One thing in today's world is that we are increasingly gaining access to increasingly rational, well-documented, and practical ideas that many of us warmly embrace. We are in the second era of the Enlightenment.
However, it's one thing to believe in a good idea on a conscious level, and another thing to live that idea every day. It is much more difficult to practice an idea consistently than to agree with it and talk about it. This is why you often see a large gap between what people consider to be a belief and what their actual behavior reflects.
Take the minimalist lifestyle as an example: Many people are beginning to realize that relentless pursuit of things won't make them happy, and they attach great importance to the idea of a low-consumption lifestyle with priorities other than purchasing items.
The adoption of a minimalist lifestyle has been increasing lately. However, it is much easier to proclaim that you believe in it than to live by it. So you often find people who claim they believe in a low-consumption life, but they change their phone every year, their car every two years, and they have a wastefully large house filled with things they rarely use. And many of them do not see duplicity in this.
Similarly, in other aspects of life, we believe in different ideas, but we do not stick to them. Here are 5 ways to practice more of the ideas you believe in.
1. Live more consciously
The more you pay conscious attention to your thoughts and behavior, the easier it is to spot inconsistencies between the ideas you believe in and the way you act. Then you can make intentional changes to close that gap. This is what is called living consciously.
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Most of us rarely live consciously. We mostly live in reaction. We are impulsively driven by commitments like work or household chores, as well as distractions like television, ads, fast food, and funny YouTube videos. It will take a lot of work to be more mindful of how you live, moment by moment, and to take responsibility for your behavior. But it's worth it.
2. Take specific actions for yourself
Often when we find a good idea, we decide to accept it, and then we settle on it. We believe that only this decision will change our behavior and align it with this idea. Which rarely happens. In order for your behavior to change, it is important to develop specific actions to take and then take them regularly.
For example, say that you decided it was a good idea for you to be more sociable. You can come up with specific ways to be more social, such as going to social events at least 3 times a week, or talking to at least three new people at every social event you go to. These kinds of concrete, actionable goals turn good ideas into practical behavioral change.
3. Overcoming emotional barriers
Often you can implement a certain idea, but there are problems due to emotional obstacles. Going back to the example above, you may be more social, but you may be afraid to talk to new people or feel anxious in social situations. Therefore, you will have to work to overcome these insecurities in order to be able to change your behavior.
4. Request feedback
To better align your behavior with your beliefs, it is recommended that you tell others about the beliefs you want to implement in your life, and ask them to honestly respond when they think your behavior is not true.
Choose people you trust to be honest and level-headed, who can help you with this, and who genuinely care about you. Sometimes their feedback will be a hard pill to swallow, but this is the right medicine.
5. Ask someone to help you accountable
It is always important to hold yourself accountable for your actions. But it's even better if there is one more person who will hold you in charge: someone who helps you set your personal development goals, someone who you communicate about your progress, someone who gives you an extra dose of motivation, focus. and guides to proceed.
A competent coach, counselor, or psychologist is probably the best person for this task. They will have the skills to properly monitor your personal development and help you stay true to your goals. Therefore, if you want to align your behavior as quickly and as much as possible with your beliefs, this is definitely a good option.