The #1 Reason People Fail, Don’t Stick to their Commitments (and don’t form good habits)

I remember the first time I realized I needed “help.”

From the outside looking in, I was in an enviable position.

In my early 20’s, I’d already attended a prestigious university and traveled around the world. I’d started multiple profitable businesses that allowed me to live and work from anywhere.

And I was miserable.

It wasn’t that I didn’t love and appreciate every moment of my life — I knew I was lucky.

But deep down, I knew that I was only scratching the surface of my potential. The truth was that for every successful project I’d started, 10 went half-baked and unfinished.

I just couldn’t focus on something long enough to get it done. I was desperate to stop the vicious cycle of self-disappointment.

It all came to a head one morning at a Regus office in Colombia — and I realized I had to come home.

To what, I didn’t know. But I knew something big had to change, or I would end up as one of those guys that made people say, “Yeah, I remember Maneesh. He had a lot going for him…then he kind of disappeared. I wonder what happened?”

Have you ever been frustrated to the point of tears because you no matter how much you tried to “motivate” yourself — you just couldn’t start a project, hobby or idea that you really wanted to do — even though you knew EXACTLY what steps needed to be done?

Or worse yet (if you’re like me) — maybe you start every project that sparks your interest, then let it die a slow, silent death at the hands of your own procrastination and laziness?

Maybe you wanted to get in better shape. Summer is coming.

Simple fix, right? Changing your body isn’t rocket science. It just takes consistency.

Start by being more conscious of your eating. Download an app to track your food. Type it in. It’s easy.

Get to the gym. Start off slow. Even 2-3x/week will make a huge difference.

We have everything laid out. And we can’t pull the trigger.

We know exactly what to do.

Then, we do the opposite.

Our eating doesn’t change. (Burritos are healthy, right? There’s like…vegetables in there.)

The gym plan falls apart within days.

We get “busy,” we negotiate with ourselves and the “Monday, Wednesday, Friday” plan turns to “Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.”

“Thursday, Saturday, Sunday” turns to “Let’s just reset next week.”

This. Is. Hell.

And of course, this pattern I’ve described has nothing to do with the gym. It’s applies to everything we’ve ever wanted in our lives. Everything that we let slip away because we don’t know how to get ourselves to commit to something — and actually stick to it for more than a few days.

This problem may even be the reason you’re reading this post right now — instead of doing something that you really want to do.

Instead of doing something that you know you SHOULD be doing.

But it doesn’t have to be like this.

First of all, there’s something you need to realize: Changing yourself is harder than ever. The modern world is specifically designed to distract you with newsfeeds, tweets and updates.

It’s a constant barrage of media and technology that you just can’t escape. It’s suffocating and it’s not stopping.

It’s not your fault. I’ve gone through it too.

After literally years of research, I found something surprising: We can’t change our behaviors by thinking about them.

Yes, you read that correctly. We can’t just FORCE ourselves to make positive change.

Willpower doesn’t work.

The answer is habit change. To get better results, you must become a better you. And you have to AUTOMATE this process.

You have to be better without having to THINK about it. The only construct in the human brain that allows this type of improvement is through habit.

Now let’s talk about what that means for you…

Over the past 6 months, hundreds of readers have been asking me about what’s going on at Hack the System.

Some of you may have noticed that we’ve taken a deep, deep dive into habit-formation, psychology and behavior change. Many of you know about my new company, Pavlok. And there have been a few readers that have unsubscribed because they just want travel hacks, or information on how to get cheap flights.

I’m perfectly fine with that — because habit change is foundational.

It comes BEFORE you can use all the other strategies and techniques I teach on HtS. And, if you’re already using those strategies, changing your habits will enhance your life and make everything else you’re doing even MORE powerful.

Next week, I’m unveiling Pavlok to the public in limited quantities for the first time ever. I’ll be hosting a small event to kick it off and I’m giving HtS exclusive first access to the technology.

If you want the opportunity to be one of the first people on the planet to own this powerful habit change technology, you have to reserve your spot at the launch event.

 

But before that, I’d like to hear from you:

1. If you could snap your fingers and “make it so” — what’s the #1 habit in your life that you’d like to change? (It can be a new habit you’d like to form, or an old habit you’d like to break.)
2. Being as objective as possible, what do you think has been holding you back from making this change so far? Please be specific.

I’ll read every comment and jump in on the good ones 🙂

 PS — I’ll give you more info on the launch even later. But if you want to get in on the early bird list and confirm your spot, you can sign up here.

Also: A little back-of-the-napkin math for you: Hack the System has over 30,000 subscribers, and the software I’ll be using to host this presentation only has 1,000 slots. Don’t miss out on this event because you didn’t take 3 seconds to fill out your email address.