100-Day Challenge Update!
Rinse, Lather, Repeat!
Greetings! We are now on Day 39 of the 100-Day Challenge. I hope this note finds you well and that you’re excited about the results you have created to date!
This week we are going to focus on Habits. Psychologically, habit is an automatic pattern of behavior that may be inherited or acquired through frequent repetition; a behavior that is practiced for so long that it seems innate. Habit is easy to get into but hard to get out of.
Our lives are composed of habits — simple, little and almost always invisible.
Most of us go about our days on autopilot. We brush our teeth every morning. We walk out the door at a certain time. But, have you ever tried brushing your teeth with the other hand, or tried re-sequencing the finely orchestrated dance that gets everyone fed, out the door and on the way where they need to be? One would be uncomfortable, the other would be disastrous.
Habits are first like cobwebs, and then they become cables. – Chinese proverb
It’s time to turn your goals into new habits.
Have you ever noticed that the most accomplished people of our time – the elite artists, athletes, business people, researchers – are often so humble? You will frequently read that they don’t consider themselves ‘special’ or ‘gifted’ at all. By all objective measures, they were not the strongest, fastest, brightest or most gifted. In fact, they may have been very ordinary in terms of their particular gifts. So what was it that spurred them on to excellence, to absolute dominance in their chosen field?
It is a clear VISION, the determination to achieve it, and the willingness to cultivate the small, invisible, but intentional, daily habits that would become the building blocks of activity that would get them where they were going.
That ‘intentional’ thing is critical here. It is the opposite of ‘autopilot,’ ‘comfortable,’ and ‘safe.’
99.9% of the time, the only difference between an also-ran and a Champion is the willingness to turn off the autopilot, to get uncomfortable and to reset the boundaries of ‘safe’ by cultivating new habits required to push them over the line.
So, this week’s exploration is exactly that: a challenge for you to examine what it is you need to do in order to hit your goal, and to be willing to integrate the small, new daily habits that will add up to your success.
Ask yourself where you can implement a new habit. Increase the number of daily appointments? Increase the number of presentations each month or the number of events attended? Sharpen the saw by reading and listening to CDs that will inspire, inform and hone your focus?
Write your goal out and visualize it. Think about the steps needed to get to your goal.
Ready? Your first assignment is to examine your Small Daily Habits every day – and to be willing to swap out the ones that are comfortable, but not getting you ahead, with those that will.
We dare you.
