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Every Monday, I shoot a little video to the members of my Owner Insider group to help them in some way. We’re on a mission in there: to help you put more wins on your board. I wanted to share one of my “Monday Nudge” videos to show you what that looks like, but also to tell you what I’m telling my Insiders: “busy” is a trap.

Can’t see the video? Click Here
And if you’re interested in what we really do with Insiders besides eat apples, peek at this.

A lot of folks are starting off their year with a bright smile and a look of determination. They’re posting their “three in a row” photos and their “back at it” statements. That’s all wonderful. We need a few extra steps, if you want to be talking about those habits at the end of the year.

Habits Require Systems

Doing something for 22 times in a row does definitely improve your ability to pick up a new habit, but what REALLY charges the whole shebang is putting systems into place.

Change your life so that it supports the habit. You want to run early every morning? Set a “no matter what” bedtime (and only allow for 1 monthly rule breaking).

You want to see more sales? Set a “10 calls a day” system up. Write down the steps. Keep a list of steps to take, like a mini project plan, in place. (We go into this inside the 20 Minute Plan JUMPSTART.)

Habits Require Restarts

You will falter. You will fail. It’ll happen sooner than later. Start again. I have a personal mantra “Day One.” I say it when I mess up. Every day is day one. It means “start now.” It means “Okay, you fell down. Get up.”

Habits Require Less Emotion and More Work

If you spend your time wrapped up in pride and guilt, you’re not working on the work. You’re considering whether to praise or criticize yourself. Neither is helpful. Praise and criticism are the devil.

Habits Require Reward

If your goal is “Lose 50 Pounds” then aim for dropping one waist size in your pants. Aim for noticing your favorite shirt is loose. Aim for that “hey, a line I’ve not seen in a while” moment in the mirror.

Habits Require Completion (but Continuance)

Lots of people get “good enough itis” on the way to their goals. I lost 30 of the 50. Good enough. I made 10 calls a day for 40 days. Good enough.

Hit the goal. And then keep up the work.

Habits Require Maintenance

If you’re going to stay powerful, you have to do those things that power you up. Habits are what keep the top people the top people. They never stop training for their wins. They never stop the efforts that got them to their goals. They keep moving forward.

Talk More With Me About This Weekly

2016 is a big year at Owner Media Group, the year of Personal Leadership. If you don’t think of yourself as much of a leader, I’m here to change that. Get my newsletter to jump on board.
I’m over here working on habits. You?

If you procrastinate because you’re waiting for something to be perfect, you’re missing an amazing opportunity.

Everything I create, I do at least twice. I publish projects all the time that are good, but maybe something doesn’t work the way I thought it would when it’s in the hands of others. People know me by now and they say, “Hey, this doesn’t make sense.” Next thing you know, there’s a better version of the product available for them (and everyone who now benefits from that person’s suggestion).

Prototype With Intent

Put “good enough” in their hands. In MANY cases, people don’t need perfect. Sure, there are times when you’ve got to deliver. A wedding cake has to be perfect. Surgery should be perfect. If you’re building a house, you want it all to line up right (measure twice and cut once or something).

But if you’re working on delivery and you’re stuck on the “it might not be good enough,” then put it out there to at least a few people. Make it cheaper than what others will pay when you get the quality right. Give the first bunch of people free upgrades (I give everyone free upgrades, but that’s me).

And then deliver value with intent to make it even better.

Procrastination Isn’t Helping Anyone

You know something that others need to know. And you’re holding it back because of an onslaught of “what-ifs.” My course, Online Course Maker started out as decent, then I remade it so that it was better, and then I really added a lot of value to it so that it’s utterly worthwhile. If I had waited, I’d have missed a half a year of help and ideas, a half a year of revenue, and several hundred people would’ve missed half a year to get a jumpstart on the people who put off picking up that course.

You’re not helping anyone when you wait. Again, unless you’re a surgeon or something where you only have one shot to do it well. If not? Get it out there.
Put something in their hands.

It’s so easy to get mired in what’s wrong, what isn’t working, just how BUSY you are. But you have to look up. You have to see that big expansive sky. And you have to take big deep breaths.

Look Up

I was feeling a bit gloomy for the last few days, I’m going to admit to you. It came from the realization that people seem to react a lot more positively to the “Hey look at this shiny thing!” bloggers and media makers of the world. We LOVE hearing about all the “new” that’s out there, and if you talk loudly and excitably about “NEW!” to people then you’ll get a lot of attention.

But what I’ve come to realize is that if you tell people “Okay, this is going to take some work, but you’re going to love what you see when you put in that effort,” a lot of folks have checked out when they saw the word “work.” It’s the broccoli of messages. “Hey, you get successful for working hard.” Crickets.

LOOK at this new selfie drone and live video channel! Woo! *Balloons fall. Confetti cannons go off.*

But Work Isn’t Gloomy

Champions and leaders all put in the time. They all know what it takes to get there. And they sell that as the path for YOU to take.

But the magic trick of it is the looking up. When we’re striving to reach our goal, when the pieces aren’t entirely lining up but we sense that they will, we have to look up at that big blue sky, take a deep breath to fill our lungs, and we have to force a smile for the fortune and opportunity we have been granted. We are FREE to pursue these great opportunities and we have the pleasure and honor to serve great people and help THEM grow.

What’s not to love about that?

Here’s What’s New and Shiny

You know what’s new and shiny? People! Great people doing wonderful things. Wonderful people finding ways to take their confidence and apply it to the challenges they want to solve. People like this Forbes list of top YouTube stars who make millions by entertaining and informing. People like DC Central Kitchen for bringing fresh fruits and vegetables to inner city convenience stores because people deserve good food options. Or a Romanian immigrant to Montreal working on getting us to fly.

We’re in a world where we get to create shiny and new all the time!

Look up! Be excited about what we CAN do, but then do it. Do something about it. Make the steps necessary to be able to breathe that amazing fresh air and look at that beautiful blue sky and think, “Wow, I really can help some people today!”

That’s what’s new and shiny to me. The software? Those are the sneakers that I wore when I won the race. Did the sneakers win the race? No. Me!

Look up!

I was talking with the ever smart Jeff Brown who does the Read to Lead Podcast (one of my favorites), and we were talking about how podcasting is just booming. Jeff runs a Podcaster Academy. I co-founded PodCamp, etc. It’s a big topic these days.

Jeff said that once at his former job in radio, someone said, “You can’t kill radio. No one will ever listen to a traffic report on a podcast.”

You Will Never See Us Coming

What the guy didn’t know was that podcasting didn’t have to replace traffic reports. Waze did. So we no longer have to suffer through morning drive time formula to hope to catch a word or two about the road we’re likely already on because now an app does that so much better, and we can just listen to the shows we like instead.
That’s how innovation actually works. It’s rarely a direct port from one experience to another. That person felt that traffic was the “secret sauce” of terrestrial radio, but that’s so far from the truth, it’s hilarious. For a certain demographic right now, maybe? But that’s not even as true as it used to be. Look how rare it is to see someone of ANY age without a smart phone. From babies to the ancient ones, smart phones (and thus the ability to make your own traffic report) are ubiquitous.
Innovation works that way. Learning and knowledge are rarely linear. These moments jump tracks.
So what do you do with this?

Focus on the Needs

People don’t need cars. They need to get from one place to another. People don’t need “phones.” They need to communicate. People don’t need “cities” *or* “suburbs.” They need a place to put their things and a place to sleep and a place to eat.
Jacq and I stayed in a beautiful cabin this past weekend because Airbnb makes it easier. If I need a place to gather myself in NYC, I can use Breather to find something very specific.
Focus on the needs and the intentions and you’ll get closer to understanding where the universe is headed. Not always, but enough times. Or even once. If you’re the person way ahead of the curve, then you win.