What is the easiest way to achieve your goals?
What way to most people choose?
In our “I need results yesterday” society most people attack their goals head-on and flip their world on it’s head hoping to achieve the goals faster. The result?
Failure.
And why is that?
Are you not good enough?
Is it someone else’s fault? No time? Genetics?
I hate to break it to you but it’s none of those. You had a bad system or no system at all. Plain and simple.
Take a step back and look at all successful people and companies of today.
Facebook started exclusively at Harvard. (Do you remember Facebook back in ‘04? Far cry from today’s fancy design.)
Amazon was originally to sell books online.
The Rock started as a jobber in the mid 90’s in a small time wrestling federation. (sweet shades)
But what do these 3 examples all have in common? They followed a system for growing.
People are creatures of habit. Everyone has an addictive personality. Take a step back and look at your daily routine. Notice reoccurring actions? Those are your habits. Here is mine.
Now take everything your used to and change it. Tough isn’t it? That’s exactly my point. Why make achieving a goal, already a tough task, exponentially harder by going against your biology? Not used to eating a balanced diet of meat and veggies? Why change it over night and the risk of failure increases. Instead use a simple system to achieve your goals. This can be translated between financial, business, personal or fitness goals.
The only surefire way to change rapidly is if you are faced with death or the fear of missing loved ones. Leaving your children behind and impending death are really the only two sources of motivation that can give people the motivation to do a complete 180. Neither is a situation I want to be in. Let’s do some preemptive work so we don’t have to get to that point.
Let me give you some context on how I came to discover my complex system to achieve goals.
Let’s hit the way back machine and go back to the early 2000’s. I was your typical early 20 something guy. My nights were filled with alcohol, fast food and sometimes if I was lucky, a lady. My days were spent lumbering through college classes and doing the bare minimum to pass. I would work out hoping to achieve that sacred six pack so the ladies would swoon when I took my shirt off (It happened in my mind at least). I would go to GNC and buy whatever crap they pitched to me, because well I was looking for a short cut. Fat burners, pills “scientifically proven” to change my body composition, really anything they could pitch to me. And the end result? Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars gone and some unknown chemicals floating through my system doing God knows what. I even contemplated steroids for a bit, because I wasn’t happy with my physique. Sound similar to your situation at all?
Then I smartened up. I had always been a fan of the guy that works his ass off to be the best and apparently always reading about the struggle these guys faced common trends became more apparent. That’s when I put together my system to change my habits.
Remember this is complex so bear with me. (Sound the trumpets)
DAVE BONOLLO’S SYSTEM FOR ACHIEVING ANY GOAL
Step 1) Pick something small
Step 2) Change it
Step 3) Give it some time
Step 4) Go back to step 1 and repeat.
Good thing I didn’t tell you this while on a stage or else people would be throwing rotten tomatoes at me. If you’re still reading I thank you, I’ll try to make this worth your while.
Going back to my Rock example, he started off as a jobber in some low budget wrestling federation. Then he made it to the WWE, then became a WWE star and now he is one of Hollywood’s highest paid actors. He didn’t go from the U to a blockbuster movie star overnight. And right out of the gates Facebook wasn’t worth squat, today billions.
My point is to start small and compound changes over time. It’s much more sustainable and easier to handle when changing your habits.
Let me go a little deeper into my system for the goal of losing body fat. This seems to be a popular theme around the interwebs.
STEP 1) PICK SOMETHING SMALL
My first suggestion to lose body fat would be to look at your water consumption.
STEP 2) CHANGE IT
A lot of people don’t consider consider their water consumption when trying to lose weight or body fat. When your body is dehydrated, even a little bit, your metabolism slows down. The easiest thing to do is drink more water. Aim for about half an ounce per pound of body weight per day. So for me, I weight 200 lbs, I would need to drink a minimum of 100 oz. or 6 polar spring bottles. 6 bottles seem like a daunting task? Set smaller goals over the course of the day. Aim to have one bottle before work, then another one before lunch, one with your lunch, another before you go home, one more before dinner and one at dinner. Aim to hit those little goals and your mood and confidence goes up. Most importantly your adherence to the new habit goes up. Trust me, I do it everyday.
STEP 3) GIVE IT SOMETIME
This step varies from person to person. Sometimes a change in habit will take right away and sometimes it is like trying to drink razor blades. Once it becomes easy or you don’t have to think about it that’s when you know it’s time to move to step 4.
STEP 4) GO BACK TO STEP 1 AND REPEAT
My next suggestion would be to look at protein consumption over a day. There should be some sort of meat or other protein eaten everyday. Protein is used in every cell of the body. From growing your hair and nails to making sexy muscles for the ladies to swoon over (I’m still waiting for that day, by the way).
If your weight lifting, at minimum go for a gram of protein per pound of body weight. If you aren’t lifting weights, then aim for a minimum of 0.5g-1 g per pound. Protein is the one macronutrient that can be eaten in excess. The process to turn protein into body fat or energy in the body is a hard and inefficient chemical reaction that the body usually won’t unless you consume insane amounts of protein and/or have no other nutrients for your body to use. For example, only consuming protein and skipping carbs and fats will cause the body to break down protein for energy.
Follow this system to remove processed foods, start going to the gym or whatever else you want to start doing.
I recently wanted to pick up a habit of reading books (Step 1). I had tried for a while to read while in bed, which worked out just about as good as you would think after being up for 18 plus hours. I would read for 5 min and fall asleep, if I read at all. I have no time during the day so my only time available was in the morning. (Step 2) So I started reading in the morning with breakfast. No distractions. I’m full of energy and now it’s something I look forward to every day. (Step 3) Reading for 20-30 minutes before I leave in the morning has made such a positive impact on my day. I’m 2/3 through a 600-page book (The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss) in a short amount of time too.
Over time you’ll notice that other good ancillary habits have a tendency to snowball. For example, say you are going to start going to the gym in the morning (Habit 1). In order to achieve that, you will have to go to bed earlier (Habit 2). Your caffeine consumption will have to be kept in check to help you go to bed earlier (Habit 3). Also you don’t want to waste your time at the gym so you start eating better to see results (Habit 4). Since you are working out in the morning you become more awake at work and perform better (Habit 5). Then you get a promotion because of all the good work your doing. Then you buy a fancy house with your raise from the promotion.
See all the good things that snowball from one small habit change?
Rome wasn’t built in a night and neither will your success in achieving anything. Take it slow and stack the deck in your favor.
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Dave
