Another perfect illustration of how habits help to drive goal achievement has gone terrifically viral. I’m very happy for the author and even more pleased about the exposure it’s given this simple idea of how HABITS help to drive GOAL achievement. This post has now been featured on Huffingtonpost.com, BusinessInsider.com, Lifehacker.com, USAToday.com, dailymail.co.uk, Reddit.com and about two dozen other blogs. In the event you are one of the few who hasn’t read or heard about this story, you can find it here on medium.com.
The “short” story is that Mauricio Estrella @manicho was having a very difficult day while in the midst of a deep depression spurred on by a divorce. He needed to prep for a meeting, and then he got hit with his corporate Exchange email server requiring that he update/change his password as it was programmed to do every 30 days. He was furious!
Then, he’d recalled something a former manager shared with him about using the password to help him get stuff accomplished, to complete projects, check off tasks — in essence, achieve goals. By having to retype the password multiple times a day, it forced some conscious awareness around whatever the objective was.
So, Mauricio decided to give it a shot. As he thought about the bitterness and depression all created by his then-current divorce, he made a conscious decision to set up a new password that would positively support a constructive outcome. “Forgive@h3r” became his new mantra and password.
Forgive her. Forgive her. Forgive her… repeated in his mind several times a day and, from his head to the keyboard, his fingertips would execute the command… “Forgive@h3r”.
He immediately began to notice a difference in mentality, and his disposition about her and the divorce changed. He was so enthralled with the results that when the time came to set up a new password, he was eager to give a new goal a shot: He wanted to quit smoking.
“Quit@smoking4ever.” Lo and behold, as he says, “I shit you not. I quit smoking overnight.”
I’ll let you read the rest of the story…
Note: There was one goal (I won’t give it away) that wasn’t achieved. It’s kind of funny and I’m guessing we both have some ideas why that one didn’t stick. ; ) In any event, enjoy his post and I’m hopeful it encourages you to believe and understand HOW and WHY habits serve goal achievement. If you’ve read The Habit Factor, you will immediately recognize (as my friend who prompted me about the post did) the significance and relationship to THF.
Finally, I enjoyed Mauricio’s post so much, I tweeted to him just to thank him for sharing his story/inspiring others and I’d forgotten about it. A couple days later, I noticed this (below); of course I had no idea, and that’s the crazy thing about Twitter.
Who knew?
Again, great work Mauricio and thanks for sharing your story with the world!
until next time,
~mg
@thehabitfactor