90 Day rule – How just 90 days can change your life and business forever

Have you ever heard the saying that “bad habits are hard to break”? I’m sure you have… haven’t we all?

I can tell you from personal experience that bad habits are incredibly hard to break (still find myself chewing my nails from time to time… putting dishes in the sink instead of right in the dishwasher… forgetting to get a receipt for everything so I can write it off… etc.).

But…

What’s even harder in my opinion is creating good habits and getting those good habits to stick.

Is this you?

When was the last time you made a new years resolution?

Probably a few months ago huh? Well… have you stuck with that resolution? I mean really stuck with it and have it ingrained so deeply as a part of your life now that you can’t imagine living any other way?

If you’re like 95% of the rest of the population… I’d place my money on the line and bet that you dropped that good habit not too long after you started it.

Am I right? Hey, I do this too. There are a ton of good habits that I wouldn’t mind picking up… but it’s not as easy to put into action as it is to flap your lips about.

Here’s how I stick with my good habits… and make sure they stick

I’m the first guy to say that sticking to good habits and getting rid of bad habits takes a bit of work. When I was in high school, I remember my baseball coach telling me that I had a flaw in my swing that needed to be worked out.

For a couple weeks I did the drills like mad every single day… and kept finding myself slipping back into my old ways ever now and then when my body would forget about the new good habit I was trying to work into my swing.

I kept getting pissed at myself every day because I thought I’d be able to change my swing forever in that first day…

… I was wrong.

After about the 3rd week… my coach told me something that I never really thought of.

He said, “From my experience, the human body and brain don’t ingrain something into everyday practice until you do that thing 70 times in a row the RIGHT WAY. ”

So, what he was saying was that it takes time and a consious effort to make a lasting change… you can’t do it overnight… your body and brain just don’t change that easily when it comes to changing or adopting a new behavior.

Let’s translate that to real life…

Okay, you know I’m a baseball nut (it took up 22 years of my life!)… so for me that example I just told you is a good analogy… but hey… you may hate baseball and want it related to real life a bit better.

Recently a good friend of mine and fellow Portland marketing guy, Eric Albertson wrote a great newsletter on this same topic.

In short, his newsletter spelled out the same things I just said… but he put a different number on it… and I completely agree w/ him and have noticed it in my life time and time again.

Eric says, real lasting change usually doesn’t take place until you have practiced it religiously for 90 days.

The 90 Day Rule…

Think about it for a sec. Think of any big change you made in your life or business that has stuck until today… then think of the ones that you hoped would stick but didn’t.

Of the ones that didn’t stick... how many of those goals did you give up on before 90 days of religious execution… I mean day in day out without fail…??? My guess would be that if you truly did execute on your goal every single day for 90 days… and didn’t stray off course… that thing would be sticking like duct tape on a hot barbecue (I just made that up… don’t tease me too much about how corny that is .

And…

If you didn’t stick to it for 90 days… you subconsciously told your brain that you really don’t give a crap about that goal enough to stick with it… so your brain followed your subconscious lead and gave up.

The rule is pretty darn basic:

• Stick with something for 90 solid days… and odds are that it will stick and be ingrained in your everyday life from then on.

Think about it… can you imagine making it past the 30, 60, and 90 day marks doing that activity each and every day… and being able to give up on it? I can’t. If you can go for 90 straight days… it would be a bit time bummer to give up on it now… wouldn’t it?

30 days is a good barometer too. If you can do something everyday for 30 days straight… odds are that you’ll probably stick with it. For most people, if you do something everyday for 30 days and you start seeing good results… wouldn’t it be crazy to stop doing something that you’ve already proven you can do?

It sure would.

But, for me… the 30 day mark isn’t all that powerful because in most anything worthwhile… you probably won’t see huge measurable results in just 30 days. It usually takes more time to see life changing measurable results… like between 60-90 days.

So, while 30 days is a great feat… many people will not see the results they were expecting and give up saying, “this crap doesn’t work… I’ve been doing it for 30 days and this is all I have to show for it!”.

So… 90 days it is.

Yep, simple as that. Just do something for 90 straight days and you’ll be set.
… Ya right!

Simple, Yes. Easy, Not Always.

Why most people give up almost every time…

There are a billion reasons why people rationalize giving up on their goals… or even on small things that will help them improve their business or lives.

But, in my opinion most people don’t make it to 90 days because of a few things:

• They expect miracle results in just 30 days… and if they haven’t seen those results in 30 days… “this crap just doesn’t work”.
• They don’t pick the things that they can see the most improvement on to work on first.
• They aren’t clear on what the heck they really want… why they want it… and how important to their life it is that they get it.

So it all boils down to clarity, low hanging fruit, and realistic expectations coupled with long-term vision.

How to make your goals and “good habits” stick…

Here’s a simple little formula that I use to make my good habits and goals stick in business and in life.

1. Choose the 5 most important changes you want to make in your life and business
2. Write down the steps that it will take to make those changes/reach those goals… and the timeline you think you can reach the goal in
3. Use the 80/20 rule to pick the 1 to 3 goals/changes that you can see the most improvement over a 90 day period in. For instance, what activities will provide the most bang for their buck (time and energy investment)?
4. Build those 1 to 3 things into your life each and every day… and even set reminders for yourself multiple times a day to do those activities that will help you get there.
5. At the end of every day… look at your journal (if you don’t have a journal… get one… trust me!) and write down what it felt like to move toward your goal and what you can do better tomorrow.
6. Do that for 90 days… and after a while it will become second nature and you won’t even have to remind yourself to do it. It’s now ingrained in YOU… and you can concentrate on improving another part of your life or business for the next 90 days.

To me, things should be done in time chunks. 90 days is a great length of time for many goals… and most activities or behaviors can be easily ingrained in your day to day routine after 90 days of religious execution.

The disclaimer…

I don’t want to be a late night infomercial guy and tell you that all you have to do is sit on your ass, do this thing one time, and your life will change for ever (but if you buy now… I’ll give you your second miracle for free… you just have to call within the next 4.5 seconds .

Any lasting change that is worthwhile will take a bunch of time and effort on your part to make it happen.

But hey…

If it’s really worth it… don’t you think that you should find any way you can to stick with something for just 90 days? Imagine… 90 days from now you can completely turn your life or business around if you just focus on 1 to 3 areas that you want to see improvement on… and work on those every single day for 90 days.

Crazy stuff what focus and clarity does. Try it out. If you stick with it for 90 days and it doesn’t work… I’ll refund everything you paid for this advice.

Let me know your strategies for making things stick? What do you do?

Oh… before we go.

Think about this for a second. 99% of your competition won’t make the effort to use this 90 day rule. They might fudge and go 30 or 45 days… but only 1% of YOUR COMPETITION will actually follow through with something for a full 90 days.

This is your opening… you are either 90 days away from a totally different life or business… or 90 days away from looking back at today wondering why the heck you didn’t listen to this dude yap away on his blog.

Where will you be in 90 days??

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