How The Last 31 Days Has Created A Habit

The last 31 days have been habit forming – in a good way.

In a recent blog post, I shared that I was participating in a 31 Day Challenge to write 500 words a day. Today is day 32 and I am happy to share that I did not miss a day. Not every piece of writing got posted somewhere but I wrote every day.

Some days during the last month, I wrote based on the prompt for solely my own benefit. There was a prompt that had me writing about things I want my children to know – kind of like a manifesto. In that piece, I wrote over 900 words and I’m not finished with it. I wanted to think more and give that particular writing a bit more reflection and contemplation because it’s important to me.

This challenge started my New Year with a new practice and habit that I’ve wanted to develop for a while and now, I feel like I’ve got the momentum I need to continue it. Like any habit that needs to form, I had to have motivation then some cue to do the action then having a reward to complete the habit loop. My reward was being able to post in a private group setting about my writing and that I had completed it.

In leadership, we often must operate under the Law of the Picture as author and friend John C. Maxwell shares in his book “21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”. That law states that people do what people see. Part of being a leader is having an ability to look at what behaviors we are practicing – either through self-reflection or through having a coach or mentor – and determine whether this is the picture that we want others to follow.

Habit formation and change is one of the more difficult things that leaders have to do as part of their own growth and leadership. The truth is we aren’t always perfect and it takes several attempts to get things right some times. That’s where it takes courage to step out of our comfort zones and be open with the people we lead.

I once had a leader tell his senior leadership team that he was very afraid of implementing a culture program within his company because of how he might perform with practicing the success behaviors they defined. But in the end, he showed great courage and leadership by telling his team that it was the right thing to do for their company and their continued success as they grew. He took his company on the journey to form new habits and a high performing culture.

As I reflect on what the last 31 days has taught me about creating new habits, I've found 5 things that stick out to me:

1.    Commitment takes courage. Ok, well, maybe not for everyone but when I share my commitments publicly, there’s a bit more pressure. As someone who has “Achiever” in my top 5 Strengths on the Strengths Finder assessment, it gives me a bit more motivation to know that I’ve announced my commitment publicly. I say that this takes courage for me because, well, I don’t like to fail. Being able to follow through on my commitments (as in the Fundamental titled “Honor Commitments”) is an extremely important value and behavior to me. Having others know about my commitment, adds enough pressure to keep me pressing on.

2.    Habits are hard…at first.  We are all creatures of habit whether we are aware or not. But our sub conscious mind takes over most of our actions on a day to day basis. It has been programmed to execute many behaviors through repetition. When we do something at the same time, over and over again, our brain is relieved of the energy needed to think about it and to execute the behavior. Getting to this point – the repetition is the hard part. We have to set up cues – or rituals – for that intentional practice. I created a morning ritual checklist to execute every morning after grabbing my first cup of coffee and sitting down in my chair. My writing practice was incorporated into that checklist but I also set myself up for success by copying the prompt into a blank Word document the night before and had that up on my screen so that I wouldn’t get distracted down the rabbit hole of email and social media. Part of making habit formation less hard is to do what you can ahead of time to prepare so there are few roadblocks or hurdles to carrying out the behavior.

3.    Community and accountability is key.  Having a community of people who were also going through this writing challenge helped me to stay accountable. Even though I really didn’t know these people personally, I saw their struggles and their triumphs right along-side mine. As leaders, we need accountability. I am the President and CEO of my business yet I am in 2 peer groups with other CEOs and business leaders so that I can gain a contribution to my thinking. It’s what Napoleon Hill wrote about that he saw as a success factor of hundreds of successful business people. He called it the mastermind. Dr. Henry Cloud wrote about it in his book called “The Power Of The Other” where he teaches the science behind having that power of other people in our lives to help us. This challenge re-emphasized to me this huge benefit and power of the mastermind. So much so that I’m forming a peer group of my own to share that power with some other CEOs that I know. If you’re interested in finding out if you can apply to join, reach out to me.

4.    Persistence takes preparation. I mentioned already that making preparation for executing the habit is key and this is one of the lessons I learned again through this writing process. Some of you may know that my mom is suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer. The last several weeks, I’ve made a 5-hour trip every weekend so that I could see her and take care of her affairs. If you’ve traveled at any time in your career or life, you know how much travel can upend your habits and routines. That is, unless you prepare. So, during this time of my normal routine being challenged, I made sure that I got up early so that I could execute my morning ritual which included my writing. I’m happy to say that my morning ritual has been in place for a number of years now so it was much easier to get up a bit early to make this part happen.

5.    Focus is critical. The tool I used to be able to shut everything out while I wrote was called Focus@Will (www.focusatwill.com). It is a website that provides music and sounds to help your brain get into a flow state. I’ve played around with the various channels and have found that the Cinematic channel helps my focus for writing. I use other channels for other focus purposes but this tool has been key in getting content created for my clients and work done for my business.

What habit do you want to create? What picture are you painting for your people to follow as their leader?

If you’re up for a challenge, make a commitment to install that habit. Share that publicly or with a trusted friend or colleague. Recognize that habits will be hard at first so plan appropriately. Find a way to focus so that you can gain the ability to be all in and create that habit.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you have an interest in joining my CEO/Business Owner mastermind, reach out to me through my assistant Valerie ([email protected]) and she will get you an application with more information.