Skip to content

Category: Building Habits

Morning Is Important

Published on September 14, 2022

You might not think that what you did this morning was important… but it was.

In the same way that sharpening the saw before you cut the tree is…

Or in how warming up and stretching before intense exercise is…

Or in how planning before acting is…

Try and cut the tree, do intense exercise, or act without the ideal precursor and in each case—the task will suffer.

So, too, will your day.

When you get the start of your day right—you get to cut through the rest of the day with a sharpened mind, a loose and flexible body, and a clearly defined plan.

Which reminds me… you might not think that what you do at night is important… but it is.

The Reality Of 1% Gains

Published on August 5, 2022

1% gains is the philosophy that guides my life.

Each day, I try to:

  • Improve my workout numbers by 1%
  • Eat 1% cleaner
  • Sleep 1% better
  • Etc.

But, I don’t always reach this goal.

Sometimes, what 1% gains ACTUALLY looks like is:

  • -2% on my workout numbers
  • -3% on how clean I ate
  • -5% on the amount of sleep I got

While 1% might feel infinitely achievable… the reality is, we’re imperfect creatures immersed in an imperfect world and we have to account for the ebb and flow of life.

There will be days when you’re feeling it and crush your daily tasks (maybe even with 2-5% gains)… and there will be days when you’re not feeling it and you dip into the negatives.

Don’t let this discourage you—stay the path.

Keep investing in yourself like you would your retirement investment account. Continue to reinvest with the goal of the overall average being a 1% increase rather than the actual increase being 1% every single day.

The real power of the gains come from the long-term compounding of regular reinvestments. Just ask your financial advisor. Trying to get a forever positive return on any stock/fund in the market simply isn’t practical. And neither is a forever positive return on any task you undertake in life.

You don’t get 1% returns each and every single day.

You get 1% returns on average over the course of years and years of regular investing.

THAT is how you get the real 10/15/30% gains and that is how you get the most out of your personal development habits in life.

Stay. The. Path.

Black-And-White > Gray

Published on July 27, 2022

When it comes to habit change… “black-and-white” rules are much better than “gray” rules.

  • “I don’t drink” hits way different than “I’m trying to drink less.”
  • “I’m vegan” is much clearer than “I eat 100% vegan, 80% of the time.”
  • “No phones in the bedroom” is far more helpful than “I’m cutting back on screen time.”

It’s hard to draw a line in a gradient of gray. And drawing clear lines is what habit change is all about.

My advice is commit 100% to whatever you’re trying to change or change the habit you’re trying to change to something you can commit to 100% of the time.

On Thursday, July 28th, I’ll be hosting a LIVE chat on Twitter on the Art of Stillness—and why/how stillness can help us live better lives. Join me if you’re free/ interested. Details here.

When Habits Become Easier

Published on April 7, 2022

.…They don’t.

21/30/60/90 days isn’t the amount of time it takes for a hard task to become easy.

…It’s the amount of time it takes for you to not forget to do the hard task(s).

Many people get this twisted.

Hard tasks, generally speaking, never get easier.

The 21/30/60/90 day mark is simply how long it takes for you to integrate a new habit into your lifestyle—it’s the getting to and the starting of the task that gets easier.

Remember this the next time you commit to a new lifestyle habit.

Day 22/31/61/91 is going to be just as hard as day 1. You’re delusional if you think otherwise.

  • An excruciatingly hard workout regime will continue to be just as excruciatingly hard.
  • An extraordinarily strict diet will continue to be just as miserable.
  • An emotionally draining side-hustle will continue to be just as emotionally-draining.

The key is to make sure that the pace you’re setting for yourself at the outset is one that you’ll be able to maintain far beyond just 21/30/60/90 days.

Good measure is to imagine how you’ll feel about your new lifestyle habit on day 9,000.

Do you think you’ll still be doing the task in question?

Proceed accordingly.

Pace, Posture, Breathing…

Published on March 5, 2022

This was my mantra during my second marathon.

It was a constant call of my attention to revisit the fundamentals of what was going to get me across that far and away finish line.

And they’re fundamentals that can help you cross the far and away finish lines in your life, too.

  • Pace: Resist the urge to run your marathon at your 1-mile pace. When you’re fresh, of course you can run faster. Those who can resist this temptation and can force themselves to run their marathons at their 26.2 mile pace are the ones who will be able to keep running even when they’re no longer fresh. This is the pace you must plan for.
  • Posture: When you have to repeat around 39,733 consecutive strides, even a slight break in posture or form can cause repetitive use pains/injuries—as is the case in daily life. And not just breaks in physical posture (i.e. hunching your back), but breaks in mental posture, too. On average we have around 12,000 – 60,000 thoughts per day—marathons in their own right. Is your mind chronically “hunched over” or “postured upright?”
  • Breathing: Erratic, shallow breathing drowns the body in carbon dioxide and forces fatigue. Having a consistent, adequate supply of oxygen is the fuel that allows the muscles to keep working optimally. Set a pace in your life that allows you to stay fresh; that allows you to breathe deeply. Listen to your body.

Reflect: Which area of your long-term goal achievement game could use the biggest improvement? What’s a small, but impactful action you can take that will help you improve in that category? Can you start today?

And So A Seed Sprouts…

Published on January 2, 2022

Remember as you PLOW into the first week of 2022: The beginning of all things is weak and tender.

Treat your tasks (and self) with care.

Too aggressive and you’ll kill your baby plants (habits). I learned this through experience.

Too passive and they’ll wilt and die from neglect.

You have to goldilocks the shit out of your tasks (and self) for the next few weeks.

Carry a tender awareness with a loving heart and you’ll do just fine.

…You little plant grower you.

If Momentum Is Not Your Friend, You’re Foolish

Published on September 22, 2021

Momentum is either your greatest ally or your greatest foe.

Learn how to use momentum in your favor and the tasks of your day will topple over seamlessly, one to the next, like a perfectly aligned series of dominoes.

One push and momentum will take care of the rest.

Ignore momentum and the tasks of your day will topple and stop erratically, requiring you to keep re-pushing the next series of dominoes again and again and again.

For me, getting out of bed in the morning is the initial push of my dominoes which hits:

  • Shower—which hits,
  • Workout—which hits,
  • Breakfast—which hits,
  • Reading—which hits,
  • Driving to work.

The dominoes are beautifully ordered and adequately spaced. All I have to do is get out of bed at the right time and the rest feels automatic.

There’s no guessing. No setting up dominoes as I go. No reshuffling the dominoes after I’ve already tipped the first one… It’s all premeditated, sequential, and intentional.

And once I arrive to work, of course, the next chain of dominoes gets pushed—and so forth, as the day goes on.

Where most people run into momentum issues, is when they don’t take the time to properly set up their dominoes (tasks) ahead of time and/or don’t have them properly spaced out (time management).

If you look at your day in this way, I suspect you’ll find where the missing “dominoes” and irregular spacings lie. Adjust accordingly.

Having momentum as a foe, to be frank, is a stupid waste of time, energy, and effort.

Starting from stopped is always harder than keeping the momentum going.

Momentum, meet reader. Reader, meet momentum.

Now, be friends.