Successful Habits Formula

“Our character is basically a composite of our habits. Because they are consistent, often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.” – Steven Covey

While re-reading The Power of Focus by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen I came across a section they call The Successful Habits Formula. It is really pretty simple, yet I have learned that it is through small and simple things that the great things come to pass.

The Successful Habits Formula

1.      Clearly Identify Your Bad or Unproductive Habits

Make a list of them, everything from watching too much TV to sleeping too much to not working out. Write beside it the long term implications of that habit, be honest with yourself.

2.      Define Your New Successful Habit

This is usually the opposite of the bad habit. Read instead of watching TV or getting up early to work out instead of sleeping in and not working out. Most importantly, write a vivid description of the benefits of the action.

3.      Create a Three Part Action Plan

What are things you could do that would implement the new habit. Using the working out example: get a gym membership, develop a workout routine and schedule, get a friend to meet you at the gym as an accountability partner. Make sure you are being accountable to someone. I have found this to be key.

It is very important that you prioritize these new habits and start with ONE. If you attempt to do multiple habits at once, you will eventually run out of self-discipline and return to mediocrity.

If you only changed one habit per quarter, imagine the difference you would see after only one year. Imagine a life of that!

Steve Prefontaine said it best and I have tried to make this my mantra “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

Can You Hand Me That PledgeHammer?

One of the topics that I have been passionate about for sometime is the need to build successful habits to reach your potential. Dr. Tony Schwartz teaches in the Power of Full Engagement that we have a finite amount of self-discipline and therefore we can only set out to change a limited number of things in our life at a time without running out of energy.

Ever wonder why you are not the only one who has failed at keeping 29 different New Years Resolutions? He says the solution is to build habits. Habits once effectively established no longer take self-discipline to keep going, but rather energy to break.

An important part of building these new habits is being accountable. I recently ran across a website that does just that, helps you be accountable.

www.PledgeHammer.com

Pledgehammer.com is a site that helps you keep your promises. They do this by making your pledge public and asking you to decide on a deadline as well as a financial incentive. Should you not succeed they ask you to donate money to a charity you choose yourself. This way your unsuccessful pledge may help to save the rainforest or support families in third world countries, making it not all that unsuccessful after all.

I thought it was a very interesting idea and one that can certainly help in an area that I believe we all could use help in.

What Is Your EVE Ratio?

EVE is an acronym for education versus entertainment. I was tipped off to a company called iLearningGlobal that talks about this EVE ratio.

They suggest that your future “destiny” depends greatly on your EVE ratio. I am not sure I agree with the word choice "destiny" but maybe destination. 

Most people spend far more hours and money on entertainment than they do on education and yet remain perplexed at how unsatisfied they are with the results or destination they have reached.

Did you know that the average U.S. household watched TV for 8 hours and 18 minutes a day from September 2007 to September 2008, which is a record high since the days Nielsen Co. started measuring television in the 1950s.

What is your EVE ratio? Take one week and add up the hours of each. 

Are you shocked at how little time and money you spend on improving yourself and your ability to build the life you desire?

The great Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you do have to start to be great.”

Infinite Self-Discipline?

Ever feel like you got the short end of the stick when it comes to self-discipline or will power?

I ran across a series of experiments that indicate we have a finite self-discipline reservoir, not an infinite amount of self-discipline as we would like to think.

In one experiment, two groups were asked to come in to solve a puzzle. What they did not know was that the puzzle was insoluble. While in separate waiting rooms, a plate of fresh, warm cookies directly out of the oven was brought in and placed on the table in front of the group. They were informed that the cookies were not for them but for the next group, and to please refrain from eating them. A similar thing happened to the second group, except they were brought a tray of sliced cucumbers. After a number of minutes, the groups were ushered into another room to begin the puzzle. The experiment was designed to determine how long each group would persist on the puzzle before giving up. As you probably suspected, the group that had to withstand the temptation of the cookies lasted far less time on the puzzle than the cucumber temptation group.

In another experiment, one group of subjects was asked to hold their hands under ice water for a specified period of time. They performed significantly worse on a series of subsequent proofreading tasks than a group that had not been subjected to the ice water challenge.

These, as well as other experiments, illustrate convincingly that we all have less self-discipline than we realize and therefore we must call upon it selectively. Even small acts of self-control use up this limited reservoir of energy, leaving us less energy for the next task.

It does not mean that we are doomed to a life of mediocrity, it does mean that we must create habits. Once established, habits no longer require energy or self-discipline to perform. They actually take energy to break. The key is to methodically build a life of productive habits…one at a time. The temptation will be to start a number at once, like New Years resolutions. Use your precious, limited energy to build successful habits, one by one.

What if you established one new habit each quarter this year? Imagine the different results you would see in life.

The gates of history swing on small hinges.