Today, you're excited about getting fit. You feel like doing your twenty minutes on the treadmill. Great! But what if tomorrow you just don't feel like doing it? routines9 p.19
Measuring your curve: If you want to know which side (up or down) of a given curve you are on there is one attitude, one state of mind, which overwhelming predominates either side of the curve... On the failure side is blame, on the success side of the curve is responsibility. p.142 routines9
Most people don't stick with the simple daily disciplines it takes to get where they want to go, because they don't know how to look ahead far enough along the curve to see the results they are creating. routines9 p.39
Complete control at first, until they become automatic and take on a life of their own. They will determine the direction of your life. Question is: which behaviors do you want to have take on a life of their own? routines9 p.218
Suggestion: Chose to achieve higher level of productivity through reflection by working with a coach. A coach holds up a mirror and shows you what you're doing, day in and day out. A Coach keeps your "dailies" in your face. Helps you harness the power of reflection, asking smart questions. p.212 routines9
Don't ignore the past, but use it as a tool - one of many with which you build your future. routines9 p.149
You, through the power of your own thoughts, are the most influential person in your life. Which means there is nobody more effective at undermining your success, and nobody more effective at supporting your success. routines9 p.186
The issue isn't that you don't know HOW to accomplish something [stick to a routine], "how to do it is not the issue", if "how to do it" were the answer, it would be done. It's how you do the hows that's most important. routines9 p.16
The beauty of routines (the slight edge) is that it's a very generous process. It requires only a minuscule contribution from you, and yet it offers you a gigantic return. It demands a penny and returns a million dollars. Starting with "the penny" is your part of the deal, the rest of the equation is time. p.64 routines9
The stack of incompletions can loom large, and seem overwhelming. Especially when you realize that whatever might have been keeping you from completing them in the first place; fear of confronting the issue, feeling intimidated or overwhelmed, working it might be difficult or uncomfortable. Those thoughts / considerations are working against you - daily, sometimes moment by moment. routines9 p.208
If you are consistently associating with negative people, it's highly unlikely you'll not reflect the same exact characteristics. routines9 p.196
The things that take you out of failure and up towards survival and success are simple. So simple intact that it's easy to overlook them. It's easy to overlook them because when you look at them, they seem insignificant. routines9 p.9
The word "want' has two meanings; It can mean you desire something; it can mean you lack something. We tend to desire what we lack, and lack what we desire. routines9 p.162
Following your routines is a daily & hourly choice. The compound effect of both side of the equation will add up over time. "A simple, positive action, repeated over time. A simple error in judgement, repeated over time." - routines9 p.54
What we need is a key to manage attitude. Happiness is the missing ingredient that quite a few people need to make control of attitude work. p.102 routines9
Principle: Your income tends to equal the average of the incomes of your five best friends. Same principle applies to other types of currencies in your life. Health, happiness, etc. routines9 p.195
You need to define where you are now, and where you could be tomorrow. Your vision of what's possible for you in your life. There is a wanting gap between point A/B, there is a natural tension between those two poles. routines9 p.163
If you want to understand and apply the slight edge (routines) to create the life of your dreams, you can't make your everyday choices based on the evidence of your eyes. You need to make them based on what you know. You have to see through the eyes of time. routines9 p.68
We generally think of what is "us", our conscious mind, and our subcouncous as something vague going on under the surface. The truth is the subconscious runs virtually everything. routines9 p.186
99.99% of everything you do is on auto pilot. In other words, often in the same way you take a walk and end up at home without ever thinking about it is similar to how must people end up in their lives saying "how did I get here?" On auto pilot. You can either let things around you chose what programs your subconscious, or you can chose the programming. routines9 p.187
A positive philosophy turns into a positive attitude, which turns into positive actions, which turns into positive results, which turns into a positive lifestyle. (the opposite is true) routines9 p.20
sidenote "happiness movement vs. personal development" Far more people have a strong desire to be happy than a strong desire to develop themselves to a fuller potential. “Personal development” sounds to most people like work, and who wants to work harder than they are already working? But “happiness” doesn’t sound like work. It sounds like … well, it sounds like being happier. routines9 p.100 When you read all the research about what it takes to raise your level of happiness, you begin to realize that these scientists are describing exactly the same kinds of behaviors that all the personal development teachers have been advocating for decades, just applied in a slightly different context. And positive psychology, as it turns out, is the perfect mate to positive philosophy. In other words, the slight edge. p.101
Instead of writing down what you're going to do, write down at the end of the day what you did do that day. (track KPI) What actions did you take today that made you more successful? At the end of the week, look back over your log and take inventory. This will give you a good measure of what you've actually done that week. And will also serve as a great tool to help you reflect and start changing what you actually do. routines9 p.211
The right or wrong choices you make at the moment will have little or no noticeable impact on how your day goes for now. Or tomorrow, or the next day. It's not exciting. All the drama comes at the end of the story, when the credits start to roll. Making the right choices, taking the right actions is truly easy to do (ridiculously easy, but it's just as easy not to do.) IF you don't do them, there won't be any big drama about it; it won't make any difference at all, not today anyway - but over time... routines9 p.68
Routines are firmly planted in the present; you can not execute them in the past or future. Most of us live with one foot planted firmly in the past and the other tucked timidly in the future. routines9 p.73
Suggestion: Do this with a accountability partner, someone who wants to harness the power of reflection, and schedule time together to debrief each other. routines9 p.212
Who's dream did you build today, yours or someone else's? Take a searching and fearless personal inventory. routines9 p.211 - Keep your progress, or lack of it, right in your face.
Your choices come from your habits of thought, which are the product of your thinking, which comes from the view you have of the world and your place in it - your philosophy. routines9 p.219
When you do have a clear picture of the future and consciously put time every day into letting yourself be drawn forward by that future, it will pull you through whatever friction and static you encounter in the present— and whatever tugging and clutching you may feel from the past. routines9 p.151
Cultivating positive outlook does not mean you are always happy. Does not mean life never gets you down. Does not mean you walk around with idiotic grin, living in denial, ignoring the realities of pain and struggle. People who cultivate genuine positive outlook go through tough times too. Everyone has funk days. routines9 p.224
People who live with huge, vivid, clearly articulated dreams are pulled along toward those dreams with such force, they become practically unstoppable. routines9 p.165
Live, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness ~ Within the Context of Routines routines9 p.95
the only difference between the grand canyon and a trickle of water down a path is: time. p.64 routines9 - six million years to be exact.
Sometimes the running commentary in our mind spills out into things you say to yourself, but most of the time it's that silent voice whispering between your hears, and there is no voice more powerful. routines9 p.184
Will Power is Vastly Overrated. For most people, will power ends up looking and feeling like some sort of grim self-tyranny propped up by an arbitrary, artificial reward and punishment system. There is a natural tendency to resist an applied force. Willpower will take you only so far before you feel yourself rebelling. keypoint p.63 routines9
When you talk with people who have achieved extraordinary things it is stunning how often they will tell you some version of "I just decided to do it." Kill, knowledge, experience, connections, resources, finances, expertise, and all these things are part of the journey, but none of them are possible until the journey itself is initiated. routines9 p.220
Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." - or applied to finances "Whatever I have, I spend." routines9 p.52
Common belief: Once I become healthier, [...] better relationship, [...] living where I want to live, [...] income is high enough to manage my life without stress; THEN I'll be happier. That's how we think it works, opposite is true. routines9 p.98
You must chose your Heroes. The quickest and surest path to raising the quality of your life is to start hanging out with people who have been there and done that. routines9 p.194
"The Steel Cables of Behavior" - like the suspension cables that hold up the Golden Gate Bridge are flexible, and incredibly strong; they seem unbreakable. routines9 p.219
We are all aware of the insidious and destructive power bad habits can have in our lives, even if we're not quite as aware of our own as others are. A lot is written about the power of good and bad habits, but we tend to overlook the enormous power of positive, intentional habits. keypoint p.217 routines9
Sometimes you need to run in the other direction. routines9 p.198
The missing attribute in society today is "cultivate", the step we've lost touch with. This is the where the real (though invisible power) power lies, it only takes place through patient dimension of time. routines9
Bottom Line: Every day, in every moment, you get to exercise choices that will determine whether or not you will become a great person, living a great life. p.132 routines9
Too often we make heroes out of people who can't really help us, who's lives are fantasies, not genuine role models. List your role models and ask "Can I become like them? Are these people doing the kinds of things that I aspire to do and living the kind of lives that I aspire to live? Can they really help me become who I want to become?" p.194 routines9
The key is, start somewhere. Wherever you can take action and begin creating little successes, do it. Don’t wait. routines9 p.153 p.154
Tension is uncomfortable; and is naturally created between where you are and where you want to be. routines9 p.164
There are two forms of attitudes here... "value driven" vs. "entitled", what you owe vs what the world owes you. Earn vs. expect. routines9
everything is curved. There is no true straight line. Everything is always, constantly changing. Including your life. You are on a journey called your life path, and that path is not a straight line, but a curve. As you walk your path, it is always, every moment of every day, curving either upward or downward. routines9 p.142
What you need is {to create or adjust} your philosophy. routines9 p.16
Your attitude is the thing that translates your abstract understanding (philosophy) into concrete actions. routines9 p.102 Your attitude determines the quality of the leap from philosophy to action.
Keep your daily positive activities, your right choices and incremental successes right out in the open where you can see them and celebrate them. p.213 routines9
You are always either improving, or eating away at your progress: http://vid.increase.ventures/1dlfE routines9 p.151 & p.152
Mistake: thinking you're being productive because you're busy. Being productive and being busy are not necessarily the same thing. Doing things won't create your success; doing the right things will. If you're doing the wrong things, doing more of them won't increase your odds of success, it will only make you fail more drastically. routines9 p.210
changing attitude is not enough. you can adjust your attitude by getting inspired, by listening to a great speaker, by reading an inspiring story, or by your best friend giving you a pep talk. Any of those things can get you moving in the right direction. Th problem is, it won't last. You may get inspired, but you can't freeze that feeling or glue the emotion of the moment into place. Emotions change like the wind, and you can't stop them. routines9 p.19
The secret of time is simply this: time is the force that magnifies those little, almost imperceptible, seemingly insignificant things you do every day into something titanic and unstoppable. routines9 p.65
Acknowledge: In the past you have actually done the items in your routine, you have successful accomplished everything you want to do in your routine. The only difference when you fail is that you didn't keep doing them. This means you already have everything you need to keep to a successful routine. routines9
Once you are aware of the value of (the slight edge) you will naturally have both purpose and the straight of heart to stay on that purpose. The important point is to start on the path and to remember that no matter what has gone on before, you can begin fresh and new anytime you chose. p.72 routines9
You must invest in adding to your subconscious things that are useful to helping you reach your end goals, and not things that will lower your ability to each them, it's one or the other... and it's your job to chose. routines9 p.189
A penny saved is a penny earned. False. This is one of those things people say without really thinking it through, because it is so not true. If it were, then a penny would just be a penny. Big deal. But a penny saved is not a penny earned; a penny earned is a penny earned. How much is a penny saved? It’s a thousand dollars, if you save it long enough at a great enough rate of interest. p.132 routines9
The secret to the 5 percent’s success is always in mundane, easy things that anyone could do. p.62 routines9
Tracking Your Routine Success (or really any success for that mater) routines9 p.8 - http://vid.increase.ventures/13xZm
Example: reading 10 pages today of a good book aimed at improving your life, your life will not change. If you don't read 10 pages today of a good book today, your life will not fall apart. HOWEVER: Doing this every day, for a year, you would have read 3650 pages - equivalent of one or two dozen books of life transforming material. Would your life have changed? Absolutely, no question. keypoint p.57 routines9
Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Progressive means success is a process, not a destination. Something you experience gradually, over time. Failure is JUST as gradual. routines9 p.57
Simple tasks that, if you do them consistently and persistently over a long perdio of time, will get the results you are looking for. p. 103 routines9
Shawn Achor -- author The Happiness Advantage's Five simple things you can do each day that, if you do them consistently over time, will make you notably happier. p.104 routines9
There are two different types of functions within our mind,. the conscious and the unconscious. Conscious is the part doing what we think of as "thinking". Focuses intensely on one thing at a time. Conscious mind is incredibly powerful at what it does, but it's scope is very limited. Mostly focused on one thing at a time. routines9 p.186
The key to success is to identify those things that are eventually going to become self-evident before they are self-evident. Or to put it even more simply: find out what the majority is doing and do the opposite— which can be uncomfortable. At least at first, when the 95 percent are ignoring you, laughing at you, or fighting you. But in the end, you win. routines9 p.167
The "tension gap" can work against you or it can work for you. The tension has to be resolved, and it will, one way or the other. You have a voice in how it resolves, not if it resolves. routines9 p.165
The results after three weeks, 21 days in a row, will create a habit. You've started the process of rewiring your brain to see the world in a different way, results: experiencing happier days. p.104 routines9
Addressing funk days: First thing; take an inventory of your blessings. Habit of gratitude. It doesn't always work right away, but it's where you should start. Worth admitting when the worse shows its face: It's hard to appreciate love if you haven't felt hurt or loneliness. Hard to know what's good and how good it feels, without knowing bad. Cant feel happy and content without feeling the fun. Life is ebb and flow. routines9 p.225
There's nothing inherently good about slowness, it's just as possible to move TOO slowly than to move too quickly. The key word in "slow and steady" is not slow, but steady. routines9 p.206
The beauty of routines (the slight edge) is that it's a very generous process. It requires only a minuscule contribution from you, and yet it offers you a gigantic return. It demands a penny and returns a million dollars. Starting with "the penny" is your part of the deal, the rest of the equation is time. p.64 routines9
Your habits operate at the unconscious level, which means you are not normally aware of them. You must bring a habit into your conscious awareness so you can observe what it's doing, how it empowers and serves you (or doesn't). Once you are aware of a habit that doesn't serve you, how do you change it or get rid of it? All it takes is knowing where to focus your energy, that plus time. routines9 p.219
Research supports: people who consistently practice seeing opportunities instead of problems, who focus on the best in a situation rather than the worst, who notice other peoples better qualities and look past their weaker ones, who see the glass as at least half full in every circumstance, are happier, more creative, earn more money, have more friends, have better immune response, have less heart disease and strokes, have better and longer lasting marriages, live longer, and are more successful in their careers. routines9 p.223
Trying to get rid of an unwanted habit is a bit like trying not to think about an elephant, the more you try not to think about it, the more you think bout it. That's because what you focus on grows. Which is why people who put a lot of energy into focus on what they don't want, by talking about it, thinking about it, complaining about tit, or fretting about it, usually get precisely that unwanted thing. routines9 p.220
Everyone knew this in the past, today it's a learned skill. Everyone wants to go directly from plant to harvest. We plant the seed by joining the gym, and then get frustrated after a few days of no fitness harvest. p.65 routines9
Each and every incomplete thing in your life or work exerts a draining force on you, sucking the energy of accomplishment and success out of you. Every incomplete promise, commitment, or agreement saps your strength because it blocks your momentum and chocked off your ability to move forward, progress, or improve. Incomplete things keep calling you back to the past to take care of them. routines9 p.208
keypoint "the slight edge" - routines - dailies - are boring in the short term, incredibly exciting in the long term. Making the right choices is not dramatic. If making the right choices were a dmaatic thing, you'd get immediate feedback. That doesn't happen: there is no immediate feedback. routines9 p.67
When you don't take responsibility, when you blame others, circumstances, fate, or change, you give away your power. Often negative things outside our control happen, it's how we react, how we view those things, that make the difference between success and failure; that is completely within our control. routines9
Most tend to see larger or different problems as negative, and it infects their lives with negativity. You can gauge the limitations of a person's life by the size of the problems that get him or her down. You can measure the impact a person's life has by the size of the problems he or she solves. routines9 p.164 keypoint keyphrase
Success comes with a price; growth creates abundance, abundance creates responsibility. Responsibility is the price you pay for success. p.115 routines9
Are there things that are incomplete in your life: unpaid bills; unfinished projects, borrow something from someone yet to return, someone who needs to hear "i love you," "I'm sorry" or "Than you I appreciate you". Unkept Promises, any agreements or commitments you've left hanging?" routines9 p.272
sidenote { THIS is the key identifier of if you should add something to your routine. WHAT small thing, done daily, will create a landslide of effects later. WHAT small things did you do in the past can you attribute to compound effects in successful parts of your life currently? } things that are ridiculously easy to do, but just as easy not to do. - p.58 routines9
The purpose of investing in yourself is not to accumulate knowledge skills or fluency in a specific area, they are not the principle aim. The self investment is to train you how to think and what you think. routines9 p.186
The ropes of behavior made up of your everyday little choices are just like the enormous metal cables that hold up the bridge. Each choice is a length of steel wire. By itself, it's not that big of a deal, but when braided together, when compounded with all the other choices you make, these slender lengths of wire form a tree-trunk-like tension line of awesome strength. "Nothing is stronger than habit." - Romen poet Ovid routines9 p.219
If you are willing to commit to showing up consistently, every day, no matter what, then you have already won more than half the battle. The rest is up to skill, knowledge, drive, and execution. routines9 p.223
It's tough to get rid of the habit you don't want by facing it head on. The way to accomplish it is to replace the unwanted habit with another habit that you do want. Creating new and better habits, ones that empower and serve you, it's something you know how to do - you do it the same way you build any habit you have; one step at a time. routines9 p.220
Context of founders of America's statement; basically wanted an environment where individuals could go about pursuing happiness, whatever that meant for them, in relative peace and freedom. They didn't try and guarantee happiness itself, just a place where you stood a better chance of chasing it down. routines9 p.95
Once you do what it takes to raise your everyday level of happiness, then you will become more successful, then you'll become healthier, then you'll find that relationship. The more you raise your own happiness level, the more likely you'll start achieving all those things you want to achieve. p.98 routines9
Doing something routinely only "once a week" or similar is tough, because you have to start all over again every time. You have to gear yourself up to get inspired to get back in action. It takes far less energy to keep yourself doing something once you've started, consistently, within shorter time frames. routines9 p. 206
Belief: If I stay on this road long enough, I'll get the result I'm seeking. It's not a question of your mood or your feelings, and it's not a question of willpower. It's a question of simply knowing. p.74 routines9 - you simply know that a light switch will turn on a light, you don't think about it; you believe it and experience the results of turning it on.
Disassociating doesn't necessarily mean cutting them out of your life entirely, move from close to casual instead; lower the impact they have on your daily life. You're not judging these people, your simply asking yourself to be honest about whether or not these relationships are empowering you and helping you to support your purpose and realize your dream. p.199 routines9
Become acutely aware of who you are modeling. This has everything to do with your philosophy and your attitudes. Birds of a feather flock together because they're heading in the same direction. What destination are those around you heading for? Is it where you want to go? routines9 p.196
Happiness doesn't derive from success, it's the other way around. routines9 p.97
"Impossible just takes a little longer than the possible." Success takes time yes, however less than most think. Once the momentum of the slight edge starts to kick in it becomes unstoppable, and you reach a point where results do indeed start to happen very fast. p.75 routines9
Your own thoughts are a virus. Your thoughts multiply themselves by the power of compounding interest, they grow. This is true of positive and negative thoughts. It's not even a matter of bee careful what you wishful, you just might get it; it's a matter of what you think period. What you think multiplied by action plus time, will create what you get. routines9 p.186