Do you remember how it felt the last time you gave great advice to someone… and they actually followed it? Didn’t it feel good when they told you how your advice had made a huge difference?
A few months ago, one of my mentors called me while I was at the gym. He was frustrated with his workout routine. He’d hired a personal trainer (for big bucks) who required him to do a 2-hour workout every other day. And, he absolutely dreaded every time he had to go to the gym.
He ask me what I was doing, and how I was doing it. I told him that my goal was to just develop the habit of going to the gym and to do more each time I went. I also said that I could never do what he’s doing — it would seem less like fun and more like work. The whole “dreading” feeling was not something I was looking for.
Do you understand that it’s the habits we create that truly make our success and failures? What habits do you have that created the life you have now?
When I do my free Get Paid TV broadcasts, I give “habit-work,” which is homework to help you create better habits. During these broadcasts, I answer questions from people around the world (and even a few right there in my living room).
Awhile back, one of my friends and Get Paid TV participants, Charli (who is a fitness speaker / instructor) took to heart my idea of building her “list” of people who have interest in her subject and want to learn more about fitness. Within one month she had 250 people on her list! She has developed a habit and can’t be stopped. Her excitement builds her most important speaking asset (her list). Progress reinforces the right habits.
My friend Debi — an expert in human resources, and an emerging speaker from Michigan — asked me for guidance recently. She knows her subject and loves to write. I suggested writing articles and regularly submitting them to article banks as a form of marketing. She grabbed the advice and within a week had 2 articles accepted by article banks.
I interviewed a Real Estate guru who prides himself in making millionaires out of Real Estate Investors. During the interview, I asked him to tell me about the habits he’s seen in his most successful students. He told me that without a doubt, his best students applied his advice and attended his boot camps over and over again, thus reinforcing the concepts they were learning from him.
Well, of course! It’s so simple! Some students are not committed, but the really good ones absorb the advice and internalize it. You can’t hear something once and own it. It’s just not possible.
Last weekend at our Coaching Camp, Penny Rosema and Elle Swan made incredible progress from when I first met each of them. I believe they both have learned to tell their stories at a world-class level.
My mentor called me back to tell me of his progress. He had fired his personal trainer and decided to try my workout plan of developing the habit of working out daily, six days per week for a short time. During our conversation, he exclaimed, “Darren, just I lifted more weight than EVER before! Thank you!”
Progress is success. It solidifies the habit which keeps you moving towards your goal.
What fun habits can you instill to create your future?
Stage time,
Darren LaCroix
2001 World Champion of Public Speaking
P.S. I LOVE it when people implement my advice! It’s the greatest “thank you” you can give a mentor. Learn more about:
Image / Health ~ Elle Swan
Speaker ~ Penny Rosema
Hello Darren,
I love receiving your newsletters. They are very enlightening and have am a better person because of them. I have written you about how I wished I received your insight (you didn’t even know you had insight on my life did you) earlier, so I could have applied it sooner.
As I read this newsletter I would like for you to look at it from a different view point. To me, it is contradicting, because of the example you used. I agree in habits. I agree in everything you said about forming habits. I also agree that your friend needed to change his workout to make it work better for him. I don’t now if you were that person to give him that advise, being that you were up against the advise of a formally trained fitness guru who can charge big bucks because of his expertise. I believe you could have found a different story to get your point across. One that kept you in your expertise of public speaking. I also believe that your friend was forming a habit by going to the gym every other day. Maybe even growing in the area of discipline because he forced himself to do something that seemed like a chore to accomplish a goal. This is his habit. A habit is something that does not have to be done everyday just consistantly.
Continue with the great work you are doing. I am learning so much and really enjoyed your Own the Stage DVD.
Rada