Good habits take time to develop, some believe it takes 14 days, 21 or 28 days, and different literature, professionals and programs work around these typical figures, equally or more difficult is removing the bad. The process of change takes time.
15 years ago, I addressed a group of long term unemployed through a sponsored program; it was specifically to highlight the actions, activities and daily habits that needed to be created as a norm, as opposed to the exception. How to break the employment drought, using the same strategies that strong sales people engage, however applied to a different situation.
The short version being, what is the number one thing (at that time) that you need to do on a daily basis if you are going to find a career or job? The answer to this is firstly get up every morning and not sleep in til 10.30, sounds simple enough , however the habit of sleeping in and blaming the market for lack of work was well entrenched. This is teaching them to be prepared for opportunity.
The second most important task was to buy the newspaper first thing and be calling at 8.30-9am to be first in for any positions etc. This was to teach them the importance of prospecting, including how to deal with rejection, which traditionally after 2 or 3 rejections they would give up. I needed to educate them that even the best get rejected.
Because of the lack of motivation, it was important to monitor those 2 or 3 tasks over the next number of weeks. Many found it extremely difficult to maintain that focus, and most did not go 14 days without taking advantage of a better offer from friends to skylark. But it is important to be persistent, and that if they only went 3 or 4 days on track and a day off, then another 3 or 4 days on track , then 5 days or 6 in a row, then we were making progress, we were on the way to creating normality.
If I was using a whiteboard, creating good habits is very easy to illustrate; imagine a huge grass covered field in the country with grass that is 1.5 metres high, a typical rural landscape where you can see a winding road through the grass where the 4WD has been continually going, which is the path of least resistance, it is easily visible. If you chose the point of that road where it meets the horizon as such, the shortest path between you and it is a direct line, but that is a difficult line to take, as it has many obstacles.
Most people will use the path of least resistance, what they are used to doing, because it is easier, rather than work hard for a period of time to create a new, and direct path.
What happens in the unemployment scenario is that they start off with good intentions, then get distracted and go back to their old ways for a day, then back on track etc for a portion longer.
In the field of grass illustration, if you start off pushing through the direct resistance (Tall Grass) enough days in a row, eventually that grass in the direct line becomes a bit flattened, and the old winding path starts to grow over. The eventual result is the winding path grows over (Which was the path of least resistance , full of distractions and negative influences of other people) and now the direct A to B path has become the path of least resistance as the road now can be clearly seen by consistency and persistence. This method can be used at all levels, by reflecting on your current habits, and if you had a clone to do what you know needs to be done daily to achieve the desired results, then what are the steps that need to be entrenched habitually.
Creating new norms is difficult, breaking bad habits more difficult again. Acknowledging and understanding how our current bad habits are affecting outcome is the first step in breaking the cycle.
Again, individuals respond differently, some embrace changes and the majority say that is how we have always done things for example so why change. You have to be open to suggestion for change to happen or at least be open enough to consider the benefits of change.
In the sales profession, I use the comment often, that if you do the same thing you get the same result, why is the end result going to change if we can’t. If you do the same thing and expect a different result, then that is called insanity.
15 years ago, I addressed a group of long term unemployed through a sponsored program; it was specifically to highlight the actions, activities and daily habits that needed to be created as a norm, as opposed to the exception. How to break the employment drought, using the same strategies that strong sales people engage, however applied to a different situation.
The short version being, what is the number one thing (at that time) that you need to do on a daily basis if you are going to find a career or job? The answer to this is firstly get up every morning and not sleep in til 10.30, sounds simple enough , however the habit of sleeping in and blaming the market for lack of work was well entrenched. This is teaching them to be prepared for opportunity.
The second most important task was to buy the newspaper first thing and be calling at 8.30-9am to be first in for any positions etc. This was to teach them the importance of prospecting, including how to deal with rejection, which traditionally after 2 or 3 rejections they would give up. I needed to educate them that even the best get rejected.
Because of the lack of motivation, it was important to monitor those 2 or 3 tasks over the next number of weeks. Many found it extremely difficult to maintain that focus, and most did not go 14 days without taking advantage of a better offer from friends to skylark. But it is important to be persistent, and that if they only went 3 or 4 days on track and a day off, then another 3 or 4 days on track , then 5 days or 6 in a row, then we were making progress, we were on the way to creating normality.
If I was using a whiteboard, creating good habits is very easy to illustrate; imagine a huge grass covered field in the country with grass that is 1.5 metres high, a typical rural landscape where you can see a winding road through the grass where the 4WD has been continually going, which is the path of least resistance, it is easily visible. If you chose the point of that road where it meets the horizon as such, the shortest path between you and it is a direct line, but that is a difficult line to take, as it has many obstacles.
Most people will use the path of least resistance, what they are used to doing, because it is easier, rather than work hard for a period of time to create a new, and direct path.
What happens in the unemployment scenario is that they start off with good intentions, then get distracted and go back to their old ways for a day, then back on track etc for a portion longer.
In the field of grass illustration, if you start off pushing through the direct resistance (Tall Grass) enough days in a row, eventually that grass in the direct line becomes a bit flattened, and the old winding path starts to grow over. The eventual result is the winding path grows over (Which was the path of least resistance , full of distractions and negative influences of other people) and now the direct A to B path has become the path of least resistance as the road now can be clearly seen by consistency and persistence. This method can be used at all levels, by reflecting on your current habits, and if you had a clone to do what you know needs to be done daily to achieve the desired results, then what are the steps that need to be entrenched habitually.
Creating new norms is difficult, breaking bad habits more difficult again. Acknowledging and understanding how our current bad habits are affecting outcome is the first step in breaking the cycle.
Again, individuals respond differently, some embrace changes and the majority say that is how we have always done things for example so why change. You have to be open to suggestion for change to happen or at least be open enough to consider the benefits of change.
In the sales profession, I use the comment often, that if you do the same thing you get the same result, why is the end result going to change if we can’t. If you do the same thing and expect a different result, then that is called insanity.
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