Archives for February 2015

Every habit results in an outcome. Some habits cause happiness, sadness, financial success, poverty, good health, bad health and short or long lifespans. There are also habits that alter our IQs. And still more habits that affect: relationships, job performance, motor skills, emotions or our overall circumstances in life. Because 40% of all of our daily actions, thinking and choices are habits and because habits represent unconscious behavior, most of us are unaware that our current life circumstances are the direct result of habits. Many individuals live paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by. They either scratch their heads, wondering what they’re doing wrong, or they play the victim, blaming others for their circumstances in life. The fact is, habits are behind all success and all failure. Habits create outcomes.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.
Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know it when you find it”
— Steve Jobs

“Am I in the right career?”

“I’m not sure if this is what I want to do the rest of my life.”

“How’s the job?  “Ok. It’s a job.”

“Oh crap, another Monday.”

When you find the work you should be doing for the rest of your life, you know it. There’s no uncertainty when you find work that inspires, motivates and fires your passion. You just know it deep down. If you have a job and you’re not sure if that job is what you should be doing for the rest of your life, then you haven’t found what you love. You’re settling. Certainty and deep down knowing, means you found it. Uncertainty means you haven’t found it, you are currently settling and you need to keep looking. Look every six months, even if you have a full-time job. Every six months pursue something new as an extracurricular activity. If after six months you are not blown away with passion, move on to something else. Eventually, you will find something you love to do. You will know it when you find it.

When you’re in the zone you know it. Time flies by. There is no shortage of energy. You can work for hours on a project without getting tired or bored. Passion fuels your focus. When you are in the zone you are experiencing unforced focus, a unique type of focus that favors those pursuing something they are very passionate about. Unforced focus and passion go hand in hand. Unforced focus turns ordinary individuals into creative geniuses, workaholics and producing machines. Getting in the zone is the fountainhead for all success.

We aren’t aware of the effects of habits on our lives because habits occur subconsciously. But habits do affect our lives. Habits affect our financial circumstances, our level of happiness, how we spend our time, they affect our health, our job performance and our relationships. Habits create a life filled with success, or one mired in failure. The secret to success is a secret for most, because habits create success, and habits are unconscious behaviors, thinking and choices we engage in every day. Until we make an effort to become aware, track and then change our daily habits, our lives will never change. In order to change our life’s circumstances, we need to get to the root cause, and the root cause for everyone = habits. Your life will not change until you change your daily habits. That’s how powerful habits are.

Habits come in all shapes, sizes and shades. Some habits are more powerful and impact our lives more than others. They are known as Keystone Habits. Some are stand-alone habits. They are known as Ordinary Habits. Ordinary Habits have very little impact on other areas of our lives, whereas, one Keystone Habit can offset numerous ordinary habits and help tilt your Habit Seesaw in the right or wrong direction.

There are many good habits that create happiness, prosperity, success, good health, strong relationships, increase our knowledge or keep us upbeat and positive. There are also many bad habits that create unhappiness, bankruptcy, contribute to failure, poor health, toxic relationships, ignorance, procrastination or make us negative and depressed.

Awareness and tracking of your daily habits is a prerequisite for changing them. Once you know what your habits are you can change them. Adding new habits then becomes much easier.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

Our habits dictate whether we will be rich, poor or middle-class. The reason so many consider success a great mystery, and use the phrase “the secret to success”, is because the cause of success is still a secret to so many. Even the wealthy in my study did not realize that it was their habits that were responsible for their success. Some of the wealthy thought it was their education, their hard work ethic, luck, being in a good industry, making wise decisions etc. Those things are the effect of having good habits, not the cause of success. Success was a secret even to the wealthy. I’m doing my best to let the secret out of the bag.

According to the Wold Health Organization, depression affects 350 million people each year. Depression can stop you in your tracks. It can put an end to personal growth, affect your health and affect your business. In my research on a new book I am working on, I have discovered a foolproof cure for depression. Taking on a new project or initiative, will prevent depression from attacking you. This approach works to prevent depression, however, not reverse it. The point here is that if you are one of those unfortunate few who periodically suffers from depression, pursuing some major initiative, prior to the depression event, serves as a firewall in preventing future depression from taking root. It’s like preventive care for those afflicted with depression. Pursuing something you are passionate about virtually eliminates the onset of depression.

Neuroscientists have made some incredible breakthroughs in the past ten years. One thing they continue to focus on is why we need to sleep. What they are discovering is fascinating. Sleep accomplishes so many things behind the scenes. One critical purpose of sleep is memory formation. The hippocampus and neocortex send signals back and forth to each other thousands of times during the REM portion of sleep. This process allows memories to stick.  Another incredible discovery is that sleep enables offline communication between the conscious mind (aka neocortex), which shuts down during sleep, and the subconscious mind (limbic system and brain stem). This is important because the subconscious mind is regularly taking in sensory data that is invisible to the conscious mind. When we experience intuition, this is actually the conscious mind telling us something the subconscious mind communicated to it during the last sleep cycle.

“What’s in it for you” is the mindset of self-made millionaires. “What’s in it for me” is the mindset of the unsuccessful. Self-made’s get it. By helping others succeed, those others become part of their team. When you run into that special someone who is in your corner, bending over backwards, trying to help you achieve your goals, dreams or purpose in life, you will knock down walls to reciprocate. Self-made’s make it a daily habit of helping others. It’s not about karma. It’s not about being spiritual. It’s all about the nature of being human. Humans who help other humans command loyalty. “What’s in it for you” is really about creating your own team. Self-made’s are always in search of new teammates to help them pull the cart, which allows everyone to realize their goals, dreams or purpose in life.