Habits Rule All

 

Knowing vs. Doing

In 1999 the book "The Knowing - Doing Gap" was published, and in one of the great wasted efforts of writing/publishing, we already knew about the gap, and we continued to do nothing about it, as usual.

Here's the idea, in its earliest known form, by Confucius (551-479 BC):

I hear, and I forget.

I see, and I remember.

I do, and I understand.

The problem is that we simply do not DO what we know to be true. 

Changing our behavior is the Holy Grail of creating a successful life and business. It is so rare that behavior change actually happens that it seems almost non-existent, in fact it seems impossible to almost everyone except the few who find their way to it.

We are the way we are because our actions (our DOing) has created ourselves to be that way. Nothing happens in the universe except by some Action. A body at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by some outside force; a body in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by some outside force. This is Newton's First Law, and it applies to everything in the universe, including you and me.

A couple of hundred years later, Aristotle (384-322 BC) was clear about this:

We are what we repeatedly DO.

Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.

It's all about DOing, and continued DOing. If we want a result, we must Do the actions that will produce the result. This is the Scientific Method. Cause and Effect. It is a universal truth. 

We have known this for thousands of years, and yet we ignore this great truth.

Why?

Behavior change is hard. Changing habits is hard. It is our human nature that we seek our comfort zone. We are lazy. We take the path of least resistance. We like instant gratification. So, basically, we will not change unless we are forced to change by some external force that is stronger than our desire for comfort, stronger than our fear of the unknown. Good luck with that, right? 

It may take a major negative event to create the positive energy to commit to change. In my case, it was personal bankruptcy. It was the final devastation that left me with the knowledge that I just absolutely must change my life, total commitment was needed to find my way back to success. You might even say that bankruptcy was the best thing that happened to me to get me back on the right path, and stay on that path until success was achieved. 

Can you do it? Yes.

Will you do it? Probably not. 

Just writing those words is a painful admission. And yet I prefer to focus on working with the few who will DO what is needed to achieve their goals in Life and Business. Unfortunately, in order to find the few, many others waste their time and mine. But without working with the many, the few can not be found. If you think you are one of the few, call me! I want to help.

The problem in my life and other people's lives

is not the absence of knowing what to do,

but the absence of doing it.

Peter Drucker

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Resources:

Freakonomics Radio: How to Launch a Behavior-Change Revolution (podcast, free)

The Knowing - Doing Gap (online book, free)

What Got You Here Won't Get You There (book by Marshall Goldsmith, amazon)

Elon Musk: Overcoming Anxiety / Fear

 Lesson from Elon Musk this morning on Twitter in reply to this question:

Q. (from @flcnhvy)If you’ve dealt with anxiety in your life (especially the physical symptoms of it like shaking, dizziness, feeling lightheaded etc) — what helped you the most in overcoming that?

A. (from @elonmusk)Accept worst case outcome & assign it a probability, which is usually very low. Now think of good things in life & assign them probabilities – many are certain!

Bringing anxiety/fear to the conscious mind saps it of limbic emotional strength. Cheery fatalism is very effective.

Your Daily Routine

 

You’ll never change your life

until you change something you do daily.

The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.

John C. Maxwell

Stoic Happiness

 

Second Order Thinking

 First-order thinking is fast and easy. It happens when we look for something that only solves the immediate problem without considering the consequences. For example, you can think of this as I’m hungry so let’s eat a chocolate bar.

Second-order thinking is more deliberate. It is thinking in terms of interactions and time, understanding that despite our intentions our interventions often cause harm. Second order thinkers ask themselves the question “And then what?” 

This means thinking about the consequences of repeatedly eating a chocolate bar when you are hungry and using that to inform your decision. If you do this you’re more likely to eat something healthy.

First-order thinking looks similar. Everyone reaches the same conclusions. This is where things get interesting. The road to out-thinking people can’t come from first-order thinking. It must come from second-order thinking. Extraordinary performance comes from seeing things that other people can’t see.

source: Farnam Street

Unnatural Act of Thinking

 

James Clear

Work, Inspiration, Delegation

 The true value of a leader is not measured by the work they do.

A leader's true value is measured by 

the work they inspire others to do.

Simon Sinek

CEO Job #1

The CEO/entrepreneur's #1 job is communication. 

And yet...

The problem with communication is 

the illusion it has been achieved. 

George Bernard Shaw

The CEO communicates the Dream, the Mission, Vision, Strategy, Goals, Plans, The Problem We Solve, How People Will Feel Better because of what we do, etc.

The CEO communicates to existing and prospective team members, customers, suppliers, investors. the press, etc.

The CEO has limited time and yet must communicate the message to potentially billions so that they take action.

There are many media of communication, including in person, phone call, online live video chat, 1-1, small group, large groups, email, text, mail, video YouTube, website, etc.

With all this communicating going on, the clever CEO will create a System for Effective Communication so that every iteration will drive continuous improvement in effectiveness considering speed, cost, and results.

The medium selected for the communication depends on factors such as audience (size, demographics, cost per result achieved, etc. 

Consider an example: A pre-revenue startup that needs to communicate to billions of potential users for the purpose of getting them to download an app would likely want to choose video, probably 1-2 minutes in length. The video would be hosted with YouTube, Vimeo, and website. The audience would click through to the video from search, email links, and ads on search and social media. Before a video can be made, the Message must be clear, and the video storyboarded. And there must be a system to measure the results of the video. This feedback goes into the changes for the next version of the video.

The same video should also motivate investors, paying customers, and prospective team members to join in the adventure.

Regardless of the medium, the message itself must be Brief, Clear, Powerful, and Get Results. The message must be continuously improved through Testing. A typical Message for a pre-revenue startup mentioned above would state the Problem and the Solution and have a Call to Action. Ideally, the Message would have some element of humor to be memorable and encourage sharing.

The above gives some idea of the potential complexities of communication, and CEOs who are unfamiliar with the challenges involved are advised to create and continuously improve their System for Effective Communication.

First Major Startup

I was doing startups before the word startup was used...

Just found in the archives, from 50 years ago, the annual report where my startup was featured, along with this awful photo.