The Habit Factor®

The Science of Behavior Meets the Art of Achievement

goal theory

Dispelling The 6 Great Myths of Habit, Developing New Habits Just Got Easier!

goal, goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment, HabitStregth™, P.A.R.R. Methodology, PARR Methodology

Arnold_THF_habitStrength

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci

By: Martin Grunburg

For each of the following “myths” I will do my best to share its origin, (if possible) the general fallacy and why there is a better understanding and way to proceed when it comes to developing new productive habits!

Myth #1: Habits are bad…
Probably more of a powerful and unfortunate misunderstanding (less a myth). However, it’s still tough to deny  the existing negative connotation that permeates throughout western society. This has massive consequences on how people and organizations attempt to achieve their goals. Why? Because they are largely focusing on the one-off, steps or a ToDo list of actions instead of the core, related behaviors (habits).

There is a large number of personal development “gurus” and even business and management coaches who haven’t yet keyed in on habit as the pathway to goal achievement. A few quick examples recently observed: One coach blogs, “to achieve your goals you must avoid habits.” Another tweets, “five habits that keep you from achieving your goals.” Negative connotation again and again.

Where does this negative connotation originate from? I am not sure. It’s obviously been passed down from generation to generation (ironically enough) a societal habit!

I do know this issue dates back well before the great teacher/philosopher William James who lectured at Harvard on the very subject and admonished his fellow teachers and students to stop regarding habit has bad – and went on to share this (excerpt, Laws of Habit, Talks to Teachers):

We speak, it is true, of good habits and of bad habits; but, when people use the word ‘habit,’ in the majority of instances it is a bad habit which they have in mind. They talk of the smoking-habit and the swearing-habit and the drinking-habit, but not of the abstention-habit or the moderation-habit or the courage-habit. But the fact is that our virtues are habits as much as our vices. All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits,—practical, emotional, and intellectual,—systematically organized for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be.

The second aspect is nearly as interesting. In my trip to China earlier this year a friend and I surveyed several total strangers at a market square (local Chinese) and asked them what they thought first when they heard the word “habit”. We wanted to understand their gut, initial response and associations.

Interestingly, unlike their western counterparts, they didn’t share the same negative association. In fact, associated words we heard included, “early” (as in a habit is something I want to take care of early). Even a bit stranger were words like “news” or “weather” (think patterns).

Finally, we were received with laughter if we asked outright which they might first associate with the word habit, either “good” or “bad”. The answer was “good” in every instance. In the United States however, the answer about 7 or 8 times out of 10 is still something like, smoking, drinking or drugs.

MYTH #2: “It takes 21 days to develop a habit.”

21 days to create a habit

Ironically, this comes from perhaps the most popular and powerful personal development programs of all time, Pycho-Cybernetics. The author Dr. Maxwell Maltz, a brilliant man (plastic surgeon) who recognized from his own patients experience and as he observed in many amputees that they began to lose the sensation of missing limbs after around the 21st day. He posited that the neural wiring in the brain began to change after about the 21st day. Rather than perform his plastic surgery he would counsel many of his patients to work on affirmations about their own self concept, realizing that in many cases there wasn’t a real need for plastic surgery, just a self-image upgrade.

After these patients would perform his recommended affirmations he noticed that it took about 21 days and then they appeared to shed the old self-image. Unfortunately, when it comes to habit development, there is no hard-set rule or number of days required yet, you will see 21, 28, 30, 44, 66, days etc., all over the internet. Please know, the ability to develop a habit varies based upon the behavior itself, the person, the level of desire and a host of other variables. What is certain is that if you stick with the behavior and prove consistent over time you will develop the habit! (more below!)

Myth #3: In order to develop the habit you must perform the behavior for consecutive days.

Consider that if you didn’t floss for 21 days in a row you’d have to start over and try again. Really? Nope, doesn’t work that way. The only truth is you would need to continue to perform the behavior but shouldn’t consider the effort or existing performance or streak a failure if you had to skip a day.

Basically, habit formation comes as a result of repetition. While that is not the only criteria it may be the most important along with DESIRE (see more on this below). The more a behavior or thought is experienced (repeated) the greater the strength of the behavior and the likelihood of developing a habit increases.

“Habits are cobwebs at first and cables at last.” ~Chinese proverb. Repetition is critical and this is why the concept of requiring consecutive days is so often incorrectly reaffirmed throughout the web. Certainly, consecutive days are helpful but they are NOT a requirement.

A personal example I like to share is running. My knees wouldn’t like it too much if I were to try and run everyday, yet I’ve certainly developed the running habit over the years.

Myth #4: You will need to reward yourself to develop a habit.

This originates from a multitude of psychology experiments originally with lab rats who, for example, might get out a maze more quickly after each successive reward. There is even a similar experiment with a girl in a large room of books trying to locate a hidden chocolate bar. Each time she entered the room she found the chocolate more quickly.

Perhaps if you’re a rat or this young girl seeking a chocolate bar this applies to reinforcing the new behavior/habit. However, when it comes to real world habit development rest assured you don’t have to go feed yourself a pizza after you’ve studied for an hour. Or serve yourself some cake after you’ve run a mile.

In fact, what we now have learned over the last several years (particularly through feedback from The Habit Factor® app) and this is very significant, is that the act of intentionally PLANNING then performing and TRACKING a behavior becomes it’s own reward. Following the P.A.R.R. methodology for Habit formation.

Over time, this becomes a significant demonstration of self-efficacy which is really the true reward!

I know that I don’t need to eat a cookie after I’ve just run for an hour. In fact, the greatest reward I know is looking back over The Habit Factor® charts or reviewing the Nike run app chart (check out my October! 65 miles…  ; )

THF_RUN-FormView  nike_octruns-13
Myth #5: You will need discipline to develop habits

When’s the last time you met a disciplined baby?

Where you born with discipline? Discipline is a result of HABIT which is developed over time.

If you had the desire to create the habit of getting out of bed by 5:30am every morning and then you intentionally planned and tracked that behavior, (P.A.R.R.) you would in fact develop that habit.

Then, in about a year or two all your friends would be talking about how disciplined you are! **Important Note: you must have the DESIRE. There are three critical aspects to habit development shared by the late, great Dr. Stephen Covey: Knowledge; you have to know how to develop/perform the behavior. Skill; you have to be physically capable of performing the behavior. And finally, DESIRE; without the desire to develop the habit, the knowledge and skill won’t amount to much. However, with the desire, chances are you would find the knowledge and figure out the skill!

Myth #6: It’s about a list or number of habits…

A bit more irony here as this is likely attributed to incredible success of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, by Dr. Stephen Covey. An absolutely brilliant book and man!

Unfortunately, in many cases, the success of the book has led to dozens of copycat-type books, all with a set number of habits in their title. “The 7 Habits of Successful businesses”, “The 5 Habits of Happy Fathers”, “The 12 Habits of Lazy Mothers”, “The 100 Habits of Millionaires” (a couple of these are real and others made for affect  ; )

The point is this; lists are great and Covey’s Seven habits are essential, even foundational to understand. Yet, having said that, as great as his work is— it is NOT about 7 habits, or even 52 habits or, 3 habits or 49 habits. It’s about HABIT.

This remarkable force* that enables any of these habit list books to work. Understanding HABIT, what it is, why it’s so powerful (beginning with the above ideas is a good start).

Finally, let me share this. If it WERE about 7 Habits (just seven) Dr. Covey himself wouldn’t have released a sequel, “The 8th Habit” and who knows, had he lived longer he might have released, “The 9th and 10th Habit”. Again, the key is to really grasp and understand this seemingly magical force EVERYONE has been endowed with!

8thHabit

 

Until next time my friends,

~mg

Need More Discipline? How to Develop Willpower? Forget About It

goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment, HabitStregth™, P.A.R.R. Methodology, PARR Methodology

 

By: Martin Grunburg

This is a brief excerpt of Napoleon Hill’s (highly recommended) The Science of Personal Achievement from Nightingale-Conant.

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As you may recall, this, THE LAW OF COSMIC HABIT FORCE is Hill’s great discovery he described it. What makes it so remarkable is he “discovered” this, 20 years AFTER he wrote and published Think & Grow Rich. He was truly dumbfounded by the number of people who did not “grow rich” and did not become “successful” after reading and applying his 16 principles outlined in his best-selling book. For a refresher on this topic see this post.

Why is this important?

Well, just as The Law of Comic Habit Force (as he points out) keeps the planets in orbit, it has the ability to carry your behaviors (supportive and non-supportive) on indefinitely. However, unlike your dog or cat (or any other animal with ingrained habits/instincts), YOU have the ability to intentionally select and craft habit patters that support your goals and ideals. Re-read that last sentence please.

The key word is effortlessly. Your behaviors become EASIER not harder, over time because of HABIT. This example is a bit overused at this point because it’s a good one: How hard was it to learn to tie your shoes? Now, how easy is it? Does it require any conscious thought? Does it require much energy, effort, brain power? The efficiency of HABIT is can not be over-emphasized!

And, the beauty is, knowing you can intentionally and deliberately craft supportive habits you need NOT worry about willpower or discipline since they too are habits.

Earlier this year I posted the “Discipline Dilemma” and just a few weeks ago I put this image (above) on the THF facebook fan page (I hope you join me here / there  ; ).

As you can see, I continue to emphasize that the big “D” DISCIPLINE and even “Willpower” are totally and completely over-rated. In fact, if you are trying to achieve ANY goal perhaps the best thing you can do is forget about either and simply focus on developing core, supportive HABITS!

As a coach the one thing I hear all too often is, “I’m not disciplined enough, I know what i need to do but don’t seem to do it.” (Sound familiar?) I also reference this in the book.

The challenge with that statement is that the person is focusing on discipline which is a result  instead of the process.  And, it’s the process of baby-steps and creating habits that actually helps you achieve such an end result. It is habit that carries you there. Nobody is born with willpower or discipline— each are forged / learned behaviors refined and reinforced over many years (often through our upbringing / our environment) until one day, somebody turns to you and says, wow, I wish I were as discipline as you.”

HOW DO I DO THAT?

By following The Habit Factor’s methodology to form good habits. First, you establish Target Minimums (Minimum Success Criteria), Target Days and a Tracking Period. Only The Habit Factor® allows users the ability to establish this core criteria and most importantly measure it against their ideal / target behaviors—(did I say only The Habit Factor®?) And, only The Habit Factor® offers, the user the ability to compare Actuals vs Targets over the Course of the Tracking Period. For more on this check out this post.

You see, HABIT consists of different strength levels. In fact, one of the earliest researches Clark C. Hull referenced something called, Drive Theory and in my opinion more importantly habit strength which is a product of past conditioning.

To underscore the importance of HabitStrength™ vs Willpower. Let me share with you that I had no willpower or discipline to write a book yet, I have written a book. And, I certainly didn’t have the willpower or discipline to complete an Ironman triathlon yet I’ve now completed several. My friend didn’t have the willpower to lose 30 pounds and guess what, he didn’t need it. He simply tracked the core, related behaviors and developed HabitStrength™ by following The Habit Factor’s P.A.R.R. methodology for habit development.

Please though, don’t take it from me, thankfully, a study was recently released by a couple great behavioral researchers from USC restating what The Habit Factor has been teaching for years.

“The whole focus on controlling your behavior may not actually be the best way to get people to meet goals,” she said. “If you are somebody who doesn’t have a lot of willpower, our study showed that habits are even more important.” … Wood said. “Habits don’t require much willpower and thought and deliberation.”

And, worth noting this study came out years after The Habit Factor®

So there you have it. Take it from me or take it from the Ph.D’s but just take it. Use it. Apply it.

The next post will dive into the path to HabitStrength™  and how applying The Habit Factor’s own, P.A.R.R. methodology specifically strengthens your intentionally crafted, favorable habits that lead you to achieving your goals!

Until then, do me and you a favor FORGET ABOUT WILLPOWER. FORGET ABOUT DISCIPLINE. (please)  ; )

~mg

Habit Building Part III: The PARR Method and Progressive Behavior Modification Therapy

goal, goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment, habits, HabitStregth™, P.A.R.R. Methodology, PARR Methodology

P.A.R.R.
 (Plan, Act, Record & Reassess)

[By: Martin Grunburg]

A simple method to intentionally build good habits.

P.A.R.R. takes advantage of HabitStrength™, a concept proven to reinforce any particular behavior over time. Strengthening and reinforcing the behavior helps it to become a habit. When this is coupled with Habit Alignment Technology™, anyone can achieve their goals more quickly and easily.

P.A.R.R. simply stands for PLAN, ACT, RECORD (which is tracking + notes) and REASSESS.

 

Plan: Define your intended behavior (habits)

Act: Perform the behavior as planned (habits)

Record: Tracking and notes (habits)

Reassess: Is it time to raise the bar? (habits)

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) about P.A.R.R. and Building Habits

How is this any different from the Cue, Routine, Reward concept popularized by The Power of Habit (book)?

PARR distinguishes itself from Cue, Routine, Reward (see video) by directing attention forward and helping to craft new, favorable habits. Cue, Routine, Reward is terrific for providing information in retrospect. However, the method does little to guide the user to develop new, favorable habits. And, unfortunately, Cue, Routine, Reward provides no specific method to develop a habit. It does not offer insight into how one might improve any behavior’s HabitStrength™. In fact, according to The Power of Habit, Cue, Routine, Reward is merely a “framework.” (This is covered in a recent post.)

How about the requirement for a “Reward” when I try to develop a habit?

In the above-referenced video, Duhigg states: “Then there is the reward, in some respects that is the most important part, because that is why habits exist.”

If you’ve read The Habit Factor, you know why habits exist and it isn’t because of the reward. In fact, rewards are NICE but not (repeat) NOT a necessary component for habit development. As an example, think Drill Sergeant, or Mom’s daily morning routine of getting the kids off to school. You might look for ancillary “rewards” like NOT being yelled at. But, please know, that isn’t WHY the habits develop — and certainly not why habits exist.

The referenced “reward” data comes largely from experiments with lab animals. Fortunately, we are humans and not lab animals. We have a unique capacity to intentionally align and craft our behaviors to develop constructive, supportive habits. Obviously, all other animals are tied infinitely more directly to their instincts and habits.

I know there is no need for me to go eat a chocolate bar after I’ve accomplished a goal. One of the great secrets about The Habit Factor is this: the simple act of RECORDING becomes its own reward. People gain a great deal of satisfaction in checking off the desired behavior. Then, of course, seeing their progress and results is its own ancillary reward.

How long does it take to develop a habit?

Perhaps the question I’m most often asked is, “How long does it take to build a habit?” A fair question with no straightforward answer. There are many myths around the exact number of days, ranging anywhere from 21 to 48 or even 66. However, our experience shows that some habits can take up to several months to develop. A key factor in the development of any habit is what we have identified as HabitStrength™. (Note: Not to be confused with Hull’s “Drive Reduction Theory,” although they share a few basic principles.)

Can you please share/explain or even provide an example of how Habit Alignment Technology™ and HabitStrength™ work? How they can be applied in the service of goal achievement?

EXAMPLE:
GOAL: Joe has a goal to lose 35lbs over the next 6 months.

First, by following The Habit Factor’s methodology for goal achievement, Joe recognizes the important distinction between GOALS and HABITS. (This distinction is often lost.)

Therefore, Joe decides to identify and develop a few core, related behaviors (habits) instead of working against a check list. So, for each behavior, Joe will PLAN the behavior’s required minimums. Then he will TRACK the behavior to help craft his new habits.

In order to track each new behavior (with the intent of developing a habit), he needs to first identify the Frequency per Week (days of the week), the Minimum Success Criteria (Minimum QTY or Time to perform the behavior), and finally, the Tracking Period (typically 4 weeks), all explained in detail below.

Habit #1: “No Large Meals after 5:30pm” (Qty=0), (M,T,W,Th,F)
Habit #2: “Drink Water” (6 glasses) (M,T,W,Th,F,S, ) 6x / week
Habit #3: “Walking” (2 Miles) (T,Th,S) 3x Week
Habit
Habit #4: “Eat Fruit” (3x day) (M,T,W,Th,F) 5x Week

With each of the above behaviors, there is what we call Minimum Success Criteria. For example, it’s “2 Miles” in the case of the Walking behavior or QTY 6 in the case of the Drink Water behavior. The idea behind the Minimum Success Criteria is for Joe to identify how long (time) or how far (distance) the behavior must be done on designated “target” days to be a “success.” And, if completed, he would give himself a successful Checkmark for the behavior.

If he should only walk 1.5 miles and his Minimum Success Criteria were 2 miles, he would NOT get a successful Checkmark for the effort. Note: This keeps the tracking of his performance to either a YES or a NO. This makes the success of each behavior binary, a critical component to the long-term development of the habit.

Keep in mind, if Joe walks 4 miles, Joe still will receive only a single checkmark and does NOT receive 2 checkmarks. The idea here is to support the long-term development of the behavior to form a habit. In order to do that, it is consistency over a longer period of time vs. a short burst of activity that encourages and supports the development of the habit. Inequity in effort from one day to the next does little to support the long-term development of the habit as compared with consistency over time. Therefore, by keeping the daily tracking to a simple YES or NO (“1” or a “0“) and making the performance measurement binary you have a very clearly defined objective from day to day, which also makes for easier and more elegant tracking. (Further detail and explanation is in the book of course).

The next criteria in habit development is the Frequency per Week.

This is fairly straightforward, allowing the user to identify those days he believes he can and will perform the specified behavior. One of the helpful aspects of this system is it allows users to check off any desired behavior on a “non-target” day as well. For instance, if you selected; M, W, F as Target Days and on Wednesday you couldn’t perform the habit for whatever reason, the good news is you could make it up on Thursday.

*Important note* RE: habit development. You do NOT need to perform a behavior every day (successive days) in order to develop a habit. The key is consistency over time— not successive days.

REASSESS!

If there were such a thing as a “most important part” of habit development (for humans vs. rats) it MIGHT be the Reassessment component. This is your unique ability to be aware, to take inventory of existing behaviors and conscientiously direct your energy to forge new habits—to even increase the frequency or minimums thereby strengthening the habit over time.

By pursuing (planning and tracking) any behavior over time and then pressing PAUSE (at the end of four weeks) to assess your progress, you identify if it’s time to “raise the bar” (again frequency or minimums). Only The Habit Factor® offers customizable Tracking Periods allowing you to assess/reassess your progress (your actual behaviors vs. your ideal behaviors). This is how you improve any behavior’s HabitStrength™.

Example: If Joe is at or around 85% or better for each habit over the course of the first four weeks, Joe is then encouraged to raise the bar for the next four weeks — meaning, perhaps, the “Drink Water” habit might increase from 6 glasses to 7 glasses / 6x /week. Or, maybe 6 glasses 7x per week (instead of 6x/week). Again, raising the bar over the prior four-week period. Another example of this would be to walk 3 miles 3x / week (upping the ante from 2miles, 3x per week. It’s the critical component of the Tracking Period that allows the user to reassess and up the ante for the next tracking period.

With each successive Tracking Period*, the behavior’s HabitStrength™ continues to build until, ultimately, there is no more need to PLAN or TRACK as the intended behavior becomes a HABIT— hence, The Habit Factor.

CONCLUSION

As Joe strengthens these supportive behaviors by successively PLANNING and TRACKING (each 4 weeks), he notices that he’s beginning to realize his over-arching GOAL, and loses 35lbs!

More importantly, Joe develops the healthy and supportive habits, such as walking, drinking water, etc. All of these behaviors will help him to maintain his ideal weight. They will prevent the classic yo-yo dieting and weight gain issues most dieters experience. So, by focusing on developing the supportive habits, ultimately The Habit Factor takes over!

 

 

 

 

9+ Reasons Why HABIT is the KEY to Achieving Your Goals plus, How to Break Bad Habits and Build Good Habits, Part II

goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment, habits

Happy New Year! Got Goals?

Lose Weight
GET FIT!
Read More
Double Your Income
Get a New Job…

By: Martin Grunburg
It’s everywhere. The “New Year— New You” season is in full-swing for what appears to be about the first 14 days in January. Then, it seems about 90+% of people get sucked back into their old unsupportive* habits and rituals. Sadly, the rush and initial excitement of becoming someone or something new, better or different, all but vanishes.

As I’ve mentioned before, I know this all too well. In fact, that is why I created The Habit Factor® app and wrote the book— (after what seemed like 15+ yrs of personal and professional struggle and frustration).

Just remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s New Years day, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving day or any day in between. The Habit Factor® works everytime, ALL THE TIME and below you’ll find out why!

A Little Background first…

Those of you who read this blog are familiar with some of this info. However, having said that, I do believe you ought to read this entire post (hence, I’ve taken the time to write it). And, please know, many new visitors are starting from scratch— they have no background knowledge of The Habit Factor® (book or app).

The first thing to understand about The Habit Factor® is it’s a bit of a paradox unto itself. it’s very powerful (because it works on many complex levels) yet it is ridiculously easy to follow and therefore, people experience terrific results. In fact, it’s almost unfair to those who’ve struggled for years or maybe even decades trying to achieve their goals.

One of the most recent book reviews underscores this point, “Wanted something like this book and app for a long time… I’ve tried every goal-setting thing there is the simple idea of breaking down a goal into 3-5 habits and tracking is pure genius.”

Compliments aside, what is most important here is to investigate and understand the “WHY” behind the results and I’m so glad this reviewer shared his experience.

[Side note]  The Habit Factor® has undoubtedly inspired dozens of new habit trackers (apps and websites over the last couple years). It was The Habit Factor® (app) which first hit the marketplace (iTunes) back in 06/09 and later became the first ever Productivity, app & book combo.

Unfortunately, what these other habit trackers miss, and my concern is, I’m not sure they necessarily care, are the many important reasons behind WHY the development and alignment of HABIT as a goal achievement practice and philosophy is so important in the first place (see education).

Not to belabor the point, but this is precisely why I wrote The Habit Factor® (book) and now, continue to reiterate these points in posts like this. The ideas behind the methodology are what sustain and underlie its powerful results.

In fact, the “WHY” behind the significance of developing and aligning HABITS to your goals, when understood, makes the process of goal achievement much more enjoyable, practical and efficient. Some “aimless” tracking app or website unfortunately, will not be able to do that for you.

One of the recent Android app reviews (the free version) gave me a good chuckle. The reviewer wrote something like, “I’m not sold on the Habit Factor philosophy, though it is interesting.” 8)

I think I like this guy— if for no other reason then he is thinking and questioning things. I’m nearly certain he hasn’t read the book. So, for Android-app-guy and perhaps you, I’ll share some additional compelling evidence that makes the “buying in” either much easier or, not an option. You get to choose.

WHY YOU WANT TO FOCUS ON HABIT TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS.
A bit of a cliff-notes version of part of The Habit Factor® (book)

1) GOALS & HABITS: First, believe it or not, a powerful leap forward in productivity is made when one simply understands the difference and incredible correlation between goals and habits. Habit development can and should be used to serve goal achievement. Goals are not habits—habits not goals. A simple example of this; Once in a workshop, a lady explained to me that she had the goal of “writing for 30 minutes every day”. I gently shared that probably wasn’t her goal— that her goal was likely “To write a book” or “become a blogger”, I suggested that she probably wanted to develop the habit of “writing 30 minutes a day”. Subtle and important distinction and when it’s understood you start purposefully crafting habits that support your goals.

2) BURN YOUR TO-DO LIST:  Originally, The Habit Factor® represented the DEATH/separation of the To-Do List. And, again, you can trace it’s success at spreading this meme by the flourishing number of habit tracking apps. “Burning your To-Do List” is simply a metaphor to underscore the importance of moving away from a To-do list to FOCUS on the daily tracking of core, related behaviors (habits) that will drive your goal’s achievement. This process immediately creates focus vs. the scattered thoughts which are gathered on one’s daily To-Do List. For instance: Feed Fish, Call Grandma, Pickup Drycleaning, etc. Scattered energy produces scattered results—narrowing your focus to core, related behaviors (habits) which are repeated daily and/or weekly is far more important than one-off tasks on a to-do list. For more info on this visit: <<FAQ>>

3) PRINCIPLE BASED: Habit is principle based. Meaning it is a force of nature (it is timeless)— Darwin once said, “It is notorious how powerful is the force of habit.” By focusing on HABIT vs. tactics and/or strategies (which change over time) the end-user’s energies are rooted upon a timeless, principle-based force of HABIT and therefore, always produce results.

4) ENERGY, RHYTHM & PATTERN: Everything in nature and the universe is based upon ENERGY. Energy is predisposed to rhythm and pattern. Therefore, to achieve your goals (which will require energy) in the most efficient (quickest and easiest manner possible) develop and align your daily energies (habits) to be supportive of your goals. It’s really that simple. This creates remarkable efficiency— that is, getting the same or better results with less energy!

5) THE SUBCONSCIOUS: “Experts” in a achievement theory and top coaches will tell you the subconscious is anywhere from 10 to 100x more powerful/influential then your conscious mind when it comes to goal achievement. So, my friend, guess where your habits reside?
Correct! In your subconscious! In fact, that is a definitions of habit? An unconscious behavior or thought. For this reason alone it makes sense to focus your energies on HABIT development.

6) BE. DO. HAVE:  The late, great Zig Ziglar used to shout from the stage, “You must BE before you can DO and DO before you can HAVE.”

When it comes to BEing— NOTHING is more important then HABIT. Why? Well, a core definition of HABIT is “Condition” and/or “Character”.  Get it?
Your present condition and your present character (at this very moment), is the sum total of all your thoughts and all your behavior HABITS throughout your life. You may have heard this great Zig Ziglar quote,”What you get from achieving your goals is not as important as what what you BEcome by achieving your goals.” And, the only way you can BEcome “anything” is via habit.

7) REVERSE ENGINEER, Part I: Do a little homework, visit ANY personal development program or even “Get Rich Quick” scheme. Find the latest fad diet or workout routine. Read anyone’s SELF-HELP book and, regardless of what their book, service or product is, if they expect it to work for you, guess what they will ask of you? That’s right! “Commit to this for just 21 days” or “See the amazing results in just 60 days” or “Do this for 30 days” or “after only 5 minutes for one month”, etc.

You see, it’s fairly apparent, whether they realize it or not, what they are hoping you do is develop a habit of using their product or service. Since habit is the gateway to goal achievement. The “funny thing” is most of these products or services aren’t even aware of it themselves. If they were, they’d provide you a more supportive process to develop habits and perhaps even some coaching and education around habit development!

7a) REVERSE ENGINEER Part II) Find any exceptional professional; musician, doctor, athlete, artist, engineer and guess what they have developed that makes them successful at achieving their professional goals. Again, I will point out that if you read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell, you notice in this work he recites a series of seemingly random factors contributing to people’s “success” hence, the title of the book, Outliers.

However, what Mr. Gladwell couldn’t escape was a single overwhelming commonality (in fact, the only one) that ALL his success subjects shared. Care to guess what it was? He labeled it the 10,000 hour rule. I have a different name for it. Do you have any idea what you’ll develop if you do something for 10,000 hours? Here’s a clue; it starts with an “H”.

8 ) The Law of Cosmic Habit Force: The Law of Cosmic Habit Force is something the late, great personal development legend Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich identified near the end of his life and career. In fact, he only “identified” it after repeated letters and comments were sent to him telling him that his book “didn’t work” that they were not in fact “rich”. I shared an entire post about this story previously.

In short, what was revealed to Napoleon “astounded” him and he labeled it, “The Law of Cosmic Habit Force“. He claimed that he meditated on the “missing link” for nearly 20 years and he finally came to the conclusion that although he outlined what he believed were the essential principles to becoming successful, he recognized that this disgruntled readership (those who never became rich) simply never crafted the supportive habits around the principles he’d outlined.  

9)  There are more… I could keep underscoring the importance of focusing on HABIT development and alignment vs. tasks or next steps in order to achieve your goals more quickly and easily. However, once again, this post is about 4x longer than it should be/was originally intended.

The good news is I’m fairly confident you are now better equipped and have a better understanding about HABIT and its compelling relationship to goal achievement . Don’t get me wrong reading the book will provide you a much deeper understanding so, unlike “Free-Android-app-reviewer-guy” you’ll be able to “buy in” to this philosophy without question.

Habit Development Part II & the importance of The Habit Factor’s “Tracking Periods”

When it comes to developing a new habit an essential ingredient is the implementation of a “Tracking Period“. No other “Habit” app or website offers this component. It is entirely unique (and proprietary) to The Habit Factor methodology. In short, the Tracking Period is essential to improve one’s HabitStrength™ for any particular, supportive habit. (I’ll go into detail about HabitStrength™ in a subsequent post).

If you look at the picture above what you see is a Tracking Period Start Date and End Date. Typically, the recommendation is to use 4 weeks as the initial Tracking period.  Note: Within the Tracking Period there is a “Target Frequency” (eg: 14 out of 28 days). In the instance above, the habit being setup is “Meditate” and you’ll notice the user has selected each day of the week as her “Target Days” to practice the habit of “Meditate”. Therefore, the “Frequency Target” within the 28 Day Tracking Period is also 28 Days.

If, however, the Habit was “Jog for 30 Minutes” and the user only identified the Target Days as Mon, Wed, Fri then during the course of the 28 Days tracking period the Frequency Target would only be twelve (3days /week, x 4 weeks). Got it?

How this applies to strengthening the habit; Once a user completes the first 28 Day Tracking Period, she then takes a moment to reflect and assess her results. Did she nail all of her 12 Target Days – thereby equaling a frequency of 100%? Or, did she only “Jog for 30 Minutes” just 7 of the 12 days, for a performance total of 58% during the initial Tracking Period?

If she was short of her Frequency Target and tracked say ≤ 70%, she should NOT elevate her Frequency Target for the next, new Tracking Period. Notice the idea is to continually setup new tracking periods— elevating the intensity of the habit by increasing the minimums (per habit) and the frequency per week.

If, however, she managed to excel and jogged for 14 out of the 28 days (remember her target was only 12) Her performance would then be 116% as she exceeded her Frequency Target. Therefore, she should either increase her Minimum running time (30 minutes to maybe 40 minutes) OR her frequency per week (3days per week to four). Or, you guessed it—she could do both!

One of the great benefits of the Tracking Period as my friend realized after admitting, “I didn’t get the Tracking Period at all at first— but it’s really powerful! It provides a sort of built-in ‘Graduation Day’ which allows the user to reflect and assess if it’s time to raise the bar.”

Get it?

Excellent!
Now it’s time for you to raise the bar!

Go! Let 2013 be YOUR year and once you crush your goals and everyone wonders what happened, just let them know The Habit Factor sent you!

Until next time.

-mg
the methodology makes the difference!

 

 

 

The Power of Habit and The Habit Factor®, How to Break Bad Habits & Build Good Habits: Part One, Get UNSTUCK and More

goal, goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment

 

 

 

 
By: Martin Grunburg
While reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (book info below, Random House, February, 2012) with, of course, some intimate knowledge of The Habit Factor® (above left) as a background, I had a strange feeling during certain sections. In fact, there was one section in particular where things felt a little (or a lot) forced, almost like they didn’t fit. I found myself saying, “Did the publishers force Chuck (Charles Duhigg) to insert this paragraph, or did they just do it themselves?”

First, I hope I’m not breaking any written or unwritten code about reviewing a seemingly “competitive” work. For the record, this is NOT a review and I’d like to think the books complement each other fairly nicely. Also, as an aside, I must say what a terrific promotional job Random House has done to bring attention to their book and ultimately the significance of HABIT, which was my mission from the start (see final chapter of The Habit Factor).

One of the main reasons I wrote The Habit Factor® (which was released 15 months before The Power of Habit) was to draw attention to the spectacular, supernatural force of HABIT, which has been either overlooked or is tragically misunderstood in modern society. If you don’t believe that is the case, I encourage you to try this: Find any middle school or high-school student and play a little word-association game. You say to them, “HABIT,” and ask them to say the first thing that comes to their mind. Typically, and, again, tragically, their response is likely to be “smoking,” “drinking,” or “drugs”—associating habit with negative, destructive behaviors.

Chances are nearly 100% they will NOT say, “Habit is my ultimate weapon of achievement. If I consciously forge my habits and deliberately align them with my goals, I’ll be able to achieve nearly any goal I desire.” If you hear anything remotely close to that, drop everything and call or email me right away. I want to know. And, this little exercise isn’t exclusive to youth; feel free to test this among your adult friends and colleagues.

So, The Power of Habit does help in this educational effort. Not as much as I’d like, since there is so little development of the important relationship between habits and goals (achievement theory), but that is just one aspect that makes The Habit Factor® unique by comparison. The Power of Habit does a brilliant job sharing mounds of research and one anecdote after another as well as a well-rounded analysis of exactly how the power of habit impacts our life, our societies and business— all of which provide a startling wake-up-call to the reader.

Funny Story:

First, for the record, when it comes to Duhigg and the book, I’m a fan not a hater.

In fact, I am such a fan that I flew up to San Francisco to meet Duhigg at one of his early pre-release book promo events (February 2012) and, upon meeting, I said to him enthusiastically, “Great to meet you! It’s incredible to think there are only two people I know who’ve dedicated years to writing about the subject of HABIT.”

His reply was classic, “Who’s the other?”

Funny stuff, right? Now, mind you, I just assumed he knew me (I did not introduce myself) and/or The Habit Factor (based upon his Twitter account finding/following @TheHabitFactor) months earlier. It sounds like he wasn’t the one who “Followed” (@TheHabitFactor) perhaps his PR team? Hence, my confusion. So, I have to take him for his word that he had no clue about The Habit Factor®.

I will say, it was somewhat hard to believe at the time, since, when anyone comes out with a book on any topic they scour the competitive landscape just to know/understand what is already out there. Which reminds me, it didn’t seem to bother Charles or Random House that there was already a little handbook/guidebook (barely 100 pages) already titled, The Power of Habit (2003) by Jack Hodge. By the way, Jack is pretty happy with the number of accidental purchases (see reviews).

See Appendix?

Where The Power of Habit appears to have left many a reader short, comes at the end of the book, when they wonder, “Okay, this is terrific info. So, how can I apply this to build some good habits of my own?”  To that end, Duhigg shares his own story in the Appendix (the Appendix?) as though this too was some after-thought by the publisher. [ For a great illustration, check this blog post (Canada’s online legal magazine). She read two books and when it came time to take action she followed THF methodology]

So, there, in the Appendix you will find “A reader’s guide to using these ideas”. After nearly 300 pages of The Power of Habit, the reader receives an example of Duhigg himself mastering his “cookie-in-the-afternoon” habit and just 11 pages in the Appendix about how to “use these ideas”.

He shares that by applying his new found awareness of habit and the “habit loop” which looks like this;  cue -> routine ->reward he was able to overcome this habit and lose some weight in the process. So he suggests that the reader too can apply the same awareness and he provides a “framework” which consists of:  *Identify the routine  * Experiment with rewards *Isolate the cue  *Have a plan .

It’s interesting that the only real mention of behavior tracking with the intention of modifying or developing new habits is for the reader to to “take notes”.

*NOTE*: For those looking to modify behavior please know that our experience reveals that the heavily emphasized importance for a “reward” within The Power of Habit (part of the habit loop) is all but negated by the act of tracking itself— which seemingly becomes it’s own reward! Test for yourself!

Got app?

So, as you might guess, with the absence of any real connection between goal achievement and habit and the lack of any substantial application process/methodology to achieve goals, you begin to wonder just how many people finish The Power of Habit and say, “Huh, I wonder if there are any great HABIT apps to help me build some positive habits?” To which I’d reply, “Why yes, yes there is.”

My primary purpose in writing The Habit Factor®  was to deeply explore this seemingly “magical” force—HABIT— and to ensure that, with this understanding, people would be empowered by this new, innovative process to achieve their goals. In fact, The Habit Factor® book was put on hold, so that we could introduce the mobile app (iOS and Android) into this new and exciting marketplace.

Understanding the power of habit, from my perspective, has always been simply a first step toward the real reward which is, of course, “applying” that knowledge in a concrete way to improve our lives. It seems that understanding how to apply and develop positive habits in a methodical way (Habit Alignment) and tracking that progress (Tracking Periods) is too valuable to be relegated to an Appendix. In fact, one could argue, it is the REAL power of habit and the sole purpose of understanding habit.

By the way, this is why I think the two books complement each other so well:  If after reading The Habit Factor® you’re still looking for more data to understand just how powerful habits are, read The Power of Habit. If however, you’re looking to understand how to APPLY that power to achieve your own goals and develop new habits, read The Habit Factor®.

This app review of The Habit Factor® Pro, (above) is a perfect example. It appears to come from a reader of The Power of Habit who notes that The Habit Factor app is “the power of habits captured in a very friendly and useful way…”

Notice the reviewer alludes to the Power of “Habits” vs Habit —(plural vs. singular) fairly common “mistake” even among competitive apps (starts with an “L”) trying to capitalize on the books popularity. Too bad those apps don’t appear to understand that subtle and important distinction. Just how important is somewhat subjective of course, but I like to refer to the following Chinese Proverb, “The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their correct name.”

More “Mindless Trackers”

Today (three years after The Habit Factor® app was released) there are dozens of habit trackers and habit-tracking websites. The irony is that they all actually appear to understand the tracking part of the equation of positive habit development (or, get it just enough to have tried to copy it), but all of them (that would be 100%) are still missing two other critical components to make behavior change really work— education and a methodology. The fact is, none of these trackers (new to the app marketplace) have any educational component, and you’d be hard pressed to find any tied to any proven process or methodology (let alone a bestselling book).

A tech blog recently reviewed The Habit Factor® app and her analysis underscores this point, ( I love her powers of observation!), describing the app as having, “a great pedigree and outstanding tracking abilities.”

The Power of Habit Mystery Tour

So, back to the extremely forced part of The Power of Habit. What’s “funny” is I’m fairly sure it’s likely to only appear forced to about one person on earth, me. If you’re familiar with The Habit Factor®, you know I set up the opening with a “dumb” question – in fact, I pose that it’s so “dumb,” it’s never been asked, at least not according to Google. In fact, I demonstrate its uniqueness with a screen shot of my query within Google (Note: this screen shot is from 2008, somehow I knew I should take one).


So, here it is, straight from The Habit Factor® book.

“No results found for “Why do habits exist?”

Excerpt from The Habit Factor®:   WHY DO HABITS EXIST
That question apparently has never been asked, or maybe just hasn’t been asked enough. If you Google, “Why do humans exist?” you will at least get some search results that will link you to some interesting speculations, but what about the question, “Why do habits exist?”

Enter, The Power of Habit
Note: It is worth reading the proceeding paragraphs in The Power of Habit to get a feel for the flow (in the Introduction)— I’m not going to share those paragraphs here, but that “flow” comes to a grinding halt when this paragraph is introduced (dare I say, inserted). What’s fun is, notice how they managed to interject nearly that exact phrase/search terminology, “Why habits exist?” (“do” is missing) without actually addressing the question itself. Dare I say, brilliant?

[From The Power of Habit-excerpt]
“William James— like countless others, from Aristotle to Oprah—spent much of his life trying to understand WHY HABITS EXIST.  But, only in the past two decades have scientists and marketers really begun understanding how habits work— and more important, how they change.” [my caps for effect]

Back to me

Really?  They spent their lives trying to understand WHY HABITS EXIST? Somebody, please share with me where in Williams James’, Oprah’s or Aristotle’s published works did they ever ask that exact question? Where did they muse about why do habits exist? Certainly they studied habit; William James could be considered the “father” of the study of habit, much like he is considered the “father” of modern psychology. But, show me where he or they pondered or ever asked, WHY HABITS EXIST?

Trust me — that question is just peculiar enough to stand out as so singular that Google produced ZERO results for that query. Today, with that exact query, you now of course get The Habit Factor® with some “The Power of Habit” conveniently sprinkled in. The “interesting” thing is, other blogs will use that terminology when describing The Power of Habit (book) because Random House has managed to work it into their PR — so even though the book never addresses the question directly, they’ve managed to promote this unique and really “dumb” question. Nicely done.

Now, should YOU be wondering, “Why do habits exist?” there is an answer and, of course, you can find it within The Habit Factor®.

Some quick THF News!


Hot off the presses, after 2 years to the day of its original release. The Habit Factor® Paperbacks are Alive and in Stock!

The GET UNSTUCK WORLD TOUR is NOW LIVE.
DISCOUNT EXTENDED, SAVE NEARLY 50% When you sign up by 12/16/12. Program starts January 2013

 

 

The Secret and Missing Ingredient of “Think & Grow Rich” and WHY I wrote The Habit Factor®

Character, goal theory, goals, Habit Alignment, habits, HabitStregth™, P.A.R.R. Methodology, SMART Goals

Think and Grow Rich (habit)

Mr. Hill declared, “I knew I must find the ‘missing link’.”

If you know anything about the history and study of personal achievement, you know that Napoleon Hill is recognized as one of the great-grandfathers of the “Science of Success and Personal Achievement.” (BTW, if you didn’t know that, that’s OK too!)

Napoleon Hill authored the all-time classic self-help book “Think & Grow Rich.” You can read about the book here: Wikipedia Link. The book was originally published in 1937 and proved to be a deep study into the “science” of personal achievement. Mr. Hill (a former newspaper writer) undertook the project to write this book at the request of Andrew Carnegie (the world’s first billionaire).

Hill was tasked with dedicating 20 years of his life to the study, development and construction of a new “success” philosophy certain to provide a “recipe” for success and wealth to any who would follow its instructions. For his efforts, Carnegie promised to provide Napoleon unique access to many of the greatest achievers at that time – men such as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, John D. Rockefeller and Charles M. Schwab, to name a few. After interviewing these great successes and gathering their “best practices” and collective wisdom, he compiled the many lessons into a workable and powerful success philosophy – one that transformed the lives of millions of people.

Something appeared to be missing…

This book was an instant classic and positively affected millions of people; even today it is a best-seller. But numerous people would write to Mr. Hill after reading his book – and they even approached him after his inspirational talks as he toured the country – and shared that his book did NOT make them rich.

They explained that even though they followed his detailed 16 PRINCIPLES for success, they did NOT become millionaires – AND, unfortunately, that the book “did not work.”

A distraught Napoleon was confounded as he heard this sort of feedback repeatedly.

Hill spent 20 years writing this book to refine this powerful “success” philosophy, but he found that it did NOT always work for everyone as he anticipated it would.

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What was missing? WHY did it not work?

That is a terrific question, and it’s really the most incredible and important part of the story – an unintended GEM resulting from Hill’s efforts to pen the greatest assortment of success principles. In fact, EVEN TODAY seemingly nobody is aware of or understands the significance of his SUBSEQUENT discovery made so late in his career.

I consider this discovery to be the single greatest contribution to the “science of personal achievement” of all his efforts. And, the irony is it was what he LEFT OUT OF THINK & GROW RICH that provided the most value.

“WHAT was missing!?” Well, Mr. Hill pondered that question long and hard, and, as he explained it, he found himself meditating upon this “missing link” FOR ANOTHER 20 YEARS!

So, what was missing!?
Well, it’s almost unfair to tell you/share it ; ). Again, Napoleon Hill spent 20 years of his life formulating this success philosophy and authoring Think & Grow Rich, then another 20 years trying to figure out what the “MISSING LINK” was (those are HIS words).

Why do I say it’s unfair to share the answer? Well, I can almost assure you (as in guarantee) that without the same sort of contemplative meditation, his answer will either appear 1) too obvious, or worse yet, 2) insignificant.

TWO NAMES — A Single Truth

What Mr. Hill “discovered,” that is, what he left out of Think & Grow Rich, was something he labeled “The Law of Cosmic Habit Force.” That’s right… “The Law of Cosmic Habit Force.”

You see, Mr. Hill recognized (after all that time— 40 freakin’ years!) that while these disheartened souls (readers of Think and Grow Rich) were in fact applying one principle in his book after another, there was no consistency – there was a randomness to their efforts. In short, they did NOT DEVELOP THE HABITS necessary to ensure that his 16 principles became HABIT and were therefore effective for a lifetime!

That was it, the answer: The Law of Cosmic Habit Force!

Hill then knew he had to quickly revise his success philosophy to include this new, 17th and final principle, again, which he entitled, “The Law of Cosmic Habit Force.” Unfortunately, this was near the end of his career and seemingly this powerful truth has vanished. It’s been essentially LOST IN TIME.

TRANSCRIPT of Below Audio:
….for then they are bound to find the things that will work (referring to Edison and his persistent personal initiative).

:0.46 seconds

And, take myself for example, in devoting more than 20 years in research to the missing link of this philosophy now known as The Law of Cosmic Habit Force my persistent personal initiative finally yielded a full and workable description of this great law of nature into which all the other 16 principles of this philosophy blend and upon which they must depend for automatic application.

Please, listen to his own words here:

Note: Hill speaks for the first 40 seconds about the lesson of personal initiative and persistence, which he learned from Thomas Edison, and then shares how that same lesson applied to his discovery of the Law of Cosmic Habit Force. This is an excerpt from THE SCIENCE OF PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT. (Note: You can find a few videos on YouTube, as well.)

Again, even the most earnest students of Napoleon Hill and Think & Grow Rich today, including the current “GREATS” of personal achievement (no names… Just visit your favorite self-help guru’s website and see if they EVER wrote about The Law of Cosmic Habit Force prior to this post date). And, they seemingly fail to share this great insight and story – Hill’s greatest discovery.

So, if I’m YOU at this point I’m probably asking two questions: 1) What does it mean? That is, what is the law of cosmic habit force? and 2) Why haven’t I ever heard of this before?

Let me attempt to answer question #2 FIRST. I have various theories, but the most likely one is the very name itself. “The Law of Cosmic Habit Force” is, at best, a bit cryptic. In fact, in my book there is an entire section entitled “The Esoteric,” which encapsulates and even goes beyond how Hill himself tried to describe it. In fact, it’s so cryptic that even those earnest students simply didn’t understand the message. Even when it came from his own lips as he gave lectures about it (if you heard the audio above you know what I mean), it appears people had a hard time grasping what this “law” meant.

So, if you purchase THE SCIENCE OF PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT, and I recommend you do, you will notice for yourself that while he emphasized the principle, it was a bit hard to decipher. As for the first question, “What does it mean?” Listen carefully again to the end of the audio clip. “My persistent personal initiative finally yielded this GREAT LAW OF NATURE into which all the other 16 principles blend and upon which they must depend for AUTOMATIC application.” THAT it! That is exactly what that means. It’s a law of nature (discussed thoroughly in The Habit Factor), one that ALL other principles of success must depend upon.

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 If there was ONLY one thing I could teach my children.

Recently, I spent a weekend with Brian Tracy at his speaking academy along with several other well-off authors, coaches and business personalities. As we went around the room, Brian asked each member of the group to share our SINGLE GREATEST SUCCESS SECRET.

He asked that we share the single-most important lesson or “secret” that we might share if we could only share ONE thing with our kids. It was a fantastic exercise and each person revealed spectacular insights and great best practices. When you think about it, coming up with just ONE key is very difficult.

Again, these were all very high achievers in the room, so it was great to listen to everyone’s tips, such as: setting daily goals, modeling after the experts, leveraging time and talents, etc. Then, when it was my turn, I simply held up my book, The Habit Factor®. I explained that while everyone’s tips, secrets, keys and lessons were spectacular, without developing HABITS of them, unfortunately, they would be ineffective.

I then explained that it was this very question and exercise I had asked myself years ago that drove me to write this book. As I held up the book, I told them, “I had to write this book. I knew I really had to share this information!”

Here’s the key I hope you fully appreciate and take away, whether it’s Malcolm Gladwell’ s revealing of the 10,000-hour rule in Outliers or The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People or The Secret, or ____ just pick any current diet fad, workout regimen (P90X, 4-Hour Body) or any other practice/philosophy designed to better and improve your being, and guess what?

NONE of them will work until you do – until you put in the work to develop and channel the force of HABIT! It was Darwin who once said, “It is notorious how powerful is the force of habit.” Interesting when you consider Darwin was a naturalist (you’ll see how that plays into this in a bit).

As my buddy Mark said to me the other day on the golf course, “Crazy… it seems it always come back to HABIT, or the Habit factor.” And, of course, it must.

And that is precisely the conclusion Napoleon Hill recognized some 60 years ago.

You still want more? HERE’S WHY…

Since you and I are of this “natural” world, we must assume the same characteristics of said world. “What does that mean?” you ask. It’s explained deeply in my book (see the ESOTERIC section), but the fact is, HABIT (rhythms and patterns) can be found throughout the cosmos and natural world.

In its most simple form the universe is just ENERGY. In your most simple form, YOU are ENERGY. To achieve your goal it is going to require energy.

Energy is predisposed to assume patterns and rhythms (habit). Think sound waves, ocean waves…the spiral of a nautilus sea shell or even the spiral of the galaxy or weather pattern. Therefore, our personal energies WILL be drawn into habits, and they are, for better or worse.

The beauty is, as a HUMAN, YOU are uniquely endowed with the power of conscientious choice and, with PRACTICE, can AT-WILL harness this remarkable force of habit — The Law of Cosmic Habit Force. Yes, there’s an app for that :).

EVEN MORE!??? The Habit Factor and the Great Leap To Goals!

While The Habit Factor® has delivered on its promise to rekindle Mr. Hill’s “Law of Cosmic Habit Force” and spotlights his seemingly lost efforts, I recognized my undertaking in writing The Habit Factor® needed to be far more exhaustive, descriptive and explanatory by focusing exclusively on the SUBJECT OF HABIT (vs. multiple success principles) and by avoiding any single particular pursuit, i.e., lose weight, get fit, make money, etc.

And in so doing, The Habit Factor revealed new and exciting dimensions Mr. Hill either never discovered, considered or had information of. So, I not only wanted to shed light on his lost discovery, but knew I had to go much further with The Habit Factor. I sensed that HABIT, as the sole subject matter, demanded an even more thorough investigation, even starting with the fundamental question, “Why do habits exist?” (this is a funny story).

I felt it was critical to introduce and share some of the latest science (neuroscience) about habit and our brains, again, discoveries and information unfortunately Mr. Hill never had access to. I also recognized it was critical to investigate the philosophical and business aspects of habit. But, what is proving to be the most valuable contribution of The Habit Factor® is the idea of creating and tracking supportive, positive habits to attain one’s goal far more quickly— the use of Habit Alignment Technology™ which has now become a best-practice for goal achievement.

There is no greater showcase of this literal application than THE FREE TEMPLATE, iPhone and Android app bearing the same name, and you can TRY THE APP FREE!  It’s a bit funny to me that The  Habit Factor® will probably always be best known for its introduction of a simple and powerful goal achievement process rather than the rekindling of Mr. Hill’s greatest discovery, The Law of Cosmic Habit Force.

So, there you have it. You now know what the large majority of the world’s population does not know, understand or perhaps even care about. That whenever you hear anyone talking about how great Think & Grow Rich is, ask them if they know what was missing? : )

You can check out this quick episode about The Law of Cosmic Habit Force on The “Habits 2 Goals” Podcast.

[Grab this Template Now— This is EXACTLY HOW YOU can apply the Missing Secret!]

 
So, now the question is, What are you going to do with Mr. Hill’s greatest discovery. The irony here is if you do nothing with it, you are of course still applying The Law of Cosmic Habit force/The Habit Factor®. I humbly suggest it’s time you give The Law of Cosmic Habit Force and/or The Habit Factor® YOUR BIGGEST, most important GOAL and put Habit Alignment Technology™ to the test.

***BTW: THF Makes a GREAT GIFT. A gift that keeps on giving ; ) (inexpensive and value-packed). I’m still hearing from friends about the “thanks” they are getting from giving away the book last year. Finally, for those of you who purchase a minimum of 5 or 10— we have a couple gift packages. Please email me your receipt to: mg AT thehabitfactor.com, and we have a special gift for you. I’m not sharing what the gift is because we’d like to know that you’re giving/purchasing for the purpose of serving & giving rather than getting. If you plan on purchasing 25 or more email before purchase.

Enjoy and put THF and TLoCHF to work today for your benefit!!!!

~mg

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