Be Your Best

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I just finished a pretty interesting book called “Outliers: The Story of Success” by Malcom Gladwell.  Recommended reading by the way, or listen to the audio version read by the author.  It reads a little bit like a novel of short stories, so not totally a business book per se.  Anyway, I reference this book because he talks about something throughout the book that I have read and heard from other key figures and experts as well.  It is: how many hours of focus does it take attain ‘mastery’ of something significant.  The consensus I always see referenced is 10,000 hours.  Obviously this is a nice round number, but successful people from many different perspectives all seem to agree that it takes about 10,000 hours of focus at a particular thing to achieve a mastery level competency.  I have seen this referenced with respect to martial arts (which I am not involved in — I just read books that talk about or reference successful martial arts people), mastering playing musical instruments like the piano or whatever, or attaining a professional level in a sport.  In fact, in the Outliers book as well as from other sources, they imply that investing 10,000 hours of focus nearly guarantees you will achieve mastery level of the thing you are focused on.  One big point Malcom Gladwell makes in the Outliers book is that it is pretty much all about ‘practice’ time (as well as some luck in terms of having exposure to the ‘thing’ you will ultimately master), and not about ‘natural ability’.  He makes a very strong case with specific well-known examples.

I started to think about my own situation, and ask myself: have I invested 10,000 hours (or anywhere close to that) in my lifetime to any one discipline/sport/hobby in order to master it?  At first, I was coming up with ‘no way’.  I did the math….10,000 hours = 4 hours per day, every day, for 6 years 10 months, OR 2 hours per day, every day, for 13 years 8 months, OR 1 hour per day for 27 years 5 months.  These are obviously averages, but they give you a good idea of what 10,000 hours really means.   To be fair, ‘Mastery’ by no stretch means ‘perfect’ — in fact, the masters at various sports, musical instruments, or other disciplines consistently say they are working harder than ever to get even better at what they are already considered a master at.

After I looked at this for a while, I did start to find some things that I have invested nearly 10,000 hours in, or getting in the range of or above 10,000.  I have been married almost 24 years now.  Have I put in 10,000+ hours — yes.  Have I achieved mastery at our marriage?  Depends on who you ask!  Hockey.  My favorite sport.  I have been playing organized hockey consistently since I was 6 years old.  Certainly don’t play every day, but in adding up the total hours invested in practice and games, I think I have somewhere in the 5,000 hour range.  I have not achieved what I consider mastery level or obviously not the professional level…yet!  But then again, I have not put in 10,000 hours yet.  How about fatherhood — definitely have 10,000+ hours invested.  I absolutely have achieved mastery in this area…according to me.  From a business perspective, I have put well over 10,000 hours into essentially the same career role multiple times over.  Mastery achieved?  Again, probably depends on who you ask!  Always trying to improve.

Why should I care about this 10,000 hour concept?  I guess it may come down to how much you want to achieve ‘mastery’ level at various aspects in life.  After reflecting on my own situation, I have ended up, for whatever reason, being about average at many things and not quite mastering a couple of others vs. reaching true mastery level at any one specific thing.  However, I have to say that the areas where I have invested and focused thousands of hours of practice and time on, I get tremendous reward from — whether I have achieved the ultimate ‘mastery’ level or not.  Putting in thousands of hours into anything you choose basically guarantees huge personal reward and satisfaction.  And, just the mental perspective of  committing that you are going to invest thousands of hours delivers the same long term reward.  Essentially, you are on the way towards mastery, and you know it.  You can feel it the whole way.

This is something I am paying more attention to with respect to how I spend my time and energy, as well as how I coach my kids.  Knowing that mastery is attainable by anyone, in any given endeavor (given enough passion), is an important principle to remember.  And, knowing that committing to thousands of hours of ‘practice’ is the most important determination of reaching mastery level at any given venture is a simple, but largely overlooked, concept.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

My 8 year old daughter came home from school recently with a pedometer hooked to her belt and a nice set of brochures talking about “What You Do, View, and Chew”.  It’s kind of a neat program they are using to get kids to exercise/move more, watch less TV, and eat healthier.  One of the ‘tools’ they supplied with the kit is a pedometer — one of those little devices that counts your steps as you move around all day.  The other parts of the kit were mainly data collection grids to track your individual performance.

There is a compelling reason, of course, I am bringing this program up, and it does not have to do with weight loss per se — it has to do with everything we do or want to accomplish.  I have noticed and learned some very interesting things while watching my daughter engage and go through this program over the past few weeks that applies to all of us.

You Pay Attention to What You Measure

As the old sayings go: “You become what you think about” and “Out of sight, out of mind”, consistent measurement that stays in front of you highly impacts what you think about.  And if the saying is correct “You become what you think about”, then it is not surprising that hooking a pedometer to your belt all the time causes you to lose weight over time. 

It is simply amazing what happens when you have a pedometer measurement device on your body.  All of a sudden you are tracking and measuring every move you make, how much exercise you are getting, and the information is tracked in real-time.  Once you have a feel as to how many steps are low, medium, or high for a day period, you now know exactly where your performance stands at any given moment.

Turning Wishes and Wants into Empirical Data

The next logical extension of this is to formulate a personal goal, and now you can measure yourself to that goal in real time.  One of the biggest challenges most of us have, including me, is first setting a clear goal (whatever it is).  But the tougher part is then translating that goal into specific actions and measurable data for each of those actions — empirical data.  This step of taking the goal and breaking it down into tactical pieces that are measureable by empirical data can be tough.  It’s tough for two reasons.  First, the logistics of measurement itself can be challenging.  Because we are on the ‘pedometer/weight’ example, have you ever tried to count calories during each day for a month?  The logistics of tracking that is pretty tough to maintain.  Secondly, we many times are not actually wanting to measure the data for fear of the ‘pain’ caused by knowing what the data will tell us.

If you can overcome the logistical issue and the emotional issue of measurement…

I watched my daughter become very aware of how many steps she could and should try to accomplish during a normal day.  I then watched her start to say to herself — “can I do more than 12,000 steps today?”  Then, she would achieve 13,800 steps during the day and proudly show me how she exceeded her “goal”.  Powerful stuff for an 8 year old let alone for anybody.  The pedometer overcame the logistics issue of measuring every step taken, and my daughter is not old enough to worry about taking too few steps nor does she care about X steps = “good”.  She just wanted to exceed her best previous score.  But I think the bigger point is that she was confident she could exceed the 12,000 steps/day because she had such good real time measurement systems in place right in front of her at all times.  By noon, she could do the math and adjust her behavior to guarantee she would exceed her goal.

The Tough Irony of Empirical Measurement

There is some real irony on empirical measurement.  On the one hand, real time measurement  of empirical  data against your goals is a sure way to meet and exceed your goals.  If you had a ’pedometer-like’ measurement device hooked on you for everything you wanted to meet your goals in, how much better results could you accomplish?  However, do you really ‘want’ all that data constantly measuring where you are at with all those things you consider to be important?  This is a tough one.

I do think we need to attempt to put in place more empirical, real-time (if possible) measurement systems that stay in front of us all the time to achieve greater success, results, and performance.  Whether it is a project goal, long range goal, or just a simple task — knowing where you are at with respect to your goal at any given time allows you to take corrective action right then and there, before you get too far off track.

Creatively thinking of ways to implement better real-time measurement like the good ‘ol pedometer could make a huge impact in whatever it is you want to accomplish.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

Stress is an absolute and literal ‘killer’ for many people.  Whether on the job or outside of work, stress is something that has a major negative impact on just about all of us.  Allowing stressful situations or information to negatively affect you is a huge energy drain, but it also wastes a large portion of your available time (most do not think about the time waste of stress).  Wish there was a magic bullet to reduce or eliminate stress?  There actually is one, but it might be safer to say there are a few magic bullets.

The Past, the Future, and the Present
This is probably going to disappoint you, but the magic silver bullet with respect to stress is simply hidden within the way you think about the past, the future, and the present.  Most all stress results from our recollection or reliving of the past and our imagination about the future.  The funny thing about the past and the future is that we can do nothing to change the past and the future has still yet to happen to be affected upon. That leaves the ‘present’, and the magic bullet of relieving stress.  The present or the ‘now’ is the only time or moment which you can impact right now.  Your point of greatest power is always in the present moment.

Reducing or Eliminating Stress
The best way to reduce or eliminate stress is to stop thinking about the past or wishing for it to be different, and stop dreaming or imagining negative things to happen in the future.  If you can buy into the reality that your point of power is always in the present/now, and you know that you can impact the now immediately by taking whatever action(s) you want, you now fill your time with action and focused thoughts on that action.  Ironically, by shifting all your thinking to the now/present, you gain more control of what turns into the past and affecting what is coming in the future.  This may sound too simple, but it works very effectively.  A good question to ask yourself to make this shift whenever you feel stressed is: “What action(s) can or should I take right now about whatever it is that I am thinking about?”.  Action is a key antidote to stress and fear.  Action happens in the now — action for sometime in the future is simply an ‘idea’.

Two Precious Resources: Your Energy and Time
If stress is largely created by thinking about the past and the future, then it goes without saying that every moment you spend stressing about the past or the future is wasting present time you could use to take some action(s) to create positive outcomes.  Essentially, you are stealing from a resource that cannot be replaced — your time.  Your energy level has a large bearing on your ability to stay focused on the present and now, and with making good decisions about actions you should take (or not take) in the now.  If you do not maintain a high energy level, it is difficult to manage your priorities, learn and adapt to the current situation and changing information, and concentrate on your immediate actions.

Energy Drains and Boosters
Three big energy boosters (or drains if they are not made to be priorities) are, no surprise here:  quality sleep, consistent exercise, and decent eating habits.  For adults, it is recommended by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) that you should get 7-9 hours of sleep every night.  In addition to that, starting that sleep period between 9:30 pm and 10:30 pm is recommended.  According to the NSF, sleep is just as important to your energy level as diet and exercise.  What I personally like about the sleep category to boost energy is that it is, by far, the easiest to implement a good regiment.

A large body of research also indicates that increasing exercise boosts energy levels.  In a recent University of Georgia study, they showed that inactive people boosted energy levels by 20%+ just by doing a little low intensity exercise each day.  Scientists have proven that exercise stimulates tiny organs called mitochondria at the cellular level to produce energy in your body.  More exercise… more energy produced.  More energy…more action capable in the now.  More action in the now, less stress and fatigue.  With respect to diet and eating habits, there is plenty of information  indicating that eating a reasonably good assortment of portions of the various food groups, in moderation, will provide maximum energy level.

Obviously there are lots of things that can contribute to stress and various means to relieve stress.  Try consistently squaring your focus on the ‘present’ and on what actions you can take ‘now’, and work on increasing your energy level.  It can have a dramatic and positive impact on your results and how you feel.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

All of us have those dreaded ‘things’ that we need to address, but we don’t want to.  We know they are impeding our progress, keeping us from reaching long term goals or levels of happiness.  Amazing how many of these ‘things’ deal with our health isn’t it?

But when you finally make the decision to address them, generally speaking, they are never quite as bad as you thought they were going to be.

I have two stories about these dreaded ‘things’ that I needed to address, one very recent, and one pretty old now.  Both stories illustrate the same main point as well as a couple of additional important learnings.

12 Mountain Dews

As far back as I can remember, I drank lots of pop/soda every day.  Not sure at what point I was consuming more than 10 cans a day, but it was quite a long while ago.  Of course when I was developing this soda/pop habit, there was no caffeine vs. non-caffeine or sugar vs. non-sugar awareness like happened in the late 1980’s and 1990’s. 

No doubt I became addicted to caffeine, but not via coffee.  My caffeine addiction was 100% from soda pop, and my absolute favorite was Mountain Dew.  Of course there is no secret as to why that probably was — it had the greatest amount of caffeine and I think one of the highest sugar contents as well.  It really tasted good to me as well.

In college I actually kept many of the pop cans I consumed and built interesting pieces of furniture out of cans using a solder iron — this was sort of a badge of honor for me.  I continued consuming 10-12 cans of pop every day well after college…until one day.

A high school buddy of mine invited me to his college alma mater football game one Saturday and spend some time catching up.  He is an Ear/Nose/Throat Surgeon and Doctor.  At half time, we were headed to get a hot dog when he asked me “are you still drinking all the Mountain Dew you used to drink in high school?”.  I said, “yes, why do you ask”.  He said “that stuff is going to kill you at some point; not today or tomorrow, but the caffeine in that volume will cause you problems at some point.”  That moment hit home hard.  For whatever reason, I did not debate myself as to whether I needed to stop.  I knew it already.  But I dreaded the thought, because I had already experienced severe headaches even just going 3-4 hours without caffeine.  This moment reminded me that I had wanted to stop for a long time, but could not pull the trigger.

I knew I needed to go cold turkey, as I would not be able to manage half-in half-out or a slow transition, but I was not debating “if” I was going to stop.  I went cold turkey from that moment at the football game on, which was 9 years ago now.  It was hard and painful for about a week or so.  Terrible headaches and difficulty sleeping — but then I was over it, just like that.

The Dreaded Dental Issue

Just recently, my dentist indicated that I needed to take care of a receding gum line issue.  She first addressed it as something I should ‘think about’.  I did think about it, and decided, ‘not an issue I need to mess with.”  The next time I went in for my 6 month checkup, she said, you obviously did not take care of that receding gum line issue.  I said “I thought you just gave me a helpful suggestion, but it was sort of an optional concept.”  She then made it pretty clear “unless you want major teeth problems later, it is not an option.  Take care of it.”  Well, as much as I dreaded having the surgery done, I set up the appointment.

The procedure took about 90 minutes, some stitches, and a period of making sure not to disturb the affected areas of my mouth (which I am doing as I write this).  It’s done.  Not healed yet, but done.

Lessons Learned From The Dreaded Things

First and foremost, neither of these situations turned out to be as bad as I thought they would be.  And I as reflect on the many things in life I have dreaded doing, pretty much none of them were as bad as I thought they would be — some actually enjoyable (neither of these examples above fit that category, but not as bad as I imagined).  This is a good point to try to remember as new issues or situations emerge that you dread.  The ‘data’ indicates they will not be as bad as you think.  Not sure if you have ever heard that FEAR stands for Fantasized Experiences Appearing Real.  Key word here is Fantasized.  Our mind has a knack of fantasizing the worst images for things we don’t want to do.

But there are couple of other lessons that may be more compelling.  First, the feeling of accomplishment for both events was substantial.  Tackling something that you know you should do but don’t want to provides a really big mental boost.  Feels really good.

But maybe more telling is to understand how important and effective ‘pain’ is as a motivator.  I did finally do something in both cases that was a result of perceived intense ‘pain’ in the future, not for pleasure or gain.  As has been heavily studied and documented, pain is usually a more effective motivator than pleasure.  Key takeaway for me:  if you are not able to stop doing something or start doing something you should, look at the ‘pain’ factor involved.  If you can get that pain level of the thing you want to do or not do to a sufficient level, the task becomes substantially easier.  And if you think about it, pain is just a form of a firm deadline (“dead line”).  In my two examples, I became highly focused on the ‘dead’ line pain that spurred action.

Best Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

We all do it.  I do it.  We tell ourselves how ‘bad’ we are all the time every day.  We say to ourselves “I am always late”, “I never can do this right”, “I am terrible at X”, or “there is nothing I can do on this”.  This is what I call Internal Dialog — talking to ourselves about our self.  The problem is with internal dialog is that your brain does not try to decipher or filter what you put into it via your internal dialog — it just processes what you give it ‘as is’.  Essentially, all of your internal dialog results in directions given to your brain, negative or positive.  It’s pretty powerful stuff, but it is so ‘under the radar’ that you really don’t think much about all of this going on. 

If you think of your brain as a computer, and it’s a fair analogy to use based on science, negative input creates negative output.  Your brain essentially seeks to become what you put into it.  Not sure if you have ever heard the saying: “You become what you think about”.  I believe this saying was coined by the late Earl Nightingale in the 1950’s.  The nice thing is that you can completely control your internal dialog or self talk, but you have to make an effort and pay attention to it to build up some good positive self talk.  For all the bad things about negative internal dialog, just the opposite is true with positive internal self talk.  Work hard to change your ‘I can’t…”, “I never…”, or “It doesn’t…” dialog to: “I can…”, “I always…” and “It will…” positive statements.

All action starts with a thought. Thoughts are translated by words and pictures, so the words you use with yourself and the pictures you create need to be positive ones for you to consistently achieve positive results regardless of what you are doing.

Pattern Interrupts
Pattern interrupts are a very valuable tool, because even if you work hard on using positive self talk and positive internal dialog, there will be times you start “talking” negatively to yourself.  A pattern interrupt is a technique to catch yourself doing this and ‘jolt’ or ‘interrupt’ this situation, and sort of reset the situation.  An analogy of a pattern interrupt is when you are shopping and a Fire Alarm goes off.  No matter what you were thinking or what type of mood you were in, that fire alarm interrupts your pattern, and your focus and thought instantly change.  Even if you were in a sad mood, when that fire alarm goes off, you are instantly transported out of that mindset to a different mindset.  You can create your own pattern interrupts to reset your mind to a positive position.  Let’s take the example that you are running late to a meeting, and your internal dialog is saying “you are always late, every time”.  All that is doing is telling your brain “you will always be late”.  Using a pattern interrupt, when you catch yourself thinking this, then you can imagine pushing a huge ‘reset button’, and saying to yourself, ‘this is not like me, I am always on time.”  It seems a little corny, but just remember, to your brain, input = output.  You really do have control over how you feel at any given moment.  The proof that you can change how you feel instantly is in the fire alarm example — ever notice that a while after the fire alarm (pattern interrupt) happened, you don’t return to the same state of mind you were in before it happened?  You hit the reset button.

The Principle of Maximum Error
Most negative internal dialog revolves around mistakes and errors, and beating yourself up for doing this or that wrong or poorly.  I came across a very interesting principle, known as Dancoff’s Formula or the Principle of Maximum Error.  Over 50 years ago a scientist named Sidney Dancoff appeared in a leading physics journal.  Dancoff worked on many projects in nuclear physics, including the first atomic bomb, as well as biophysics (the intersection of biology and physical science).  The journal article described a formula (describing microscopic biological processes, but I think applies to all areas of our lives) that says: Optimum development occurs when an organism makes the maximum number of mistakes consistent with survival.  In other words, it is saying that the more mistakes you make, the closer you get to being the best you can be, provided the mistakes you make don’t kill you.  That basically means that nonfatal mistakes should not be avoided, but rather considered good.  That is not to say they will not be painful, but pain most times equates to learning — and learning moves you toward mastery in some way.  Bottom line is that you have a real reason use positive vs. negative internal dialog when you make mistakes, because the learning from the mistakes is moving you towards being better.

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I wrote an article last month about meeting Cal Ripken Jr., aka the ‘Iron Man’ of Major League Baseball / Hall of Famer, and learning more about his incredible record-breaking streak of the most consecutive played games in professional baseball (surpassing Lou Gehrig’s previous high mark).  If you missed this article, you can find it on my blog at ToddGifford.com.  Well, meeting Cal Ripken Jr. got me thinking about a personal streak that I have going: I have never missed a day of work sick for 23 years (since 1987).  Yes, I have had some days in those 23 years where I was not doing so good and probably should not have been at work, but I still made it through the work day.  Why do I bring this up?  I am kind of proud of this streak, and it is a bit of a motivator for me.
I never really thought about it until about seven or eight years into it.  Then, it became something I was consciously aware of on a daily basis.  No doubt there were days I felt like crap and should not have gone in, but I wanted to keep the ‘streak alive’.  It may be more ‘odd’ than it is impressive.  In the limited times I mention this streak to other people, I get more of a “that’s interesting…” than “wow, that’s awesome”, or “do you expect people in your company to never have a sick day?”

Bottom line is continuing this streak is a goal for me, and it helps keep me motivated to stay healthy enough to never miss a day sick.  It is also my own personal ‘claim to fame’ so to speak.  Not a public claim to fame obviously, but something I feel good about achieving and continuing to achieve.  Can I go 25 years without a sick day, or 30?  We will see.

Ironically, as I am writing this, I am not feeling that great.  Picked up a bit of a cold from my kids — but I am at work keeping the streak alive!  What is your streak or claim to fame?  Everybody has a claim to fame whether they know it or not, and many times more than one.  Identify these and rally around them!  It makes life and work much more interesting.

The Risk of Inaction
This is a concept that has popped up for me several times in the last few months that I felt worthy of mention, and addressing it can improve your results in whatever you may be doing.  So many times during the day or week we run into decisions involving some degree of risk in both personal and work situations.  It could be very minor things with small degrees of risk or big decisions with substantial risk involved.  What I have found is that very few of us or people that we look to for advice ever talk about the risk of ‘inaction’.  Whether you are talking to an attorney, your manager, your spouse or significant other, your child, etc… inevitably they always refer to the ‘risk’ of doing a particular thing.  If you do X, then a bad thing could happen.  If you do Y, something else bad could happen.

This tends to have a negative affect on us, making the pain of ‘doing’ something or the fear of failure when taking action a ‘possibility’.  What is rarely talked about or acknowledged is the risk of doing ‘nothing’ — which almost always is far greater than the risk of doing something.  But because it is not commonly talked about, it is largely ignored and not considered.

Doing Nothing is Generally Accepted as ‘Safer’
Throughout my life, all through school, and then in my work career, it has been sort of a generally held assumption that doing nothing was always safer than doing something.  Possibly it has to do with the fact that “if you stay in the same spot there is a degree of comfort and a sensation that you  cannot take any wrong turns.  Forward movement could result in a wrong turn.”

Over the years I have clearly seen this non-action = safe theory not to be true, over and over.  The reality is that success comes as a result of taking action with some calculated risks and ‘failing’ a certain amount of the time, in order to learn, and then applying that new knowledge to more action with some risk, and so on.

Be on the lookout for situations where you are concerned with the risk of some action.  A good tip:  instead of comparing the risk of that action with not doing it — compare the risk of doing ‘something’ with doing ‘something else’.  Forward action of any kind nearly always beats doing nothing!

Be Your Best and Happy New Year!

Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

For this Thanksgiving time of year edition, I thought I would touch on a simple, but very useful skill involving ‘giving thanks’ that can make you more likable, allow you to get more accomplished, and advance you in your company or with your family and friends.  It’s so simple that it almost seems too easy for it to create remarkable results.  How many times during the day do you interact with someone and you disagree with their idea even just a little bit (co-worker, boss, husband, etc…)?  This happens a lot to all of us on a daily, even hourly basis.  Our natural instinct is to push back a little or a lot depending on the circumstance, and convey our opinion, ideas, or position on the topic.

“Thank You.”
What do you think would happen if you simply said ‘thank you’ whenever someone is telling you their idea about anything that you may disagree with either a little or even a lot.  Normally you would say something like: “That’s a good idea, but I think…”.  You would instead say: ‘Thank you for that idea.’  No mention of anything about your actual opinion.  What would happen?

I can tell you what will happen from personal experience, although I am still working at getting this simple ‘thank you’ approach dialed into a habit.  People will simply like you more.  The reason is that everyone likes other people to accept and value their ideas and opinions.  Right?  It is pretty straightforward.  However, people rarely do accept our ideas and opinions fully, 100% — they typically counter them to some or a large degree, and say ‘great idea, but…’  There is always that ‘but’ or ‘however’ in there, which creates friction.  Think about how you will be perceived if you just say ‘Thank you’, period.  Wow!
Eliminating Wasted Time and Making People Feel Better at the same time

Think of all the time wasted arguing or debating ideas and opinions, that can be avoided by simply saying ‘thank you’ or ‘thank you, I had not thought of that’ and moving on.  The beauty in this is that people will begin to see you as someone who is agreeable, approachable, and welcoming.  The irony is that you will ‘get your way’ more often because of this.  Instead of countering an idea with your better idea, you thank them for their idea.  Done.  Then, after some time has passed and if you have a different point of view, you can see what they think of your idea, but it is not viewed as a ‘but’ or ‘however’.  Try it for a week or two and see what happens.

The Concept of Habit ‘Linking’

Instituting change in your work or personal habits is extremely difficult.  Your habits and routines are engrained in your life.  Often, change is required to grow and develop, and many times change is critical to improving health, work results, or relationships.  I spend a fair bit of time working on new habits and changing old ones, in order to improve and develop.  One method I have found to be very effective in successfully adopting a new habit or routine of any kind, or replacing an old one, is what I call ‘Habit Linking’.  Essentially, Habit Linking is accomplished by finding an existing habit that you have, and ‘attaching’ or ‘linking’ a new habit directly to it.  To replace an old habit, you can use Habit Linking by indentifying a good habit that is already linked to the habit you want to replace, and then link your new habit in place of the old habit.  The key is that the existing habit is in place and happens consistently.

Example of Habit Linking in Practice
Let’s say you want to add the habit of walking 30 minutes into your daily routine.  Using Habit Linking, you would identify a highly synergistic existing habit that you could ‘attach’ the new habit of walking to.  In the morning, your current routine may involve getting something to drink, then eating something, reading the paper or watching the news, and then showering, brushing your teeth, and so on.  Walking would make sense right after you eat, because fueling up with some calories is a good idea prior to exercise.  As long as you have the habit of eating every morning in place, you can ‘trigger’ yourself to go for the walk based on the eating habit.  You may have to watch or listen to the news while you walk, but ‘eating’ will link to ‘walking’.  As weird as it sounds, it is a good idea to write down your routine steps, and document the new habit in the sequence.

According to most experts, it takes between 21 and 30 days to install a new habit and make it ‘habitual’.  I believe using Habit Linking makes this process much easier.  Better yet, Habit Linking allows me to successfully get the new habit installed permanently.

Why does Habit Linking work?
Two main reasons.  One is that you can set yourself up to be reminded of the new habit from the habit you are linking to in that 21 day startup period (ie. In the walking example above, you could put a reminder note on/in the Refrigerator or food cabinet that says ‘walk for 30 minutes’).  This may seem a little over the top, but it works.  Never underestimate the task of installing a new habit.  Second, you can create an ‘anchor’ in your brain which essentially is a psychological link between the existing habit and the new one.  Your brain automatically starts to think of walking when you are eating after doing it for a while.

Putting ‘Thank you’ and Habit Linking together, I am working on linking the habit of just saying “Great idea, thank you” with no ‘but’ after someone tells me their idea!

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I recently read the book: “Your Forces and How to Use Them” by Christian Larson.  I can’t remember where I was recommended to read this book (I think in another book I was reading a while back), but I am glad I did.  What I found very first thing in Chapter 1 may be the absolute best set of reminders to start each day that I have ever come across.  The interesting thing is that this book was written in 1912!  It applies as much today as I am sure it did back early in the early 1900’s.  The entire book is pretty good, but if you just take away this golden list of what the author calls ‘The Ruling Principles—Promises to Yourself’ and keep that in front of you on a routine basis, you have a very powerful tool to work with.  I have this list of ‘Ruling Principles/Promises to Myself’ printed out and kept in a couple places, but I try to take a minute to review this list every morning before I go to work.

I am going to give you ‘the list’ here in a second, but I want to say a couple things about the power of getting your day started with the right frame of mind.  It is almost impossible to have a great and productive day if you do not get the day started off in a positive way.  The nice thing is that no matter how bad or unproductive yesterday was, we get a fresh new shot at today after a good night’s sleep.

Much has been written about the value of putting your brain into a positive and productive state just before you go to sleep, and just after you wake up.  Although I have never been able to do a lot of things experts recommend before going to sleep — I have found that I am much more receptive to taking actions in the morning that will help me prepare for the day.  Besides exercising/working out in the early mornings and eating a pretty healthy breakfast, I also like to get my mind prepared for the day (“exercise and coaching for the brain”).

If you have your month-, year-, and life-time goals written down, this is the best time to be looking at those.  For me, I have these in my bathroom near the toothpaste.  Can’t miss ‘em that way!

But when I came across this Ruling Principles—Promises to Yourself list from the book, I knew immediately these had to be part of my get-ready-for-the-day routine.  For me, these ‘Promises to Myself’, if taken to heart, are an extremely powerful tool.  After I read these to myself and think about them, I am ready for the day.

Here they are:

Promise Yourself:

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
• To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but in great deeds.
• To live in the faith that the whole world is on your side so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

Best Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford