You can’t turn left or right these days without someone telling you how to improve your life. There are more “experts” on self improvement and personal development these days than you can shake a stick at, but for some reason most people still aren’t making any lasting improvement in their lives.
There are 2 primary reasons for this. One reason is that people are simply too lazy to do what it takes to improve their lives. Yes, I’m calling you out. If you know how to improve your life, but you just aren’t doing it because you don’t “feel like it,” then you’re lazy. Feel free to get as angry as you want if that statement applies to you personally.
The second reason, however, happens just as frequently, if not more so. The second reason people don’t improve their lives – even after reading every personal development book on the planet – is because it’s just not a habit for them. After years or decades of living our lives in a certain way, we are simply not used to doing the types of things that will create positive and lasting changes in our lives.
The surest way to leap over that particular hurdle is to get into the habit of improving your life. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say, and you likewise will not be able to go from a “wannabe” to a SUPERSTAR by simply reading an empowering book, or attending a seminar. However, by finding ways to constantly remind yourself that you are on a quest for greatness – and that you need to take the necessary steps to get there – you will quickly find yourself accomplishing your goals, one Roman step at a time.
Virus Idea #1
Set up Reminder Systems that you’ll Actually Use
This idea is so simple that it’s nothing less than tragic that people haven’t successfully clued into it yet. If you have spent 10, 20, or even 50 years living your life in a certain way, then you are going to need reminders to change your daily habits into more productive practices. Those practices may include anything that you have in your personal development arsenal, but many of the popular things that you could remind yourself to do include:
- Reading something educational or empowering every day
- Having positive thoughts, even in your negatively charged lifestyle
- Reading and/or saying daily affirmations
- Having a more empowering emotional response to certain situations
- Spending time practicing good habits such as exercise, meditation, visualizing, etc.
Those are just examples of course, but the moral of the story is that you need to set up systems that remind you several times each and every day to take a certain action, or to have a certain thought. If you want to jump in with both feet, check out the Achieve Planner program, or Brad Isaac’s Achieve-IT! Goal Setting Software. If you want to start small, simply use Microsoft Outlook, or some other powerful task management system.
Virus Idea #2
Ask People to Hassle You
This may seem like an accident waiting to happen, but if that is your emotional response to the consideration of someone constantly getting on your case, then you are probably a great candidate for using this particular technique.
If you ask your friends, family, co-workers, or even your neighbors to point out the fact that you aren’t sticking to your alleged “promise” of self improvement, then one of two things will likely happen:
- You will get so sick of them telling you that you aren’t living up to what you said you would do that you finally start doing it, or…
- You realize that you are actually too lazy to improve your life, and you then move on to more frivolous time expenditures.
Either way, you win.
Virus Idea #3
Decorate your Life
Do you know those cheesy motivational/success/teamwork posters that you see in corporate meeting rooms, dentist’s offices, and in that “gifts for all occasions” store at the mall? Yeah, those posters are cheesy, but they are also effective.
Whenever you literally decorate your life with reminders of the type of person that you are striving to become, a strange thing happens; you actually start to become that person! Our environment rubs off on us whether we mean for it to or not, so why not take advantage of some truly no effort self improvement techniques?
Create a vision board, get some of those cheesy motivational posters, create a custom wallpaper for your computer like this one. Use sticky notes if you have to! The point is not that you make your environment into some sort of circus show, but rather that you create an environment that reminds you that you are on a path to greatness.
Virus Idea #4
Put your Back against your Personal Values
When all else fails, remember what your own personal values are, and then use them against yourself! People are very adept at consistently staying committed to whoever they think they are, so pull the core value card and use it for your own benefit.
- If you are an honest person, then make a promise to someone else that you are going to improve your life. It might not help the other person, but if keeping your word is important to you, then it will certainly keep you on track knowing that you made a promise to that other person.
- If you value personal integrity, then make a promise to yourself that you are going to follow through on your efforts. Don’t try this if you already have a history of breaking promises to yourself. Obviously you’ve been down that road and you need a new tactic.
- If your sense of responsibility is very important to you, then look at your goal in the light of how you will be a responsible friend, co-worker, parent, or family member by attaining your goals. If your goals are health or financially related, you can easily see how you can live up to a sense of responsibility to your family by staying alive and/or providing a financial security blanket for them.
Virus Idea #5
Daily/Weekly/Monthly Check-ups
No personal development effort is going to work if you don’t stop the presses once in awhile and take a look around to make sure that you are on track. It’s very easy to “claim” that you are on a path to wonderful success, but if you don’t have the track record to prove it, then who are you kidding?
- Set up a time at the end of every day when you honestly ask yourself if you did everything that you could have done that day to attain your goals. It’s OK to not have always done so; it’s the questioning of yourself that is important, not the answer.
- Every Friday, or maybe every Sunday, look back on the previous week and see if you have accomplished 1 week’s worth of tasks that will take you to your long-term goals. Again, if you didn’t, that’s OK, but by looking back to see where you might have gone astray, you can then do better the following week.
- Once a month check in with yourself to measure your results. Whether you are on a financial improvement quest, a weight loss program, or if you are looking to improve your social life, after 30 days there should have been some measurable improvement. If you spend 30 days working towards something, yet don’t see at least a minimum amount of progress, then you probably need to rethink your methods.
Love it, Aaron!
Sometimes it *is* pure laziness, but to tell the truth, fighting the pull of our old habits can be energy draining.
The immersion techniques that you mention can be extremely helpful in shifting – first our thinking, then our emotions, then our actions – into new directions.
And who cares if some of it is cheesy… I’d rather be cheesy and successful than hip and broke! 😉
HAHAHAHA! That’s a great quote, Lyman!
Me, too, Lyman, me too! 🙂
Hi Aaron,
Yeah. Cheesy motivational sticky notes work for me!! I’ve moved a little more up market now and stuck particular affirmations or statements on the back of old christmas cards and placed on my desk. How cheesy’s that? Good to take stock to see where we can improve in our personal development.
Reminder systems to help develop consistency in forming new habits and also daily/weekly/monthly check ups to keep on track are excellent ways for assuring our success. Great post.
Cheers
Kim
Thanks for the great feedback, Kim, and you definitely get the “best way to recycle” award!
Who would have thought of using old Christmas cards in that way??? Good one!! 🙂
I recently started a 30-day experiment with creating a vision board. I look at it several times per day, because I put it into the notebook I open each day when I work on my website.
However, the daily/weekly/monthly checkups have been slipping…better start that again!
Thanks for the great tips.
Well worth a Stumble!
Jeniffer,
Glad that this post was a reminder for you to start your check-ups again! Other than just helping us to get into the proper habits, those check-ups are also an opportunity for us to regularly pat ourselves on the back for a job well done! 🙂
Enjoy your 30-day vision board experiment. I look at mine for at least 2-3 minutes every single day and focus ONLY on the vision board during that time. It has already helped to keep me focused and on task even though I didn’t finish the 2008 edition of it until a few weeks ago.
Great article! It’s true, laziness or plain old bad habits really can get in the way of improvement. And laziness itself can become a habit! Too bad habits aren’t easier to break! But you give a lot of great ideas.
Glad you liked the post, Steph, and you’re right about laziness also becoming a habit.
Good habits and bad habits are both created the same way – by consistently doing them.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Steph!
Hi Aaron, GREAT post. Yes, I’ve got the vision board down, the educating, out-sourced-hassling (my hubby’s job) and am infected! Great tips and I still have those moments when my fever is breaking and I feel the old habits sneaking their way back in! I love your tip on looking back over the past month and looking at how far you have come. Being one that is usually my hardest critic this will help me a lot to realize that even though some of my goals still seem a-ways away — they are much closer then they were a month ago. Thanks Aaron… I always find your words motivational! Gratefully, Jenny
Jenny,
YAY – I’m so glad that you already have so many of these processes in place, and thanks for all of the positive feedback!
Keep up those monthly check-in moments, and before you know it, you’ll be needing to find some bigger goals since you will have already accomplished the original set! 🙂
Hi Aaron – great post. I like #2, asking people to hassle you. A true commitment is when you can be held accountable to others. Nothing like a little bit of fear and shame to help with motivation 🙂
You got that right, Al! No one likes to walk around with egg on their face! 🙂
This is one of the most useful and interesting personal development articles that I have read in a long time. The author is a wise man, please read this and follow his advice. Highly recommended. I have bookmarked it too to read many times.
Aaron,
I’m in the middle of reading GTD by David Allen. It is an amazing book. It all about creating a system you’ll use to empty your mind of all the things you want to do and free up mental power for creativity and problem solving. I used you viral idea #1 and created a way to remind myself of everything using google docs, outlook, and T-Mobile Dash. It is making a huge difference right now.
@scogostology.com – I’m glad you liked the content, and please do re-read often in order to keep yourself reminded of these concepts!
@Steve – I’ve heard a lot of great feedback about GTD. That’s awesome that you’ve come up with such a great system. Wonderful hearing from you as always, Steve!
It reminds me of a quote, “knowledge is not power…Applied knowledge is power.” Like in my most recent article, I talk about why Napoleon Hill ended up poor while his student, W. Clement Stone ended up rich. Hill was theoretical. Stone was a pragmatic. Personal Development as most people realize isn’t rocket science. It’s common sense. But 97% of the population still don’t make it common practice….and it’s the common practice that is the difficult thing to do. As a fellow personal trainer, I’m sure you know all about that with your former clients, right 😉
Wonderful article Aaron. I’ve already shared it with my clients to read.
Cheers,
Tristan
Hi Aaron,
Very useful ideas.
Vision board – check
Reading educational,inspirational or empowering material- check
Positive thoughts – check
Meditation – check
Well, I guess I’m infected. This is one good virus to have. I want more. 🙂
Tristan,
Thanks so much for sharing this piece with others, and for adding so much to the conversation!
You are absolutely right that only applied knowledge has any real power in our lives. Knowing what to do and actually doing it are two entirely different things!
And yes, that is a concept that my former clients heard from me on a regular basis! 😉
Dean,
You got that right! Although the term “virus” usually brings up negative thoughts, in this case, it’s just the opposite!
When you are talking about thoughts, habits, and emotional ways of being that bring about desired changes in our lives, that is an infection that is worth nurturing! 🙂
Great post! It’s easy to make goals then never follow through on them. I’m saving this list to reread when I’ve noticed that i’m not following through like I should.
SD,
Consistently doing the needed tasks to effect any given change in our lives is one of the most important (if not THE most important) things that we need to remember.
Glad I helped you with a resource to keep yourself on track! 🙂
These are some fantastic tips. So many times we read (or write) about motivation ideas and fail to follow through with them. These are great tips to insure we DO follow through.
Thanks for posting this.
Ron
Ron,
It was truly my pleasure! I’m glad you liked the post so much, and thanks for your comment!
Hi Aaron,
I agree with your first point – habits create our lives.
Great habits = Great results
Are people lazy? I don’t think people are lazy. I think people who don’t take action are choosing that. They choose not to change. It’s still a choice.
Stephen,
That’s a good perspective. Sometimes they are simply choosing not to change their lives – sometimes that is because they are lazy, and sometimes it is for other reasons.
Personally, I have trouble getting my head around wanting improvement, but then not working towards it, but that’s just me! 🙂
Aaron – I see your point.
The people who want to change but don’t move towards it – that makes sense to me
Good chatting with you,
This a great article as well as an impressive website. I look forward to reading more of your articles in the future.
I also think sometimes fear of change is one of the reasons we get stuck in our habits.
Thanks for the great feedback on the article, and the site itself. Always great to see new people commenting!
And yes, fear of change can be a debilitating thing. However, I think that in the end, living a life that wasn’t everything and anything that we wanted is something to be feared far more than change! 🙂
regarding: Virus Idea #2 Ask People to Hassle You
I just stumbled against a site that does this: https://www.hassleme.co.uk/.
Nice one!! Much obliged for sharing that link! 🙂
For implementing GTD you might try out this web-based application, good for virus #1 and #3:
Gtdagenda
You can use it to manage your goals, projects and tasks, set next actions and contexts, use
checklists, schedules and a calendar.
A mobile version is available too.
As with the last update, now Gtdagenda has due date for tasks (you’ll see in the calendar on the right if you have tasks due today), task notes, and Email & Print support.
Hope you like it.
Dan,
Much obliged for sharing that program with everyone. Looks like it covers a lot of the critical points!
We are so involved in achieving life's goal. Goals which we have self-implemented but we don't have the time to implement our own personal development. To me it sounds simply sarcastic. People should work for the betterment of themselves. We deserve and own it ourselves to indulge in personal development. The funny part is you only will be doing good to yourself and paying yourself back for the many years of struggle… People should realize that they should work and play at same time and that if they are too serious in their life… they will miss out on all the good things that life has to offer. And one of them is Personal development…. Thanks for the blog.. Great work