I’m a massive fan of having rituals, especially morning rituals . In his book The Miracle Morning Hal Elron tells us how to wake up early and create a morning ritual, which will set up our days and ultimately help us to achieve our goals.

Affirmations

Our morning should start with affirmations and in Hal’s book, we also discuss Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, as a way to get our mind-set right.

Life Purpose

Without a life purpose, our life is aimless. The book also shows us how to first define our life purpose. This is the WHY that we need, to give us the motivation to get up early. Before we embark on our miracle morning Elron implores us to spend some time first defining our life purpose. The alarm clock will then actually be our reminder to go after this big picture.

Accountability partners.

Another thing we will need, as we try to change our lives for the better, is an accountability partner. This can be someone like minded, who will buddy with us on our journey. The idea is that if you promise your partner to catch up with each other at 6am (or whatever); you are more likely to actually get up at 6am. Hal tells us we can find these partners on Meetup.com or through networking, if there is no one who you have in your current close circle.

The steps to set up your Miracle Morning

1. Firstly the night before, set the intention that you will rise early and be energised.
2. Next move your alarm clock to the other side of the room, so that you aren’t tempted to just press snooze.
3. Once you are up and about, get yourself a drink of water straight away. Much of our grogginess in the morning is due to dehydration, so a good swig of natures finest will perk us up.
4. Next you could brush your teeth and splash water on your face. Again this will perk you up.
5. You could even shower before your routine. By then you will be almost fully awake.

The miracle morning routine

What should you put in your miracle morning routine? Well that is completely up to you although, Elron advices exercise, meditation and visualisation. Then finish off your miracle morning by planning your day out.
By this time you will be fully in to your day and ready. I would advise also, as an addition, that when you start your working day, you concentrate first on those major income generating activities first. After your miracle morning routine you will be at your most productive, so use this time to its fullest.

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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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How do you make real lasting change in your life?
Also, how do you make things happen out there, in the real world, things that you have in your head right now that you want to make real? How do you find out what you really want?
For over 20 years and a thousand books, I have searched for the answers. I’ve tried every method I could find, including hypnosis, affirmations, visualisation and ‘putting it out to the universe’. I also made picture boards and mind movies. I’ve study philosophy, psychology, pop science and self- help books. In the past I’ve joined esoteric groups, chanted and prayed for miracles. I’ve trained in life coaching, NLP and conventional training methods.

15 Seconds at a Time

I’ve condensed everything I’ve learned into my book Done. This is a practical guide on how you can achieve anything in your life. You will learn the art of setting the right goals for you. I will also show you how you can break even the most complex and long-term goals into minute manageable bite sized chunks, that can be done 15 seconds at a time. In this website I will show you how to maintain focus in an ever distracted world. I also teach you how to manage your time, so that those mundane day to day tasks, don’t detract you from your life’s purpose.

I will introduce you to a technique that revolutionised my life. Be sure to read about the The 15 Second Principle.
Before we get cracking, however, just small word of caution.

Start Small

When making changes, when you first start, dream big but start small. It should be known that you can scupper your chances of achievement or change, by trying to do too much at once; You can make really big progress by the habit of small incremental changes. Keep you eyes on the big prize, but be clear that is the small everyday action that will get you there.

Resistance

If you ever feel resistance with a goal, project or even a small task first, this is a sign that you need to break it down further into a smaller chunk. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts or intuition on this. This can be a major part of achievement, the fact that the little voice tells you that you need to do more work on defining your outcome. Your emotions and how you feel will tell you whether you are on to something.

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Scheduling

If prioritising is deciding what to do, then scheduling is deciding when to do it. Planning to fail is failing to plan, as the old saying goes. One of my first Sales Managers indoctrinated me into the world of planning. The reason is that once Monday morning arrives, you are already into your week. You will be pulled in all directions unless you have a plan of what to do and when to do it. This is where scheduling comes in.

The Calendar or Diary

I am assuming that if you have a career or are in business, you will be making use of a calendar or diary to record your appointments. So it is not really important what format this is in; it is more important that you use it correctly.

The first principle in the use of a calendar or diary is that whatever you record in it, is a commitment to yourself that it will take place. The calendar is not the place to record your to do list, or reminders for things that spring to mind. It should also not be a place for things that might get done. If you are not sure if something will get done, avoid putting it into your calendar.

Ideally you will have different views in your calendar; this is why I now use the calendar in Gmail. I only have to add an entry once and it shows in all views. I can view my calendar by day, week or month. You will see later how this is useful. So what should you be putting into your calendar?

Appointments

Any appointment or meetings you are committed to attending, by time.

Time bound tasks

Record any task that has to be completed at a certain time on a certain day. This is not the same as a task that has a deadline, but could be completed at any time. For tasks like this, I would add these to your single action list or project list (if it’s part of a project). You could also include tasks that need to be done on a particular day, but at any time.

Recurring tasks and appointments

Add any recurring tasks that need to be done. Your daily review meeting should go in, as it needs to be done every day; likewise your weekly review. These are two commitments you are keeping with yourself, so I would treat these like an appointment with your boss!

Regular daily routines

Now you may not want to fill your calendar with such mundane things as meals and travel times and I can understand that. However, as we will see later when you start scheduling, it is important to block off the time that is otherwise being filled by everyday stuff.

In Google calendars, you can have a separate calendar called the Unschedule, which can be merged into one view. You can switch on/off the calendars, which means that when you are planning your time, you have a clearer picture of what is actually available.

Once you have planned your time, you can switch off the Unschedule, to view only your main calendar. I got the name Unschedule from Neil A. Fiore’s Now Habit, a great book about how to stop procrastinating and make a start on your projects.

Don’t overfill your calendar. It’s better to have less in your calendar and get into the completion habit, rather than overfill and be disappointed in your failure to complete.

The Weekly Schedule

Now that you know what you should be putting into your calendar, it’s time to get down to scheduling. At your end of week review you will set aside some time to plan your upcoming week. Here you would look at the Week View in your calendar to give you an overview of your week.

If you use the Google Unschedule calendar, this will show you where you might have overcommitted yourself. Make sure you are leaving time for meals and travel. Also make sure you have left time for preparing and debriefing meetings. Have you left enough time for exercise, family time or “me time”. If not put it into your unscheduled calendar. Once you have done this, you might be surprised at how little time you actually have left to work on your goals and projects. Now is the time to make some adjustments.

Weekly Goals

Look at your weekly goals. With your free time available, do you really have enough time to achieve what you want? If not you have two options – downgrade your expectations or remove something from your calendar. This means saying no to somethings that are not moving you towards your vision of the future.

Can you forgo an hour’s worth of TV, to go to bed an hour earlier? You could get yourself up earlier the next day and use this time productively. By the way an hour in the morning is worth two in the afternoon.
Once you are happy with your weekly schedule and goals list, it’s time to get back to the here and now.

The Daily Schedule

“Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.” – Thomas Carlyle.

Dale Carnegie in is timeless classic How To Stop Worrying And Start Living tells us the story of Sir William Osler who cures his stress by living in day tight compartments. Just like an ocean liner whose hull is separated into watertight compartments; if one such unit is punctured, the ship should not sink because the others will be intact. In the same way, living in day tight units means that you only concentrate on today. Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is tomorrow’s problem.

If you have done your weekly scheduling properly, whatever turns up in your calendar today was totally planned for. What this concept means is that you have certain things you plan to achieve in a day and you will also have stuff happen. As you can only deal with what is in front of you, it is important to focus just on today. This is the art of working effectively.
As we discussed in the prioritising section , each evening you will plan out what your most important tasks are. Now you can assess your daily schedule, which will already include your appointments and any recurring tasks and appointments.

Daily Calendar Print Off

As I said before, my schedule lives in Gmail, so it automatically syncs across all my devices. Everyday, however, I print off my day view calendar. This is where I write in my most important tasks, preferably as early in the day as possible. This daily calendar print off is the document that runs my life. It details everything I am committed to achieving, doing or attending that day. There is nothing tentative in here and I will do my damnedest to finish everything on it. Once the day is complete, I file that day’s sheet, ready to start a new days’ sheet.

Finally I will finish this section with one of my favourite poems, which I think sums up why we should bother scheduling – so that we are free to enjoy each day.

Salutation of the dawn

Look to this day!
For it is life,
the very life of life.
In its brief course
lie all the verities and
realities of your existence:
the bliss of growth,
the glory of action,
the splendour of beauty,
for yesterday is but a dream
and tomorrow is only a vision,
but today well lived makes
every yesterday a dream of
happiness and every tomorrow
a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation of the dawn.

Ancient Sanskrit poem by Kalidasa

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I love to change. As I am writing this now, I am remembering that it was about 16 years ago when I learned to touch-type. I read in a book, that if you wanted to be a successful salesperson, you should learn to touch-type. So I thought that would do for me then. So I went online and ordered a touch-typing course cd, then sat back in anticipation. (Yes, it was 2002 – there are probably online courses now).

I Perservered

A few days later, there was a thud on our front door welcome mat – a parcel. (Don’t you just love that sound?). The CD had arrived. I ripped open the padded envelope: yes, it was my touch-typing course. The course helped to instill the muscle memory in each finger, so that you could type using all fingers and thumbs without looking at the keyboard. It was tough, but I persevered. My fingers ached, especially the two pinkies, which weren’t used to doing anything. Now my right pinkie was in charge of the : and the ?. Eventually I mastered touch-typing. I haven’t had to re-learn it. I only learned it once. As they say, ‘It is just like riding a bike’. Why is this? I will explain shortly.

Why are we like we are?

Have you ever wondered why we are like we are? Between the mid 1800’s and the 1980s, common wisdom said that once our brains were developed, that was it. We were like we were and there was no changing. You were a – Night Owl, for example. Alternatively, you were a – XYZ (fill the gap).
Now, thankfully, science realises that the brain has plasticity. This means that we can and do change. But how can we change?

What Doesn’t Work

Firstly, let’s look at what doesn’t work. Sitting around doing nothing will obviously not result in any change. Also doing the same things that you’ve done before will also not result in any change. You’ve heard the saying that insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting the same results. This is very true. In this, I include reading self-development books and not following through on the actions. Also not following through on the initial motivation, you get at a seminar. For permanent change to happen we need to influence the part of the mind that will allow change to happen.

Where change happens.

We all know that the mind has different levels of consciousness. Very loosely, we can describe them as conscious and subconscious. It is the subconscious mind, which controls all of our bodily functions. The subconscious keeps us alive, without us having to think about it. It also holds our instincts, memories, beliefs and habits; in effect all our learned behaviours. It’s very effective too.

Skills

Practise a skill until it becomes ingrained and it becomes permanent.
So let’s go back to my touch-typing skill. I consciously decided to practise and learn it. The skill now resides in my subconscious mind. It is muscle memory. It is now permanent.
What are the ways in which we can learn or unlearn? How can we consciously influence the subconscious so that it will change?
There are several ways to influence the subconscious, I explain these in my book Subconscious: How to Make Personal Development Permanent.

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