Sunday 17 April 2016

The Chain

Goals are often set years in advance.  How you are able to reach these goals has so much to do with the habits you have in place.  The items you work in daily will establish long term success.  As many of you already know, I really enjoy reading articles about self improvement and getting better.  James Clear is one of the people that I really like to learn from.  He is a motivational speaker that studies masters of their craft and shares things that have helped make them successful. These are items that have helped these individuals reach the top of their game. 

Before sharing these things I always like to implement them into my life to test how successful they are.  This is the link to the article that James Clear wrote about Jerry Seinfeld 
http://jamesclear.com/stop-procrastinating-seinfeld-strategy.   For those of you who want to know the gist of the Seinfeld Strategy it has to do with Jerry Seinfeld and how he has established himself as such a successful comedian.  

As most people realize one of the most important things to a comedian’s success is their material.  Seinfeld prides himself on working on his material every single day.  Once days start being strung together it gets to a point where you really don’t want to break the chain.  Missing a day feels like you are letting yourself down or you want to save it for a good reason not something you can easily overcome.  

So I have tried this element in two places of my life and have noticed big strides over the last few months.  One area has been when it comes to working out. I have established that I want to get a work out in every day.  The parameters are that it needs to be at the very least 20 minutes in length and can be longer if I want it to be.  The other thing is that it can include things like weights, cardio or even yoga.  I want to be able to incorporate active rest in so that I can ensure I am not over doing it.  The important thing to me is that it be sustainable and consistent.  

My goal has been in the past to get 25 workouts in during the month.  I find this idea of not wanting to break the chain has become so much more powerful though.  It is psychological because I really don’t want to skip a single day and have to start over back at one.  The higher the number gets the more I really dig in to keep it going.  

The other area of my life I have been using this concept in is getting to work earlier.  I track every single day that I get in and it has really helped using the Seinfeld Strategy. I find myself really pushing to keep that streak going and I really strive to leave my house earlier by accounting for traffic or weather so that I can have integrity about reaching my goal.  No one is watching or keeping track but me, however, I have to say it feels great to push myself and to keep the momentum going.  

In the future I will definitely be expanding this to other areas of my life. Whatever your goal is it is a good idea to figure out what the most important things that will help you get there are and then just keep working on them each day.  Start small, get the momentum going and then do your best not to break the chain.  

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