Solid Habits: Workbook for Lasting Change

Do you need help forming rock-solid habits that will support you for the rest of your life?

If you set New Year's Resolutions but fail to stick to them, this book is for you.

You want to get rid of bad habits, but have failed many times before. This workbook will help you implement powerful habits that will serve you for the rest of your life and bring you great results.

YOUR STEP-BY-STEP WORKBOOK

You are already serious about implementing new habits in your life and understand that you need to change some old ones in order to live a more fulfilling life.

I WANT YOU TO GET RESULTS

I hope you'll take consistent, massive action and commit yourself to creating powerful, lifelong habits that will change your life.

Take action and results will follow

I used to be a bookworm, but over the past few years I turned myself into a massive action taker. I believe that knowledge is power, but only if you commit to taking action.

YOUR 30-DAY CHALLENGE

This challenge is pretty straightforward: select one habit and commit to doing it every day for the next 30 days. However, you must focus on ONE habit at a time and remember that simple doesn't necessarily mean easy.

WHAT IF YOU COULD PREDICT SUCCESS?

You can tell whether someone is going to be successful 5 or 10 years from now by looking at their typical day. Extraordinary people have extraordinary habits, while average people have average habits.

If you're confident about your ability to achieve your goals based on what you're currently doing, but your confidence is less than 8 out of 10, you probably don't have the daily habits that will allow you to successfully achieve your goals.

You can always come up with excuses for not committing to new habits, but if what you're doing today isn't leading you towards fulfillment, happiness and health, it won't.

People say they'll start tomorrow, but then never do. We knew it wasn't going to happen the minute they said it.

NEVER TRUST YOUR FUTURE SELF

If you want to achieve your goals, always assume that what you're doing today will determine what you’ll do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, and so on and so forth. This will motivate you to take action in the present instead of relying on your future self to do something later.

I. HABITS: WHAT THEY ARE AND WHY THEY’RE SO HARD TO IMPLEMENT

Our subconscious minds control our habits, and they are very efficient machines that hate wasting energy. It takes significant effort to change your brain's preexistent programming, and it's an uphill battle until your subconscious mind finally accepts the change.

WHY HABITS ARE MIND-BOGGLINGLY IMPORTANT

Your habits determine the quality of your life. Take a few minutes to look at your current habits and decide if they are the habits of a successful, happy person.

WHAT A FEW SIMPLE HABITS CAN DO FOR YOU

Making habits is powerful yet easy to neglect. A few good habits can go a long way, but a few bad habits can take a major toll after a while.

WHY YOUR SUCCESS DEPENDS ON YOUR DAILY HABITS

Daily habits determine how much you accomplish and are closely related to your goals. Solid daily habits make it easier to achieve long-term goals.

Writing 500 words a day, reading 30 minutes a day, meditating 15 minutes a day, and doing gratitude exercises will increase your happiness.

WHY YOU ARE WASTING YOUR WILLPOWER WITHOUT KNOWING IT!

Willpower is a limited resource. You can either use it to brute force your way into getting your tasks done each day, or invest it strategically to create new, powerful habits that will serve you for years to come.

THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF FOCUSED WILLPOWER

When you focus your willpower towards the creation of habits, your subconscious mind will take care of the entire process, and you will need little to no willpower to maintain them every day.

Successful people have powerful daily habits that allow them to become extremely efficient. If you can learn to use your willpower to form new, powerful, daily habits, you'll experience heightened efficiency and effectiveness.

WHAT A TRULY OUTSTANDING HABIT REALLY LOOKS LIKE

When you implement new habits, make sure they'll have a legitimate impact on your life in the long run.

Be something you want to maintain for the rest of your life, significantly impact your productivity, happiness, fulfillment, or anything else that you genuinely value, and be performed at a specific time during the day or have a clear *trigger.

II. BAD HABITS: WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO GET RID OF THEM

People who smoke cigarettes associate their smoking with who they are as a person. Many people who struggle with their weight do not see themselves as a person who is carrying extra weight.

The first step to changing your identity is to realize that there was a time when you didn't identify with these things at all. You are simply someone who smokes or gains weight because of your habits. If you want to change habits that have become part of your identity, you have to figure out who you are and who you want to be.

WHAT YOUR BAD HABITS SAY ABOUT YOU

We all have bad habits that we're trying to get rid of, but certain habits prevent us from being happy and healthy.

Even your worst habits provide you with some kind of emotional benefit. Most bad habits are disguised attempts to escape from something in your life.

HOW TO GET RID OF BAD HABITS

You can get rid of most of your bad habits by becoming more aware of the reasons behind them and identifying what emotional needs they're meeting in your life.

Take some time to look at the bad habits you'd like to change. Do you see why you have this habit?

BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN

Most of what happens to us in life is the result of our beliefs. If you believe you can eliminate your bad habit, you will.

100% COMMITMENT

When you want to change a bad habit, you have to commit to it with every fiber of your being. Can you commit to getting rid of that bad habit despite the obstacles you may face?

TAKE FULL RESPONSIBILITY

If you don't take complete responsibility for your life, you give up all hope of eliminating your bad habit.

Whether you're drinking because your job is stressful or things aren't going well in your relationship, you are the one who chooses to use alcohol to escape. If you want to change, it has to come from within.

Let's look at some examples of mild addictions, such as spending 3 hours a day playing videos games, or binging on television shows. These habits are largely designed to hook you in by exploiting a "biological loophole" that advertising takes full advantage of.

When you step back and look at the big picture, video games, television shows, and social media platforms don't really contribute to your happiness and well-being.

OBSERVE YOUR EMOTIONS WITHOUT BEING JUDGMENTAL

Observe your emotions during each phase of your bad habit. Is the excitement still there after it's over, or do you feel guilt or dissatisfaction?

Before

When you get the urge to play video games, observe it with curiosity and objectivity. Then, recall how you felt after finishing playing video games and tell yourself that you'll play video games in 5 minutes.

To stop acting on impulse, become more conscious of the feelings you have when you're about to dive into your bad habit. Delay the moment you start engaging in your habit and repeat the process.

During

Create multiple interruptions as you're playing by taking breaks or doing something else for just a few moments. Try sitting or standing somewhere else, or going to another room if possible.

It's important to give yourself total permission to go back to playing video games at any time, and to do something else if you feel like it. This will make it much easier to cut back on or totally eliminate your habit, depending on which option is healthiest.

After

Pay close attention to how you feel after you're done playing video games, and then imagine what else you could have done with all that time.

If your habit is checking emails or going on Facebook multiple times a day, use an app or a piece of paper to record how much time you spend doing that. This will force you to become more conscious of your actions and take note of what you're actually doing.

REPLACE BAD HABITS WITH BETTER ONES

If you don't have a plan on how to use the time you used to play video games, you will go back to them.

In the previous section, I mentioned interrupting your activity to do something else you enjoy. What kind of things could you do to satisfy your emotional needs?

VISUALIZE THE FUTURE COST OF TODAY’S BAD HABITS

Imagine what your life will be like 20 years from now if you fail to eliminate that bad habit. Professional athletes, chess players, army generals, CEOs, and other successful people use visualization on a daily basis.

In the exercise below, we're going to use both positive and negative visualization to help you get rid of your bad habits. Focus on the pain associated with having had this destructive habit in your life for a decade.

Imagine yourself doing a new habit for 30 days, an entire year, and 10 years down the line. How has this new habit transformed your life?

Visualization is a very powerful tool, and you should try to use it as often as possible.

The next portion of this book includes concepts from my productivity book that can be applied to the making and breaking of habits. Procrastination is the enemy of creating positive habits.

Procrastination is a huge obstacle that can seriously limit your productivity. The following three-step formula will help tremendously.

1. Eliminate Distractions

When you feel the urge to procrastinate, identify potential procrastination patterns and stop wasting time.

To avoid distractions, you should remove all distractions from your desk, plan your tasks in advance, prepare your environment, and give yourself a way to jot down intrusive thoughts.

Keep a piece of paper on hand to write down ideas and lightbulb moments that come to you while working.

3. Reduce the Friction Associated with Starting the Task

To reduce discomfort, visualize how you'll feel once your task is completed, or tell yourself you'll only work for a few minutes.

Accept the possibility that you may not do as good a job as you'd like, and don't worry about it tomorrow or next week.

MENTAL PREPARATION: GETTING YOUR MIND ON BOARD

When attempting to form new habits, lack of mental preparation is the most common reason we fail. Take some time to reflect upon the reasons your previous attempts have failed, and then give it another try.

ANTICIPATE OBSTACLES

Now that you're aware of the reasons behind your previous failures, you must prepare yourself mentally to form a new habit and stick to it in the long run.

BELIEVING IN YOURSELF

If you don't believe you can stick to your new habit, you might need to chunk down your habits to make it more realistic and believable.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR OBSTACLES

There are many things that may stand in your way as you try to establish new habits in your life, such as breaking your habit of drinking sodas and choosing low-sugar beverages instead.

Eating healthy is difficult when everyone around you is eating tempting foods and drinking sodas you are trying so hard to avoid. Lack of support, a weak "why" and emotional eating make it even harder.

When trying to lose weight, you should figure out what triggers you to drink soda and what you can do to work around it. You should also consider your underlying thoughts surrounding food and try to adopt new beliefs that don't support these unhealthy associations.

Write down some obstacles you're likely to encounter and how you'll overcome them. Imagine yourself in some scenarios.

You can visualize yourself making healthy decisions, such as ordering a coffee with no sugar or taking a bottle of water instead of a soda, to prevent temptation.

The “If... Then” Method

If I'm out with my friends, everybody is drinking soda, but I feel a strong to order one, then I will order a coke zero instead. If I see a Starbucks, then I will cross the street.

I first noticed how powerful our environment is while eating nuts on my desk. It made me wonder what else I might be doing unconsciously.

As someone with a sweet tooth, I would sometimes binge on cake and other sweets, but I stopped buying sweets and minimized temptations within my environment, which helped me to stop binge eating.

If you want to replace unhealthy foods and drinks with nutritious meals and water, you don't want to leave any room for excuses and distractions.

SURROUNDING YOURSELF WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE

A favorable environment is engineered by surrounding yourself with the right people. If you want to lose weight, you should surround yourself with skinny people, and if you want to make a new habit stick, you need to strengthen your commitment.

GIVE IT 100%

New Year's resolutions are a popular way to make changes in your life, but most people who set them fail because they don't have clear goals. If they had monthly and yearly goals, they wouldn't need New Year's resolutions.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR WHY

If you don't have a strong reason behind a habit, it's difficult to be fully devoted to achieving it. If you hate cleaning, you won't see clear benefits to it, and that's why you'll fail.

Should vs. Want

If you use words like "I should do X" when talking about a new habit, it's likely that this is a habit you think you should adopt due to external pressure.

What if My “Why” Isn’t Strong?

If you don't have a strong "why" behind your habit, you can use reframing to change what the task means to you.

If you don't associate cleaning with anything positive, you could train yourself to see it from a different, more positive point of view. This would help you to see cleaning as part of taking care of yourself and bolstering your self-esteem.

If you hate cleaning and see little value in it, it's probably not a wise way to use your time.

WRITE DOWN YOUR HABIT

To turn your habits into reality, write down your habits and goals. Read the "what" and "why" of your habit out loud every day to strengthen your commitment.

HAVE AN ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER

Having an accountability partner that can monitor your progress, provide motivation, and give advice is tremendously helpful when making positive life changes.

Being held accountable by another person has another benefit: it provides a major incentive to follow-through. You may want to take this benefit a step further by incorporating consequences, such as agreeing to give a certain amount of money if you fail to stick to your habit.

I promised my dentist that I would do daily exercises to correct a jaw issue, and I even specified the time of day that I would do them. I'm doing the exercises now, because I don't want to be put on the spot.

When you find the right person for your accountability partner, you should discuss the following topics.

Your habit

Talk about your habit with your partner, decide how many days you'll commit to it, and set a completion date.

Why This Habit Matters to You

Establish your wants and needs, as well as your partner's, and make sure you're both on the same page.

Consequences

If you succeed, reward yourself, and if you fail, give something away as a disincentive to give up.

Consider sending an email or text message to your accountability partner after engaging in your new habit.

JOIN A SUPPORT GROUP

Support groups are another great tool for achieving your goals. You can find groups on the internet or at your local gym that are dedicated to self-improvement and changing your habits.

BE WILLING TO INVEST IN YOURSELF

If you're genuinely committed to making changes in your life, you should be willing to put a little money towards it. If your habit is truly important to you, you'll probably be willing to put quite a bit of money towards it.

I tried many times to implement a daily morning ritual, but failed miserably. I finally wound up investing $37 in a program to help me create and stick to my morning ritual, and I feel confident that I will continue to do so for years to come.

YOUR 30-DAY CHALLENGE

You've learned a lot about creating new habits and sticking to them, and now it's time to put what you're learning into action. Consider me your accountability partner, and send me an email with a simple "YES" or a description of what you're committing to.

JUST GET STARTED: THE POWER OF TINY HABITS

If implementing a new habit feels too overwhelming, try a smaller, modified version of it that feels manageable to you. Tiny Habits are very powerful and have multiple benefits, including decreasing the amount of willpower you have to use to implement the habit.

CONSISTENCY OVER INTENSITY

If you can't sustain a habit long enough for it to become automatic, you are more likely to procrastinate and crash and burn.

If you're trying to implement a challenging habit, think of a way to make it easier to get started. If you can answer yes to the question "will you be able to perform your habit every day for the next 30 days even when you're tired or extremely busy?"

NEVER SKIP TWICE

The Two Skips Phenomenon is real, and it can have a devastating effect on your ability to stick with a new habit. Unless the habit is a well-established part of your subconscious, skipping it twice in a row comes with major risks.

Your brain doesn't like change, and it's geared towards efficiency, which can make it lazy. Sending mixed signals about your new habit will only make it worse.

PREPARE A CONTINGENCY PLAN

While it's best to never skip your habit, sometimes that's easier said than done. If you do wind up skipping your habit, prepare an IF... THEN plan in advance to get you back on track.

I SUCK. SO WHAT?

Tynan mentioned in his book Superhuman by Habit that it's better to do poorly at something than to just skip it.

Lack of consistency is one of the main reasons we end up quitting our new habits. If you feel like you don't want to do anything, just get started anyway and see what happens.

DON’T BLAME YOURSELF

If you skip a habit, don't skip it the next day, do it poorly if you need to, but don't lose your momentum. If you can manage that, you'll be just fine.

ACTIONS VS. RESULTS: WHAT REALLY MATTERS?

Most people feel that they aren't good enough, and this is one of the main reasons they procrastinate and fail to take consistent action. If your new habit is challenging, you may be afraid that you won't perform as well as you'd like to.

The process matters more than the result, and your brain will learn through failures and trial-and-error until you finally get the results you want. If you can keep trying until you get what you want and take each so-called failure as a learning experience, you will be stronger than you imagined.

You may be tempted to procrastinate in this situation, but you can overcome your fear by shifting your focus. Instead of worrying about the end result of your labors, focus on taking the right action: sit at your desk and start typing until you reach 500 words.

Failure is a learning opportunity, an unavoidable stepping stone on the path to mastery and success. The only two things that can lead to true failure are never trying or failing to learn from your mistakes.

The Power of the Right Action Framework

The Right Mind Framework redefines failure and success as taking the right action, not getting results. If you succeed via luck, doing something that goes against your right action, or engaging unethical behavior, your success is invalidated.

THE 21-DAY MYTH

According to a 2009 study, it took 66 days for participants to fully adopt a new habit. However, the exact time it takes to form a new habit depends on 4 factors.

IDENTIFY YOUR HIGH-LEVERAGE HABITS

Changing one habit can create great results long-term, particularly because new habits have a strong effect on current habits. If you change your habits strategically, you can maximize the amount of positive change you experience.

SETTING UP TRIGGERS

You can schedule your habits to occur after your shower or as soon as you wake up. This will ensure consistency and help you create an automatic pattern.

Choose a Rock-solid Trigger

The most effective triggers are things you do every day at the same time, such as eating breakfast.

Act AFTER Your Trigger

It's better to perform your new habit after the trigger and not before it, as this makes it easier for you to remember.

Make a List of Triggers

Make a list of the tasks you do 7 days a week. Then choose the trigger that gives you the best possible change of sticking to your habit.

CREATING SERIES OF HABITS

Once you've successfully implemented your first habit, you can go bigger and create a series of habits that will help you make positive changes in your life.

If I meditate consistently for the past 2 months and write my goals down on a daily basis, I'll have a budding series of habits.

A Potential Pitfall

If you have a series of habits, ensure that your current habit is strong enough to support the addition of another one.

Series of Habits Example

Most successful people have some kind of morning ritual that ensures they start their day in a positive way.

If you don't have a morning ritual, create one. It will help you maintain your habits for as long as you want.

Example: I could design my morning ritual around completing this book. My affirmations would include the following statements.

I'm excited about writing an incredible book that will inspire thousands of people to positively impact those around them and society as a whole.

As you go through the process, you'll find affirmations that resonate with you and strengthen your "why". If you ever struggle to find affirmations, ask yourself why you're doing what you're doing.

Later on, you might want to change your affirmations if you decide to concentrate on a different area of your life. You could use your morning ritual to overcome limiting beliefs regarding money.

Creating my morning ritual wasn't easy. I tried many times, understood the concept, and even knew what kind of habits I could incorporate into it, but I continued to fail until I purchased a program.

Examples of Morning Rituals

Most successful people have some kind of morning ritual, such as setting their goals for the day, practicing gratitude, and asking themselves powerful questions.

Benjamin Franklin would start every morning with a seemingly simple question, and Brian Tracy would read inspirational books for 30 to 60 minutes each morning before setting his goals. How about you?

Jump into a cold pool or use whole body cryotherapy, do some breathing exercises, express gratitude, and pray for strength.

Steve Jobs

His morning ritual centered around asking powerful questions, and whenever the answer was no for too many days in a row, he knew he needed to change something.

THE 7 MOST POWERFUL (YET SIMPLE) HABITS TO HAVE IN LIFE

This section will provide you with some ideas for powerful habits you can incorporate into your daily life.

#1 SETTING DAILY GOALS.

Setting your goals every single day will double your productivity. Just take a pen and a piece of paper and make a list of 3 to 5 tasks you want to accomplish for the day.

#2 READING YOUR GOALS EVERY DAY.

Ideally, you should think of your goals as often as possible, and read them out loud on a daily basis. You should also ask yourself why your goals are so important, and visualize how achieving them would feel.

#3 MEDITATING

Meditation provides a plethora of benefits, and you can begin with just a few minutes a day. There are several good books for beginners that can help you get started.

#4 PRACTICING GRATITUDE.

Forgetting to express gratitude is a major cause of unhappiness for many people. Check out this hilarious comedy sketch from Louis CK.

Every day I ask myself what I'm grateful for and spend a few minutes thinking about everything that crosses my mind. I'm grateful for having access to an endless supply of knowledge at little to no cost, and for having food, shelter, running water, and electricity.

The list is endless! Be patient and stick with this habit; it will pay off in the long run.

#5 CONSUMING MOTIVATIONAL BOOKS AND VIDEOS.

Zig Ziglar said that motivation doesn't last, but bathing does, so feed your mind with inspirational material on a daily basis to stay motivated.

#6 SELF-REFLECTING.

Reflecting upon your day is a very effective way to improve yourself. Consider asking yourself the following questions: What did I do well today?

#7 EXERCISING DAILY.

According to Dr. James Levine, every hour you spend sitting cuts off 3 hours of your life. He recommends investing in a treadmill desk or at least a standing desk.

TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW OR ELSE...

I have one question for you: Have you started to take action and implement a new, powerful habit in your life? If not, will you?

After reading my book on goal setting, several readers took immediate action and began to impact others by sharing the book with their kids.

A colleague who knew of my book asked to have a look at it and said she would think about buying it, but then said, "I'll think about it" in a very serious tone.

YOUR HABIT FORMATION CHECKLIST

STRENGTHEN YOUR COMMITMENT: Give it 100%, have a strong "why", invest your money, write down your habit, undertake the 30-Day-Challenge, select a trigger, start small, focus on taking the right action, don't blame yourself, and don't skip your habit.

If you have to skip your habit, come up with an alternative and stay focused on it for as long as it takes to make it stick.

CONCLUSION

I would like to congratulate you for staying with me until the end of this book. Now, it's in your court to create new habits.