Replacing bad habits with good ones & other motivational tools

[Reverend Conehead]

Some months back I posted a thread about goal setting/success and quality books that can help with that. It was great to hear everyone’s input on what’s been useful to them. I promised to post again if I ran across anything worthwhile. Well, I have. I found a free PDF about changing your habits. It’s top notch. The advice is a cut above most other things. Just to be clear, I have no financial or other interests in anyone checking out the info, and I don’t know the author. The name of it is Transform Your Habits: A Brief Guide on How to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear. If you google it, you’ll find it.

I like his approach. He goes over how to make small changes at a time and how to reward yourself and how to get back on track if you stray. He gets away from setting huge goals with a deadline and instead how to set it up so that every day events trigger your new and improved habit to take effect. To download his PDF, you have to submit your email address and then later receive his newsletter. If that bugs you, just use a throwaway email. That’s what I did at first, but then I liked his ideas so much that I went back and submitted my real email.

The other book I really got into was Instant Self-Hypnosis: How to Hypnotize Yourself with Your Eyes Open by Forbes Blair The Everything Self-Hypnosis Book by Rene A Bastaracherican (I have no financial interests in either). With the info I learned from these books, I’ve been making my own self hypnosis MP3s on my computer and specializing them for my needs. For example, I had a bad habit of stopping by Dairy Queen for a dipped cone. There’s one near my house and driving by it caused serious temptations that I often gave into. With self hypnosis, I programmed myself to immediately focus in on and feel great about healthy cooking and eating any time I felt the Dairy Queen temptation. It felt great. I’ve also used self hypnosis to reduce physical pain and thus rely less on pain meds for some of my medical conditions.

So that’s an update on some things that have been working well for me. I’m working on building up my own business, so anything that helps me stay focused and away from time wasting or bad habits is welcome. I’d bet there are other business owners here or people who are into high achievement. If so, and you’ve run across useful things, please share them in this thread.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I can see where self-hypnosis would be helpful for some folks...

And I want to emphasize "some", and no I'm not knocking self-hypnosis because there's some to be said for that.

What I think is there are many potential ways to help drive us forward toward success... And what works for one may not work for another.

For example goal setting. For some it can be a wonderful tool... Keeping in mind there's a zillion different ways of doing the goal-setting thing. One guru will suggest planning our the next five years. One guru will suggest limiting your goals to three. Another will suggest you have one goal for each area of your life. Another still will suggest you right your goals as if you've already accomplished them.

Then you have some that say don't set goals at all because life is too fluid.

Heck I can't tell you what's useful and what isn't.

One of the organizational tools I use to help keep myself focused is bullet journaling, which is combination journal and planner. http://bulletjournal.com/

To bring this conversation back around...

One reason I think many avoid any organizational tool is because quite frankly they don't know what they want out of life. They sleepwalk through each day without any overriding goal except to make it through the day and hopefully have more high points than low ones.

 

[haleyrules]

WTH. Just win baby!!

 

[Reverend Conehead]

I can see where self-hypnosis would be helpful for some folks...
And I want to emphasize "some", and no I'm not knocking self-hypnosis because there's some to be said for that.
What I think is there are many potential ways to help drive us forward toward success... And what works for one may not work for another.
For example goal setting. For some it can be a wonderful tool... Keeping in mind there's a zillion different ways of doing the goal-setting thing. One guru will suggest planning our the next five years. One guru will suggest limiting your goals to three. Another will suggest you have one goal for each area of your life. Another still will suggest you right your goals as if you've already accomplished them.
Then you have some that say don't set goals at all because life is too fluid.
Heck I can't tell you what's useful and what isn't.
One of the organizational tools I use to help keep myself focused is bullet journaling, which is combination journal and planner. http://bulletjournal.com/
To bring this conversation back around...
One reason I think many avoid any organizational tool is because quite frankly they don't know what they want out of life. They sleepwalk through each day without any overriding goal except to make it through the day and hopefully have more high points than low ones.

You're right. There's no one perfect approach for everyone. The challenge is to find what works best for you. I can see how some people may not be comfortable with self-hypnosis. I've also seen some dubious claims about hypnosis. I met one person who was charging women money for breast enlargement via hypnosis. I met someone else who claimed it was possible to go under hypnosis and project your mind into a diseased body and heal it. I strongly doubt the veracity of those claims. I have found that hypnosis is a very powerful tool for changing habits, de-stressing, and even relieving pain. But you're right that it's not for everyone.

As for Jame's Clear's approach to habit changing, I really related how he breaks it down to a practical day-by-day approach of celebrating every successful microgoal. It may not be for everyone, but it definitely resonates with me.

Thanks for the heads up about bulletjournal. I'll check it out.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

You're right. There's no one perfect approach for everyone. The challenge is to find what works best for you. I can see how some people may not be comfortable with self-hypnosis. I've also seen some dubious claims about hypnosis. I met one person who was charging women money for breast enlargement via hypnosis. I met someone else who claimed it was possible to go under hypnosis and project your mind into a diseased body and heal it. I strongly doubt the veracity of those claims. I have found that hypnosis is a very powerful tool for changing habits, de-stressing, and even relieving pain. But you're right that it's not for everyone.

As for Jame's Clear's approach to habit changing, I really related how he breaks it down to a practical day-by-day approach of celebrating every successful microgoal. It may not be for everyone, but it definitely resonates with me.

Thanks for the heads up about bulletjournal. I'll check it out.

No question that to break a bad habit, it comes down to a day-by-day approach (and sometimes even minute-by-minute) and trying to come up with a good habit to replace a bad one. Not trying to make it sound easy trying to break a bad habit, because in most instances it's tough... very tough.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

No question that to break a bad habit, it comes down to a day-by-day approach (and sometimes even minute-by-minute) and trying to come up with a good habit to replace a bad one. Not trying to make it sound easy trying to break a bad habit, because in most instances it's tough... very tough.

Exactly. It can be very tough. What I like about James Clear's approach is he breaks it down into small tasks that can be accomplished in hours or days and he gets away from absolutism. Instead of saying, "I will lose 50 pounds in 10 months," you set little goals like I will work out 3X this week and I will eat healthy food today and recommit tomorrow. Then if one day you don't have the full hour you had planned to work out, you adjust to your circumstances. Instead of, "Oh, crap, I don't have that hour that I need" you say, "Okay, I've got 20 minutes, I'll do a short run." You keep it flexible so that you stick with it,and always pat yourself on the back for following through, and you don't beat yourself up if you don't. Instead, you right the ship ASAP. Really good approach IMO.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I never really read self help or good habit books, but I would recommend looking into healthy living (ketogenic diet and exercise) as well as minimalism (getting rid of excess, things you don't use, simplifying your life).

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I never really read self help or good habit books, but I would recommend looking into healthy living (ketogenic diet and exercise) as well as minimalism (getting rid of excess, things you don't use, simplifying your life).

Simplifying one's life is big to me and is getting bigger as I get older.

Before I get involved in anything anymore I don't ask myself what it costs as far as money, I ask myself what is it going to cost as far as time? And if I grow to not wanting it (or being a part of it) how do I get rid of it or extract myself from it?

I grew up in a family where my grandparents had a "camp" that they visited on the weekends and my parents had 27' camper that they would park at various campgrounds throughout the area...

And every weekend was the same: You'd go home, pack up stuff, stop at the grocery store, drive to the second home, do work there, drive back on Sunday and then you'd still have all the work to do at your regular home that you didn't do over the weekend...

I never got it quite frankly.

I think it's because I was fortunate enough to structure my life so I never felt compelled to have to "get away" from my during-the-week life and during-the-week home. All my "stuff" is here, why would I need a second home that I would have to take my "stuff" too? LOL!

Anyway I think not having that desire has saved my oodles of time over the years. Yeah, I've probably saved myself money too, but as I get older the money becomes less and less important to me and time keeps becoming more valuable.

That being said even here we've gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the years and continue to do so.

The less stuff you have, the less you have to keep track of and maintain.

I just don't need the added complexity.

 

[Reverend Conehead]

Yup, if it's something I don't use anymore and doesn't have strong sentimental value (like old photos, yearboks, etc.), it gets donated to a thrift store. The less junk I have, the easier it is to keep my place neat.