8 Steps That Will Radically Change Your Life in 30 Days or Less, Guaranteed.

[chrisbiz4444]

You should include this in your upcoming book, MJ. KILLER POST!

Does anyone have any info on the next book?

 

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[Jak]

Well I just started recently, but I have 5 out of 5 days of full X's. :]

 

[AubreyJ]

Ok, fess up time...

Who completed 10 days of Xs? 30? Any new habits started?

I just made my Kaizen Progress chart today, I think it will help a lot! Thanks again for the idea!

 

[Magik]

Ok, fess up time...

Who completed 10 days of Xs? 30? Any new habits started?

Starting back in January, I started doing this thing I found online called the check system. It's similar to what you are talking about. I created a table in Word and printed it out. I check off with an ink pen when I completed a day. The problem is I was working two days a week, plus was trying to do too much at one time. This was a mistake and things went sideways, and I fell off. Now that it looks as though I am jobless, I am back on track. My tasks are to meditate for 10 minutes, read for at least 15 minutes, get on my exercise bike for 30 minutes, and work on my writing for at least 3 hours. So far this week, almost solid checks across the board. The only thing I am failing on is getting up early, I tend to sleep too late in the day. That's a habit that will be difficult to implement, but I will press on.

 

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[AllenCrawley]

BUMP.

How many have followed these steps?

How many have read this and thought "Wow, this is great info" but did absolutely nothing with it?

 

[Jak]

Not me..

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Wow @Jak should be seeing some changes right there.

 

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[Jak]

I am

One of the best things is the clarity it gives you about what's working in your life and what needs to be changed. Once this month finishes, I know exactly what categories to leave up, and which ones need to be swapped out. That way, I'm constantly growing in new areas every month.

Thanks for the advice MJ, I really appreciate everything.

 

[FionaS]

I've been doing it! My layout is a little different than Jak's, but I put it in my wallet/planner and mark things off as I go. I also have an expanded to-do list, but this is my day to day (these are mostly just my specific goals I want to make routine, business objectives and goals that vary are somewhere else.

 

[Jak]

Awesome! I'm going paleo too, lol. Your layout is much more legible than mine. I'm adjusting next month's so the rows are more easily distinguishable. I like the idea of a daily planner though.

 

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[Magik]

I'll admit that I was doing well, and then fell off (actually more like jumped off). I was using a system similar to the spreadsheet called the check system, something I found months earlier. My spreadsheet had exercise for 30 minutes, meditate for 10 minutes, reading, and a few other things. The balanced attack I went with for the first 3 months of the year overall, was a failure. I scrapped what I was doing and put my focus 100% on one thing--my book. It was necessary for me personally to go ALL IN mentally and physically, something that I've never done before. In 7 weeks, what I accomplished surprised me. I'm seriously shocked at how far it progressed in that time, though I'm not quite done yet.

My big struggle is waking early, I seriously don't understand how you all do it. I've really struggled with it, and if I can get over that hurdle, I think everything else will fall into place with proper action. I have read part of MM, but I didn't finish it. It looks like I need to finish it and put forth better action and use better tactics (affirmations, go to bed earlier, alarm across the room, laptop away from the bed, etc.) I don't think I'm adding anything else to the plate until I master this one thing. The hindrance on my progress has clearly been staying up too late/sleeping too late.

 

[Jak]

Waking up early was the hardest part for me too. I've never slept well at all and precluded myself from being a morning person because I thought I had Sleep Apnea, or Chronic Fatigue (which I probably do, I'm just not using it as an excuse any more).

Really, it just takes sheer willpower for me. I do the affirmations and stuff, but the only thing that honestly gets me up in the morning at this point is habit. If you can hold out long enough and persist until it becomes a habit, then you're 80% there. It's still going to take your willpower, but it becomes much easier. Hope that helps.

P.s., I'm sure this gets said a lot, but the quality of your food, exercise, and whether or not you stay away from screens for at least an hour before bed, has a dramatic impact on your quality of sleep. The better your quality of sleep, the easier it is to get up and stay up in the morning.

 

[Magik]

@Jak - Yeah, it's been hard for me my entire life, even when I was a kid. My mom used to have the hardest time getting me out of bed. Willpower isn't enough for me, because I have none early in the morning. I have put together a system, a series of mechanisms, that I will begin tonight. I have no idea how effective it will be, but it should work better than what I've been doing:

Evening
-Alarm goes off at 10:00 PM: This signals for me to turn off all screens and move the laptop and phone across the room.
-Meditate for 10 Minutes, then read in bed.
-Alarm goes off at 11:00 PM: This signals that it's time for sleep, lights out.

Morning
-Alarm goes off at 6:00 AM (not sure about a wake-up time yet, will start with 6:00). Alarm will be in my bathroom. Alarm will force me to solve math problems before I can turn it off.
-Hop in the shower immediately in order to wake up
-Once out of shower, morning routine begins

*Track all progress on a sheet, that way if I'm not hitting the mark, it stares me in the face everyday. Adjust times accordingly to achieve results.

 

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[FionaS]

@Jak - Yeah, it's been hard for me my entire life, even when I was a kid. My mom used to have the hardest time getting me out of bed. Willpower isn't enough for me, because I have none early in the morning. I have put together a system, a series of mechanisms, that I will begin tonight. I have no idea how effective it will be, but it should work better than what I've been doing:

Evening
-Alarm goes off at 10:00 PM: This signals for me to turn off all screens and move the laptop and phone across the room.
-Meditate for 10 Minutes, then read in bed.
-Alarm goes off at 11:00 PM: This signals that it's time for sleep, lights out.

Morning
-Alarm goes off at 6:00 AM (not sure about a wake-up time yet, will start with 6:00). Alarm will be in my bathroom. Alarm will force me to solve math problems before I can turn it off.
-Hop in the shower immediately in order to wake up
-Once out of shower, morning routine begins

*Track all progress on a sheet, that way if I'm not hitting the mark, it stares me in the face everyday. Adjust times accordingly to achieve results.

Something else than can help wake you up is brushing your teeth and drinking some water right when you wake up. Amazing how awake that makes me feel.

 

[Formless]

Magik.

Squat. Do not think. Do not prepare. Do not stand properly. Do not get dressed. Do not watch your form.

Step out of bed and do 100 squats.

Just trust me on this. I am NOT a morning person, but anytime I ever needed to WAKE UP and BE AWAKE, I use this.

If you do this RIGHT as you hear the alarm and turn it off, you're too tired to start rationalizing. You just respond to a simple command. And by the time you can start rationalizing, blood's pumping through your legs, testosterone is being released, lungs are pumping like cylinders, and the body needs water.

 

[Jak]

@Jak - Yeah, it's been hard for me my entire life, even when I was a kid. My mom used to have the hardest time getting me out of bed. Willpower isn't enough for me, because I have none early in the morning. I have put together a system, a series of mechanisms, that I will begin tonight. I have no idea how effective it will be, but it should work better than what I've been doing:

Evening
-Alarm goes off at 10:00 PM: This signals for me to turn off all screens and move the laptop and phone across the room.
-Meditate for 10 Minutes, then read in bed.
-Alarm goes off at 11:00 PM: This signals that it's time for sleep, lights out.

Morning
-Alarm goes off at 6:00 AM (not sure about a wake-up time yet, will start with 6:00). Alarm will be in my bathroom. Alarm will force me to solve math problems before I can turn it off.
-Hop in the shower immediately in order to wake up
-Once out of shower, morning routine begins

*Track all progress on a sheet, that way if I'm not hitting the mark, it stares me in the face everyday. Adjust times accordingly to achieve results.

I would suggest not reading in bed, as it can program your brain to equate bed with reading time. Other than that, it's very similar to my routine. I wake up, go to my desk to grab my alarm (phone), then to turn the alarm off, I have to go to my bathroom and scan a QR code. At that point, I usually hop right in the shower, or if it's a workout day, I'll do that first.

@FionaS is right, brushing teeth and drinking a full glass of water after waking up helps tremendously. That's usually when I take my vitamins too.

Also, something I forgot to mention; When you wake up, if you're the type of person who will try to rationalize, "Should I stay up or go back to sleep", something that always works is asking yourself, "Will going to sleep bring me closer to my final goal?" Think big picture here, it helps put things into perspective. That always motivates me if I need a little extra boost of willpower in the morning.

 

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[Brandon412]

#1: Accept Reality: There Are No Shortcuts. Real Change Requires a Real Process.

Let’s first get the uncomfortable shit out of the way.

Anything worthwhile in life will require a worthwhile effort. There are no shortcuts. There are NO silver bullets, NO magic pills, and NO secret sauces. If you’re still trolling the internet looking for this stuff, move along. You’ve got the wrong forum, the wrong article, and the wrong author.

So lets start with the old guru mantra “take action!”

We say it a lot around here: Take action! Take action!

While action is important, action isn’t what creates change.

Taking action, by itself, is just an event that produces little, if any results. In fact, “taking action” is right behind “do what you love” as one of the biggest guru hoaxes ever perpetrated on the self-improvement industry.

Blasphemy?

Here’s why.

“Taking action” is merely a micro-task to a process, and a process is what precedes real change.

What’s a process? A process is a systematized series of focused actions. A process is repeated. A process is “taking action X 1000" and making adjustments along the way.

Once a process is established it then becomes a habit, which then integrates the process into your mind as automatic, instinctual, and almost subconscious. It actually becomes woven into your existence. The result is a lifestyle which ultimately creates the change you want. The change isn’t fleeting or short-lived, but permanent. Short-cuts are short for a reason— they don’t last.

Unfortunately, most people leverage “taking action” into some sort of mental masturbation trick designed to give us a fleeting "feel good" moment. It’s a temporary exercise orchestrated to fool yourself into thinking that you are doing something, when in actuality, you’re just painting lipstick on the pig. You’re committed to the idea of change, but not committed to the process of change.

Hit the gym the first week of January. See all those people? They’re committed to the idea of change (which are just fleeting thoughts) but not committed to the process (which is the focused action). By February, 95% of them will be gone.

View attachment 6828

You see, going to the gym constitutes “taking action”. However, if you never return, will anything really change? Not a damn thing except for that moment of “feel good” which is now, long gone.

Want to eat better and shed a few pounds? Great— for lunch you have steamed halibut and broccoli. Awesome choice. Healthy and nutritious, a perfect decision for your goals. Unfortunately, for dinner you’re back at the old double-bacon cheeseburger with fries. Again, absolutely nothing has changed despite “taking action.”

Ever hear someone say “I’m on a diet?” What they’re really saying is this:

I am NOT committed to permanent change.
I am NOT committed to the process.
I am NOT committed to a transformation from action, to habit.

The word diet implicitly means FAIL. Diets are event-driven based on “taking action” — but the word implies temporary, which implies failure of process.

Diets die and only succeed when they become lifestyles, making the diet, no diet at all— but a simple way of living.

You see, your lifestyle is what produces the real change you seek. That’s how you make a difference in your life. No pill, no diet, and no book can give you the “secret” — the secret lies within yourself, your process, and your expectations of that process.

Focused action > Committed and Repeated > Habit > Lifestyle.



#2: Identify What You Want

What exactly do you want?

Envision yourself time-shifting 1 year into the future at a New Years Eve party. Envision yourself celebrating the year that was, the year that changed EVERYTHING. Take a moment and reflect on the accomplishments you are celebrating in this moment.

Do you want to lose 60 pounds and did it? Did you eat better and got your cholesterol down to 180? Did you enter a fitness competition and placed in the top three? Did you start a new business and doubled your income? Quit your job? Met your soulmate? Complete a full length novel?

Identify EXACTLY what you want to feel in this moment and envision yourself there.

If you don't know where you want to go, you don't know the road that will get you there.



#3: Apply Mathematics To That End Goal, If Possible

Now that you’ve envisioned how awesome your new year will be, attach a numerical figure to your goal.

If “lose weight” is the goal, this would translate into “Lose 25 pounds” or “Get to 15% bodyfat”. Likewise, if your goal is to “start a business” you would need to identify a numerical number, say sales, profits, or # of customers.

The mathematics of the change is crucially important as subjective milestones cannot be measured, and often are action-fakes for real progress.

For example, if “start a business” is the goal, what measure identifies meeting the goal? The moment you get business cards? Or a fancy logo? The moment you launch the website?

While these milestones are apart of the process, they are merely circle-jerking action-fakes designed to make us think that we’ve accomplished a goal, when the real goal should be a sustainable mathematical momentum that keeps us moving toward habitual and addictive producing results.

If it cannot be sustained, it isn’t real — it isn’t habit and it isn’t lifestyle.



#4: Segment The End Goal Into It’s Daily “Take-Action” Step

After you isolate what you want to achieve and quantified it, break down that achievement into it’s core “take action” component, or what I call “the daily target”. What daily routine will get you there?

For example, if you objective is to write a novel, your daily target could be to write 500 words everyday, or a minimum of 2 hours. If your objective is 12% body fat and six-pack abs, your daily target would be to either workout and/or eat no more than 2,000 calories. The important thing here is to isolate the micro-task that builds the process.

If your goal cannot be measured, use a daily accounting instead. For example, on my attached spreadsheet I have an end goal as “education” — I want to expand my knowledge. In order create change in this area, I will strive to learn something new everyday. Doing so completes the task.



#5: Identify What Threatens The Daily Target.

In other words, you need to identify what IS NOT working. What can and will threaten your daily target? There’s that old adage: The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing while expecting different results. In other words, the choices you made this YEAR resulted in the CONSEQUENCES you have NOW.

In order to hit the daily targets you’ve set, you’ve got to identify exactly WHAT will stop you from achieving them. Why have you failed for the last 10 years? What things do you need to stop doing to make this happen THIS YEAR? Success is more about what you need to STOP doing versus START doing.

• Are you spending 5 hours a day on Facebook playing the latest and greatest game?
• Are you jumping from one idea to the next with no focused action or plan?
• Does your ego require an expensive BMW? Which then requires you to maintain your 60 hour a week soul-sucking corporate job?
  
• Are you giving into false narratives (I have no money! I have no skills! I'm not a morning person!) that preclude you from making a change?

In order to tackle the hardest part of process, which is “committed and repeated”, you have to dig down into your life and expose everything that is thwarting process.

It all boils down to one thing: Your choices.

"Greatness is a lot of small things done daily."

​

What are you choosing instead? What bad habits are stealing your time and derailing your progress?

The bottomline is, if you don’t have what you want, its because of one reason only: You’re simply not making the required sacrifice. You are choosing actions not correlated to your goal.



#6: Target Threats By Identifying Where the Battles Are Won and Lost.

Most people fight their wars on the wrong battlefield, resulting in loss after loss. If you only knew WHERE and HOW to fight, you would have a fighting chance to create the change you want.

For example, if you want to lose fifty pounds, you have to first identify where the battle is won and lost.

Most people think the battle is won at the refrigerator. As you open up the door, the battle begins:

• “OMG, don’t eat that ice cream! Pick something else!
• “Oooh, look at the cheesecake! Should I eat a few bites? No don’t!
• “Mmmm, I would love an ice cold Pepsi right about now… but I shouldn’t.
• “Don’t eat that block of cheese! OMG I can’t stand it!
• “No, don’t grab that gallon of ice cream! Oh, just a little dish won’t hurt…

Sorry champ, but you’ve already lost.

The war you’re fighting isn’t fought at the refrigerator, its fought at the grocery store. The moment you put this crap in your shopping cart, is the moment you’ve lost the war. You’re fighting a war with sticks and stones while your enemy has an AR-15.

Been spending hours watching mindless reality television? The battle you need to fight isn’t on the couch with the remote control, it’s on the telephone. Pick up the phone and cancel the freaking cable TV.



#6) Attack bad habits with inconvenience and/or pain.

Once you identify the battlegrounds, your bad habits are now ripe for attack.

How do you attack them?

By leveraging your natural human instinct which is to seek the path of least resistance. In other words, make your bad habits a royal pain in the a$$ to continue. Make them invasive. Inconvenient.

In our refrigerator example, if you’ve won the war at the grocery store, you now have attached inconvenience to the bad habit. If you want ice cream, you’ve got to hop in your car, drive to the store, troll the grocery aisle, buy it, and drive home. Not super complicated, but certainly not super convenient.

If you’re trying to stop playing video games, pack up your XBOX console and sell it. Or throw it in the attic. Now if you want to play, you’ve got to climb a ceiling ladder and crawl through a dusty attic to unpack it, wire it up, and play.

Again, not very convenient.



#7) Reward Daily “Action-Taking” Accomplishments with a Physical Cue.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve learned that crossing-off line-items on my to-do list is addictive.

It feels good.

I love seeing that “X” being marked off as it gives me a sense of reward. If you can do the same with your daily “action taking” we can encourage process and habit changing behavior to take place.

I’ve attached a spreadsheet that can help us accomplish this. It also outlines this entire exercise in procedural change.

Going back to our “lose weight” example, your daily ritual should include a visit to the gym and a better diet. Each day this is done successfully, mark down its accomplishment in a journal or a spreadsheet. On my spreadsheet, it’s achievement is marked by an X.

The objective of the spreadsheet is to create a mental map of your “action taking” so it eventually forms a process.

The goal is to get vertical with the X’s as much as possible for each goal target. If you target ONE X MINIMUM for each day for each row, you will experience KAIZEN, or constant improvement.

Over the course of thirty days, you will see noticeable results.

In a year, you won’t recognize yourself!!!

Optimally, you want to create columns of Xs on consecutive days for each objective. The minimum goal should be at least one X on each day— this means you are improving yourself every single day. To get started, I suggest a simply 30-day challenge, or baby steps, a 10-day challenge.

Pick a goal, line up some “X”s and see how to goes for you.

On my spreadsheet, I have several categories. Each are designed to improve my life in a different facet. This challenge also exposed an interesting "false narrative" in my life ... The last 2 weeks, I've been getting up at 4:15AM and hitting the gym. While the early days were a struggle, I'm to the point now where I discovered that "I'm not a morning person" was simply a narrative I told myself so I didn't have to exert the discipline to get up.

So, who wants to change their life in the next 30 days?



KAIZEN: Japanese for "improvement" or "change for the best", refers to philosophy or practices that focus upon continuous improvement of processes.

​

 

[Brandon412]

Very honest, piercing, informative content. self is source of change. no change equals no change.
become..do..have as its said...

 

[Cannonball]

Alarm will force me to solve math problems before I can turn it off.

Is this an app on your phone, or an actual alarm. I need this!

 

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[Magik]

Is this an app on your phone, or an actual alarm. I need this!

I use Android, no idea what's available for iphone.

"Alarm Clock Xtreme" is the one for math problems, there is another called "I Can't Wake Up!" that allows you to scan barcodes, so you can set it up to where you have to scan a barcode in your bathroom to turn it off.

 

[Steve Daar]

Nice. Reminds me of the Tony Robbins goal setting workshop I just went through.

Look at your top goals daily. Write down the 1 thing you can do today to move closer to each of those top goals.

Consistent, daily action is the key. Eventually it will become habit and then lifestyle.

Add pleasure to the process and/or reward of completing these actions each day. Add pain to the notion of not completing these actions each day.

Get leverage on yourself to motivate the right actions each day even on day's when "you don't feel like it" or that you can "just do it tomorrow"

 

[Mattie]

I agree with you 100% on taking action. Fortunately you create your thought first and than take action unless its muscle memory. The intention and focus has to be there.

 

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[cautiouscapy]

"Alarm Clock Xtreme" is the one for math problems, there is another called "I Can't Wake Up!" that allows you to scan barcodes, so you can set it up to where you have to scan a barcode in your bathroom to turn it off.

This sounds TORTUROUS.

I have just installed "I Can't Wake Up!" on my Android phone.
And set the alarm to 6:15 except Sunday.

Urgh...gotta do it.

 

[ddall]

Great post MJ.

It's interesting, i've come to some of these conclusions independently over the years, particularly noting things in terms of fitness as well, as I'm a pretty shredded guy and have been for ages. I'm 31 now and have been lifting since 16.

It's like this: I didn't get to this level of conditioning over night. It is the result of CONSISTENT, DAILY effort, on repeat, the optimization of what works for my body in terms of diet and training routine. The daily acquisition of nutritional and fitness knowledge over time has permeated deep into my subconscious thinking, making smart fitness choices comes naturally. This mindset of daily habitual action towards a desired goal has compund like effect. One cannot for example decide to workout for 6 hours on a single day of the week, and consume zero calories expecting the same results as one who exercises a consistent 1 hour for 6 days, with a 300 calorie/day deficit. Slow and steady wins the race.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” --Aristotle

I've been operating under this philosophy in terms of my personal fast-lane journey, and it is amazing what can transpire by daily action when you turn around to gaze at the dusty, meandering path you've travelled.

 

[Luke1213]

 

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[SYK]

I've been using the app Lift to keep my habits in check.

Also discovered my new favorite maxim:

Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can do what others can’t.

 

[Gravy South]

Thanks Mj! I learned about Kaizen in business studies especially Toyota are famous for embedding this technique into their employees, never thought of applying to myself I guess it's not too late to do so today

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Jerry Seinfelds "productivity secret" is strikingly similar.

http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

 

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[MarkNNelson]

Jerry Seinfelds "productivity secret" is strikingly similar.

http://lifehacker.com/281626/jerry-seinfelds-productivity-secret

Yup. I use Wonderful Day on the iPhone. It's basically the Seinfeld method, for as many items as you want to track.

 

[Jinxus]

Yup. I use Wonderful Day on the iPhone. It's basically the Seinfeld method, for as many items as you want to track.

Purchased