What Changes Everything: Deciding and Sticking to It

"To change a habit, make a conscious decision, then act out the new behavior." Maxwell Maltz 

All men of great character know the power of decision. It is a prerequisite for any achievements in their lives. They became notable because they made decisions on purpose. And more importantly, they remain outstanding because they stick firmly to those decisions.

In this article, you shall learn how to make a decision and act by it, come rain, come sun. This simple lesson is the basis of progress in the life of anyone as the business philosopher, Jim Rohn asserted, "You cannot make progress without making decisions."

Now let’s commit to progress by giving practical value to all our decisions.

Deciding and Planning To Follow-through From Beginning

“A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time.”—Annie Dillard 

Deciding to follow-through from the start means steadfastness; it involves living on schedule. It is about fixing a permanent time and a permanent place for a definite task towards an important goal. It is how the great ones lead their lives and it is how the weak ones can join their rank. It is an idea that can change everything for anyone.

Extra-ordinary humans are not angels but people who make decisions and follow their decisions with specific plans for exactly what they will be doing, and where they will be doing it at different moment of their days.

The majority of people behave in a less effective way. They wish for a change, without any concrete plan for what and when they need to do this or that. And as a result of this fuzzy approach to living, they eventually get nowhere, even after many years of intensive dreaming.

If you belong to the later group, you have to change your approach. So, instead of saying "I will work hard tomorrow." 

Say, “I will start my report in my office by 9 a.m. tomorrow and work on it for four solid hours.”

The previous instance was loose but the later was clear and definite enough to inspire concrete action. And it is easy to verify just by asking yourself a simple question: Did I start the report by 9 a.m. or not? 

With this method, there is neither a room for vagueness nor for meandering. It is clear whether you are serious about your goal or you are just deluding yourself.

To dismiss the power of this method is to put your dreams at the mercy of your motivation, your feelings and your willpower, which have all been scientifically proven to be unreliable in the long run. Therefore, you will be wise to adopt a reliable strategy for your critical activity.

Read on for the complete practical decision formula which can be applied to any activity that you choose.

Decision Manifestation Formula   

           

The template for stick-ability goes as follow:

“EVERYDAY, I WILL DO (state the specific action) BY (state the allocated time for the action in focus) AT (state the preferred location for this activity).”

To apply this for any goal, just fill in the brackets.

For examples:

Everyday, I will write for thirty minutes starting from 10 a.m. in the library.

Everyday, I will study English for twenty-five minutes starting from at 8: 30 p.m. in my room.

Everyday, I will do twenty push-ups at home for 5 minutes starting at 6 a.m. in my bedroom.

This is how you give your vision a fixed time and a fixed space to live in the physical world of affairs. And with sufficient repetition of these carefully chosen actions, they easily become your habits. 

Habits are things you do not just because you need to do them but because you really want to, on any day. When you get to this stage; it is only a matter of time for your greatest dream to become an amazing reality.

In conclusion, stick-ability changes everything for you because it changes you at the level of cause on the most important aspect of your life: the aspect of effective decision making.

It is Less about Your Gene but More about Your Habits

“Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.”    Confucius

We all have things that we’d like to accomplish. Some people want to be fit. Others want to be good at public speaking. While some like to be skillful in art.  Modicums of people want to be successful in business.

And in spite of our best intentions, a number of us are unable to achieve those goals. Why? Our bad habits get in the way of making them a reality.

These habits repeat themselves not because we don’t desire change but because inveterate habits by their nature are compulsive and gripping. 

Since no one can rise higher than the limits of their habits, we therefore remain stuck in a valley of mediocrity due to habits like apathy and delay. 

To free yourself from the grip of these vices, let’s consider another strategy for a change: 

Suspend the end goal for a while and instead focus on changing your habits. 

For examples:

Instead of obsessing about becoming a best-selling author; establish the habit of writing one paragraph per day.

Instead of fixating on becoming the fittest person in your community; establish the habit of doing five push-ups per day.

Instead of dreaming about becoming an impressive speaker; set up the habit of learning one new vocabulary each day.

This is how to forge a new identity in personal effectiveness as the social activist, Horace Mann observes:   “Habit is a cable; (and) we weave a thread of it each day.”

It is this approach that transformed the life of Stephen Guise after wallowing in the valley of stagnation for more than ten years. He is now a successful author of the powerful book: ‘Mini-Habits:  Smaller Habits, Bigger Results.’

 Below are some thoughts from the book that are relevant to the theme of this article:

One: “We’re quick to blame ourselves for lack of progress, but slow to blame our strategies.”

Two: “A mini habit is a very small positive behavior that you force yourself to do every day.”

Three: “When you add good habits into your life, it illuminates another possible path, restores your confidence, and gives you hope.”

Here is what you need to grasp: Your success starts not when you become what you envision but it starts when you have established the habit of doing what is relevant to taking you there. 

For examples: …

Writing: It doesn’t start when you publish a book, but when you have become someone who writes habitually. 

Health and Fitness: It doesn’t start when you have the fittest form; it starts when you have become the kind of person who eats right and exercises regularly. 

Running: It doesn’t start when you finish a marathon but when you have become someone who can’t do without running. 

And as a result of this process, you will establish the inner confidence of the type of remarkable person you truly yearn to become—long before the reality is noticeable to others.

This is the secret that differentiates the best among us from the rest of us, as the British novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray said: “Successful people aren't born that way. They become successful by establishing the habit of doing things unsuccessful people don't like to do.” 

And he added that: “The successful people don't always like these things themselves; they just get on and do them.”

Now, how do you get on to do what you don’t ordinarily like to do? 

Answer: make the task so small that you can’t say no to doing it, on any day.

You see, outstanding winners in any area of life are winners not because of their special genes but because they have established certain habits to enable their success. And if we want to replicate their wins, we must take charge of our habits for the realization of our own visions.

Therefore, build the habit first and the goal will take care of itself. And as you start to remold your habit with doable, right actions for you, you will start to feel better about yourself . And when you get to this zone; it is only a matter of time for your vision to become a real thing of beauty.

This is where you get the full conviction that it is less about your gene; it is more about your habits. And with such kind of self knowledge; you can make almost anything happen.

So we need to work on our habits before we can experience any transformational change in our lives, as the English poet, John Dryden concluded: “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.”

Sleep is Essential for Health and Peak Performance

"Every hour you spend on your rear ends (at night) saps your energy and ruins your health"—Tom Rath

Sleep is not trivial.

In contrast to what I have heard some people say that sleep is a form of time wasting necessity in which nothing meaningful is being done. Actually, sleep is what enables the replenishment of our mental and physical energy. And energy is what we need to be functional during our waking hours.

In cumulative sense, sleep deprivation can weaken our immune system, put our vital organs at risk, and make us vulnerable to various kinds of serious ailments. 

When we sleep well at night, we are setting ourselves up for maximum efficiency in a stress-free way, the following day. However, if we buy into the idea that we can freely cut-off time from sleep to do more work each night, we will expose ourselves to groggy feelings and inaccurate thinking all through the day.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and The National Sleep Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a matured person needs quality sleep for health and vitality.  

In addition, Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at University of California, and a former professor of psychiatry at Harvard University writes in his New York Times bestselling book, ‘Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams,’ that:

“Routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system.” And he continues that, “Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance.” 

And he concludes with this:  “After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail.” With the foregoing, I expect you thinking, ‘Wow! Sleep is this important!’

So, if I have convinced you of the importance of ‘mere’ slumber, it is high time to get started on making a positive change for sleeping better. Quality sleep doesn’t just happen, it needs to be designed and planned for. 

That’s what we are about to do now with three simple tips:

1} Wake Up at the Same Time Each Day

The way to train your body for a good slumber habit is to sleep and wake up by your own design, every single day. 

To accomplish this, set an alarm for the same wake up time, every day and resist the temptation to snooze, on any day. 

You should ascertain the hours your body needs to be well rested each night, and discipline yourself to keep those hours on a regular basis.

2} Go to Bed at the Same Time, Each Night

One of the secrets of the most extra-ordinary people is that they wake up at the same time, everyday. 

Is it because of their gene, you may ask? No. The secret is: many of them go to bed, the same time, every night, without fail. As a result, it became natural for them to wake up at the exact same time, every morning. 

Now, Mathew Walker has something important to say at this point. He says that if you can take away the following bit of advice from his book, you will be way ahead of many readers who read the book without put the nugget into action.  

And it is this: 

“Go to bed and wake up at the same—everyday— no matter what.”

It is simple enough, right? But only if, you actually do it. 

Furthermore, make sure your bedroom is adequately designed to support quality sleep. And build yourself a good pre-sleep routine to prepare your brain that the time for slumber is near, then go to bed when it is just that time.

3} Keep in mind that, Sleep Is Not Trivial

There is a proverb that says “A wood cutter doesn’t lose his time by sharpening his axe.” So don’t deny yourself the benefit of complete renewal through quality sleep by assuming you can force yourself to get more done at the expense of necessary slumber. 

Quite the contrary, when you sharpen your axe, you can cut far more trees in less time. But with a dead axe, you will end up spending a lot more time, a lot more energy and whole lot of additional stress, cutting fewer trees. 

Finally, living a healthy productive life involves the way you sleep, and the quality of the hours in which you sleep. In a nutshell, for anyone who cares about sound health, efficiency, creativity and maximum impact in this life, sleep is never a trivia.

I hope I have done my job in making this crystal clear by now.

Thanks for stopping by.