Now that we have begun working with the bigger sections and pieces of creating a human goal-seeking system of habits, let’s look into creating new patterns from the other side – the smaller components.
As a rule of thumb:
When working on a system – whether it’s goals and visions, changing habits, or something else – start from the biggest pieces and the most important values you want to work on, clearly define the boundaries and parameters, then work your way down your list of priorities. —
I hope by now you’ve begun to realize that while we may only be aware of a few things; there is an entire history of habits supporting and either inhibiting or enhancing our newer desires and goals.
Building a new Prosperity System is easier when you work with the previous system rather than against it.
Too many people insist on driving with the handbrake engaged or fighting with themselves when the resolution towards greater happiness and prosperity is not only possible but relatively straightforward when you stop fighting and start doing.
When you’ve decided where you want to end up, had a look at what resources are needed, and especially what changes in behaviors and strategies are needed; the comparison with what you’re doing now and what can be retained and carried forward, and what has to be learned or changed can be made.
Hazy ideas of “I want to be more focused”, “I want to be relaxed”, etc. are not acceptable.
Why? Because focusing and relaxing are verbs – doings and not states of being or objects.
Furthermore, these are presumed means to achieve something and not ends in themselves. Again what do you want as a result when you say “more focused”? Do you mean concentrating longer and working on one thing for more time, or do you mean ignoring interruptions, or… what specifically? You can “be more focused” by gazing at your navel, but it won’t help you to get more done in the time you have.
The ends you are seeking come BEFORE the solution. Make sure you have figured out the ends FIRST.
If you have thought through what you want to do differently, you need to have an idea of HOW this new way of doing works – what comes first, then what follows, and then what follows from there.
If you don’t know, it means you need to find out – you may have something similar from another part of your experience that you import into this new area, or if you haven’t got a clue; you need to start researching to find what others do.
When you are ready to begin, here is ‘the secret’ everyone who masters habit hacking knows about this, as does every great musician: If you want to go faster, smoother, more elegantly, “unconsciously competent”… Then you HAVE TO sloooooooow doooooown.
That’s right. To go faster; you need to go slower.
Your brain needs to absorb this little section of the flow of life and COMPLETELY WRECK the unconscious speedway of habit. It’s the slow that interrupts the pattern, and it’s the conscious that allows you edit out, release, relinquish and just plain let go and choose something new.
This only happens in the specifics of the actions and not somewhere “in mind” so no “I visualized it a couple of times and that’s enough”.
I call this kind of people “wand wigglers” – always hoping for a magic trick that allows them NOT to do and still be masterful. Unfortunately, these sad people don’t learn because they refuse to do what causes the deep unconscious learning, and that is DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
People who try to go too quickly program in ‘sloppy’ and often ‘ineffective’ by leaving room for the previous habit patterns to take over and so get very poor results.
Find the trigger and run the new behavior SLOWLY a few times… no, no, slower than that. Add the next piece and the next piece and the one after that slowly… after you have allowed a little time to pass.
Repetition in slow and comfortable ways that are well-executed soon moves into the habit zone and become habits.
Speed and automaticity will come, but you MUST start slowly, on SPECIFIC actions, in pursuit of a bigger result. This isn’t just “break down your goals into actionable chunks”. This is one piece of behavior at a time. It’s what an athlete does when their game starts to suffer.
Tiger Woods, at his peak, took time out to deconstruct his game to remove the stupid and bad habits he had allowed to creep in. Better to eliminate them at the start.
So what would you like to change to build a better system for prosperity? Perhaps looking at some of the writing we asked you to earlier might be in order?
Find a specific project that would “raise your game”
Think about what you want to create – how you want your system to perform better with this tweak or change. Get specific about it and “think it into” as many other areas and contexts of your life as you can.
Can you convince yourself that achieving this change is so cool and motivating that you want to get started right now?
Break it down into sequences and processes, and then figure out what resources and means need to be brought into play or acquired.
And look at the results your current system is creating, instead of that greater vision – find the specific results which are opposed to, or far away from what you want to achieve and look at exactly how that happens.
Compare between what you do and what you want to do differently to achieve something much better and zero in on the times and place where you can start with small specifics to make the change.
When you are looking at modifying a specific behavior you must start with the small and specific – what is the trigger for the new behavior?
What are the specific place, time, and circumstances that usually triggers the activity you now want to do differently?
What is the trigger for the old way of doing, and how are you going to use it for the new?
Are you ready to use the trigger as a sign that says “STOP! SLOW DOWN!! CHANGE AHEAD!!!” If so, go ahead and slowly run that first step into something much, much better.
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