Conquer Change Part 2

Last week I shared with you why we as humans often struggle with change due to our brain’s threat-reward system. To get you prepped and ready to start conquering change this 2015, let me first share a quote from my mentor Jim Rohn:

“Your life doesn’t get better by chance. Your life only gets better by change.”

Now, let me give you a half-dozen tips on taking control of your brain and regain the master position vs the subservient position to it.

First it’s important to remind you that much of what we do on a daily basis happens without thinking—driving a car, brushing our teeth, opening a refrigerator, browsing the supermarket aisle, even running a meeting. You don’t have to decide consciously which leg to put into your pants first. These simple behaviors have been shaped, repeated behavior now trained and formed as a habit—an unconscious habit.

It’s kind of like a well worn path across a field. If you drive your car over the same path through a field every day, that track will get deeper, more cleared and easier to drive down over time. The rest of the field might get overgrown on either side but the tracks will stay clear. The neural pathways in our brain work the same way. The more we drive down one particular path the easier it becomes.

Changing a habit or embedding a new behavior takes effort and focused attention.
This can feel physiologically uncomfortable and be quite literally painful to over-ride your well worn habits.

So here are six suggestions to hack your brain’s natural tendency to do nothing and stay stuck in the status quo, where it is MUCH more comfy:

1. First, I want you to think BIG.
Think about the person you want to become, the life you want to lead and the contributions you want to make to the world and those in your world.

But then I want you to act small.
Big achievements, grand missions, massive change and transformation come from iterative, small, seemingly insignificant improvements that are compounded over time. You might have heard about that right—it’s called The Compound Effect. If you haven’t, then go towww.TheCompoundEffect.com and buy the book!

Let me just illustrate how simple and profound this can be.
How much do you want to improve in a certain area or skill?
50%? How about 100%? Hey, how about 500%?
No, I’ll tell you what, let’s go for 1,000%.

What?? 1,000% you say?
Yes, how hard do you think it would be for you to improve 1,000% in any area of your life? To be 1,000% better parent or 1,000% better husband or wife or 1,000% better leader or 1,000% smarter investor, business builder or wealth creator. Imagine how dramatically different your life and lifestyle would be if you were 1,000% better than you are now. It would be 1,000% better! Just think of your life 1,000% better than it is now.

Now, you ask, what do you have to do to achieve 1,000% better?
I’m glad you asked. You are probably think it must mean you have to study, practice and sacrifice immensely and make a radical commitment.

Nope.
Here is all it takes, you ready?
Seriously, you ready?
You really ready to improve 1,000%?

Then you just have to improve 1/10th of 1% each work day. That’s only 1/1000th.
You can do that in reading 10 pages of a book dedicated to the improvement in that skill area and applying what you learn. Or spend 30 minutes listening to an audio dedicated to that skill area. That’s it, that’s all it takes.

Do that 1/1000th improvement every work day and that will result in 1/2 1%improvement each work week. That’s still only 2% improvement per month or 26% improvement each year. That growth percentage means you will double your improvement every 2.7 years, thus over 10 years you will have improved 1,000%

Voila! You are now 1,000% better than you were with just small, seemingly insignificant, day to day improvements COMPOUNDED over time.
Yes. It is. That. Simple.
BUT will you do it? THAT is the question.

2. To narrow you down even further I want to strongly suggest that you focus on changing or improving only one habit at a time.

Breaking previous habit patterns will be harder than you think.
I equate it to jumping into a river that is rushing in one direction. If you jump in you can go in the direction of the rushing river with no effort at all, it will carry you the entire way. But if you turn a 180 and start swimming UP the river you will have to fight with all your might, exhausting yourself and still maybe only be making inches of progress, despite all the effort.

Do not underestimate the power and might of your existing neurological habit patterns.
Breaking them can be as difficult as overcoming substance abuse.
The same psychological and emotional neurosystem has to be broken and replaced.
I’ll show you how narrow you have to focus.

BJ Fogg of Stanford University proved that if you want to teach 60 year olds to use an SMS program to help them quit smoking, it won’t work. Those are two new behaviors.  So pick one behavioral modification and habit change at a time. At least only one habit per month so that you’ll be able to focus all your energy on creating that one habit. You can choose any habit . If you are picking choose whatever habit change or improvement you think will have the biggest impact on your life.

3. Now go public.
People are more accountable to other people’s judgment, opinion and view than they are to their own. Use this human weakness as a brain hack. Tell as many people as possible about the new habit you are trying to form. Post it publicly in an online form—Facebook, blog or whatever public forum you want to use. Our pride, ego and desire to avoid public humiliation will be a great parole officer for you.

4. Associate with others who, too, are making that change.
Our brains usually lead us toward the opposite. We seek out people like us, in our current weak state, to avoid change. People who are too heavy, eat poorly, drink too much, watch too much television or play video games and follow other people playing sports tend to find each other and hang out with each other. We tend to find friends and form groups with people who reinforce our beliefs—whether those beliefs are correct or not. When many people agree, it’s easier to overlook or discount undeniable logic.

5. Then track your progress.
You can improve what you don’t measure.
Measure progress every day.

6. Report it.
Make it visible to you and to your public forum. Stories lie, numbers don’t. Report your numbers—to yourself and to the world.

Yes, post your weight scale numbers.
Yes, report your sales figures.
Yes, report your savings account balance.
Whatever the behavior, habit or outcome you are trying to improve: make it public, track it and report it.

So here is your plan for the rest of this month:

1. Pick one habit or behavior to change.

2. Study and improve on it 1/1000th every day—read or listen to something for 30 minutes.

3. Disclose your goal publicly.

4. Find a buddy or a group who are also focused on improving that same habit or behavior.

5. Track it,

6. and finally, report your progress publicly.

Do that once a month and WOW, I think you’d be shocked and amazed at the person you could become, the results you could create and the life you could lead.

http://darrenhardy.success.com/2015/03/conquer-change-2/#article