's interesting to see what my favorite bloggers consider to be their favorite bloggers.

I don't leave comments for the sake of leaving comments. If the blog post doesn't spark some positive thought in my mind, I just leave. You know, part of the three C's. =)

Congruency. Fakeness is easy to detect and I'd rather remain silent that be seen as fake.

Hope some of these help or spark ideas for you.

[Bud Bilanich]

Alan:
Thanks for your comment. Great ideas that I will put to work.
One thing that you said really resonated with me. You comment on other's blogs because you know how good it feels when someone comments on yours. I have often said that it's important to give with no expectation of return -- you embody that.
Also, I agree that it's important to comment only when the post speaks to you. I also choose to leave only positive comments. If a post speaks to me in a negative way, I just don't comment. My Mom always told me that if I didn't have something nice to say, I should say nothing at all. There's enough negativity in this world that I don't want to add to it by negative comments on blog posts. Some people seem to enjoy starting and participating in flame wars. I'm not one of them.
Thanks again for your great comment. It means a lot to me.
All the best,
BB