If you want to make significant change in your life, to do something really cool, really big, sometimes that can feel like it's the most overwhelming task. how on earth do I do this? But actually, it's normally formed of lots of micro steps along the way. And in this, short episode, I'm going to talk about habits and the flow of habits to get to that big. Lovely changing goal. The thing that you might want. Now it's a time of year when a lot of us think about changing and habits and growth and that is great. So the, impetus is there. What I often see is that there's a lack of understanding of how to deploy and make that happen. And as with all things, a little like the analogy of when someone says, Hey, let's, cook some food. You're like, Great! What, do we have a recipe? Do we have the ingredients? What are we doing? And then it all becomes a very confusing idea. In this episode, I'm going to give you some cool understandings around the clarity needed, some of the most important steps which have been found to be effective, and how you might go about making some audacious, exciting change. So the first step is this. You've got to have a compelling reason. Now James Clear, who's the author of Atomic Habits, he wrote about this as well as I think Charles Duhigg before him, but pretty much it goes like this. if you have or create a compelling reason. That is one of the biggest sources, the groundwork you need to make the changes to get the thing you are after. So What does that mean a compelling reason? Okay, so compelling it's got to have energy. It's gonna have emotion It's gonna hit you. You know, it's got to feel really really important Otherwise, it's just you know, I'd like to change like to grow my business a bit or I'd like to be fitter It's just very ambiguous and it won't stick. So when you get compelling, it's really like wow, that's important I really care So that's our first piece. And of course, the reason is, why, the why do it? and I've coached numerous people around the early stage of the year, but of course, many times, who are growing something, they're doing something amazing in their, work, or they want to go from where they are to really push that forward. And it's like, okay, we want the growth and that's exciting, but why? We've got to get clear on the why. So spend some time looking at your compelling reasons. And it wants to have clarity. So it doesn't want to be something like I'm going to grow my business. It wants to be something like I would like to put 25 percent gross margin on my business or I would like to positively affect 1, 000 people this year in a healthy way. Whatever your business is, and of course there are many. Be really specific about that. So you've got the clarity. You've got to have emotion with it. So in my work, have the privilege of seeing people overcome. years of anxiety or lack of self belief or, you know, difficult backstory. I have a real privilege. It's not easy, but when I see someone change, it's just wonderful. It really is wonderful. And I'm very lucky. And it's compelling. And why, do I coach a person through change? It's because when I see them become free of whatever's held them back, it's just magic. It's wonderful. And of course, for my client, it's even better because it's their life. That's really compelling to me. That's why I love what I do. So find what's compelling to you and the why. Why do this? So I'll cycle back to me. Why do I coach? Why do I do human performance? Well, ever since being a young boy, I never had what I needed in this field around psychological help, emotional support, mentorship, understanding how the mind works, the body works, the nervous system, all the things I work with an individual. So I needed, I needed to make sense of the world and the challenges that I found in life. So I know that that was something I was really calling for and it's a human need. So now I've done the work, I'm old, so I take all that years of experience and I now share that with others. So it's a very special thing for you. It could be something else, whatever it is for you, it's relevant to each of us. So find your compelling reason. Once you've got that, right, we have got gravity now. We've got something that's going to pull you towards that goal, that big thing you're after. So spend a lot of time on this. It wants to have emotion. I would also say it could even have emotion that upsets you and gets you a little angry. If we think about some of the things in the world, the climate challenges and that, many people are really angry about the situation and that anger is because it matters to them. So while I'm not saying you should be angry in what you're doing, but if there's energy around it and if there's something like, Oh, that's really annoying. I want to solve that problem. Great. That can be really volitious. It can really push you forward. So get your compelling reason. And then we want to look at, and again, big stuff here. Identity. Who will you be? Because if we've got some kind of identity block, around who you'll be when that future, goal come to fruition. It becomes your life and your business. If you can't see yourself as that person, that identity, you're going to really struggle. Again, I'll give a very personal example. in my mid forties, I had a bit of an epiphany that I needed to really shift what I was doing physically. And I was quite active at the time. When I say quite active, what I look at now is probably quite inactive. But I was doing a lot of yoga and walking and stuff. And I got involved in CrossFit. which really took me by surprise as it was a whole new discipline. But I decided by the time I was going to be turning my 50th birthday, I would be an athlete. Now, I defined that in terms of how an athlete lived. Not so much that they had medals and showed up for competitions, but an athlete would train, diligently. Every week, every month, every year, and like an Olympian, they wouldn't just do it for a bit, they would do it for four years, they'd be long term thinking. So I got in my mind, like, I would be an athlete. So if I live like this, I'll embody the identity of an athlete. And that changed everything. That's allowed me to overcome all the highs and lows of that training. It allows me to train in a way that I love to do. Now for you, it could be, if your identity is like, well, I'm just a solopreneur right now and I want to grow a business with a team and I want to really make a massive impact in the world. Well, then you might be a CEO or whatever title that is. Getting closer to that identity combined with a compelling reason. Again, these are massive gravitational pulls to shift. Once you've got these, two big forces in play, then we can start to come to perhaps some of the more strategic stuff. Now, a lot of people think that habits in any domain is about willpower and just being diligent about that. And actually willpower is not a great strategy. I recommend it particularly. It's there, but don't recommend it. I recommend structure. So with structure, with planning, with when do I do The thing that I need to do to move you forward, it needs to go in your schedule, it needs to be blocked out, like a meeting, whether it's an exercise session, whether it's a business session, whatever the area you are growing into is, it has to be scheduled, and it's, it's a non negotiable, you don't just go because you like it, you go because it's in the diary, and if you're building your business, or you're building your health, you show up because it says so in the diary, And you don't have to worry about, do I feel like doing this today? It's in the diary, it's what we do. So the structure then becomes the, in many ways, the kind of the composite that brings the steps together over the long term. And that allows for continuous growth. Now, James Clear, he's covered a lot of this, and I've just sort of briefly mentioned him, but his work goes a lot deeper. But he also spoke about some other things about if you really want to make a new habit, you know, a new way of being. kind of four things and he said that the first question is how can I make it obvious? So how can you make it obvious to do the thing you need to do? What is it you need to do and then how can I make it more attractive? So what's gonna make it more appealing to me? How can I make it easy? So yeah remove the friction, right? How can this be the easiest version of what I can and how can I make it satisfying? Now, there's loads and loads of ways to do this, depending on what you're aiming to do. The problem we have is that if we get caught up in not following a simple process, it's going to be really difficult to put it in. So those four I find are very helpful just to dial back into. How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying? And when you've got those On a daily action based process, align with your structure, align with the identity of who you are and who you're becoming with your compelling reason. Oh my goodness. It's a great driving force. And if you simply take that alone, which is still quite a lot of work, but if you take that alone, the results are likely to be really powerful. So I trust and I hope that those points will really push you forwards, give you the energy that you need, give you the focus that you need. to make some massive change that's going to be compelling. It's going to be authentic and it's going to be what you want. So as always, do let me know on the platforms you may be listening or where you've seen this, your thoughts, your comments and your experience. And, I always love to hear. So until the next time, take care.