Tags: survival mode, challenge, way of life, new normal
Hi, guys. Thanks for joining me on today’s live video. Today, I want to talk about making things your way of life. Nothing happens overnight. I’m sure you’ve watched infomercials, ads, and marketers talk about overnight changes or successes.
Six weeks to a perfect body, abs, fitness, weight loss, health, job, life, whatever it might be. Whatever you do or want to achieve needs to become more of your way of life. Not a quick fix you do for six weeks before your summer holidays or big event. Maybe dieting or getting fit and healthy and then you go back to normal.
Your goals need to become your new normal. Think of six years or 60 years rather than six weeks. In six weeks, you’re only getting going. I’m sure you’ve heard of people talking about 21 days to start a new habit. The reality is that was a misinterpretation of a guy’s research back in the 1960s, a Dr. Maxwell Maltz. He had suggested he had observed changes occurring over about 21 days, but that was just things beginning to change as opposed to habits having been created. People latched on to that 21 days. It’s a nice, round figure. It’s understandable. The reality is it takes more like 18 days to a year to really create a habit or solidify change.
One example for me is rowing. When I was racing, I would spend months training before a race. Building my endurance, fitness, and strength. That took years. I spent hours on the water, in the gym, lifting weights, training, but I never once thought, “I can’t sustain this. I can’t keep this up. This is too hard.” I love nothing more than to be out there training on the water, challenging myself. I was obsessed with rowing.
When you find something you’re obsessed with. Love doing, spending weeks, months, or even years practicing, building your craft, perfecting it. That time is not time that you find as challenging, it’s something that you enjoy doing. It becomes what you’re known for. It’s like such and such is known for running, cycling, whatever it might be. I love to build challenge into my life. I no longer train six or seven days a week for rowing, but six years ago I started cycling to the office.
When I started cycling, I actually wished that I had started long before that rather than sitting in the car watching cyclists burn past me when I was stuck in traffic and thinking, “I wish I was out there cycling.” Eventually, I started cycling and never looked back. Now I cycle or run to the office every day and I love doing that. Whatever you want to achieve, whatever your long-term goals are, it doesn’t matter when you start, just that you do start. Aim small and then just keep going. Start seeing your goals as not something you do for six weeks but become your way of life, something that’s sustainable and consistent.
I’ve talked before about building challenge into your life. Challenging yourself to change your goals to something which becomes your new normal and see what happens. You might surprise yourself. That’s really what I want to cover today. Basically, making it your new way of life, your new normal. What you’ll become known for as opposed to those short-term objectives of six weeks to lose some weight or get healthy or get fit or whatever it is you might be wishing to achieve but to see your goals as a little bit different. Something that becomes your new normal. Something that becomes a long-term objective more of a mission than lots of short-term goals.
Yes, you can break your big goals into short goals, but make it something that’s sustainable, something that you’re going to stick with long-term. That’s what I found with rowing training. And now cycling and running to and from the office. I don’t see it as something I do for a short term before a race, but something that I consistently stuck at, something that challenges me.
Actually, back in October, I created a challenge on a Monday morning to start running up to Arthur’s Seat before starting work. I’d have to leave the house about 6:15 in the morning running in the dark. Then arrive at Arthur’s Seat and see it looming above me before running up there. Looking out from Arthur’s Seat in the morning as the sun rose. There was no better way to start my Monday morning and start your week. For weeks before that, I’d been standing in the office, having my breakfast, looking up at Arthur’s Seat. Arthur’s Seat, for people who don’t know, is actually an extinct volcano on the edge of Edinburgh. You get great views over the city.
I’d been having my breakfast looking up at Arthur’s Seat and thinking I should be up there in the morning before work so that I can start having my breakfast thinking I was up there this morning.
I started doing that for probably three or four months. That’s actually something I need to start doing again.
Build challenge into your day, start your week with a challenge. See how that transforms your week and your outlook on life. That’s what I want to leave you with today. Thanks for listening. Any feedback or comments, as always leave me a note. I’d love to hear them and I will speak to you again next week.
Jim Rohn puts it best. “Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced daily.” Are you ready to take your life to the next level? To start moving in a new direction? I would love nothing more that to see you go from stuck to succeeding; from surviving to thriving.
“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines practiced daily.” ~ Jim Rohn
I have created a seven (7) day challenge, for you. It introduces one new discipline I practice everyday.
“Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.” ~ Jim Rohn
Seven days will not change your destination, but if you commit to getting up everyday determined to get from the day and not just through it, you can change the direction of your life in seven short days.
“You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight.” ~ Jim Rohn
Ready?