The Plateau of Latent Potential

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The hallmark of any compounding process is the greatest returns are delayed. Complaining about working on a habit for two or three months and not having the result that you want is kind of like complaining about heating an ice cube from 25 to 31 degrees and not melting it. The San Antonio Spurs NBA basketball team have a quote that hangs in their locker room. It says something to the effect of whenever I feel like giving up, I think about the stone cutter who takes their hammer and hits on the stone a hundred times without it cracking into. And then on the 101st blow, it breaks. So true, that was incredibly powerful for us.

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You guys know me, and you know how much I LOVE systems and really simple step-by-step strategies, and that is exactly how James Clear, my guest, and Author of Atomic Habits approaches creating good habits that yield remarkable results.

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Let me repeat that last one again, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

Oh yes, you know how much the systems girl in me just loves that!

In this episode, James shares his 1% approach to changing your habits, how your identity will either help you to succeed at achieving your goals or not, we talked about how to stay the course, even when you’re not seeing immediate results.

And this one is near and dear to my heart as I’m still walking through my weight loss journey.

Here’s the best part of today’s episode, we talk about how you can start to create your own Atomic Habits so you can play a bigger game with your business and life in the New Year!

Here’s a snapshot of a few things we talked about

[05:13] James suffered a very serious injury when he was hit in the face with a baseball bat, which put him in a medically-induced coma. His recovery pushed him to focus on small habits to achieve big results. He found that following small habits gave him a sense of control in his life.
[07:38] After graduate school, James became an entrepreneur and found that he was drawn to studying consumer psychology so that he could better understand why people buy things. He discovered that he was fascinated with behavioral psychology and habit formation.
[08:44] James aims to be the bridge between scientific research and what it says about how habits work and practical application in daily use. The habits and practices he shares in his book are all about how to create small, powerful, and scientifically-proven habits into your own life.
[09:57] Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement! Believe it or not, getting 1% better each day offers significant results. James believes that it might be the only way change happens in the real world. He says that accumulating 1% improvements over time will actually get you the results you're looking for.
[15:37] An implementation intention means that stating your intention makes it more likely to happen.
[17:04] The plateau of latent potential shows that the hallmark of any habit or thing you're trying to change is that the greatest returns are delayed. In fact, the hard work you're putting isn't being wasted, it's just being stored.
[21:46] Focusing on your trajectory instead of the position will help you to stay on course. Remember that every action you take is a vote for or against the person you want to become. True behavior change is identity change.
[27:49] The four laws of behavioral change include: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. The cues get your attention when you need a little reminder.

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