I’ve been studying success for a long time and the reason I do that is because I enjoy helping people find success. By ‘success’ I mean, helping people get a result that they want in an area of their lives.
Success by this definition requires some work to achieve though.
So when you look at your life, would you say that you’re satisfied with how things are going or are there areas that you feel you could work on? How exactly do you do that? Where do you start? Well, first of all you have to look at your personal, day-to-day habits.
Stubborn vs. Persistent
Have you been beating your head up against the door to success and never getting that breakthrough, or are you consistently getting the results you want?
Someone who has trouble achieving their goals should take a step back and look at how they’re trying to achieve them. If you’re not succeeding then ask yourself, ‘have I been trying to shove a square peg into a round hole?’ Are you taking the same old approach to your goals and getting nowhere? When would now be the right time to change those behaviours?
People who are persistent in the pursuit of their goals approach things differently. They analyze their goals and the steps they need to take to achieve them, notice what’s not working and adapt their behaviour so that they can pivot towards the end zone.
You really have to be honest with yourself about this part though. Become conscious of whether you’re being stubborn and using an old methodology to get something, or are you persistent and adapting?
Change Through Repetition
Your conscious mind can only hold a few active thoughts at a time. By holding those thoughts and repeating them, they press upon our unconscious mind and then, with enough repetition, become unconscious behaviours and therefore part of our identity.
95% of the things we do every day are being guided by our unconscious mind. Driving to work, brushing our teeth, digesting our food, etc. We’ve done all of these things so many times that now we can do them “with our eyes closed” (except driving of course…please keep your eyes open for that..!).
If we’re trying to make a change to our behaviours or working on achieving a goal, those changes won’t happen overnight however. They say that it actually takes 21 days to change a habit and 90 days for it to sink into our unconscious mind. It’s the regular repetition of that new behaviour that will help those changes become ‘stickified’, if you will. The persistent repetition is where the magic happens.
Break It Down
So, what is it that you want to achieve?
Ask yourself some of the following questions to start:
- Where do you want to gain an edge/advantage in your life?
- Where do you want to level up?
- In what area of your life do you feel worn down? Money, relationships with people, lead generating or your health perhaps?
DIG INTO THAT!
What area of your life do you want to improve? Once you have that figured out, then narrow it down into workable chunks!
Break it down to the one thing you’re going to work on for the next 90 days to move yourself closer to your goal, keep at it until you’ve mastered it, and then move onto the next step!
Not Even Athletes Get It Over Night
Let’s say it’s your golf game that you’re wanting to improve. The whole key here is practicing the one thing repetitively to the point where it goes from a conscious practice to being an unconscious habit. How would a golfer go about improving their swing, for example? There are going to be a few levels of practice that have to happen here in order to achieve that goal:
- Level One – hitting shots at the driving range a few days/week with a coach
- Level Two – playing practice games on the course
- Level Three – playing in a competition where they now have to perform using their newly honed skill
If that golfer wants the edge on the people they’re competing against, then they have to pay the price of practice in private FIRST before they’ll be able to perform in public at that competitive level.
To put it another way, they practice the new skill for many days, consistently, to the point where it becomes ingrained in their unconscious mind and part of their identity. They practice until it’s so natural to them that they can’t help but perform at a higher level in competition. They focus!
Being Consistent In Spite of Setbacks
You cannot expect to practice a new skill – however small – once or twice, or for a week and expect that your life will change. It takes consistent, persistent practice of a new skill – over time – to really see positive results.
It also takes a strong will because successful people know that you need to keep going, even when you hit a setback.
Athletes are conditioned to know that things won’t always go their way, but if they focus and are able to concentrate on their follow-through, they know that they’ll increase their chances of getting a positive result. They know that playing the victim when things go badly will only hurt their chances of success in the long run.
Go Find That One Thing
To be clear, there may be a lot of ‘one things’ if you’ve got as much drive to succeed in life as I do. There’s no fast way to achieving your goals though, so take the time to get clear on what you want and break down those goals into small steps for yourself.
Half the reason people don’t succeed at reaching their goals is because they set the bar way too high to start. You want to lose ten pounds? How about instead of dumping the entire contents of your fridge and going on a fad diet, you decide to cut back on the sodas you drink every month? Just start there with that one thing. It doesn’t seem so hard, right?
Pick your goal and try to get 1% better at achieving it every week. You want to be able to do ten push-ups in a row? Start with doing one this week, every day. Then increase it to two next week. Seems doable, right?
My Challenge To You
Find your one thing that you’re going to start working on this week. Write it down somewhere – on a notepad at work or in a journal or even a post-it. Commit to levelling up and living your best life – with one small, 1% improvement each week.
Remember that success doesn’t happen overnight…it happens over time.
If you can do that, I promise you that you’ll wake up a year from now and be proud of the decisions you made today to change your life!
P.s. I want to help you take the next step towards your epic life, which is why I have decided to give my book, Your Epic Life Blueprint, away for FREE! All you have to do is cover the shipping and we’ll get it to you. Click here to get your FREE book.⠀
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Don’t wait, begin your EPIC life today!⠀
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