Earlier this week I was in London, and whenever I am there I make a point to see as much of the city as I can...and, it is easiest to do via the "Tube" and on foot. As all the readers of this blog know, I do carry my camera "just about" everywhere I go (I have it here, while dining in an outdoor cafe in Brussels, Belgium, as I type up this post) and I make a point to capture things that slow me down enough to notice them.
In seminars, I tell a story which theorizes one way our habits form. Studying the "meeting" of experience and memory, we know that one way to create a habit out of something is to blend the action with a high level of emotion. Want to do something new, consistently? Do it a few times with a high level of emotional amplitude. (When I placed 1st in my age-group at the Pt. Mugu Naval Base triathlon years ago, it changed the way I train, race, and focus...)
Here's my ah-ha:
Until something is an unconscious habit...it's not.
Years ago, I was playing catch with some friends. Well, my buddy threw the baseball over my head, and without really pausing I ran to follow it across the street. (I was always short...and, always fast!)
I don't completely remember what came first...the screech of the tires, the blaring horn, the yelling from my friends, or the crying, but I almost got hit by that car. Now, up to then, I promise you that I heard that warning from Mom, "Look both ways..." Nowadays, it's on cruise-control. My "habit" of looking both ways, often twice, has stuck with me since that summer day.
So, when I get to London, and I see the gentle reminder to "look left," I always smile...grateful for the little bit of extra support. It's like the universe is out there saying, "Hey Jason, keep on paying attention."
Now I'm going move from reminders painted on the street, to the reminders painted in my mind. When I choose to move on/toward a goal, I start hearing, seeing, and feeling the experiences that will ultimately come my way. The long term goals - the client meeting, the next book, the upcoming trip, the triathlon race in July - all require constant reinforcement. It is very important that I put up a sign (actually more than one) as these are emotion-based memories I'm forming, they are significant, timely, and longer-term works in progress.
Some of the things I've done, to get the reminders in...
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I write "why I am working tomorrow" on the bathroom mirror (with a white-board pen) of every hotel I check in to. As I'm brushing my teeth at night, and shaving that next morning, I imagine the reason coming true in amazing and powerful ways;
- I write it out... When I set my goals for the book my dad and I wrote together (about the power of keeping our promises) I focused on getting 4,000 copies of our book into people's hands this year. I added, "Some of those people could change the world." (I hope that for this Father's Day my dad and I get called to talk publicly about the "power of keeping our promises.")
- I have made a PowerPoint slide-show - this after reading the book The Dream Manager, recommended to me by a client - of 50 goals/dreams/hopes/things to do (I'm supposed to have a 100... I'm working on it!) and I'm looking at that each day. To up the ante, I have found pictures that I have taken that go along with each goal. It lets me know that I'm "close" and that I will be able to get there.
Ok, your turn, how do you remind yourself where to look?
