A good habits list is a handy tool for helping you up your game and improve your life. Substituting just one negative habit for a positive one can make a huge difference over time.
Little things add up over time, good or bad. So best to stack the positives… and they will compound into so much more.
Most people, when asked what they want in life, know one thing for certain: they want to be happy. They may not know exactly what they want and they may not yet have discovered — or created — their purpose, but they do know that they want a positive happy life.
Simply swapping out a bad habit for a good one… and then another, and another over time, is one way to achieve that. These various good habits lists may help to give you ideas for some swaps that will serve your aspirations.
Even if you’re talented, you can’t succeed without great daily habits.
~James Clear, success coach, author, speaker
“I just want to be happy.”
~Most Humans
Table of Contents
The good news is that a happy life is within reach. In fact it’s very, very close. A positive life is as close as your next decision. Truly. Good habits lead to a happy and balanced life.
Happy is simple. A positive life is simple. In fact, most important things are like that. Simple… but not easy.
Never easy… Always worth it!
~LeAura Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®
Good Habits for a Happy Life
Your ticket to a better life, more love, and more success is only a decision away, and it begins with positive habits. So we’ve created a short—but significant—good habits list, to help you anchor your decision to live a better life.
More than an actual list, these are conceptual habits worth implementing as a part of a healthy, happy, balanced life.
“I am one decision away from a totally different life.”
~Mel Robbins, American commentator, author, speaker
These are expanded below, but in short, here are four foundational habits for a happy life.
4 Essential Good Habits for Life
1. Create daily – sets the momentum for success.
2. Learn daily – keeps you able, agile and growing.
3. Love daily – love each day and the people in it.
4. Move daily – move vigorously, daily, for vitality.
~iCreateDaily.com®
4 Essentials to any Good Habits List
These four habits describe a way of life. They’re super simple, yet together they create a solid foundation for a happy, healthy life. Put these simple good habits to work for you and they will — work for you!
Good habits create a good life and help you feel good about yourself. Happiness is actually so simple it can be missed.
For a boost of inspiration and resiliency, you will definitely enjoy the Mel Robbins quotes and video in this article. Also, this one that includes a “success indicator” graphic, plus some great shareable memes and practical transformational information.
Good habits are the foundation upon which a good life is built.
Good habits—practiced daily—are the bricks in the foundation of success.
~LeAura Alderson, writer, editor, creator iCreateDaily.com®
Now, to elaborate on these four core habits that create a stable foundation for positivity and success.
1. Create Daily
- Create Purpose – Get up early – Don’t hit snooze
- Set, track and achieve goals / keep a goals journal
- Create Positivity – associate with and immerse in positive growth minded people, places and things
- Create Mindset – A positive mindset makes all the difference. Choose empowering positivity.
- Don’t turn on the news
Create a positive day with simple but powerful good habits.
2. Learn Daily
- Prioritize learning – Learn something new: tune into podcasts, videos, books, articles on topics that interest you.
- Pursue interests – What are you interested in? Commit to and schedule pursuing your interests.
- Discipline – Don’t let how you feel get in the way of what you want.
Create the life you want to live.
3. Love Daily
- Gratitude – Start your day in gratitude – identify at least three things for which you are grateful.
- Kindness – Others you encounter are simply beings in need of love. Appreciate others—and yourself.
- Contribution – In helping others we help ourselves. Giving, helping and kindness connect us with divinity.
Give the love you want to have.
4. Move Daily
- Exercise – Start the day with brisk exercise, even if you only have a minute.
- Move – Move vigorously, walk briskly, do something vigorous that gets your heart rate up and deepens your breathing.
- Stretch – It’s your job to maintain your one body. Don’t neglect it and it will serve you well.
Our bodies were made to move… so be sure to.
If you still want more specifics, here’s nice long list of good habits.
100+ Good Habits List
Personal Habits
- Early to bed, early to rise.
- Make yourself proud by doing what makes you feel good about yourself.
- Pursue work and hobbies you enjoy.
- Feed your mind uplifting thoughts.
- Feed your emotions positivity instead of emotional junk food.
- Question everything (politely).
- Laugh often.
- Don’t take yourself so seriously.
- Don’t sweat the small stuff.
- Appreciate the little things.
- Live honestly in authenticity.
- Eager to learn / learner’s mindset.
- Imagine yourself at the end of a long and happy life.
- What blessings will you want to be able to recount?
- Visioning – create a vision board of the life you want to live, then set your goals to make it happen one step, one day at a time.
- Avoid the dramas and media “story of the day”.
- Avoid bad news and clickbait links to tabloid articles to “find out what happened.”
Relationships, Family, and Social Habits List
- Associate with positive people and activities.
- Spend time with positive people.
- Do not gossip or criticize others; the person gossiping with you today will gossip about you tomorrow.
- Love others… especially when it’s hard to.
- Give genuine compliments to others often.
- Play and enjoy lighthearted fun.
- Avoid drama… yours and that of others.
- Practice positivity.
- Openness and receptivity.
- Be reliable to yourself and others.
- Be friendly.
- Spend less time on social media so that you can spend more time on what matters in your life.
- Do more than is expected; most people see how little they can get by with.
- Don’t be that person.
- Transmute negative thoughts to the positive alternative.
- When you dislike something or someone, instead, find something for which to be grateful.
- Forgive. The people who have harmed you can only do so because they’re in pain or ignorant or both.
- Avoid complaining and complainers.
- Don’t waste time rehashing the bad stuff that happens; instead, move onto creating new positive experiences.
Health Habits
- Eat what your body needs more than for taste alone.
- Eat to live, don’t live to eat.
- Engage in an active lifestyle with ample time outdoors in fresh air.
- Drink lots of fresh water.
- Weekly facial mask for facial rejuvenation and cucumber slices over eyelids to refresh eyes.
- Avoid negative news and media.
- Eat the healthy food you like first instead of giving into cravings.
- Make your bed each morning.
- Take care of your body and it will take care of you.
- Your environment begins with you: keep yours clean and organized.
- Keep your inner environment—body, mind and emotions—clean.
- Be true to you – do not try to pretend.
- Breath deeply, often.
- A large glass of lemon water first thing in the morning, preferably room temperature or warm.
- Daily herbal teas with health benefits.
- Coconut oil for inside and outside of the body.
- Plenty of fresh organic foods.
- An apple a day.
- Add fresh herbs to your salads and cooking for extra flavor, variety and nutrients.
- Try organic coffee with butter and MCT oil, (healthy fats… no sugar… surprisingly good!)
- Brush your teeth 2-3x/day.
- Floss your teeth at least once / day at bedtime.
- Do not eat 3 hours before bedtime.
- Brushing and flossing your teeth right after dinner, helps prevent nighttime snacking.
- Warm milk with honey and nutmeg for trouble sleeping.
- Blue blocker glasses for nighttime computing.
- Enjoy fresh fruit smoothies or protein smoothies instead of soda and frappes.
- Keep your home stocked with healthy foods.
- Cook home cooked nutritious meals from scratch.
- Exercise daily – outside in the fresh air as often as possible, but get moving and vigorous.
- Do yoga or deep stretching several times a week.
- Dance like nobody’s watching as often as you can. Daily is not too often
Spiritual Habits
- Follow your conscience – do the right thing.
- Feed your soul spiritual inspiration.
- Express gratitude often.
- Listen to your intuition.
- Bring love to whatever you do.
- Meditate daily to create space and perspective in your busy brain.
- Practice reverence.
- Be generous. Abundance is a law of the universe. Even when things are tight, consider where in your life there is abundance and focus on that.
- Practice self awareness through introspection and personal development.
Growth Habits
- Focus on positives and you’ll have more of that.
- Pursue learning daily.
- If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, accept it and move on.
- Read, watch or listen to something inspiring each day, even if it’s just an inspiring quote to reflect upon.
- You can even make a game from these good habits list (or create your own list). (More on the game below).
Creative Habits
- Spend time being creative.
- Get out in nature whenever possible.
- Nature is restorative and offers perspective.
- Laugh, smile and celebrate something daily.
- Begin and end the day with gratitude.
- Whenever you’re down or stuck do something to get unstuck ASAP.
- Believe that if you can dream it, you can achieve it, then get to work
- Listen to a beautiful song that touches your heart and moves your soul.Handwrite and mail a thank you note to someone at least once a month.
Business/Career Habits
- If you can’t do work you love, then love the work you do.
- Bring creativity to your work, including menial tasks.
- Create beauty wherever you go.
- Focus on solutions instead of problems.
- Set quarterly goals, then plan how to achieve them through monthly, weekly and daily actions (you can download this free 30-day goals planner PDF).
- Plan daily actions based on what you want to have achieved by day’s end, preferably beginning the night before.
- Associate with and learn from people who are where you want to go and who have achieved goals you aspire to.
Service/Contribution Habits
- Be loving, kind and compassionate.
- Engage in helpfulness and caring.
- Volunteer or help someone.
- Make a donation to a cause you love.
Good Habits Game
- Print one or all of these good habits list
- Cut the different ideas into strips
- Fold over and place in a large jar or basket
- Pick one each day and practice it for the day
- Place your day’s pick back in the jar
- Shake the jar to make it ready for your next pick
This could be a fun game to do as a family as well. Be sure to add your own favorite good habits to this list and add it to the jar, and you can omit any that don’t apply to your or anyone in your family.
RELATED: For more in depth ponderings you may also enjoy good daily habits as well as this list of 100+ good habits.
Good habits build the dwelling of your life.
~LeAura Alderson, Cofounder-iCreateDaily®
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No Matter Your Age
It turns out that the saying “You can’t teach old dogs new tricks”, isn’t actually true. We observed it first hand plus Cesar Milan, The original “Dog Whisperer”, has done it over and again with hundreds — likely thousands — of dogs.
And it’s the same with us.
Yes, it’s true that our habits become crystalized. AND it’s true that we can break them and change them. It’s like exercise and yoga. The more we exercise and stretch all throughout our lives, the more we will be able to, no matter our age. And it’s the same for our habits.
So no matter your age, keep on improving. Change the habits that don’t serve your aspirations and do more of those that do.
For the first 30 years of your life, you make your habits.
SOURCE: Reprinted on Inc.com of 1985 Playboy interview near Steve Job’s 30th birthday
For the last 30 years of your life, your habits make you.
~Steve Jobs, Apple founder, citing an old Hindu saying
Get Gratitude.
The Day is the Way.
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Hello! I’m LeAura, owner and co-creator of iCreateDaily.com®. As an autodidactic philosopher, generalist, personal development advocate, entrepreneur, writer, editor, author, ideator, media publisher, and podcaster, I’m passionate about helping others achieve their best possible life! Our small family of entrepreneurs, writers, investors, educators and creators own and run websites around topics we enjoy, such as gardening, health and fitness, creativity and pets, with more to come.
While my greatest teacher is Life… my formal training includes certifications in mediation, fitness, and strategic intervention coaching, including marriage and family. Today, the synergy of creating websites, articles and podcasts, brings together all my favorite things: family, learning, growth, creating, connecting and contributing. To share these with you is a privilege, that serves my lifelong aspiration to help others.
My personal areas of creativity are in writing, masterminding, ideation, synthesis and bringing ideas to life through business and entrepreneurship, all with a pervasive spiritual foundation with a focus on elevating the lives of others.
Want to submit your photos, videos and/or article content for publication? We love to consider your contribution for publication! creators@icreatedaily.com