⚡️ Today’s level up ⚡️
Too many professionals are operating automatically around bad habits. Those bad habits are leading to a perpetual rat race that is hard to escape.
Today’s edition dives deep into leveraging the power of intentional behavior design to help you break free and operate in a way that feels naturally aligned to your long-term aspirations.
Let’s go!
Read time: <7 minutes
Could you do this every day for the rest of your life?
Credit: @visualvault.co
Last week I had a strategy session with Mark.
He was struggling with how to focus on the most important things, when there was so much he had to do (that all felt important).
First, we got clear on articulating his long-term aspirations.
At the start, he was focused on things like getting into President’s Club and being top of the leaderboard. However, after a bit more provoking to go deeper, we finally concluded that his real ambition is to gain more time freedom without having to worry about money.
He wants to be an entrepreneur one day, either doing consulting or offering fractional GTM services (and of course, I shared my experience around “productizing knowledge”).
The second step was to do a fun exercise…
We looked at his calendar, and then wiped the slate clean (using a generic calendar template in Notion) to build his ideal day and week from the ground up.
We started with the essentials by asking a potent question – “what are the things you can/want to do every single day of your life?”
He came up with some habits that are pretty healthy and easy to repeat every day.
I showed him Sunsama, and had him put these pillar habits in as actual events in his calendar, or reminders for a couple of them (BTW, Habit List is good for this because of the visual tracking).
We began planning his day around these.
We then shifted to his “3 years from now self” and I asked him, what are the things that person does every day?
He mentioned something about wanting to write a book about “intrapreunership.” When I asked how important this is – he said “very!” I suggested he build in time for writing, and since it was really important to him, suggested he prioritize it as the first thing he did after his morning routine every day (otherwise, he’d keep putting it off).
Finally, we discussed other things about his current role that he enjoyed, which was more of the creative side of his sales role, like coming up with really intelligent, crisp decks that felt tailor made to his clients.
He also mentioned he liked mentoring his SDR, who was hoping to get promoted to AE this year.
We decided Monday and Wednesday mornings were good times for him to block off for the creative deck builds (which he said took a while, because he had to do research – which was a good forcing function for him). And Friday was a good mentoring day, because that happened to be when they had a 1:1 scheduled.
Using a proven behavior design model
I then helped Mark solidify these habits using behavior design, something I discovered through BJ Fogg.
BJ founded and runs the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University.
He has shared his work through his bestselling book, Tiny Habits, while also being heavily cited in another bestselling book, Atomic Habits.
He’s a leader when it comes to behavior design to help individuals and companies develop high quality habits (and kick old ones). There’s even a model named after him called “The Fogg Behavioral Model.”
Here’s how it works: Behavior happens when Motivation, Ability, and a Prompt comes together at the same time.
When motivation is higher and something is easier to do, and there is a prompt, the behavior happens (success!).
Get used to this model, as it will be something I reference often, as this model can also be used to help your prospects and clients move forward on a transformation deal. And for those of you in Make More Hustle Less Club, I’ll be holding special sessions around this.
Making anything you want easier to do (and anything you don’t want harder to do)
First, to be effective with behavior design, you need to understand 2 key maxims:
- 1. Help yourself (or other people) do what they already want to do.
- 2. Help yourself (or other people) feel successful.
The method to bringing these maxims to life is The Tiny Habits Method, which essentially is to start super tiny with anything you want to do.
Want to run in the morning? The habit is to put on your running shoes (not run 6 miles).
Want to uncover impactful commercial insights on one of your Diamond Accounts? The habit is to open up a new tab on Google Sheets and type in the account’s name (not spend 4 hours combing through their Investors’ Relations page).
Want to build a course for sellers one day? The habit is to answer one question you get asked all the time (not record a 90 minute video).
There is a recipe to this method, which is as simple as ABC:
- • ANCHOR moment: After I _____________,
- • (Tiny) BEHAVIOR: I will _____________,
- • CELEBRATE: then _____________
Here’s a 3 minute video explaining how it works:
Design the “impossible”
Try it yourself:
→ Zoom out: What are your true aspirations (defined by you inside, not others or your company)?
→ Zoom in a bit: What are things you can/want to do every day for life? Schedule these with a daily repeat on your calendar right now.
→ Zoom in a bit further: What is the “3 years in the future” version of you doing every day? Build that in your calendar for 25 minutes each day after your morning routine.
→ Zoom in some more: What are the things in your current role that a.) are your favorite and b.) generate the most revenue? Prioritize the ones that overlap. And for everything else, use this framework to eliminate, automate, delegate, or outsource it.
→ Identify your anchor moments: Use this sheet to identify 50 anchor moments in your day that you could use as a prompt for inserting a new tiny habit you want to incorporate in your life.
→ Build your recipes: Grab some notecards or open up a doc and start building personal recipes you can implement into your life immediately. Again the ABC formula is: After I _____________, I will _____________, then _____________
Don’t forget to start tiny and always celebrate each time it happens (that’s key!).
More to come on this.
See you next time!
🐝
When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:
1 | Unlock the 7 Figure Seller Bundle
This combines the 7 Steps to 7 Figures system along with a lifetime membership to our Make More Hustle Less Club where we put the system in action as a community (big changes coming and prices will increase soon!).
2 | Book a 1:1 advisory session
You can book a 60 minute session with me here.
3 | Apply to my Category of One 1:1 coaching program
All Q1 slots are filled, but I will be selecting Q2 spots in about weeks.