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“Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.”
Publilius Syrus, Latin writer
It’s typical at this time of the year to see my gym busy and with plenty of new faces.
New Year resolutions have a lot to answer for! But will they be there in a month?
One guy who probably will be is someone I saw today.
I’d never seen him there before but he stood out from everyone else, because of his stick.
You see he’s blind.
I couldn’t help but be inspired by this man’s commitment to working on his health despite obvious limitations.
And it made me reflect that we all have our pain, our challenges, our excuses – but maybe we don’t always have that commitment needed.
If this guy can get to the gym and then navigate his way without help to do his exercises, I’m not sure what excuses hold up with anyone else for any goal!
Will the people around him still be going to the gym in 4-6 weeks time?
Unfortunately, most probably won’t.
Why?
Because they just won’t hit the ‘critical escape velocity’ (CEV) needed to break free of existing habits.
The CEV is a space term. A spacecraft leaving the surface of Earth needs to be going about 11 kilometres (7 miles) per second, to break through the earth’s atmosphere and enter orbit.
Achieving escape velocity is one of the biggest challenges facing space travel. If you don’t hit it, you won’t break free of the earth’s hold.
And we need to do the same thing when we want changes in our lives.
The earth’s hold is the equivalent of our habits.
And the greatest, and hardest habit of all to change is ourselves i.e. how we see and manage ourselves.
We need to remember that when we’re building new habits, it’s natural to experience resistance – usually internal.
And it’s vital to keep generating momentum until we hit ‘critical escape velocity’ – that is reflected in a new habit being born – Either for yourself or collectively as a team/organisation.
Consider your top goals or focus areas for the year ahead.
What are the key habits that will move you consistently towards those goals?
And what do you need to do daily to build them?
And will you be like the man who is blind, and commit regardless of circumstances?
Best,
Shane
PS – If you’d like to build real momentum in 2020, my program MindShift can help you do that. It begins 19th February and focuses on helping you identify and build the key habits for better results AND and better life. Early bird offer available for a short while. All details here.
