1. The Monkey and the Computer

The author simplifies the human mind, to help us picture how it works, how habits form and what drives us. There is the human – us, our thinking mind. There is also the monkey and the computer, which both act unconsciously. The monkey will make us act if it perceives danger or opportunity (delicious food). The monkey mind will keep us safe but is rooted in our evolutionary past; it is usually inappropriate.

If our monkey mind is reactionary, then our computer mind is like a pre-programmed script. Our task then is to use the computer to help us form good habits. If we use our human mind to decide what needs doing and put work in to form a good habit, the computer will eventually take over. This good habit will then be done automatically.

Stop and think of every decision you make today, is it the human, monkey or computer who was in charge?

2. Changing large unhealthy habits

If you want to change a large unhealthy habit such as drinking alcohol, we can use re-framing to help us make the good decisions when we need to. For instance, the author says he doesn’t drink alcohol now, he used the reframe method to tell himself that ‘Alcohol is just another drug that he doesn’t take.’ In his mind alcohol is just like any other drug that he would never take, rather than a social norm. I’ve written a post on what I call Chemical Habits, which goes into how things like removing alcohol use is different from removing other habits.

3. Swap negative routines for positive ones.

Rather than trying to eliminate an negative routine, it is easier to change it to something more positive. For instance, do you listen to talk radio stations in the car? Why not change this to listening to business podcasts instead?

4. Focus on not losing first.

When we are starting out on any new venture, we will be inspired to act big. In fact, a lot of modern-day gurus will say things like ‘go all in’. Sometimes this is poor advice, for instance if you are starting a new business, it would be unwise to quit your job and ‘go all in’ until you have a proven concept and regular income. Yes, the positive thinking crowd would say, ‘be positive and trust yourself’, but it would be advisable to start small on the side, i.e., focus on not losing first.

5. Do a time audit.

This is a great exercise that I’ve done many times in the past and is recommended by a lot of authors. As usual, with anything useful, it is worth repeating. Here, Lamerton shows us how to track what we do, during a normal week, at 15 minute intervals. You can set an alarm to remind you every quarter of an hour to write down what you are doing. At the end of the week, add up and list in descending order what type of activities your were doing . Did each activity move you towards or away from your goals? You can then give yourself a score of what percentage of your activities are helping you achieve your goals. With this knowledge you can aim to improve your score.

6. The cure for shelf-help

After each non-fiction book, don’t start another one until you’ve written a report on it and implemented at least one idea. This report could even be a blog post and is a recommendation, I’ve just started, hence this post. I sometimes feel that I can rattle through hundreds of non-fiction and self-help books, but I sometimes wonder if I would get more benefit from slowing down and allowing myself to put into practice what I learn.

7. Compounding actions.

We all are aware of the positive effects of compounding on your wealth. This is where you can build a big net worth by starting to save early in your life and being consistent. Your money will increase slowly at first, but over time will start to increase exponentially. The same can happen with good habits. Adding small, good habits consistently will, at first, show little reward, but over time will provide massive improvements. Therefore, what can you do in each area of your life to start this compounding?

8. One page marketing sheet.

Here the author shares how he has been able to build up his online marketing business. Get an A4 piece of paper and list what daily/weekly actions you can do consistently, that will compound over time. For instance, sending a weekly ‘make friends’ email to your mailing list won’t achieve much, but over the months and years, if you are consistent, your recipients will come to expect and enjoy your emails, if they provide value. When it comes to the time they are in the market for your product, guess who will be front of mind? The person who provided consistent value and is liked and trusted, will be more likely to win the business.

9. How to change a negative habit no.2.

Get a normal wall calendar and some sticky dots, you can buy at a stationery shop. Every day you refrain from the bad habit, place a sticky dot on that day’s box. Consecutive days, where you were successful, will form a chain of dots on your calendar. You have another visual incentive to keep the chain going. Don’t break the chain. Also give yourself a reward for achieving a milestone, such as 7, 20, 100, 1,000 days etc.

10. Create more friction for bad habits and remove visual triggers.

This is another simple thing you can do to help you remove bad habits. Let’s say you have a weakness for snacking on biscuits and your goal is to not eat them. Every time you go to the kitchen, however, there is the biscuit barrel. Its too tempting for your monkey mind, which is more powerful than your human mind. The human mind says ‘no’ but the monkey mind says ‘sugar-sweet-survival-eat’. It’s a visual trigger for a chain of micro events that result in weight gain. There is also little on no friction involved, if repeated day in day out.

What if you removed the visual trigger by throwing away your biscuit barrel and all the biscuits with it? You subsequently enter the kitchen and there is no visual trigger. Even if you were desperate for a biscuit, you would have to visit the shop to buy some. Too much friction and the result – no biscuits eaten.

11. The Magic Ingredients for personal development.

a) Goals

Have goals and know where you are heading.

b) Why

Know your why and have a compelling reason to achieve the goal.

c) Knowledge

Do you know how to achieve the goal? If not then find out.

d) Environment

Create an environment conducive to achieving your goal. For example, you want to lose weight, then remove all junk food from the house and have your exercise kit ready and easy to use.

e) Action

Take some action every day, however small to move towards your goals. Consistency is key.

12. Goals

Once a year, sit down when it is quiet and set your goals for the following year. Most people do this at new Year, but it could be at any time of the year. I like doing this in the week between Christmas and New Year as it is naturally a time when not a lot else happens. To help you, use the following guide:

a. What do I want to:

• Start doing
• Stop doing
• Keep doing
• Do more of
• Do less of
• Try new

b. Next, get pictures of your goals and make a vision board.

Put this up somewhere prominent. You can also scan this and use as screen saver on your pc or phone. The aim here is for you to be looking at this unconsciously as much as possible. Our mind will subliminally take in the information.

c. Draft up a could-do list of things that are not a priority, but you would like to have.

I use the GTD someday-maybe list for this. As you move on through the year, if you think of more things to add, then go ahead and add them to this list. Consult this list to see what you could do next.

d. 90 Plan.

Consult your could-do list and pick 3 big goals for next 90 days. Set a reminder to repeat your 90-day review.

e. Monthly plan.

Now choose 3 smaller projects that can be done in the next month. These could be from your Could-Do list or they could be steps to the Big 3 on your 90 plan. You will therefore have 9 projects in 3 months. Set a reminder to repeat this the following month.

f. Weekly plan.

Once a week choose your One Thing. Pick just one action or small project you can complete this week that will move you towards completion of one of your monthly projects. Set a reminder to do this once per week. I love to do this on Friday afternoon, so I can enjoy the weekend knowing that I’ve set my intention for the following week. Lamerton recommends printing out a weekly calendar and marking off the time when you will focus on this One Thing. Read my post on the weekly and daily targets, where I show you how to make sure you are moving towards your goals every day.

g. Rocks, Pebbles, Sand and Water.

At the end of each day plan your calendar, first with work on your One Thing. This is non-negotiable. Then what else must you do – appointments, family etc. These are the Rocks your put in your metaphorical jar first, or commitments. Then once you’ve added your One Thing and Commitments, if you have any spare time, add other stuff from your Could-Do list. In the Jar Analogy these would be the pebbles. The gaps in the calendar you can fill with sand and water, for example, checking emails, returning calls etc.

13. Marketing.

I really like how the author simplifies his models. In marketing, building an email list is one of the most important things you can do. The author gives us 3 simple steps to follow:

1. Build a list.

In your marketing, your first job is to build your list. Create content around your offering that adds value for free. Give something away in exchange for their email address.

2. Make friends with the list.

Once you’ve started gaining followers, its tempting to start selling to them. However, refrain from this. Your next task is to make friends with your list so they know, like and trust you. You do this by sending, for example, a weekly email which again offers some information the recipient values, for free. Make it engaging by adding stories and your personality. An example could be to share what bad practices you see in your industry.

3. Sell to your list.

Only after you’ve made friends with your list can you sell to them and not before.

Conclusion

The key message in this book is to try to get as much of your activity done by the Computer Brain as possible, by forming good habits. The book describes how you can do this across many areas of your life from Health and Fitness to Business. You are also looking for constant improvement, by making small incremental changes. You will then become a Routine Machine. Read my article about the importance of forming good habits, after you’ve removed bad habits.

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When breaking any large habit or chemical linked habit, it’s important to be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself as you would a small child. You may relapse; it’s not the end of the world. It’s certainly not the end of your attempts to quit. It took me seven attempts to quit smoking. Each time I just picked myself up, dusted myself down and tried again. Your subconscious will eventually get the message that you are going to quit. If you do relapse though here are some practical suggestions.

Firstly, remind yourself that it is what it is.

Just a blip and you will quit again.

Second, don’t wait too long to try again

Set another date in the very near future.

Third, it’s critical to get to the root cause of the relapse.

If you want to make any permanent lasting change in your life. To do this, perform the five – whys exercise. This technique was made famous by Toyota in their manufacturing process. If there is a fault in a car or a hold up in manufacturing, they use this technique to get to the root cause. It’s really simple; just ask why did it happen?

Why did you relapse? The first answer is likely to be surface answer, such as “Well, the smell of the cigarettes was tempting and someone offered me one.”

Next ask why a second time – “Why was I tempted”. Answer – I was hanging around the smoke shelter.

3rd – Why was I hanging around the smoke shelter – “Because that’s where all my friends go at break-time”

4th – Why do I want to be around my smoking friends at break” Answer – “Because I am bored on my own at break”.

5th – Why am I bored on my own – “Because I don’t have an alternative pastime”.

So there you have a good root cause and you can now begin to address it. For this example, finding something stimulating and engaging to do during break time.

Huge habits can be broken down bit by bit using this method. It a great method for getting your weight under control as well. Slowly but surely you chip away at all the supports to the habit. Soon enough there is nothing left to support the habit and it shrivels away forever.

By the way if you are looking to lose weight contact me and I will show you how I did it.

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“A business executive’s habits are amongst the most important factors that determine whether he or she will be a success – or a failure” J. Paul Getty

What are habits?

Habits are repeated behaviours, thoughts and actions that are automatic. Habits are useful, if not essential to life: we simply wouldn’t be able to function without habits. From the moment you wake and throughout the day, our day is full of those automatic actions that move us smoothly through life.

Think of any action that we take, even the most mundane like brushing our teeth. Imagine if you had to think consciously about brushing your teeth every day – twice a day. Then getting dressed and tying your shoelaces. By the time you are ready for the office you would already be exhausted and we haven’t even mentioned all the habits of etiquette – the social glue that keeps society functioning.

We have survived as a species exactly because habits are automatic. In evolutionary terms, this leaves us free to concentrate on physical threats to our existence or opportunities to find food.
All well and good then. Habits keep us alive and help us to learn new important skills. Except, not all habits are useful.

Bad Habits

As we have already suggested, habits are automatic, meaning that you don’t need to think about them. If any habit results in negative results, it’s a bad habit.

What is a bad habit

A bad habit is any repeated thought or action that results undesirable outcomes. Bad habits can also be the language that you use. Thoughts, words and actions are all linked together. Words can influence your thoughts, which then influence your actions. So be very careful what you say, because habitual negative language, will affect your thinking. If the results in your life aren’t what you want, then examine the language that you use.
Other bad habits may be just mindless activity. Do you eat when you are not hungry, in front of the TV? This is just a mindless bad habit.

Breaking bad habits

Once you become aware of the bad habit, you have already begun the process of breaking that bad habit. You are now aware. It is no longer mindless. This is therefore the first thing you should focus on when trying to break a bad habit. Become aware of it. Eat thoughtfully. Ask yourself ‘Am I really hungry?’’Do I really like the taste of this food?’ ‘How does it make me feel?’ When you become mindful about your habits, those that don’t serve you are exposed for what they are. You will be surprised to find that you can then easily change those habits.

Small habits

To change a small habit, simply perform a new habit for 21 consecutive days. It should then be permanent.

Another way to change small habits is to use reminders and props. Say that, for instance, you are in the habit of misplacing your keys. You mindlessly place them down when you arrive home. How about if you actually designate a place for these keys to live. E.g. A small saucer or tray near the front door. This is where the keys live. Make an intention to decide a place where the keys will go. Then go and put the keys there now. Now write a little note for yourself to put the keys back every day. Put this note with the keys and take the note with you the next day. It won’t take long before you are habitually putting the keys back in their new home. Once it is a habit, you can forget the note. It will be automatic.

Large habits

Sometimes bad habits are just too large change in one go. Let’s use an example of over-eating. Perhaps after years of eating too much of the wrong foods, you find yourself a little over-weight. The first thing many people do is to try to change everything all at once – the crash diet. Diets don’t work for many reasons, but the main one is internal resistance to change. We are hard wired to resist change. Any change could be a threat to our existence. Your body is also physiologically designed to get you to eat. If you stop eating, many processes in your body switch on to avoid starvation. In short your body fights to get you to eat. There is only one winner in this battle.

What’s the answer then?

You can bypass your body’s in built drive to eat, by chunking down the habit to its smallest components. So in our overeating example, this large habit can be broken down into individual meals or snacks, or even parts of meals. In his book the Compound Effect, Darren Hardy talks about making the smallest of changes, to bypass our tendency to avoid change. Tiny changes go undetected by our subconscious mind. Minute changes to your eating habits will not threaten your existence.

So you can remove one sugary snack per week from our diet and this will not cause too much heartache. You could choose Monday morning as a snack free zone.

Now you might say to yourself, that such a small change and it will have no effect, so why bother? Well this is where the Compound Effect helps. Yes, removing one snack per week will have a negligible effect on your calorie intake, say 200 kcal. However, that is 10,400 kcal per year. If 3,500 kcal collates to one pound of fat, then this would equate to nearly 3 pounds lost over the year, with almost no effort.

And that is not all. Once you have this mini habit down, you could remove another snack per week. Then another and another.
If you have never tried this method, I can assure you that it gathers momentum. Slowly all manner of little habits will change. Within a year you will be transformed. I promise you.

By the way if you are looking to lose weight contact me and I will show you how I did it.

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Good Habits

When you remove bad habits, there could be a void that needs filling. Nature abhors a vacuum as the saying goes, so be mindful about what you replace bad habits with. It would be awful to remove the smoking habit only for you to replace it with an unhealthy addiction to sugary snacks.
You are therefore going to form new good habits to replace the bad ones.

How many

When I first got into personal development, I wanted to change everything overnight, removing many bad habits and forming loads of new ones. I also took on too many projects and created umpteen goals. The result was a disaster. As I said before be gentle with yourself. Less is more.
As you remove one bad habit, think of ONE good habit to replace it with. You might think that it will take an age to create meaningful change in your life, by forming just one new habit at a time. Through my experience and that of my clients, this is not the case. Go slow to create permanent results.

Forming a new habit

Let’s use an example of wanting to form a regular exercise habit. What always helps me with a new habit is clearing a specific time every day to perform the habit. This is so important. The set time every day is even more important than the exercise itself. So when is the best time to exercise? When you are most likely to do it, that’s when.
Break your new habit down into the smallest components. For instance a goal of running 3 miles every day, when you currently don’t do any exercise is doomed to failure. It would be better to set the goal of, say, walking five minutes every day for 21 days.

Kaizen

Robert D. Maurer in his book The Kaizen Way goes even further than this. He would recommend just getting in the habit of putting your running shoes on at the same time every day for 3 weeks. That’s it. If you do venture outside, great. If not, that’s great to because you are forming a new habit. Remember, I said before that with setting the habit of exercise, the time is more important than the actual exercise itself. This is because you are training your brain. You are creating new neural pathways that are hard to overcome. Why is this important?

Relapse

Creating the habit of a set exercise time is more important than the actual exercise itself, because some days you will fail. Yes, some days you will miss your exercise time. But, and it’s a big but, because you have the habit of a set exercise time, you will easily click back into the habit soon enough.

Ramping up

So now you are in the habit of putting your trainers on, it’s such a small effort to actually get outside and go for a walk. Then soon you will be walking for longer and further. As your strength and cardiovascular fitness increase, you might find yourself putting in a little jog. Pretty soon you will jog the whole mile, then two then three. Who knows in a year you might run a marathon.

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Rituals

It is important to have a set time for a new habit. Linked to that is the practice of rituals. These can be regular little actions that you repeat every day. On their own they are probably insignificant but taken together they can be very powerful.

Collection of habits

They are really a collection of small habits. The beauty of rituals is that you can add to them and adjust them. The ritual itself remains intact, but he actual activities in it change.

Morning Ritual

One powerful ritual I have, which I recommend, is the morning ritual. In fact I would go so far as to say that this should be a person’s first new habit when they get into personal development and growth.
My morning ritual is sacrosanct. No matter what time I awake, I always perform my morning ritual. It sets me up for the day. Over the years I have changed my ritual but it always remains in place. As I write this today, my morning ritual is as follows:

1. Breathing exercises – yogic breathing
2. Chanting
3. Meditation – about 20 minutes
4. Write in my journal
5. Last night dreams
6. My current state of mind
7. Notes from my meditation
8. Gratitude list
9. Read aloud my affirmations
10. Look over my goals and vision.

This whole process takes about an hour. When I started doing a morning ritual it was only a 20-minute meditation, but I have slowly added to it. If you don’t have any of these habits in your routine yourself, you might not appreciate the benefits. All I can say is that if you get yourself a morning ritual, your life will change. The changes will be small and subtle at first. Over time, though, the changes will be dramatic.

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