5 Easy Steps to Reach Your Full Potentia

20 May 2015

Gregory Henderson

by

Do you ever feel like you could be doing more with your life?

But perhaps you continually find yourself stuck because life just feels like it hasn’t turned out the way you thought it would.

Your heart yearns to be somewhere else, do something else, and be someone else.

You should listen because it knows what you must acquire to achieve your full potential in life.

You have a power deep down within you that can intuitively tell you how to overcome the hurdles in life, which you face each and every day.

Something that when triggered will give you the answers to your most pressing questions.

Are you interested in finding such a power if it were to truly exist?

You Have The Power To Reach Your Full Potential Inside You…

Every living thing on this planet has a guidance system, somewhat like the Global Positioning System (GPS) you find in your automobile.

But it’s better defined as an Automatic Success Processor (ASP) which helps in finding solutions to necessary objectives to successful living.

In simpler forms of life like insects, reptiles, and animals, their success goal is twofold:

• Physical survival, which is limited to finding food and shelter, and escaping or subduing enemies and threats.
• Reproduction for the survival of the species.

Humans have the same two survival instincts embedded in our DNA. This is where the fight, flight, or freeze response comes from when we perceive a harmful event, attack, or threat.

However, humans have a brain far more developed and complicated, which gives our guidance system the ability to act on even more areas of our lives than our animal friends.

Producing a meticulous plan for escaping financial debt or creating a blueprint to build self-esteem and confidence are just two amazing examples of tasks your ASP is capable of performing.

Which means we (you) have the ability to create the life you want, and that’s exactly what you’re doing right now.

Believe it or not, the life you live today has been created and reinforced by your ASP.  

But before we go into more detail on your ASP’s capabilities, let’s briefly discuss the reaction to instinct.

Instinct: The Inevitable Driving Force Of Nature

Instinct is by definition an inborn pattern of activity or tendency to action common to a given biological species.

With this definition, that means every creature has an inborn system (instinct) already set in place with the sole purpose being to help achieve success (survival):

• Baby sea turtles hatch on a beach; without hesitation, they head to the ocean for safety.
• Honeybees communicate by dancing in the direction of a food source without instruction.
• Squirrels in the forest know to gather during the fall and store nuts for the winter.
• Birds have no nest building instructions, but instinctively they know how.

Nature is full of such examples, which really have no explanation other than they have internal instincts, a guiding force that helps them in their natural environment.

But the one thing you have over all other creatures is you can reason, make choices, and create realities in your world with your imagination.

Imagination: The Key To Creating Reality In Your Life

Everything on this planet that has been made by man was just a thought in the beginning, and with imagination, that thought became a reality.

Think back to a time when you thought of someone but couldn’t remember their name no matter how hard you tried.

Your brain sent imaginary pictures to your mind of the person; in some cases you even received an image of the situation in which you met them, but you still couldn’t recall the name.

Then several hours later, while you were doing something else, the name popped into your head.

This was your ASP; it continued scanning all information stored in your brain to find your answer, even though you weren’t conscious of the search at the time.

When you learned to drive a car or ride a bicycle, your brain continuously sent signals to your body to readjust until you succeeded.

Imagining yourself riding around, without the drudgery of having to walk everywhere, created such intense positive emotional thoughts of success that yourASP was stimulated to its highest degree.

So when these emotions were processed, your ASP jumped into overdrive, influencing your muscles to perform appropriately to the task at hand.

Even though riding a bicycle isn’t a natural instinct, but rather a created one by yourASP, imagination along with stimulation was the integral factor in sending strong performance signals to the muscles.

The more imaging your ASP received, the more precise your results.

Now, you perform these task without the slightest thought of how.

Mainly due to that intense focus on images of your results your imagination created in the beginning.

Your Brain is The Ultimate Source of Potential

Your ASP is more powerful than anything known to man, using your brain and nervous system that consists of over 100 billion cells, 100,000 miles of blood vessels, firing information at over 270 mph to make 20-million billion calculations per second to create the life you live.

The truth is, your ASP is a super-calculating mechanism within your brain and nervous system, which finds answers to problems concerning finances, relationships, health, and virtually anything else.

Its capabilities are boundless.

But it’s crucial that you accept the amazing ability of your ASP as real for you to reap the full benefits it offers because one area of your brain is capable of sabotaging your outcome.

Your Conscious Mind Keeps You From Reaching Your Full Potential

Your conscious mind has the amazing ability to reason and make choices, which is fundamentally a great benefit.

The problem is, it can’t distinguish information coming in as real or unreal, and that’s terrible for your internal ASP because it is there to help you succeed in life.

In fact, the conscious mind has all but destroyed it.

Your ASP is locked up in your brain as if it were a convict on death row waiting to be executed for crimes against the world.

But this happens because your mind has been overloaded with negative informational input over the years.

Your ASP worked fine as a child, but whether intentionally or not, society programmed you not to use this powerful solution-seeking system.

Google Your Brain for Faster Success Solutions

Need an answer? All you have to do is send your brain in search for it.

It’s a lot like a Google search.

Input the information (think – meditate on it), trigger your brain to start the search mode, and wait for the results.

Let’s take a look at the 5 steps to initiate your Automatic Success Processor.

1. Target.

Pick a goal, write it down on a note, and place it somewhere you’ll see it often.

2. Believe.

Imagine yourself having reached the end-result, and believe it can happen.

3. Calm.

Relaxing is part of the game; ASP will achieve the goal from negative feedback and automatically correct mistakes, so let it take its course.

4. Learn.

Reminding yourself constantly of your target, mentally correct your aim until you hit your target imaginatively

5. Action.

Your ASP goes into operation as you act, and you place demands on it by your actions. Trusting that your ASP will work as you act is the key that unlocks the door to success.

By letting it work on its own schedule, your brain will process billions of bits of information to find the specific answer you seek.

Belief is crucial; your ASP operates at levels below your consciousness. It’s impossible to know what’s going on at these levels.

Remember, it works spontaneously according to your present need. It goes into operation as you act and place demands on it by your actions.

Don’t wait for proof. Act as if it’s already there, and it will come through for you.

Repetition furthers the learning process until negatives are removed from your ASPand skills are cemented in a solid, positive foundation.

Devote just 15 minutes three times a day for 21 days, focusing on these five steps. You’ll be amazed at how your ASP can change your life.

You’re Worthy of the Success You Are Capable of Creating

You are a unique one-of-a-kind individual. No human on the face of this planet has your fingerprints, brainwave patterns, or DNA.

Your Automatic Success Processor already makes 95% of your choices each day without you knowing it.

Take control, and decide to create the life of your dreams, today.

Don´t worry about potential consequences; everything is better than what you have now. You deserve the life you desire.

Awaken the sleeping giant locked up in your soul, and become the champion in life you were meant to be.

It’s time to get Fired Up! About living and loving life to the fullest on your own terms.

You can do this!

http://www.finerminds.com/mind-power/5-easy-steps-to-reach-your-full-potential/

Disconnected Days

I have a problem.
A very serious problem.
It’s destroying my (productive) life.
My problem: I am easily seduced.
It seems I am weak.
Every day I set out to be disciplined.
Every day I promise I will not stray.
But every day somehow the siren’s song of email, texts, phone calls and social alerts always prostrate me.
I submit.
I give in.
And once again the grand intentions of my day are squandered in the vortex of reacting to the calls of other people’s agenda.
But no more.
I am no longer going to rely on my good intentions, my well-laid plans for the day or my will power to stay the course.

When I set out into the wide blue ocean of my day, where the siren lay, I am going to tie myself to my mast AND put wax in my ears.
I don’t need to hear their songs at all.
Here is the hard truth…
When I prioritize my day never does checking email or responding to unsolicited communications ever make my list, but somehow, someway it always seems to consume much of my day.
Is this true for you too?
We are living in drastic times.
The sirens have multiplied. They are now everywhere, all around us, all the time.
We sit in front of them all day, we carry them around with us in our pocket and even lay them next to our head as we sleep.
Their songs have never been so loud or so relentless.
Their songs have never been more tantalizing or more seductive.
We live in an era of constant and never ending distraction.
Drastic times require drastic measures.
Thus, my goal for 2015 is: 100 Disconnected Days*.
*Disconnected Day: A day focused on creative production or rest and recovery off the digital communication grid.
Yes, 100 days includes weekends.
I know that doesn’t sound difficult, but in 2014 I had ZERO Disconnected Days.
ZERO days where I was not connected/distracted by email, phone calls, texts or social media communications.
To go from 0 to 100 will be a giant feat.
To have 100 days completely dedicated to creative production and some revitalization will give me the foundation I need to crush the productivity of 2014, which was my most productive year to date.
How about you?
How many truly Disconnected Days did you have in 2014?
How often were the intentions and productive plans of your day sacrificed to the seductive siren’s song of email and the rest?
I invite you to join me on this challenge: 100 Disconnected Days.
Use them to do focused project work and/or to recover and revitalize.
Even just one workday and one weekend day would get you to the goal.
But be warned.
If you do choose to join me, this will be harder than it sounds.
The siren’s songs are so lovely and so beautiful and you are emotionally and psychologically addicted to hearing them.
Even with wax in your ears and your hands and feet bound, you will be tempted to surrender.
You might not think so now, but when you are sailing through your day it will be hard not to stray.
I ask you to keep in mind the incredible production, value and impact you can create once you are no longer under the spell of the wicked mermaids of distraction.
You will need the help of those around you to bind you tighter if they see you trying to wiggle loose.
Below is the auto-responder I have on my email during one of my Disconnected Days.
I suggest you use something similar.
It will keep you honest in the court of public commitment.

Subject: [AUTO] Disconnected…
…from The Matrix
Today is a Disconnected Day*
Know that your message has been received and will be dealt with when I plug back in.
-Darren
*Disconnected Day: A day focused on creative production or rest and recovery off the digital communication grid. Learn more about Disconnected Days here.
2015 Goal: 100 DDs.
This auto-responder helps keep me accountable to this goal.
If you hear from me on a day you receive this auto-responder then I have failed.
P.S. This message is AUTO generated.

Update: As of today I have completed 5 DDs.
Here is what I can report:

• It’s absolutely stupefying what you can get done in a day when you are able to be 100% focused and undisturbed for a full 24 hours. This alone is a HUGE benefit and a reason why everyone should commit to 100 DDs, and every leader should insist each of their people do so as well.
• In the stillness I am able to access a creative depth I would not have otherwise.
• During a DD I experience a great decompression of frenetic energy build up which has all sorts of additional benefits.
• Knowing I am not expected to be available gives me great emotional and psychological relief, thus full access to my power of presence.
• It’s training everyone around me not to be dependent on me, thus taking more leadership themselves
• http://darrenhardy.success.com/2015/01/disconnected-days/ 

Stephen Covey on Developing Emotional Intelligence

“I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.” ? Oscar Wilde
Emotional Intelligence is essentially an ability, capacity, or skill to assess, manage, and regulate the emotions of yourself and others.
Why is emotional intelligence such a big deal? …
If you can’t manage your emotions, you crumble or snap under stress. If you can’t manage your emotions, you can’t motivate or inspire yourself effectively to do the things you need to do.  If you can’t manage your emotions, you can’t use your best thinking.  You get stuck in your lizard brain, and cut off from your ability to respond more effectively when it counts.
If you can’t tune into others’ emotions and demonstrate empathy, you’ll have a hard time connecting with others.  You’ll have a hard time creating rapport.  If you can’t see and feel the emotions of others, then you’ll have a hard time influencing or leading others effectively.  As a manager, you’ll be the pointy-haired boss.
Yeah, emotional intelligence is a big deal.
It’s a key for leaders and it’s a key for leadership.  Whether it’s self-leadership, or leading others, emotional intelligence picks up where other intelligence leaves off.  To put it another way …
“”No one cares how much you know until they first know how much you care about them.” (See The Only Management Strategy You’ll Ever Need)
In the book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness, Stephen Covey acknowledges that there’s a lack of literature on how to develop emotional intelligence, and shares an approach for how to develop emotional intelligence using the 7 Habits.

The Five Primary Components of Emotional Intelligence

Stephen Covey shares the five primary components of emotional intelligence:

1. Self-Awareness — The ability to reflect on one’s own life, grow in self-knowledge, and use that knowledge to improve onseself and either consume or compentsate for weaknesses.
2. Personal Motivation — What really excites people — the vision, values, goals, hopes, desires, and passion that make up their priorities.
3. Self-Regulation — The ability to manage onseself twoard achieving one’s vision and values.
4. Empathy — The ability to see how other people see and feel about things.
5. Social Skills — How people resolve differences, solve problems, produce creative solutions, and interact optimally to further their joint purposes.

The 7 Habits and Principles

According to Stephen Covey, here is a simple look at the 7 Habits and the principles that they encapsulate:

Habit	Principle
Habit 1 – Be Proactive	Responsibility / Initiative
Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind	Vision / Values
Habit 3 – Put First Things First	Integrity / Execution
Habit 4 – Think Win-Win	Mutual Respect / Benefit
Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood	Mutual Understanding
Habit 6 – Synergize	Creative Cooperation
Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw	Renewal

Developing Emotional Intelligence Using the 7 Habits

Stephen Covey shares an approach to developing emotional intelligence using the 7 Habits outlines above:

Emotional Intelligence Component	Habit
Self-Awareness	Habit 1 – Be Proactive
Personal Motivation	Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind
Self-Regulation	Habit 3 – Put First Things First Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw
Empathy	Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Social Skills	Habit 4 – Think Win-Win Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood Habit 6 – Synergize

Practicing Your Emotional Intelligence with the 7 Habits

Here is a brief summary of how Stephen Covey says you can practice the 7 Habits to develop your emotional intelligence:

1. Self-Awareness – Covey says, “You are aware of the space between stimulus and response, you’re aware of your genetic, biological inheritance, your upbringing, and the environmental forces around you. … You  sense you are or can become the creative force of your own life.  This is your most fundamental decision.” Practice Habit 1 – Be Proactive.
2. Personal Motivation – Covey says, “… decide what your highest priorities, goals, and values are. … This decision to direct your own life is your primary decision.” Practice Habit 2 – Begin with the End in Mind.
3. Self-Regulation – Covey says, “ … once you decide what your priorities are, then you live by them; it is the habit of integrity, the habit of self-mastery, of doing what you intend to do; of living your values.  Then constantly renew yourself.  Execution strategies and tactical decisions are your secondary decisions.” Practice Habit 3 – Put First Things First and Habit 7 – Sharpen the Saw.
4. Empathy – Covey says, “It’s learning to transcend your own autobiography  and get into the head and hearts of other people.  It’s becoming socially sensitive and aware of the situation before attempting to be understood, influence others, or make decisions or judgments.” Practice Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood.
5. Social Communication Skills – Covey says, “You think in terms of mutual benefit and mutual respect, you strive for mutual understanding in order to have creative cooperation.” Practice Habit 4 – Think Win-Win, Habit 5 – Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, and Habit 6 – Synergize.

One simple way you can practice each day is when you are talking.  See if you can echo back what you hear the other person say, in a way that they “feel” heard.  This is a big deal.  It’s not listening until you think you’ve heard them … it’s listening in a way where they *feel* you’ve heard them.
The difference, is all the difference.  That’s what this is about.http://sourcesofinsight.com/stephen-covey-on-developing-emotional-intelligence/

Develop Stronger Willpower in Just Four Weeks

By Lou Hattersley 

 

Willpower is one of the greatest human strengths. If only we had more of that mysterious thing called willpower notes The American Psychological Association. “With more self-control we would all eat right, exercise regularly, avoid drugs and alcohol, save for retirement, stop procrastinating, and achieve all sorts of noble goals.”
People with strong willpower can tenaciously stick at tasks, ignore distractions and achieve their big goals. There's little wonder that willpower is a highly prized personality trait.
Researchers at Bond University in Australia recently proved that willpower can be strengthened with practice. This may sound like a Charles Atlas advert: but you can develop stronger willpower in just four weeks. Willpower can be applied to just about any aspect of your life, helping you get whatever you want.
Successful Ghostwriter, Jeff Haden from Inc.com lists five things that people with willpower seem to do:

• Eliminate as many choices as possible.
• Make choices tonight that set up tomorrow.
• Do the hardest thing you need to do first.
• Refuel frequently.
• Create reminders of long-term goals.

You can't just become a strong willed person overnight, so here's Lifehacker UK’s four-week plan to successfully building up willpower.

Week 1: Get rid of all your choices

The first thing you need to do is cut down on all the choices you get to make. The more chance you have to choose between positive and negative acts; the more likely you are to get impulsive, and make a bad choice.
Every true ex-smoker will talk about the importance of throwing out all cigarettes and paraphernalia. If you want to check email less then turn off your notifications or switch off your email and check it once an hour. If you want less caffeine and more water then keep a large water bottle on your desk (this prevents you from heading to the kitchen where you'll choose between tea and water).
Make a list of the small things you want to do more of and learn to keep them at hand; conversely learnt to push the things you don’t want as far away from you as possible. Make the good things easier to get to; and the bad things harder to get to. Spend your first week learning to cut down on your choices.

Week 2: Plan for tomorrow and attack the hard stuff first

Once you have dealt with the day-to-day choices, it is time to introduce some forward-thinking. There are two aspects to this next step:

1. Make decisions today that set you up for tomorrow
2. Attack the hard stuff early in the day.

Start by planning tomorrow morning in advance. Decide what you are going to wear (and lay it out), pick your breakfast and decide what you will have for lunch (if it's a packed lunch then make it the day before).
You will tempted to think of these as small, dumb things that you do with ease every day. They are, but that is why you are not going to waste any energy on them in the morning. Make sure that you don't have to make a single decision first thing in the morning – save your decision making energy for something important.
This brings us to the second bit. On your to-do list write down the first thing you are going to do at work tomorrow. But don't write any old thing down. Write down the hardest, least pleasant thing on your to-do list.
Putting hard tasks at the top of your daily to-do list in an old Lifehacker trick, because you do it when you are full of energy and the day gets easier as you go on. And because you have already sorted out all the small decisions of the morning you have all your energy directed at this one, tough task. Nail it!
So you should know these four things before you put your head to sleep:

• What you are going to wear.
• What you are going to eat.
• Where you are going to go.
• What is the first thing you are going to do when you get there.

Week 3: Keep your glucose levels up

Research has shown for a number of years that glucose levels are linked to willpower. A study at Texas University found that “self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source.” And that every act of self-control caused glucose to drop below optimal levels, impairing any further attempt at self-control.
So it is a case of healthy body; healthy mind (or at least well-controlled mind). There is no shortage of tips for keeping glucose levels high. Here are some of our favourites:

• Eat protein for breakfast: eggs, fish and porridge or oats are a good start to the day.
• Cut down on wheat and carbs and try to include protein with every meal.
• Eat small, frequent meals.
• Eat more natural unrefined food: past, brown rice, rye and whole wheat bread.
• Drink healthy energy drinks.

Another tip is to gargle energy drinks. The British Psychological Society suggests gargling energy drinks saying “it may not even be necessary to consume sugar to boost your self-control levels - simply swirling a glucose drink around your mouth also does the trick.”

Week 4: Create totemic objects for your long term goals

So far you will have spent a lot of time physically and mentally strengthening your willpower, but that is only useful if you focus it on what’s important in your life.
In the final week you need to create physical totemic objects that remind you about long term goals. These can be anything you want, but it is important to make them physical real-world items.
Despite all your willpower strength training you will still be mentally fatigued from time to time, and you will make poor decisions. The physical objects remind you about what is important, Jeff Haden says:
A friend has a copy of his bank note taped to his computer monitor as a constant reminder of an obligation he must meet. Another keeps a photo of himself when he weighed 50 pounds more on his refrigerator as a constant reminder of the person he never wants to be again. Another fills his desk with family photos, both because he loves looking at them and to remind himself of the people he is ultimately working for.
Step back from the daily grind and think about what you want from life. What are your big overarching goals? Not just for the next week, or month but for life in general. The totems will help you stay focused.   http://www.lifehacker.co.uk/2014/07/16/develop-stronger-willpower-just-four-weeks 

4 Steps To Become More Decisive

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Shoba Haridas | 

I hate making decisions. I always envy those who say, “I just knew this was the house for us,” or “to me that was a sign, so I just broke up with him.” They make it seem so easy. They don’t spend sleepless nights poring over the pros and cons list, scrutinizing it one  more time just in case something new pops out. It’s almost like a life force is propelling them towards the right decision.
I want that.
I never get up in the morning knowing exactly which direction to take in life. And my life has never been peppered with signs providing me guidance.
Nope, like most people, I am stuck with the very exhausting task of actually making decisions by myself for myself, all alone, relying just on my inner strength and the slim pickings of my inner wisdom. And let’s face it – that’s no fun. It’s exhausting and it’s terrifying because we have limited knowledge of the situation, we can’t predict the future, we sometimes don’t know what we want or what the right thing is to do AND we are scared of screwing up.
So we put off making a decision. Sometimes that’s okay and it works and sometimes it doesn’t – we wait for things to get clearer but then we start over thinking the situation … and over thinking … and we end up not taking any action. We become stuck and paralyzed.  So how do you break out of this? How do you seize control of the situation and made a call when there is so much of fear and uncertainty?
Not all of us are born decisive just like not all of us are born gym fanatics. I should know, I’m neither. But I know being active is good for my health so I’ve created a system that forces me to be active during my everyday life e.g. walking part-way to work or taking the stairs as opposed to the lift wherever possible. The same way, you can create a system that allows you to be more decisive in life. Here are 4 things you can do:

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff

Making decisions is exhausting and draws from a finite reserve. The more you draw from it, the less you have. So when you have to make a BIG LIFE DECISION, keep everything else simple.
In his interview with Vanity Fair, Barack Obama says ““You’ll see I wear only grey or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
You need to save your decision-making ability as well. When something big is occupying your thoughts, don’t waste hours pondering on which cushions to get for the flat or which of the 10 strawberry jams you should get. Eliminate choice for the small stuff, get into a routine or simply limit yourself to 5 minutes to make a decision on these items.
Simplify, simplify, simplify.

1. What is the life you want for yourself? 

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.” ― Roy Disney (Walt Disney Company)
Knowing what you want is the single biggest factor which will help you become more decisive. When I work with several stakeholders on a project, the best thing to do when we face an obstacle and a decision needs to be made is to revisit the initial objective.
In the same way, you need to figure out what life you want for yourself. You need to sit down with a pen and paper and write and write and write until the answer starts becoming clearer. That’s the way I do it. At first, its really vague statements that come out (e.g. I want to draw but then keep digging, draw what? Write what, for whom). Set aside a time everyday for 3 days. If it’s still not clear, give yourself a break and spend another 3 days the following week at it.
This question is not limited to general life. You can ask this question in relation to who you want around you, the job you are looking for and the relationship you want to have.
3. Address your fears 
Oftentimes we are indecisive because we fear the various negative outcomes that could or could not materialise if we make a decision. Some fears are irrational, some fears are justified but the fact of the matter is, you get nowhere if you ignore them. Manage your fear. Instead write down your fears, assess them, see if they are justified and then MAKE A PLAN to address them or factor them into your decision.
But remember, you don’t make a decision based on your fears or the probability of what may happen. Decisions are positive. You plan for the fears and probabilities but you make a decision based on the life you want for yourself. See here for helpful diagram.
4. Learn to tune-in to your gut
In Blink, Malcolm Gladwell cites experiments that show “on straight-forward choices, deliberate analysis is the best. When questions of analysis and personal choice gets complicated … our unconscious thought process maybe superior.” Of course, this is an over-simplification. I think good decisions usually take both into account and also varies with individuals but I do believe that sometimes when the question is about profession or the choice of a life partner, you need to pay more attention to what your gut is telling you.
The problem with the gut is that sometimes, it’s hard to read. But taking care of your fears and values like the second and third steps, will help this situation.
Personally, I think what your gut feels always manifests as physical symptoms so I always pay attention to my body when I’m thinking through the various options I have in a situation.

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/4-steps-become-decisive/#0WSaLKaJsP55GRtA.99

10 Keys to Changing a Habit

How long does it take to change a habit?  You’ve probably heard ranges anywhere from 2 weeks or 21 days, up to 30 days or more.  In my experience, it depends.

In this post, I summarize the key thing that changing a habit depends on.  Once you know the keys to changing a habit, you can more effectively analyze your own habit changing attempts.  Here are 10 keys that influence your ability to change an old habit or form a new one:

1. Thinking, feeling, and doing patterns.  First get a handle on whether you’re trying to change how you think, feel or act, or all of the above.  For example, if you’re trying to get out of bed earlier in the morning, don’t wait until you feel like it or try to think yourself into it.  Just get out of bed.   Eventually motivation will follow.  Eventually you’ll have the habit of hopping out of bed.  If you’re trying to change how you feel, you might start by changing how you think or what you do.  In the process, you might find you have a recurring thought pattern that gets you stuck.  Start with that.  The key is to catch yourself, interrupt the pattern, and change it.  SeeThe Change Frame.
2. Intellectual, emotional, and physical. When you learn a new habit, think in terms of a progression.  First you learn it intellectually so you understand it.  Next, you get first-hand experience, and have an emotional connection for or against it.  Next, you burn it into your body (your basal ganglia and muscle memory) to the point where your body just knows what to do (e.g. when you smack the alarm clock with your eyes closed, or shift gears without thinking about it.)  This progression can take time and repetition, especially burning it into your body.  If you’ve ever practiced an instrument or taken a martial art, you can remember the awkward stage until your body knew what to do.   This is where repetition, deliberate practice, and your technique really come into play.  See Bloom’s Taxonomy for Learning.
3. Time.  Time is a wild card.  If you’re bringing back an old habit, it can be fast.  If you’re forming a new habit, you may have to go through the awkward stage or the growth spot.  Here’s where it depends on whether you’re changing a thinking, feeling, or doing pattern, and whether you have to progress from intellectual to emotional to physical.  In my experience, you can quickly change how something feels, by changing how you think about it.  You can also quickly change how you think about something, when you learn new information.  Either way, it seems like your emotional response is what reinforces you, one way or the other (towards pleasure or away from pain.)  Burning something into a physical habit seems to take the longest, if you measure by how long do you have to do it, before you don’t have to think about it.
4. Values.   Ultimately, your values are the trump card.  For example, I did a living foods experiment for a month and got great results.  At the end of 30 days, I had amazing results, but I decided not to continue, based on my values (I enjoy eating out with friends).
5. Pain and Pleasure.  As logical as we like to think we are, we really are creatures of habit.  Emotions drive us.  Pain drives us one way, while pleasure drives us another.  At the end of the day, you’ll do more to avoid pain, than to get pleasure (unless of course, pain is your pleasure.)   When you change a habit, find a way to link it to good feelings.  Link the old behavior to pain.  It’s not enough to tell yourself this is good for you or that is bad, it’s about changing how you feel, when you perform it.  For example, I told myself running was good for me, but I didn’t like how it feels.  I play my favorite songs to add pleasure while I run.  Eventually, my body linked running to pleasure.
6. Motivation.  This could very well be the most important factor. “Why” change?  When it’s externally driven, such as for money or some other external reward, it can quickly fade.  When it’s driven by internal values, it’s sustainable.  There’s a lot to be said for the adage, “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”  I also like to remember the joke, “how many psychiatrists does it take to change the light-bulb? … just one, but the light-bulb has to *want* to change.”
7. By default or by design. Some habits can go against your grain.  Either they rub your values the wrong way, or they fight your natural thinking, feeling or doing patterns.  In this case, I don’t mean your learned behaviors, but what you’re wired for.  For example, although you can swap out some introverted behaviors for some extroverted ones, or vice-versa, you might be fighting your personality basics.  It’s just another reason why some habits may be faster to adopt, while others may seem like a perpetual fight.
8. Your Social support.   Your peers or social-pressure can support you or work against you.  If you’re aware of the impact, you can prepare yourself for it, or limit as needed, or make it work for you.
9. Your environment.  Your structure and environment play a key role in your day to day.  Consider your workspace.  Consider the visual cues you have around you.  Which way do they push or pull you?
10. Stress.  We all know stress can knock us back to our old patterns.  There are a couple of things you can do here.  First, ask yourself whether now is the right time for change, or if you should catch the next train, when there will be less stress.  Second, plan your responses for your stress up front.  Don’t try to make up a great response on the fly.  Instead, have a simple plan for when you’re stressed.  Identify your triggers.  For example, if you lick your wounds by reaching for cake, maybe there’s something else you also enjoy you could do instead?  If you plan this up front, it’s easier to test a new behavior.

Daily repetition seems to play a key role, especially when it comes to changing physical habits.  In apresentation by Jack Canfield, he told us how uninterrupted daily routine in an experiment with astronauts that showed how.  They gave them concave lenses, which made them see upside down.  After 30 days of continuous wear, they could see right-side up.  If they interrupted the experiment along the way, the results reverted back.  I think what’s important about this experiment was that it was about changing the physical function.

If you need to change a habit, I recommend making it a 30 Day Improvement Sprint, and make it your theme for the month.  This helps give you enough time to get over the initial awkward stage (that’s what growth feels like) and enough time to experiment or play at your results.  It also helps you focus on a simple goal for the month.

http://sourcesofinsight.com/10-keys-to-changing-a-habit/

Just Do It

If you want to get promoted on your job, get fit, go back to school, write a book, launch an album, or a business, I have the solution for you…

Quit talking about it, stop waiting for permission, and do it…

At the end of the day, all the talk, and all the reasons, and all of the excuses, count for absolutely nothing – a chasing after the wind.  You’re wasting time that could have been used productively to actually: “do it.”

Socrates said “to do, is to be;” the only thing that matters is what you’re doing today.  Are you on track “right now,” or are you making excuses.  In a very real sense, tomorrow never comes; either you do it today, or it never gets done.

You see, when what you call “tomorrow” comes, you’ll rename it “today,” and if your mindset hasn’t changed to this “do it” mindset that I’m referring to, then you don’t have a future, you don’t have a tomorrow, you just have a longer today – more of the same is personally guaranteed.

What am I saying?

When all the talk is over…you still have to “do it.”   Do what?  Earn it, work for it, bust your butt, be uncomfortable, go through the pain; you have to do whatever it takes…there are no short-cuts.

You might be thinking, “But it’s hard”…do it anyway…

“Well, I might not have any free time”…do it anyway…

“Well, the bank said no”…do it anyway…

“My wife won’t let me”…do it anyway!

Just do it!

And in the words of A.L. Williams, “Do it, and do it, and do it, and do it…” and when you’re done doing it, do it some more, and then do it some more, and then do it some more, and never stop doing it.

But, I don’t feel like doing it….Well, “do it anyway,” do it until you feel like doing it, do it until you enjoy doing it, do it until you love doing it…do it until you can’t get enough…do it, and do it, and do it, and do it…

…You don’t start off “feeling like” doing it, but if you stay focused, one day you’ll be excited to “do it”….

But what if I have NO motivation to “do it”?

If you’re not motivated to do it, then why in-the-hell are you doing it?  You can’t do what you’re not motivated to do!  You can’t achieve success, if you’re not motivated to succeed; you must be driven by an inner vision of what might be – you must have a grand conception of the future.  You can’t do what you can’t see; you can’t become what you can’t perceive – …you just can’t.

Isaiah wrote, “Where there is no vision the people perish.”  …In other words, the people don’t make progress; the people fall by the way-side.

If you can’t see yourself “fit,” or launching a business today (like right now), it can never happen tomorrow.

If you don’t have a strong vision….maybe you don’t really want it.

At some point in your life you have to be “real” with yourself, you have to say, “I don’t really want it…if I have to work that hard for it, I don’t want it!”  Be real – “god-dog-it” at least be honest with yourself!  At one time I thought I wanted to be a billionaire, but the reality is that I do not have the motivation to become a billionaire.  It would be nice if someone gave me a billion dollars, but to work hard for it seems like a waste of my resources (if I’m being honest with myself) – that’s a goal best left to others, those who have the energy, the passion, and the vision to achieve such a goal.  You may be the same way, it might be nice if someone magically made you “fit,”but you don’t want to be fit at all cost; you simply don’t have a vision for fitness.  You don’t have a strong enough reason to be fit.

As I quoted earlier, where there is no vision the people perish, but I also like to say, where there is a vision, the people prosper.  When you have a “clear” vision, when you can “clearly” see the end from the beginning…when you really believe that you can achieve the goal, you’re almost there; just believing that you can achieve it is most of the work – it’s really that simple.  When you believe, victory becomes “sweatless,” like taking candy from a baby.  You become driven by a force that won’t let you stop until the goal is achieved.  You’ll slam through walls and kick down doors until the goal is achieved.

When I am committed to a goal, nothing can stop me but the achievement of that goal.  …I know how to see the goal (in my mind’s eye) as already complete; I know that I can do anything that I really want to do.  I know that if I can see it, I can achieve it.

It’s not impossible to write a book, or go back to school, or get promoted, or get fit, or start a successful blog.  These things are all well within the realm of possibility – far from impossible.  But can you perceive it?  We’re not talking about the impossible (e.g. we’re not talking about becoming a professional football player at 65 years of age).  Other people have done what you’re trying to do, people you know, people just like you, all you need to do is believe and let that belief carry you to victory.

If you can see it and believe it, the truth is, you will achieve it.

If you’re not achieving the goal, it’s only because you’re not seeing it and believing it.  Get clear on why you want to accomplish this goal; then see yourself succeeding in your mind’s eye.

Everywhere you go, hold this image of success in your mind, believe that it’s possible, because it is, and you will surely achieve it.http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com/2014/04/just-do-it/