For how abundantly incredible the human brain is, you would be forgiven for thinking it’s working against us at almost every given moment. As they say, the biggest obstacle to becoming successful in life is yourself.

No matter how many great opportunities or lucky breaks we are graced with, it’s extremely difficult to make something of them unless we have the right mindset to convert them into something worthwhile and tangible.

A poor mindset is the arch-enemy of true success, inhibiting our progress, and sometimes downright sabotaging our goals. You doubt yourself and become frozen with imposter syndrome. You procrastinate and distract from the tasks you should be doing. Your perfectionism makes you nitpick over every single detail up to the point where nothing ever gets completed.

Sound familiar? Well, you’re not alone. While it’s difficult to quantify in absolute numbers, it’s clear that achieving a focused mindset is paramount to business success, and the good news is that anyone can make it if they try. Just ask Russ Ruffino of Clients on Demand and how he managed to turn his life around from a penniless bartender to become one of the most successful and most sought after marketing experts in the world.

Russ Ruffino: The Backstory

At the age of 31, Ruffino was still a bartender struggling to make ends meet at the height of the economic recession. By his own admission, he was a wanna-be entrepreneur without much confidence or any real ambition, and as a result, most projects he embarked on failed for one reason or another.

Nowadays, Ruffino is a million miles away from where he once was, helping his clients scale their businesses up to six and seven figures with his mega-successful company, Clients on Demand. So how did he do it? Well, all that was needed was a simple switch in his mindset for him to embark on an incredible journey that would radically transform his life and those of his future clients and colleagues.

Just check out Clients on Demand reviews on Vimeo to get an idea of what he is about and the results he delivers to his students.

How to Visualize the Right Way

We’ve all heard the power of visualization and how if you dream something hard enough, and if you genuinely believe it, then it will come true. However, the world does not work that way. If you want results, they require actions; it’s as simple as that.

Visualization is better used as a tool to help you achieve the right mindset for attacking your goals and fostering a sense of purpose and direction in your life. For example, Ruffino explains that in his bartending days, he used to consistently visualize his future self as a “confident millionaire entrepreneur making an impact.”

As soon as he awoke from his fifteen-minute morning visualization routine, he would return to his old self and carry on in the same school of thought as he always had. “I wasted the other 23 hours and 45 minutes living as I had in the past. Of course, things didn’t work!” explains Ruffino.

Working Backward to Change Your Identity

Ruffin decided to revamp his visualization method in order to shift his mindset. Instead of picturing himself as a future success, he would ask himself how this future successful person would react to the situation he is in now.

What would his first move be? Would he settle for mediocrity and continue to live in fear of being fired by his boss and lose his bartending job? No, of course not.

“I stopped treating visualization like a fantasy that I traveled to for 15 minutes a day. Instead, I started using visualization to change my identity now. Then, I took on this new identity as a successful entrepreneur.”

His new visualization method included writing down all of his future self’s qualities and virtues, envisioning, and rehearsing how they would react to situations that may crop up throughout his day. Once the 15 minutes were up, he would “step into” that character and become this new person.

“This new visualization technique alone changed my thoughts, which changed my decisions, which changed my actions, which changed my destiny. It made me unstoppable,” says Ruffino.

Success Starts in the Mind

Once Ruffino acquired his new mindset, there was no holding him back. The very next day, he quit his job and went all-in on himself. With the pressure well and truly on, he was forced to work harder and smarter than ever before, which very quickly bore its fruits.

“Success starts in the mind. Once you truly take on a new identity, you start to think, talk, and act differently. You hang out with different people and accept different clients. You no longer take on projects just to pay the bills. Instead, you take on people you really want to work with. You start to notice how people treat you differently, which boosts your confidence even more. Your identity only gets stronger and stronger.”

In Summary

Of course, Ruffino’s story is far from typical, and your journey does not need to be so dramatic or transformative. However, this serves as a great demonstration of the power of visualization when used correctly and how changing one’s identity and mindset can prove powerful when coupled with deliberate action.

The key takeaway from Ruffino’s story should be to embody the vision of success you have for your future self. Don’t sit back and wait for change to come to you. Switch your mindset to work in your favor and start taking strides towards your goals with confidence and intention.

The post The Key To Conquering Your Mindset According to Russ Ruffino appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26^th president of the United States, once said that “with self-discipline most anything is possible.” While many of us realize that it takes a lot of control over our own actions to get where it is we want to go in life, that doesn’t mean that it’s always easy for us to maintain our positive self-discipline habits long enough to see any real progress.

Sure, our drive is generally pretty strong when we first start out, when our minds are filled with visions of how great our life will be once we master our own weaknesses. Yet, it’s not uncommon to soon have that drive tested as all of our old (and not-so-disciplined habits) threaten to creep back in.

So, what can you do to maintain your momentum with regard to your newly acquired self-discipline habits, ensuring that you’ll keep at them long enough to see some true results?

Know Your Why

Why is it that becoming self-disciplined is so important to you? Will it help you grow your business? Or maybe increasing your level of self-discipline at work means that you’ll have more time to spend at home with your spouse and children?

There really is no wrong answer to this question, but knowing why you want to change your habits and fully appreciating the value that being self-disciplined can bring to your life will help you stay motivated as you pursue more positive self-discipline habits.

If you’re having trouble figuring out your why, Southwestern Consulting suggests that you ask yourself a few “what” based questions instead. For instance, what do you want to be known for? And what do you want people to think of when they think of you? This helps you determine what is most important to you.

Limit Your Obstacles

If you set out to lose weight, how successful would you be if you stocked your kitchen cupboards full of chips, cookies, and candies? Not very, right?

Well the same is true if your goal is to become more self-disciplined. The more obstacles you can remove that can potentially sideline your new habits, the greater your chance of getting—and staying—disciplined.

For instance, if you know that checking your social media accounts can suck you in for hours at a time, make it a rule to only look at them once in the morning and once at the end of the day.

There are even apps you can download that can help with this, blocking access to these platforms during specific times of day. Reviewed shares that Offtime, Moment, and Flipd are three to consider.

Only Change One Habit at a Time

If your goal is to reach higher levels of success through self-discipline, T. Harv, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and founder of Peak Potentials Training, suggests that you shouldn’t try to change all of your habits all at once. Instead, focus on changing one main habit at a time.

Though it may feel like you’re going too slowly by focusing on just one, T. Harv says, “if you can just change one habit, I promise you this: your life will change.” In other words, the results of that one minor change can be enough to create major results.

So, make a list of all of the self-discipline habits you want to institute and pick one. Work on that habit only until it is something you begin to do without thought. Then and only then should you move on to another habit.

When you know your why, limit your obstacles, and focus on changing just one habit at a time, your self-discipline habits are more likely to stick. Which means that their results are more likely to stick too.

The post How to Maintain Your Self-Discipline Habits appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

I found myself saying “I just need more time” a lot recently.

Since I’ve been stationed in Italy, I’ve been busy. Busier than I’ve ever been.

And then, all of the sudden, I had time. I had about a month.

I knew it was coming and I was looking forward to everything I would get done. All of the articles I would write, the progress I would make on my book… all of the hours I would put in.

The month came and went. I’m not ahead. I’m barely caught up. I definitely didn’t finish my book. I barely wrote a few pages.

So what happened? Well, time isn’t what I needed.

I needed to be more disciplined in my daily routine, and stop procrastinatingly looking forward to some magical block of time.

I was writing a little bit during the months leading up to my month of free time, but for the most part, I was putting work off so that I could batch it all together in that month.

“I’ll have plenty of time for that next month.”

Lies. I was telling myself lies. I was simply procrastinating.

Perception Vs. Reality: The Procrastination Cycle

We would rather take advantage of a Saturday morning than an extra 20 minutes before work.

We always think tomorrow will be better because we think we’ll have a little more time.

This turns into a cycle of procrastination.

We don’t see it that way. We see “great time management skills.”

And then a year down the road we see very little progress.

It’s Not About Time, It’s About Discipline

I had a month to get all kinds of work done, and I didn’t.

I think it was way too much time.

Taking a month sabbatical makes sense, because it’s a month away from work. Taking a month just to work doesn’t work. At least not for me. And not for most people.

Take writing for example, most of the famous writers like Stephen King and Jack London have used a daily word-count discipline to write all of their books. Occasionally you’ll hear of writers like Elizabeth Gilbert, who takes long, concentrated periods of time to write her books, and doesn’t generally keep a daily writing habit. But that’s the exception.

If you took an entire month, working 40 hours a week on your side hustle, you still wouldn’t put in as many hours as you can put in working 30 minutes a day for a year.

Batch Tasking Only Works in Small Batches

Batch tasking is the act of grouping similar tasks into a specific block of time.

You want to do all kinds of things that require “extra” time. Things like…

• Journaling
• Reading a good book
• Meditating or praying more
• Writing your own book or writing online
• Studying the Bible or other spiritual text(s)
• Hiking to a peak or running through your town

These are perfect things for your morning ritual. These are terrible things to batch into a large block of time.

When I say large block of time, I’m talking weeks. Small batches work great. An extra two or four hours to devote to any of these things would be awesome and productive. Even an entire day would be nice. However, when you try to devote two weeks to any of these things, the time is overwhelming, you won’t know where to start, and you’ll waste a lot of that time.

Easy fix. Use your daily ritual to do the things you really want to do.

Daily Disciplines Rule All

If you get a free day to work on the things you really want to work on, take advantage of it.

If you somehow get a free month to do it, take caution.

I’m not saying it can’t work, but it definitely doesn’t work like we think.

Daily disciplines will snowball quickly.

If you don’t have a list of daily disciplines, you’ll be surprised at what you can do in 30, or even just 5-10 minutes a day.

You have time in your life to do what you want, but it requires planning and discipline.

When I got to my duty station in Italy and started working crazy hours, I realized I would have to “find” time to do all of the things I wanted to do. And I found that time. It’s at 4:30am. Each morning I wake up and knock out the tasks that are deeply important to me, and that sets the tone for the rest of my day.

My morning now consists of (in order):

1. Coffee – A must.
2. Vitamins – Vitamin C in the winter, and a daily multi.
3. Prayer – I use Echo, an amazingly simple prayer tool to keep track of everyone and everything I’m praying for.
4. Bible Study – Currently going through a detailed study on Matthew with the YouVersion app.
5. Devotional – A separate devotional, also in YouVersion.
6. Pushup Routine – A simple Excel tracker. I do pushups every other day. Only goal is more than the last session.
7. Journaling – I use a private WordPress for this.
8. Reading – Currently reading Everybody Writes by Ann Handley.
9. Writing – Currently writing this article.
10. Daily Review – I go over everything I have to do for the day from this point forward.

It’s changed a little since I last posted my morning ritual.

If I tried to take any of these tasks and do them over a long period of time, it would get dull quickly.

However, doing them in small burst each day is exciting.

My main lesson learned? I didn’t need more time, I just needed to stick with my morning ritual through and through.

The post You Don’t Need More Time, You Need More Discipline appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

The following is an excerpt from the 2nd chapter of the new book I’m writing. I’d love to know what you think.

Strengthening your discipline muscle really can be compared to any other muscle.

You’ve got to work it out. And the first step is to find an area of your life that needs it the most.

Step 1: Find a Discipline Catalyst

This is your discipline focus area.

You need to find something you can use to strengthen that muscle, and it’s not a bad idea to use an area you’re weak in.

Many people use the gym, running or some other form of physical exercise as their discipline catalyst.

I chose finances.

When my wife and I got married, she had a pretty good idea of how to handle money. She had been through several finance classes and a few workbooks. I had not. I was too busy learning how to spend as much money as possible on one credit card without paying it off.

I knew the way I handled money was stressing her out, so I decided to use this as my first area to build discipline in.

Fast-forward a few years down the road, and we were completely debt-free (I say “we,” but all of the debt was really mine).

I don’t want to make it sound easy. It was a long painful journey, but it was worth it. You’ve got to go through the steps though, which leads me to the next step.

Step 2: Begin the Building Process

It’s not a quick process. As Dave Ramsey would say, “we’re in the business of crockpots, not microwaves.” That doesn’t mean that it’s going to take a decade, but you must be willing to give it enough time.

When I chose finances as my discipline catalyst, that meant a few things for me. First, I had to stop spending money on whatever I wanted whenever I wanted it – that good old American instant gratification. Then I had to stop eating out for every meal – I feel like there could be something here related to my being American as well. I also made the decision to cut up my credit cards and use cash for every purchase. And the final decision: I worked multiple jobs to pay off every bit of debt we owed, with the exception of our mortgage (we did, however, turn that into rental property).

This was also the start of my financial journey. I read over 200 books on personal finance within a few years, and that led to even more opportunities beyond simply paying off my own debt. I was able to help others do the same, and ultimately that’s what led to the start of my writing career.

It was like a snowball turning into an avalanche, and it all started with the decision to become more disciplined in my finances. However, it ultimately started with my decision to change, and my dedication to the process.

I want to point out one thing here. I chose finances for two reasons.

First, because I knew I needed to change my spending habits or we were going to be living in a van down by the river, trying to spear fish, like Tom Hanks did in the movie Cast Away, for dinner. I love Cast Away, but let’s be honest, I would starve to death before I was able to spear a fish.

Second, because I did have a really good work ethic when it came to my job. I didn’t do anything around the house, but I had a sense of pride in my job at the time, and I was good at making extra money, because I was so good at working.

Think about that. You may want to choose an area that really needs to be addressed out of necessity, but you also may want to look into an area that you already have some discipline in.

Often, one area can have both of those qualities.

Step 3: Stay Dedicated to the Process

We all know that discipline requires dedication, and that’s really where the difficulty begins.

Whether you read the studies that show habits to take 21 days to form, or the studies that show habits to take three months to form, you know it takes a while. Generally, the first 10 days are really tough, and you have to push through. The next 10 days are easier, but you know that habit isn’t solid yet. The 10 days after that are the easiest of the first 30 days, and that lets you know you could really do this. So there you have it, wait at least 30 days before you can see the habit start to stick.

Honestly, even though it may seem hard, it’s not that tough to get out of bed and go for a morning run. Once. It’s building up your running habits and turning it into a regular thing that’s difficult.

You must stay dedicated to the process.

This lesson really sunk in while I was in Basic Training.

We were up well before 5:00am every day. Not five days a week, not every day except Sunday, but every single day. There was no going back to bed, or taking naps. There was no doing your own thing or having personal time. You’re on their time, all the time, for the entire time, which is over two months.

Looking back on it, I don’t think Basic Training was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it was tough, and it was tedious. I also don’t feel like I came out of Basic Training as a disciplined machine, but it did strengthen my discipline in many areas.

It taught me to stay dedicated. I saw the physical process from the workouts. I saw the mental progress from the classroom. I saw the spiritual progress from staying consistent with prayer and fellowship at the chapel on Sundays. Basic Training taught me more about myself than anything, and that’s really where I learned the value of consistency and dedication.

Now I work full-time for the military, exercise at least five hours per week, write for an hour each day, attend college classes, and help my wife take care of the laundry and dishes, as well as our five children. Yes, I’ve finally learned how to help with the laundry and dishes, among other things around the house.

I’m not telling you all of this to say that I have everything figured out and my entire life is together; I’m telling you all of this to show that you can be really terrible at this discipline stuff and still manage to change your habits and obtain self-discipline. I don’t think anyone would have expected me to be where I am now if they knew me when I was in my late teens and early twenties.

That being said, I have learned one thing you don’t do if you want to build discipline: don’t do too much!

Step 4: Don’t Go Overboard

If you study discipline, you’ll find that almost everyone agrees on this point. You don’t want to try to build discipline in every area of your life at the same time.

Want to start a new habit? Awesome!

Want to start 20 at the same time? Why do you hate yourself?

Start with one area, and add one area at a time. Slowly.

Here are some common areas for discipline growth:

• Finances: Get out of debt, invest for retirement, create an emergency fund
• Health: Lose weight, gain strength, quit smoking, break an addiction
• Marriage: Spend more alone time with your spouse, take an extended vacation together, go on dates
• Family: Cut back at work, spend more quality family time together, get out and do more stuff together
• Personal: Read more books, increase prayer or meditation time, keep a productive morning routine

Some people may need to improve exact opposites. Brenda may need to stop being lazy and find extra work to pay off debt, while Donnie may need to cut back at work and focus more on family.

We’re all different and our discipline can be built differently.

If you try to build discipline in too many areas, your willpower will fail you. Just like discipline, willpower is like a muscle, which means fatigue sets in. They’re almost the same muscle, but not quite. Discipline is about consistency over the long haul, while willpower is about each action you take. However, the energy to take action comes from the same place.

We’ve all seen the way people make changes in movies, and we try to replicate that.

Here’s how the typical movie goes:

The young man is picked on one time too many, so he decides he’s going to get in shape, lose weight, get stronger, or whatever the roles calls for. So the next morning, he’s up four hours earlier than normal for an intense workout that sparks a series of intense workouts, until he’s fighting like Rocky. Let’s not forget that he completely changed his diet to accommodate his new exercise routine. Just like that. Diet, exercise, and sleep routine: completely transformed.

That’s not real life. Here’s real life:

What happened there? Why did he seem to fail so badly and why does this sound so familiar? Because he tried to change too much at once, and he was out of willpower almost as soon as he started.

Hopefully this is really how the second story ended:

Happy now? I definitely feel better about his life.

This example may be a bit extreme, but it’s also real. Real people make decisions like that every day, because they were never properly taught how willpower works. You only have so much.

The post 4 Steps to Creating Discipline (A Complete Guide) appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

One of the most important life skills to develop, for those just starting out in life (and everyone else!), is the skill of self-discipline.

It’s like a superpower: when I developed some self-discipline, I started exercising and eating healthier and meditating and writing more, I quit smoking and ran marathons, I started a blog and wrote books, I read more and work earlier, I decluttered and transformed my finances. I’m far from perfect, but I’ve learned a lot.

But if you don’t develop self-discipline, it causes problems: health problems, distraction, procrastination, financial problems, clutter, things piling up and overwhelming you, and much more.

So it’s such an important skill to develop, but most people don’t know where to start. This guide is aimed at helping you get started.

I’m writing it for my kids, and for anyone else who would like to develop a superpower.

Finding Motivation

The first question is, how do you even get motivated to start? Most of us don’t want to think about our lack of discipline, let alone take a bunch of actions.

For me, the motivation came from realizing that what I was doing wasn’t working. Ignoring the problems only made things worse. Trying to be disciplined but doing it half-assedly only resulted in me feeling bad about myself. Being wholly undisciplined was causing myself a bunch of pain.

Once you realize that you’re causing yourself pain … you might develop a whole-hearted intention to stop hurting yourself. You might say, “OK, that’s enough with making my life worse. Let’s try to make it less worse.”

With that in mind, you can tell yourself that you are going to:

• Start taking small actions to make things better
• Do the things that hurt you less
• Push yourself into discomfort a little bit, so you can get better at this over time
• Get good at self-discipline with some practice

Keep these things in mind as you practice, as you get the urge to not practice, and as you make mistakes and then want to give up.

There are other good motivations as well:

1. Wanting to help others — if you get better at exercise or healthy eating, for example, you can help your aging parents who need to get better at these things. If you get better at not procrastinating on your life’s work, you can help more people with that meaningful work. More on this below, in the “Focus on Others” section.
2. Appreciating life — we have a short time here on Earth, and the life we have is a gift. When we procrastinate and give in to endless distraction, and don’t make the most of our time, we are not fully appreciating the gift we have. Instead, we can appreciate it by being present, being grateful, and being purposeful about how we spend our time.

With these motivations — or whatever motivations move you the most — we can start to practice.

Small Actions

One of the most important things you can do to get better at self-discipline is to take small actions. It can seem overwhelming to tackle huge, intimidating projects … so don’t. Instead, tackle easy actions, things so small you can’t say no.

Have some taxes to do? Just do 5 minutes. Want to run? Just run for 10 minutes. Have a report to work on? Just do the first few paragraphs. Want to declutter? Just find 5 things to declutter.

You’ll get better at self-discipline if you focus on small tasks, and break bigger projects into small tasks.

Discomfort Training

One of the reasons we don’t have self-discipline is because we run from the hard, uncomfortable things. We would rather do the easy, comfortable, familiar things.

So instead of facing our hard, uncomfortable projects or finances, we run to distractions, videos, games. This running from discomfort is ruining our lives.

What you can tell yourself is that you’re done running. You are going to push into discomfort, a little at a time, and get good at being uncomfortable. This is another of your superpowers. When others run, you’re OK (even if it’s not always fun).

One small task at a time, push yourself into discomfort. See how it feels. See that it’s not the end of the world. See that you are awesome enough to handle discomfort, and that the results are well worth it.

Mindfulness with Urges

You’ll have the urge to quit doing something hard, or to put it off for now. Those urges don’t serve you well.

Instead, develop mindfulness around those urges, and see that you don’t have to follow them.

A good way to do that is to set a time for yourself where you can do nothing but X. For example, for the next 10 minutes, you can do nothing but write your book chapter (or exercise, meditate, etc.). When you have the urge to procrastinate or run to distractions, you’ll easily see it, because you’re either writing the book, or you’re not. When you have the urge, tell yourself you can’t follow it, you have to either write your book chapter or sit there and do nothing.

Raymond Chandler used that as his simple writing system: “Write or nothing. I find it works. Two very simple rules, a. you don’t have to write. b. you can’t do anything else.”

The reason it works is that you are setting up a time where you do nothing else but that one specified task, and you can see your urges to run away. Use this to learn to be mindful of your urges, and see that you don’t have to follow them.

Interval Training

If you combine the above items into a system of bursts, or intervals, you can train yourself using interval training:

1. Set your intention to practice self-discipline and not hurt yourself anymore.
2. Set a task to focus on (writing, drawing, strength training, meditating, etc).
3. Set a timer for 10 minutes. Five minutes is also fine if 10 is too long. Don’t go longer until you get good at 10 minutes, then increase to 12 and eventually 15. I don’t find I need to go beyond 15-20 minutes even when I’m kicking butt.
4. Do nothing but sit there and watch your urges, or push into your discomfort by doing the task.
5. When the timer goes off, give yourself a 5-minute break.
6. Repeat.

You can train for several intervals, or potentially for an hour or two. Then take a longer break, and do another set of intervals after that.

This kind of interval training is fantastic, because it’s not that hard, you really train yourself in discomfort and watching urges, and you can get a lot done this way.

A Focus on Others

When you find yourself struggling, dig into deeper motivation: doing your work/exercise/meditation etc. not for yourself, but for others.

For example:

• I’m writing this article to help my kids, and anyone else who might benefit.
• I work out to be healthy, not only for myself but as an example for my kids and others who might benefit.
• I meditate not only for my own peace and sanity, but so that I can help others find their own peace and sanity.
• You might draw or write or play music to inspire others.

In each example, you might benefit … but you’re also doing it to benefit others. And this benefit to others is much more motivating than doing something just for yourself.

Try it … try doing a difficult task for someone else. Tell them you’re going to do it for them beforehand, then keep them in mind as you do it. See if you feel more motivated.

Victories in Success & Failure

A huge mistake that a lot of people make is that they mess up, and get discouraged by this. They feel bad about messing up. This causes them to give up and not want to think about developing self-discipline.

Here’s the thing: failure is actually a victory.

Failure means you tried. So it’s a victory from the start.

But it also means you learned something — you now know that what you tried didn’t quite work. Next time, you can try something a bit different. Add more accountability, try it at a different time, unplug your wireless router, get a workout partner, anything. Because of your failure, you have new information. You’ve learned, and that helps you get better.

Failure is a victory. Success is also a victory. No matter what your result, you can see it as an opportunity to learn, to grow, to get better.

Drop any ideas of being perfect at this, and just keep trying.

The next time you fail at whatever you’re trying, instead of letting it get you discouraged, see it as a victory. Then keep going, no matter what, because giving up is only going to hurt you some more.

Getting Support

You’re not in this alone. You have family, friends, online strangers who can help you. Form a support team by reaching out to the people around you, and asking for their help.

Lots of people skip this because they are embarrassed by their lack of discipline. They feel that the way they behave is shameful. That’s not true. Actually, we all act like this, but we’re just afraid to show that side to each other. But the truth is, if you show your “dark” side to people, they actually love you more, trust you more, relate to you more. So don’t be afraid to connect with others in a vulnerable way.

Find the courage to ask for help. Then let yourself be supported as you work on pushing yourself into discomfort and hurting yourself less.

If you need help from me, I’m offering a course in Building Self-Discipline in my Sea Change Program.

You can do this.

The post A Guide to Developing the Self-Discipline Habit appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

We all want to be outrageously successful in life; whatever it is that the word ‘success’ means to each of us.

It might be to settle down and start the perfect family, produce academic children and watch as they grow up to become the president; it might be to write an award-winning novel, own a billion-dollar company; or simply to create a life that you never need a holiday from.

As varied as people’s ideas about success may be, one thing is always certain when trying to achieve our goals: success rarely comes without hard-work, dedication, tenacity and no small amount of luck.

Though the drive to achieve our goals doesn’t come as naturally to some as it does to others; a principle which has had me wracking my brain for an answer to the question, what is it about people like Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk that makes achieving their goals seem like a trivial affair?

Well, after much research and testing, I have stumbled upon a few scientifically tested ways to gear your mind towards success with a few daily rituals which will train your mind to go for the things that you want.

But before we begin, let’s talk a little bit about how our brain works in relation to drive and success:

A Matter of the Mind

The human mind is a wholly remarkable object, complicated and un-listening though it may seem. It is the origin of every good idea that eventually grows into a successful endeavor; it is also the means by which you’ll need to navigate a sea of problems to get to the point you want to be at; and perhaps more importantly, it is also your biggest obstacle to realizing your dreams.

However, learning to work with and not against your lumpy loaf of grey matter will make it your most powerful tool when reaching your goals.

As you learn to master new abilities, you are essentially fortifying pathways in your brain. The more you do something, or indeed, think in a certain way; the more you your brain forms to keep that skill or thought process as a permanent part of your life.

You have neuroplasticity to thank for that, a phenomenon once thought to slow down as humans age, but has recently been found to continue long into adulthood. This is, of course, a double-edged sword. It is. After all, the same brain that is pushing you towards success that is throwing out a million reasons why your plan might fail.

So, the idea behind training your brain for success is learning to control what types of thought processes you allow it to conjure up, to stand a better chance of achieving what you want.

Here are a few simple ways that you can do that:

Visualize Your Goals in Detail

Success requires no small amount of imagination, a concept which might have those who are not artistically inclined squirming in their chairs; but being imaginative is not a characteristic purely reserved for beret wearing post-modernists with an opinion on the aesthetic.

No, everyone is imaginative, whether they believe it or not; a lot of people simply don’t actively practice it, and scorn themselves for slipping into the odd bout of day-dreaming- a phenomenon I like to call passive creativity.

If you can imagine what you want to achieve, you are perfectly capable of being positively creative, and it can go a long way towards achieving your goal.

All you have to do is spend time each day imagining, in as much detail as you can, what it would be like to get what you are after.

If you want loads of money, imagine the joy of lying in a bed of cash or checking out bank-statements with large sums on them.

The key is to incorporate as much detail into the vision as possible. How does the image make you feel? What is the exact sum you want? How did you get it?

Though simply imagining what you want isn’t going to be enough. While you may be altering your brain patterns to incorporate your dream into them, you still haven’t quite convinced yourself yet.

Manipulate Your Emotions Towards Your Goals

The next part of hacking your way towards success involves associating your goals with positive emotions.

Life gets us down sometimes, but for some people, simply getting out of bed without a gripe is a difficult thing to do. And this is where self-talk comes into the mix.

Whether you are aware of it or not, the first person you listen to each day is yourself, and it is your opinion on matters that sets the tone for the day.

So, when you wake up to take a pee, or slump in the shower until you are awake enough to function, try to be aware of the nature of your thoughts. Try to push negative thoughts from your mind; tell yourself that you are awesome and deserve to move a little closer to your goal today; and try everything in your power to get your mind and your emotions operating on the same level.

You may have to force it in the beginning, especially if you are a characteristically negative person. But keep it up and over time you will begin to associate positive feelings with your chances of success, and will actually enjoy working towards your goal.

Keep Your Goals a Secret

Whenever a new idea with potential pops into our heads, we tend to want to share it with those around us; either for acknowledgment of how outstandingly clever we are, or simply to bounce the idea off of those around us to get more information and opinions on it. This seems like a positively constructive idea, but recent research may suggest that keeping your goals to yourself is far more productive.

This video will tell you why:

Photo Credit: Positivity / Visualizations / Brain

The post A Unique Daily Routine That Will Train Your Brain to Success appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

A craftsman masters his trade by repeated practice, with care and continual learning, with devotion to the purpose.

It takes the same kinds of things to master the craft of discipline:

• Repeated practice
• Single-minded devotion to the purpose
• Continual learning
• Care

I’ve been giving some thought to what it takes to master the craft of discipline, and have been following some practices that I’ve found extremely useful:

1. Do the task even when you’re not in the mood

Procrastination is such a common problem that I believe it to be universal.

The main reason we procrastinate, without admitting it to ourselves, is, “I’m not in the mood to do this.”

The task is probably difficult or confusing, and so it’s uncomfortable, and you’d rather go to things that are easier, that you’re good at. You’d rather clean your house or trim your nails or check your email than start writing the next chapter of your book. But if we wait until we’re in the mood, we’ll never master life.

Instead, practice this: set yourself to do a task, and start doing it, no matter what. Don’t let yourself check email, or social media, or go clean something, or do a quick chore or errand. Sit down, and do it. It will be uncomfortable. You can still do it even if it’s uncomfortable.

2. Exercise even when you really don’t want to

Yes, this is the same thing as procrastinating — we put off exercise for many reason, usually because it’s hard and we’d rather do something easier. But I look at it as something I need to do to take care of myself, like eating healthy food and brushing my teeth.

You wouldn’t skip brushing your teeth for a week, would you? Your teeth would rot.

Similarly, skipping exercise for a week rots your body.

Instead, practice this: tell yourself you’re going to do a workout/run at a certain time, and then show up. Do it even if you’re tired or feeling lazy. Ignore the lazy feeling, the distractedness, and suck it up. You’ll find that you feel great for having done it. Either way, you’ll start to master doing things that are uncomfortable.

3. Sit with a little hunger

We tend to panic when we get hungry, and run for the nearest junk food.

What I’ve learned is that you can be hungry and it’s not the end of the world.

We don’t always need to be stuff and satisfied with crazy delicious food.

Instead, practice this: don’t eat if you’re not hungry. When you get hungry, sit there for a moment and turn to the hunger, and see how it really feels. It’s not so bad. This practice isn’t to make you starve yourself (not great), but to show you that a little discomfort won’t ruin your life, and that you can make conscious choices about when and how much to eat.

4. Talk to someone about something uncomfortable

We avoid difficult conversations, because they’re not fun. They’re scary, uncomfortable.

But that leads to all kinds of problems, including resentment, a worse relationship, worsening of the situation, and more.

Instead, practice this: When you have a problem with someone, instead of replaying the problem in your head, talk to the person in a gentle, compassionate way. Try to see the situation from their point of view, not just yours. Bring it up with a simple, “Hey, can we talk about ___?” And tell them how you feel, without accusing them or making them feel defensive. Ask them how they feel about it. Approach it with the attitude of finding a solution that works for both of you, that preserves your relationship. What you learn from this is that pushing through this uncomfortable situation will resolve a lot of difficult problems.

5. Stick to a habit

One of the hardest things people face with changing a habit is sticking with a habit after their initial enthusiasm dies down.

It’s easy to do a habit for a week — but what about pushing through the second and third weeks?

It gets a lot easier after those weeks, but a lot of people drop the habit too early.

Instead, do this: Commit to one small habit for two months. Make it just 5 minutes a day, and do it at the same time each day, having as many reminders set up as possible so you don’t forget. Track the habit on a calendar or log, so you see your progress. Show up every day and do it. You’ll start to master the formation of new habits, which will open up all kinds of changes.

6. Turn toward the problem

When we have a problem, often we avoid even thinking about it.

Think about whether you have one of these problems: you’ve been avoiding exercise, you’re overweight, you’ve been avoiding a major project, you put off dealing with your finances, you’re unhappy about some situation in your life. Often these are uncomfortable situations, and we’d rather not face them.

Instead, practice this: See the obstacle as the path. Don’t avoid the obstacle (the difficult situation, the problem you fear), don’t go around it, don’t ignore it. Turn toward it. See it. Acknowledge it. Figure out what’s going on. Find out how to navigate within the problem. You’ll find that it’s not easy, but not as bad as you thought, and you’ll be happy you did it. And more importantly: you’ll get stronger from facing the problem.

7. See the good in the activity

Discipline is really learning that you don’t need some incredible reward — there’s inherent good in just doing the activity.

For example, if you’re going to eat healthy food, you don’t need to make it taste like your favorite dessert or fried food (rewarding food) — you can just enjoy the activity of eating fresh, healthy food. If you’re going to exercise, it doesn’t need to give you a flat stomach or nice arms — you can just enjoy the activity.

Practice this: No matter what the activity, find the good in doing it, and the activity becomes the reward.

8. Meditate

People think meditation is difficult or mystical, but it’s fairly simple.

Practice this: Take 2 minutes to sit still, and focus on your breath, noticing when your mind wanders and gently returning to the breath. There are lots of other ways to meditate, but this is the simplest, and it shows you how to watch the urges that come up, and see that you don’t need to act on those urges.

You might not be good at these at first, but that’s why you practice.

You’ll learn, through these practices, to get good at discomfort, to show up even when you don’t feel like it, to stick to something even when the enthusiasm wanes, to not act on your urges right away, to enjoy any activity as a reward in and of itself.

Does life need to be pure discipline and no fun? Of course not. But if you can enjoy any activity, in the moment, why not learn to master something that will pay off for you in the long run?

This article originally appeared on ZenHabits.net.

The post 7 Practices to Master Self-Discipline appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

With respect to goals, projects, and other to-do items, it’s easy to get stuck too long in the thinking and planning phase. You can sit around writing and rewriting your goals, delving into your subconscious mind, working through emotional blocks, summoning the power of Thor… whatever. But if you don’t eventually get into action, you’re wasting your time.

How can you get into a sustainable mode of direct action without feeling like you have to torture yourself to get moving? What can you do to cross the barrier between merely thinking about what you want and actually making it happen with your own two hands?

Here’s a simple technique I use. This has worked very well for me when I’ve applied it. It usually takes only 5-10 minutes.

Thought Waves

Imagine your thoughts as energy waves that radiate out into the cosmos and then reflect back to you. If your thoughts are chaotic, the waves will interfere with each other, so you probably won’t even notice them. But if you put a lot of energy into a single coherent thought, the reflected wave will be strong enough that you’ll feel it in your body. At this point you can actually “surf” the wave. When you’re surfing your own reflected thought waves, you’re in a state of direct action, but it feels effortless. Instead of pushing yourself to act, you’re riding a wave of energy that is actually pushing you.

It isn’t difficult to create a strong thought wave and then ride it. You do this all the time whenever a powerful thought takes hold of you. For example, when you become really angry, it can be harder to stop yourself than to ride that anger into action. Or when you get a song stuck in your head, you may have a hard time preventing yourself from singing it out loud.

You can also create these thought waves consciously and deliberately. Then you can ride their energy to complete many tasks very quickly. You’ll enjoy it too.

How to Create and Ride Thought Waves

Sit quietly in a place where you won’t be distracted. Take a few deep breaths to clear your mind. Now identify whatever goal you’d like to work on. Maybe it’s something simple like organizing your workspace or writing a school paper. Or it could be something more complicated like creating a web site for a new online business, moving to a new city, or doubling your income. All you need is a clear, specific, measurable goal, but you don’t need a plan of action at this point.

Now just sit and think about what you want. Imagine this goal becoming real. Let yourself daydream, but try to stay conscious as you do it. Explore the goal in your mind. Think about it actually happening, but don’t physically try to do anything yourself yet.

For example, if your goal is to switch to a new career, then imagine yourself in that new career right now. Think about what it would be like to actually do that kind of work. Picture yourself doing the work and enjoying it. See the people you’re working with, and hold imaginary conversations with them.

Usually within 5-10 minutes, these positive thoughts build up so much energy in my body that I’m itching to do something. At first it feels good just to think about the goal, but eventually I start to feel a tension to get into motion. I can feel the thought energy reflecting back to me. Now it’s time to pull out the virtual surfboard and catch the wave.

This is essentially a process of arousal. If you think about sex for a little while, your body will physically respond. Blood will flow to different body parts, for example. If you hold those thoughts long enough, you’ll start feeling a compulsion to act on those feelings. Maybe you’ll have to take care of yourself or go jump your partner.

You can create a similar type of arousal when fantasizing about your goals. Within a few minutes, you should be noticing different physical sensations in your body — IF your goal is attractive enough to you. Extra blood may even flow to your brain and muscles, preparing you for action.

Once you start feeling that positive tension in your body, stop and ask yourself this question:

What Can I Do Right Now?

As you ask this question, hold the expectation that the answer will be something simple that can be done in 30 minutes or less.

Whatever reasonable answer pops into your head, accept it and act on it immediately. At this point you should find it very easy to take action — it would be harder to procrastinate. Do you procrastinate on sex when you’re physically aroused?

Now you’ve caught the energy wave. The next trick is to ride it as far as you can before it eventually dissipates.

Get that simple task done as quickly as you can. Sometimes you’ll flow effortlessly into another task. But if you don’t know what to do next, that’s no problem. Just stop again and ask yourself:

What can I do right now to make this goal a reality?

Accept whatever idea comes to you next, and get it done. Keep repeating this question and taking action for as long as you can. I’ll usually go about 2-4 hours without a break, sometimes much longer. In this state I can quickly plow through many different tasks. It feels good too.

It may take a little practice to build up the energy in your body and then release it gradually. Your ability to use this technique will surely improve over time.

I often use this process when writing new articles. I focus on the goal, swirl it around in my mind, and build up the energy for a few minutes. Then when I can’t remain still any longer, I ride the resulting wave and let my fingers start typing.

Give this simple technique a try, and allow your own thought waves to drive you into action.

This article originally appeared on StevePavlina.com.

The post How to Take Action Consistently appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

Changing a habit is like playing a game of chess.

In chess there’s an early game, a middle game, and an endgame. The same is true for habit change.

Many people try to change their habits by skipping straight to the endgame. They dive in and commit themselves to making the change happen right away. This is what people do when they make a New Year’s Resolution. It hardly ever works.

Scholar’s Mate

Trying to change a habit overnight is like trying to execute scholar’s mate in chess. Scholar’s mate is a strategy of achieving checkmate in only four moves. It only works against total beginners. Against a chess player with an ounce of experience, scholar’s mate will fail. A botched scholar’s mate puts you in a disadvantaged position, so attempting it is usually a bad idea unless you’re playing against a complete novice.

Are you applying the scholar’s mate strategy when trying to change old habits or adopt new habits? Do you go straight for the kill, only to find your attempt shot down?

When you try to change a habit without devoting sufficient time to the early game and middle game, you’ll almost always fail to make the change stick. Only the very easy habits will succumb to this kind of brute force strategy.

The early game of habit change is education and setup. In the middle game, you execute some changes to support your habit change. Only in the endgame do you go directly for the kill.

Early Game

In the early game of chess, your goal is to set up your pieces for success. Move your pieces out. Develop a solid pawn structure. Get control of the center of the board. Put some pressure on your opponent’s pieces. Defend your king. The goal of the early game is to get off to a strong start where you’ll hopefully be able to gain an advantage. The endgame is still a long way off.

In the early game of habit change, you’re also setting yourself up for future success. Read some books to educate yourself. Talk to people who’ve already made the change you seek. Write up a one-page plan for how you’re going to pull it off. These opening moves needn’t be complicated, but they shouldn’t be ignored.

Middle Game

In the middle game of chess, you’ll normally become more aggressive, but you still aren’t going for checkmate yet. You’re mainly looking for opportunities to gain an advantage in material, position, or momentum. Use solid tactics to weaken your opponent until you have a shot at checkmate.

In the middle game of habit change, your goal is to attack the scaffolding around the habit, not to go after the habit directly. What tactics can you use to give you an advantage? For example, if you want to change your diet, purge all the problem foods from your house, pick 5 restaurants where you can order healthy meals, learn 10 new healthy recipes, and recruit a buddy to go through the same change. Tell other people about the change you’re attempting, and request their support. For any habit you want to change, you should be able to come up with at least a dozen tactical moves that will increase your advantage.

Endgame

In the endgame of chess, your goal is to checkmate your opponent’s king. If you do a good job in the early game and middle game, you’ll be in a strong position to achieve checkmate. If you race through the first two stages, your own king will probably be mated instead. The endgame is often fairly straightforward. Usually it’s clear that you’ve either won or lost by this point.

In the endgame of habit change, you finally initiate the change with the goal of making it stick. This is the point where you would begin a 30-day trial. Only in the endgame do you actually try to change your habit. Up until this point you’re simply jockeying for an advantage that will make the endgame successful.

Fortunately, unlike chess, in the game of habit change, you can spend as long as you want in the early game and middle game. You don’t have to worry about a timer counting down or an opponent trying to outthink you.

If you fail in the endgame (meaning that your new habit doesn’t stick), your mistake was most likely not in the endgame. You probably screwed up in the early game or middle game. You didn’t take enough time to educate and prepare yourself, and/or you didn’t do enough work to give yourself a decisive advantage before you started.

The Role of Self-Discipline

If you feel you must call forth a seemingly inhuman level of self-discipline while trying to change one of your habits, it usually means you botched or neglected the early game and/or middle game. Sweating through a habit change isn’t self-discipline; sweating is the consequence of executing an ineffective strategy. More sweat won’t help much.

Picture a chess player sweating every move in the endgame. Is this a good player? Often this is a sign of a weak player. For a skilled, disciplined player, the endgame frequently plays itself, with the outcome being a foregone conclusion. Since there are fewer pieces on the board, there are fewer options to consider.

If you can’t even make it through the first week of a new habit without feeling an overwhelming urge to quit because you have to push yourself unreasonably hard to keep going, your mistakes were made long before you even began day one. You’re trying to pull off the equivalent of scholar’s mate, and your imaginary “opponent” isn’t stupid enough to fall for it.

Sometimes a little self-discipline will be required in the endgame, especially if you’re tackling a really tough habit, but if you built a solid foundation in the earlier stages, the endgame will often be smooth sailing.

The proper role of self-discipline is to make the best moves you can in the early game and middle game, such that by the time you reach the endgame, achieving checkmate is easy and straightforward. Self-discipline also plays a major role even before the early game. Did you give proper attention to study, practice, and training before you challenged your opponent to a match? Do you know your strengths and how to leverage them? Do you know your opponent’s weaknesses and how to take advantage of them? Are you prepared to win?

If you take a disciplined approach to habit change, you won’t be sweating the endgame. By the time you’re starting on day one of your new habit, you’ll have already knocked the legs out from under your old habit and build the necessary scaffolding to support your new habit. When you finally begin day one, you’ll already have the upper hand.

What can you do to put yourself in a more advantageous position with respect to changing one of your habits? How can you eliminate obstacles, cut off escape routes, derail threats, gain more leverage, take control of the center, etc? What early and middle game strategy and tactics will virtually guarantee success before you even begin day one?

Incidentally, applying chess concepts to personal development is an example of how cultivating many different interests enables us to transplant basic concepts from one field to another to solve problems creatively.

This article originally appeared on StevePavlina.com.

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You’ve always put cream and sugar in your coffee, but today is different.

You went to put that second spoonful of sugar, and you stopped halfway through.

You only put one and a half today. You’re not sure why, and you’re not sure if it matters. It does.

It matters more than you would ever know. That half of a spoonful could change your life, if you let it.

Small Choices

Habits are built by small choices. Small choices, practiced daily, turn into huge choices over time.

When it’s a negative habit, we just brush it off as a bad habit that doesn’t matter much, although we know what it will do to us over time. When it’s a positive habit, we call it self discipline. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

How do you start a new habit? With a small decision to change. A small decision that turns into a large result.

You decide you want to be a runner, so you run around the block. You want to be a daily reader, so today you read one page. You want to start a new writing habit, so today you write 100 words, or just ten words. You start small, knowing it’s going to snowball into a life-changing habit.

So yes, small choices matter. But they don’t just matter, they’re everything. And it’s important to remember that.

When you’re running and you decide to run to one more mailbox, after you planned on stopping, that decision matters. You just made a huge step towards becoming a successful runner, if you continue on that path. How many mailboxes would you run to over the course of a month, if you were constantly “just doing one more?”

It matters. It all matters. More than you know, or at least, more than you used to know. But honestly, you know each one of those decisions matter. That’s why it bothers you when you planned on doing 10 reps and you only do nine. You know how it will compound. If you do nine today, it will be much easier mentally to do eight tomorrow. It’s a downward spiral that happens faster than we think. Every time.

Bad Small Choices, Good Small Choices

Don’t fall for the “I might as well go all out mindset.”

You know what I mean. You’re on a diet, and it’s going great. Until one day, you meet a friend at a Chinese buffet. You think:

“I’m going to cheat, so I might as well go all out. I’ll have a Coke. And…I’ll pack out my plate with fried food, before going back for a second plate of rice and noodles. Yeah, I’ll have some soup too. And I can’t forget the desert bar.”

30 minutes later, you feel like you’re going to die.

Sometimes we need that. Sometimes we need to go all out. But the key word is “sometimes.”

You shouldn’t go all out every time you cheat on your diet. You shouldn’t do absolutely no exercise every time you miss your hour-long workout. You shouldn’t wait until tomorrow to resume your daily reading habit, even if tomorrow is Monday. Read today.

Those small choices are important.

Why Small Choices Are Everything

The British Journal of General Practice published a study on habit formation.

And it seems like every study says the same thing. Habits start small, you need a cue and you need a reward.

The Study published a tool for creating new habits. Here’s their checklist:

1. Decide on a goal that you would like to achieve for your health.
2. Choose a simple action that will get you towards your goal which you can do on a daily basis.
3. Plan when and where you will do your chosen action. Be consistent: choose a time and place that you encounter every day of the week.
4. Every time you encounter that time and place, do the action.
5. It will get easier with time, and within 10 weeks you should find you are doing it automatically without even having to think about it.
6. Congratulations, you’ve made a healthy habit!

My goal (e.g. ‘to eat more fruit and vegetables’) ____________________________________
My plan (e.g. ‘after I have lunch at home I will have a piece of fruit’)
(When and where) ___________________________ I will ___________________________

The key phrase is “choose a simple action.” If you start too big, you fail. If you start small, it’s easier and you have nothing to lose.

This model is extremely effective. The problem is, we would rather read about how to do it, instead of just taking the first small step. I’ve been guilty of this and so have you.

It All Matters

Every choice matters in some way. And that’s good! Now you can feel good about each one.

When you go for that donut, and decide you don’t need it, you just had a small win, and you know that’s huge!

Small wins are all you need for huge success. You just have to have enough of them.

Small wins are all you need for huge success. You just have to have enough of them.
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Every decision you make has some sort of implication on your life. Remember that when you’re happy, and when you’re stressed. Remember that on the weekdays and the weekends. Remember that morning and night.

It makes “micro quotas” and “macro goals.” That means using small habits to create huge results.

Everything you do matters. Take the word “just” out of your vocabulary, unless you use it for good. It’s not “just” one more spoonful of sugar. It’s not “just” one more piece of pizza. It’s not “just” one day without completing your habit.

But it is “just” one more mailbox. It’s “just” one more page. It’s “just” 100 more words to write.

Flip your thinking. Stop making excuses for why you can do the bad, and start doing the good.

The post Small Choices Don’t Just Matter, They’re Everything appeared first on MoneyMiniBlog.

I’ve always promoted the idea of starting small when creating new habits.

We all know that we can’t start a new workout routine by running 10 miles a day.  That’s obvious.  But even if you aren’t starting that big,  you may be starting too big.

It’s usually not starting way too big that messes us up, it starting just a little bigger than we should have.  Just big enough to stop the habit after a few days, weeks or months.

This is where tiny habits come in.

Bj Fogg, PhD, has started a habit revolution with tiny habits.  And people are accomplishing amazing things by implementing them.

I’m going to show you how they work and how you can start implementing tiny habits today.  Right now, actually…

How Habits Work

You acquire habits through repetition.  There was a myth that it takes 21 days to form a new habit (which is probably true for some habits), but there wasn’t much science to back that claim up.  And my personal experience shows that not to be true.  Studies now show that it takes closer to two months.  That’s not the point here though, because this is going to be so easy, you shouldn’t have a problem doing it.  However, since it is so easy, you’ll be able to do it for well over two months, even as you increase the habit.  What’s important is that you know you need to consistently, daily, repeat a new habit for it to stick.  But this isn’t as easy as it sounds.

The first day usually goes well, and maybe the second…possibly the entire first week while you’re still motivated by the newness of the habit.  But how long does it last if you start too big?  Not long. Unless you’re extremely self-disciplined, but even then, there’s no reason to make it so hard on yourself. You risk losing the habit.

Dr. Fogg explains everything I just said with this simple graph:

Habits are not created out of motivation.  Motivation is always temporary.  We’re looking for a way to do our habits whether we are motivated or not.  Dr. Fogg has found that way.  To make a habit stick, start small and slowly increase your habits until you’re where you want to be.  Start with a tiny habit.  Here’s how they work…

How Tiny Habits Work

Bj Fogg describes a tiny habit as:

• A behavior you do at least once a day
• A behavior that takes you less than 30 seconds
• A behavior that requires little effort

Part of the habit-creation process is the “reward”.  In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg explains that habits are made up of three primary parts: cue, routine and reward.  You need something that cues you to start the habit (the trigger), then you do the habit, then you have to experiment with some type of reward.  Since a tiny habit is…tiny, the reward should be tiny as well, and it will still work.  Dr. Fogg suggests that enthusiastically saying the word “awesome!” after completing a tiny habit can be enough to help it stick.

A tiny habit only requires a tiny reward.

Here’s how Dr. Fogg puts it:

The stronger you feel a positive emotion after your tiny habit, the faster it will become automatic in your life.

It’s important to add each tiny habit after an existing habit.  Your existing habit is the trigger.  There are things you do everyday, no matter what.  These are things like eating, bodily functions, waking up…things you do that you don’t even think about doing.

Here are some examples of tiny habits, combined with existing behaviors:

• “After I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth.”
• “After I pour my morning coffee, I will text my mom.”
• “After I start the dishwasher, I will read one sentence from a book.”
• “After I walk in my door from work, I will get out my workout clothes.”
• “After I sit down on the train, I will open my sketch notebook.”
• “After I hear any phone ring, I will exhale and relax for 2 seconds.”
• “After I put my head on the pillow, I will think of one good thing from my day.”
• “After I arrive home, I will hang my keys up by the door.”

It’s important to combine the habit with a previously established habit so you’ll remember to do it every time.

How Behavior Works

Depending on the type of habit you’re creating, you will approach it differently.

It’s very important to know which type of behavior change you’re going for.  There are actually 15 ways behavior can change!  It all depends on if you’ve done the behavior before, how long you plan to do the behavior, and the type of behavior.

This is Dr. Fogg’s Behavior Grid:

This chart may seem overwhelming, but Dr. Fogg actually made it even easier.  He created a Behavior Wizard that guides you through a series of questions, and then explains which one of the 15 types your behavior falls into.  I highly suggest typing any habit you’re working on into that wizard to learn more about that specific type of behavior change.

If you’re really interested in behavior change and want to implement some tiny habits, I suggest signing up for a 5-day session with Dr. Fogg.  It’s free to sign up and it really just requires you to fill out some information, and then track three tiny habits for a five day period.  You help yourself by learning more about tiny habits, and you help others by contributing to Dr. Fogg’s research in creating habits.  He actually reads all of the habits that people submit, and he explains more about each one (see chart below for an example).

I’ve completed a session; it was simple and fun, and he replies to your questions.

He starts a new session each Monday that you can join.  All you do is answer a few questions up front, choose a few tiny habits to implement and then respond to his emails for the 5-day session.

Here are some specific habits people have submitted, and Dr. Fogg’s responses:

As you can see, it’s all about trial and error.  Just like budgeting, goal setting and dieting, you have to keep at it until you get the hang of it.  It doesn’t take long to get the hang of tiny habits.  They’re super easy!

Putting it All Together

Of course, if you keep the habit tiny forever, you’ll continue to see tiny results.  The idea is to increase the habit over time.  You’re not looking for results in the beginning; you’re just trying to create the habit.  The results come later.  After you use the bathroom, you may do two pushups.  Next week, make it four.  In 12 weeks, you’ll be doing 24 pushups every time you have to pee!  If you implement the habit of drinking more water, you’ll be doing well over 100 pushups a day!

I highly recommend watching Dr. Fogg’s video about tiny habits when you have a few minutes.  They really can change your life, and you can use them in every area.  Here’s the video for a more in-depth description of tiny habits:

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We all know that discipline is about small habits, practiced consistently, over time.

So what’s the problem? Why is discipline hard?

Because, while those small habits are super easy to do, it’s just as easy to not to do them.

These small habits will help you reach huge goals, but…”there’s always tomorrow”…”I’ll start on Monday”…you know how it goes.

Sure it’s easy to not do it, but you’re about to have a plan.  A plan of discipline that you’re going to stick with.  So we’re done talking about not doing – it’s time to talk about doing.

Start With What’s Easy

You’re about to make a list.  A list of disciplines that you want in your life.

Discipline sounds difficult, doesn’t it?  Just hearing the word “discipline” can so quickly bring you back to that failed running habit you tried to start a few years ago.

Discipline doesn’t have to mean difficult.  In fact, if you want to stay disciplined, it needs to be easy.

It can get tough later, but wait until what’s tough now becomes easy later.

With any new discipline or habit, start off easy.  As Leo Babauta says, “so easy you can’t say no”.  Before we move on, remember, start small – start easy.

Your Five Things

Here’s how this works.  Write down five things you want to accomplish in the next year (as in, from today to 12 months from today).

These need to be specific and measurable things.  Such as:

• Run a marathon
• Lose 50 pounds
• Read 20 books
• Deadlift 600 pounds
• Read the entire Bible

Those are fairly large goals…you will only want to include two or three of that stature.  The other two or three should be easier – smaller numbers/less time consuming.

If your goal isn’t an action, you’ll need to decide your actions beforehand.  For example, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds, you can decide to do cardio 5 days/week and eat mindfully 6 days/week. Those will be come the trackable items.

Now that you have your list, let’s take action…

Your Five-Thing Action Plan

You’ve got your five things.  You know what you want.  And you’re about to get it, but first, let’s do some math.

Pick the easiest one to look at first.  Now, you’ve got 12 months to make this happen.  365 days.  8,760 hours.

This is about to get really easy…

For daily goals (reading, weight-loss, etc.), divide by 365.  So if you want to read 20 books, that’s about 1/20th of a book per day, which comes out to 10-15 pages/day. If you want to lose 50 pounds, that’s about 1/10th of a pound per day, which would more easily translate to about a pound per week (we’re overshooting here).

For goals that aren’t daily, you’ll just have to figure out how many total days you have within the year.  For example, if you’re going to lift weights 3 days/week, that’s about 156 lifting days between now and your goal date.  So then you just have to count backwards.  In this example, you would start with your goal weight and take off 10 pounds/week until we get back to today.  Usually with weight lifting, you can just start with the 45lb bar.

That’s it. This couldn’t be any easier, but it works. Let’s recap:

• Come up with 5 goals that you want to accomplish with one year
• Break them down into daily/weekly increments of actionable tasks
• Work diligently on them. Stay consistent with the small habits that reach the goal

Just remember, you should only have 5 for now. At least two of them should be easy.

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