In our guide to Being the Best, we talked about making plans and being determined, so now I’m going to let you into a little secret and it’s all to do with good habits...

A habit is something you do all the time – sometimes you don’t even realise you are doing it.

There are good habits and there are bad habits. A bad habit can be biting your fingernails or picking your nose! A good habit can be being polite or always being on time.

Once you start one good habit then it becomes easy to get more good habits.

Sid’s room was always untidy. He always got up late and he ALWAYS left his homework until the very last minute.

One Sunday morning he woke up and thought to himself,

“Oh, I can’t be bothered to get up because my room is too messy and I haven’t time to tidy it because I have all my homework to do for tomorrow, which means I won’t be able to go out and play!”

Sid stayed in bed and was miserable.

When Sid eventually got out of bed he tidied his room and made a promise to himself to keep it tidy all week.

The following Sunday morning he got out of bed much earlier because his bedroom was nice and tidy and all he had to do was his homework and then he could go out and play.

But his homework took him longer than he thought and he could only go outside for half an hour. Poor Sid!

So the next week he kept his bedroom tidy and he did all his homework on the Friday night.

On Sunday, he got out of bed early and, because he didn’t have to tidy his room and all his homework was done, he spent the whole day playing outside with his friends!

Can you see how, by starting one good habit and sticking to it, it becomes easy to start more and more?

If you do this, just like Sid, you’ll get much more out of life.