Become The Person You Want To Be (How To Override Your Mind)
If you are like me, you wake up every morning thinking about how can I become better today. Where can I progress?
There are only 2 problems holding me back; life and myself.
Life is hard. Being unproductive makes it even harder.
We tend to have habits that are not beneficial or, worse, sabotage our goals, primarily due to stress, boredom, or ignorance.
Let's define habits.
Habits are the small decisions and behaviors you perform every day.
Over time, these habits become unconscious and normalized behavior, a part of your identity.
It's a clever trick your brain has developed to make you more efficient and create space for new tasks.
What is Identity?
Identity is something that you give yourself. It has to do with what you stand for; morals, values, purpose.
Your identity is formed through the choices you make. The labels you give yourself.
So to build better habits, you have to change your identity to the person you want to be.
This requires deep conscious effort. This can take days, weeks or even months depending on how deeply ingrained the habit in your identity.
The Key to Override Your Mind
Find Your Why, How & What
Habits are reinforced by three components:
Trigger
Behavior
Reward
Understanding these is crucial. Then, we can modify the behavior to achieve the same desired outcome.
Modify Your Process
After being aware of the whys, we can implement a more beneficial behavior.
This requires analysis and research by you. The possible modifications are limitless. The new behavior must achieve the same or a similar reward.
Change Your Identity
You need to start believing new things about yourself to sustain the new behavior.
Build habits around the desired identity.
This is the hardest of the three.
You must convince your mind of something new that goes against your current belief system.
There are several ways we can tackle this: Affirmations, accountability, and visualization.
I use a combination of daily affirmations and sometimes visualizations.
Let me show you how this works in practice.
Let's say you hate getting up early in the morning. This is a common situation everyone has dealt with at least once.
Identity Belief
I hate getting up early in the morning. I like relaxing when tired.
Trigger
Wake up tired.
Sabotaging Behavior
Sleep in and have a less productive day.
Reward
Feel energized.
The key to achieving sustainable change is modifying the behavior to reap the same reward while changing your identity belief simultaneously.
Now let's adjust our habits.
Identity Belief
I love mornings. I am productive no matter the circumstances.
Trigger
Wake up tired.
Beneficial Behavior
Get up. Hydrate, Cold shower. 30 pushups.
Reward
Feel energized.
Simple change. Same result. Better day.
It has done wonders for my personal growth.
Habit transformations are one of the parts of creating a system that works for you long-term so you can be on your A-game as much as possible.
Once your life is optimized, there is more room to focus on what matters to achieve your goals and fulfill your vision
I leave you with this quote.
Man is his own worst enemy.
— Marcus Tullius Cicero
Thanks for reading.
Mack