law of cosmic habit force — The Habit Factor®

Habits, Goals, My Summer Vacation & Lessons Learned

creativity, energy, goals, Habit Alignment, habits, meditation, Podcast, unstuck, zen

[By: Martin Grunburg]

Time to get back to some habits and goals!

It’s been a while — a long while — since my last blog post, and this is largely by design. That is, I didn’t want to begin writing again until, well, I wanted to.

The time has come.

The same can be said for the podcast, which we will light up in just a few weeks. (Season V kicks off on 11/5!)

In both cases the fire is back (along w/ the creativity) and the timing just “feels” right as we head into Q4 and then 2019!

That’s right, let me be the first to wish you a Happy New Year! ; )

Having said that, I want to keep this post relatively tight and light.

Lessons/great reminders from my summer vacation:

LIFE IS VERY SHORT.

Very, very, very short. Just found out yesterday that an old high school buddy, Mike, passed away, and re-reading his last Facebook Messenger message brought me to tears. The man had a heart of gold. The messages we exchanged included a quick note to him with a link to my interview with Hal Elrod, which discussed Hal’s own battle with cancer. I hoped he’d enjoy Hal’s story and be inspired — he told me he was and we then exchanged soccer stories about our daughters!
SKYDIVE TO LIVE!

Middle of Sept. we did a team-building event: a tandem skydive. This was an amazing experience. I was later asked, “What was it like to cheat death?” I think I just laughed it off, but as I contemplated that question later the reality struck me: “Nobody cheats death…but it sure seems so many of us are cheating life.”

Death ultimately gets ALL of us. I like to call it the “Big vacuum in the sky.” So, the question really becomes: What are we doing NOW, with the very limited time we have, to not cheat/sell short this great opportunity we’ve been presented? (Read: sense of urgency.)
EURO-ZONE:

We had a terrific family vacation at the end of July in Europe. The trip provided us the chance to visit my mother in her motherland, Sweden. (Our daughters are 15 and 17 at this point, which is hard to fathom!) The girls thought of it as a big Instagram post…they thoroughly enjoyed Copenhagen, Malmo and Paris. My wife and I hadn’t been back to Paris for almost 20 years! So, yes, she had a great time too!

; )
EURO-PLUS: SIDDHARTHA:

The Airbnb host in Malmo, Sweden, had this little gem of a story by the bedside. (I’ve read this a few times in the past, but it had been a while, like 20+ years). The difference in reading this book in your twenties and thirties and then in your — dare I say it — fifties is extra poignant. The story follows a young and brash Siddhartha through his early years up through his later years (50+!), and there is simply no other way to appreciate that story with a more “mature” perspective other than to read it then and now. Wow. Book Here!
YOUR REAL COMPETITION = YOUR POTENTIAL:

Workouts tend to provide fantastic insight into subtle “things,” like our own mindsets, habits, goals, limits, etc. The other day, I really just wanted to quit. I finished the workout and told myself — actually caught myself saying — “That’s good enough!” as I neared the gym exit. Then, for some reason, that simple statement echoed in my head. “Was it really good enough?'” How much was I selling myself short? I turned around walked back and talked myself into two more sets of pull ups (which resulted in the next awareness) . . .
PLAY “SMALL BALL” FOR THE WIN:

Whether it’s pull-ups or shuffleboard, the lesson that keeps hitting me in the head these days is playing small ball! Thinking/acting “small.” That’s right, small, which leads to BIG results/wins!

It was no small coincidence that later that same day, as the Yankees were losing a playoff game, the announcer kept reiterating this VERY same message as a Yankee player (no names) kept swinging for the fences. “He’s trying to do way too much here,” said the commentator. “He needs to do the little things…just put the bat on the ball, get on base.” Which then reminded me of Cal Ripkin Jr.’s great quote referencing his father at the Hall of Fame induction:

“My father always used to say, when you take care of all the little things you won’t have a big thing to worry about.” To underscore the message further, enter Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher:

“Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.” Which is a nice segue to…
THE ONLY ZEN YOU FIND ON THE TOPS OF MOUNTAINS:

My daily meditation practice is up to 47 minutes per day. Yep, 47 minutes a day. It’s almost funny to me that I used to think about meditation in terms of “getting it done.” In other words, I’d try to be efficient. When I began mediating around 2001, the goal/target time was about 20 minutes. Then I felt I could cut down my time and have similar results, so it dropped to about 12 minutes. Approximately a year or so later I found I was all the way down to about just six minutes of meditation. It was long after that I found I was limiting my quiet time to 2 minutes!

Did it work? Incredibly, yes. Even a short period of meditation was beneficial, helping me become more grounded and clear, even in just two minutes. But I’d lost my way and understanding. Many of you reading this are probably thinking, “THERE IS NO WAY I HAVE 45+ minutes to sit and do nothing!”

I would challenge that statement/belief and simply ask you how much time you spend with TV and Internet each day? Which do you think offers a greater RoT (Return on Time)?
“Now, repeat after me: “Sitting peacefully doing nothing, Spring comes and the grass grows all by itself.“
FREE COURSE IS LIVE! “GET UNSTUCK”

We’ll close out this post with this, my friends: If you’re feeling STUCK or just want to get fired up about life again, we’ve just completed and published this FREE course (limited time). I’m confident this course will do wonders and kick you in the right place to help you GET UNSTUCK! So, if you are STUCK and your results aren’t what you’d like them to be, often it can be traced right back to your habitual thinking and behaviors. Yep, your HABITS.

Just know that going through this course will challenge your thinking about your thinking, yourself, your goals, your future.

That’s it for now!

~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

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

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.

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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

Habits, Goals, My Summer Vacation & Lessons Learned

LIFE IS VERY SHORT.

SKYDIVE TO LIVE!

EURO-ZONE:

EURO-PLUS: SIDDHARTHA:

YOUR REAL COMPETITION = YOUR POTENTIAL:

PLAY “SMALL BALL” FOR THE WIN:

THE ONLY ZEN YOU FIND ON THE TOPS OF MOUNTAINS:

FREE COURSE IS LIVE! “GET UNSTUCK”