You Will Never Succeed More Than You Fail And That's A Good Thing

We Will Never Succeed More Than We Fail

How do you define success? Think about your answer over the overcoming paragraphs, since our thoughts about success may not be entirely accurate. For example, most people believe success is about winning and fewer failures, where in fact it is the opposite.

I was watching the American television presenter Steve Harvey, recently who said: "I have failed far more times than I have succeeded. You will never succeed more than you fail... That's just not how it works. I've pitched over 200 show ideas in Hollywood, out of those 200 they have picked 5 in 33 years of pitching."

So what Harvey is telling us is that his success rate within the last 33 years of pitching ideas to Hollywood is 2.5%. Yet, he is one of the most successful television presenters and comedians, with a net worth of $200 million USD.

To present a similar example, consider the following quote from the basketball legend Michael Jordan: "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

Are you getting the sense that success is not about repeated wins, but not giving up until we achieve our goals or dreams? How about you? Have you experienced success that changed your life?

I'm not talking about fame or financial windfalls but the success we experience with our health, relationships, career or finances. The one common denominator, as Steve Harvey points out, is that we will never succeed more than we fail; and that's a good thing. We've got to be working away at our goal, to have any chance of achieving success.

Failure Sharpens The Saw Of Our Character

In a recent documentary hosted by David Attenborough, a pride of lions living in Africa were followed by a camera crew over twelve-months. In it, he mentions a lion will fail 9 times out of 10 when hunting prey. A lot can go wrong during a kill, which forces the lion to abandon the hunt.

Therefore, it must try more often in order to feed itself and the pride. Success is the same where it requires commitment and perseverance to achieve our goals. Even then, there are no assurances we will prevail. It takes a strong mindset to achieve success. If we experience repeated failures and setbacks, it can affect our self-esteem.

Have you experienced this with a goal, whether it be personal or professional? It is my experience coaching people over the years; it is rare to meet someone who has the resiliency to keep going in the face of defeat. We need to have a powerful vision for our life, if we want to achieve success. Chances are, the failures and setbacks will stop us in our tracks if we are not committed enough.

To paint another example, the Navy Seal BUD/S program is designed to weed out those unfit to serve on the front line. The attrition rate is 80% and higher, and that is just the selection process to get into the program.

The attrition rate is high because the program aims to select those who are mentally, emotionally and physically skilled at frontline warfare. I appreciate our lives are not as demanding as the Navy Seals program, but success also has a high attrition rate because of the resiliency required to succeed.

According to the American author Stephen Covey, failure sharpens the saw of our character because it boosts our personal growth and resiliency. Covey spoke of the need to establish strong habits, and hence why he called it sharpening the saw.

Success Leaves Clues

Are you getting the sense that success is about who we become, which determines whether we succeed? Zig Ziglar said: "It's your attitude, not your aptitude that will determine your altitude." Those we regard as successful have accumulated a lifetime of personal growth to get to where they are.

When I read their biographies, the common denominator is the setbacks they experienced, such as repeated failures, delays and insurmountable odds to reach the pinnacle of their field.

The thing that stands out the most is their strength of character and the resiliency upon which they create their life. We must fail and fail often, if we wish to achieve any form of success. Moreover, we must examine our failures to see whether we are growing in proportion to them.

However, we mustn't consider ourselves a failure because failing is not indicative of our self-worth. Failure is a signpost we are trying and the more we try, the greater our chances of succeeding. It bears repeating: we've got to be doing the work to have any chance of success. We've got to be in the arena doing the gritty work no one sees or will praise us for.

Knowing this, I invite you to consider an area of your life where you are hoping to succeed. What do you think is holding you back? You might say economic conditions, the Coronavirus pandemic, or something else. May I remind you Jeff Bezos' wealth grew by $90.1 billion during the pandemic. Bill Gates and other notable billionaires' personal fortunes also grew during the pandemic.

The point I wish to make is that even during a global crisis, successful people thrive and we can use that to propel us forward. So, take out your journal and write 3 to 5 recent failures you experienced, whether personal or professional. What have you learnt from them? Write how you can use the growth to succeed in the future?

There's a well-known quote attributed to Tony Robbins who said: "Success leaves clues." So what clues is success leaving you? Could it be that your failures are sharpening the saw of your character? Journal your answers and take an introspective look within yourself, to see where the opportunities exist. After all, you will never succeed more than you fail because life shape us into the person we wish to become, when success finally arrives on our doorstep.

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The Meaning of Abundance

We all want to enjoy life, have great relationships, achieve our goals and be loved. We subscribe to websites, read articles and books looking for the one answer that will give us everything we desire.

The truth is you already know at some level of your being...

Knowing the meaning of abundance can help clarify what you think you don't know and are still looking for. So what does abundance mean in relation to our desires? If you've been on the internet searching for how to attract abundance you must first understand what it is before you can attract it.

Abundance is not a thing it is a way of being. If I've lost anyone here let me explain further. Abundance is access to an infinite supply of energy. I say energy because everything is energy from your physical toys to your physical body. From your thoughts to your emotions.

With your present understanding of abundance and why you are reading this article ask yourself what type of abundance you are seeking. Are you seeking the real meaning of abundance to better understand and evolve or one of the following:

· If you are seeking material abundance such as more toys, a better house or more money then these can be obtained by following one way.

· If you are seeking relationship abundance such as more friends, better relationships in your personal or business life then these can be obtained by following one way.

· If you are seeking health abundance such as more energy, more weight loss success, more emotional breakthroughs then these can be obtained by following one way.

Everything we are seeking we already are. We are everything we desire. What most people won't or can't accept due to previous programming is that everything we seek is outside of us. It's not. It's part of us.

You are seeking abundance in some form but you are looking in the wrong place or seeing it in the wrong perspective. You are made of energy as is everything on this planet and in the universe as we know it. We are all connected to each other energetically which explains why psychics read minds and telekinesis is possible. We haven't all developed our natural abilities because most of us can't or won't open ourselves to what we can really do. What we really are.

Abundance is your true nature. It is what you were created from. It is who you are now. Why you can't get what you want is because of what you think or believe daily. I can't stress this enough. We have been programmed with thoughts and feelings since the womb. We heard conversations of lack, violence, positivity and hope. We have picked up and been programmed with these dialogues and they are part of us. But we now know how to turn all this negative, self defeating energy into the energy we desire to have.

This is our new stage of evolution

The evolution we are experiencing right now sees people having massive shifts in lifestyle from poverty to wealth, from lives of taking to lives of giving and healings that seem miraculous.

These are not miracles. they are people who have shifted their perspective on how they view life and are now an energetic match to their true self. Their true self being part of the abundance of the universe. We are all capable of making this match but the first step is opening your mind.

I love the quote by Thich Nhat Hanh

"For things to reveal themselves to us we need to be ready to abandon our views about them"

Abandon all preconceived beliefs and notions about how things are supposed to be and see them in a new light. Let situations and people reveal themselves to you and accept what is shown without judgement.

Your present thoughts and beliefs are forming your reality right now. Try the exercise of no mind or observation when your old thoughts creep into your mind. These are not the truth but conditioned patterns that are keeping you from your greatness, your abundance, your wholeness.

The energy from which you are created holds the abundance you desire. Accept the true nature of who you are and open up to your abundance. Abundance is being one with creation which is everything.

If what you are is everything then when we are seeking everything/abundance we are really seeking ourselves

We are really seeking wholeness, completeness and the connection to ourselves. We already have it. We just need to accept it as fact, know it and live by it.

You have been conditioned to disconnection from your wholeness. Reconnecting will take time and commitment so you must be willing to do what it takes.

Try these simple exercises:

• ·Visualize yourself in a boat on a river. Think about something you desire. Do negative thoughts or feelings occur? You are paddling upstream going against the flow of life - resistance, putting in effort
• Think something about the situation that makes you smile, happy or joyful. Your boat is now floating downstream without work in the easy flow of life - abundance
• Whenever one of your preconditioned thoughts comes into your head observe it without judgement. Just observe it until it disappears. This is the practice of observing the ridiculous. I find myself laughing at some of the still existing lies that come to the surface
• We believe we are right about everything. We are right about everything in our life but we don't know what's right for anyone else. If you tend toward correcting others just know that it's OK to believe what you want. No one has to agree with you. And vice versa.

These are just a few simple exercises to get you out of the flow of resistance and into the ease and flow of your true self.

The key to getting the abundance we desire is letting a whole new way of thinking and accepting ourselves and others to prevail. We are evolving and there are massive changes taking place. Your work is to integrate yourself into this new way of being. Everyone is responsible for doing their own work to achieve it.

You're on this site looking for answers. I did not seek you out and say you must think this way. Such is the way of the seeker. You cannot force your beliefs on others. When others seek answers they find you. Offer what you know to these seekers without expectation that they must or will listen you.

I hope this offers some clarity on your search for abundance.

Abundance comes from within not from without.

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The Little Things We Can Do For Ourselves

So, everyone seems to be wrapped up in the big, busy world that we live in. Seldom do we actually take the time to do the things that we want to do. Between school, sleep and homework or family and work, when do we have time to work on our goals?

Well, here's the thing, we can choose to make the things we love doing, priorities. And by setting goals which brings joy to our Hearts every time we work on it, why wouldn't it be a priority? We always seem to look at our goals as a side project. Something to work on once we're a little less busy in our everyday.

But here's the thing, our goals aren't going to make time for us if we don't make time for them. If we're constantly procrastinating from working on them, even by convincing ourselves that we are busy with other stuff, we are never going to achieve our goals.

So why does it seem like our goals aren't already a priority?

For many, it's because they don't take their goals seriously in the first place. They look at their goals as 'wishes' that won't ever come true. But they could easily turn their wishes into realities with a change in their perception.

Another problem, which I sometimes face is something like this. I do indeed take my goals seriously, I just get too swamped with my everyday life like schoolwork and the Internet that I end up not taking any action on my goals.

The trick is to eventually make working on your goals a habit pattern, part of your everyday lives. Then, we would be able to do the things we love without having to worry about finding 'extra' time to do it.

But how do we make this a habit pattern?

Start slowly. I know, I know, I always seem to use the same answer, but it's true! All you need to do is start working on your goals, bit by bit at first. For example, what I do is I find small spaces of time when I'm free to think up of article topics or ideas. Sometimes, I even pull out my phone and Google something that has to do with my goals, just to keep my Mind focused on my stuff.

I do this during the oddest of times, like a couple of minutes on the ride home, a few minutes in between talking to my friends during break at school, when I'm waiting for my food at a restaurant. It's the combined time that I spend working on my goals that start building up the momentum of my work.

The more I work on the little things, the more I find myself eager to get home and expand on the things I've worked on. Try doing it yourself! You could start by doodling on loose paper at first if you want to be an artist or try to figure out the chords in the song playing at the background of your head, if you want to be a musician.

There are a million ways to work on the things you love without making them seem too time consuming. Enjoy finding your own ways to find out how to maximize the little moments in your day!

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Goals Need to Be Checked Against Reality

We need to check our goals to make sure they line up with reality. Goals should not be easy to reach with little effort. Goals should require you to grow a little bit, stretch yourself and force you to hone your skills if you're going to accomplish them. What goal shouldn't do is to make you be something you can't be or make you into someone you can't be.

The typical example of this is that it's not realistic to expect a 50-year-old man who is 70 pounds overweight to be signed for a pro basketball team and make the team and starting next season. You can see all the things wrong with that can't you? No amount of visualizing or thinking good thoughts to attract that outcome will work.

Sure, 50-year-old men play basketball, but have you ever heard of one go from their couch one Spring to starting for the Pistons the following Fall?

The problem comes when we don't recognize other goals that are just like that. Take that same 50-year-old man. He doesn't walk regularly, much less run. Exercise is limited to trips to the bathroom and going upstairs and downstairs at his home. He's not going to run a marathon next week. He might walk one. Over several days. With lots of breaks. If he's lucky.

Do 50-year-old men run marathons? Absolutely. Did any of them do it a week after they decided they wanted to?

What about if that same man wants to start his own business? He's got no experience in anything besides his IT job, but he knows there's a lot of money to be made in Internet Marketing. He signs up for a few free email courses from gurus who all convince him that he can make six figures next month when he launches his first product.

Do people legitimately build online businesses making six figures? Even in a month? Sure they do. But how many have REALLY done it in 30 days from scratch with no experience going in or a plan?

How likely is he to actually do ANY of these things or the hundreds of other half-cocked plans people come up with because they have no idea if it's truly possible at all, much less in the time frame they want to do it?

Right. Not very. This is true for all of us. We can make all the plans we want, set all the goals we want and read them every morning and every night with conviction. But without researching what it takes to achieve that goal, you might as well be making a wish and throwing a penny in the wishing well. Reality trumps fantasy when it comes to goal setting every time.

Great goals start with great values Not all values will help us achieve our goals. Some are timeless. Visit http://tsv.Success-Maniacs.com/ for my free report called Timeless Success Values.

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10 Things That Can Keep You From Giving Up

We have all been there. We are traveling down the pathway to achievement of our goals and for whatever reason, we suddenly hit a wall. Hitting the wall is not the issue, it is that we have hit this same wall about sixty times already. We want to achieve our goals, however, we are tired, discouraged and really sick of this wall!

Thomas Edison said, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." But you say, "I have tried again, and again and again." Discouragement is a powerful enemy that, once it gets a hold of our minds, never gives up.

I would like to share with you ten things you can do to overcome discouragement and move forward in the victory you desire. By following these ten simple steps, every day, you will strengthen your drive for success and end up the better for the battle.

#1 Know What You Want

This may seem like an odd point, however, many people have no idea what they really want in life. They may say that they have an idea or what they wish they had, but they cannot nail down exactly what they want. The truth is, unless you know what you want, you will never get it. Or in the words of the great Yogi Berra, "If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?"

One of the most common questions I am asked when I am speaking to a group is, "How do I know what I am meant to do in life?" My answer is always the same: "What do you want to do?" You see, your purpose or dream in life will not be something you do not want to do. It is always that thing that has been in your heart for ages. You may have pushed it aside because you thought it impossible, but that is the sign it is real. If a dream is not impossible to achieve; it is just too small.

Take the time to clearly define what you want to do. How does it look and feel? What will it be like when you achieve it? Remember that your goal is always something that benefits not only you but others as well.

#2 Know Why You Want It

People often make the mistake of trying to know how to do something before they know why they are doing it. That is backwards. Once you have decided what your goal in life is, you must then discover why you need to achieve it. Here is a tip: it is never for money, fame, power or revenge. None of these things are goals and all will cause hurt and defeat if they are what you pursue.

Ask yourself, how will this make me feel? What will I achieve in the process? Who will I become as a person when I achieve this goal? These questions will help you to discover the right motivators behind your goals and will move you forward faster than anything else.

#3 Write Things Down

Anyone who has spent any time studying goal setting know that one of the key rules is to write your goals down. The importance of this cannot be stressed enough. Success-minded people know that you cannot effectively follow your goals unless they are clearly written out in detail.

Many will say, "I have them all in my head." That, my friends, is the worst place to keep them. Goals can only be successfully followed when they are consistent. In your mind they will change from day to day, you will forget things, add things and change your mind because of how you feel at any given moment. Think of it this way, it is like going on a trip and following a map, however, each time you look at the map the dot where your destination is has moved. You will never get there.

When we write down our goals we make them firm and give them substance. They are only ideas and wishes till we write them down and give them life. Once a goal is in writing you know where you are going at all times. It will not change nor will it fall by the way side. Written goals are a clear road map to success.

#4 Learn From Both Success and Failure

Success-minded people learn that both success and failure can be a blessing and a curse. Success can make us complacent and cause us to slow down; resting on our achievements. Failure can make us discouraged, fearful and cause us to give up. Success can also motivate us, inspire and drive us to even greater things. Failure too can cause us to become more determine and make us push on till we find the answers we seek. So, what is the difference maker in these two states that determine if they help or hurt us? It is the act of learning.

It is when we have decided to learn from every experience, both good and bad, that we can always move forward no matter if we have succeeded or failed in of efforts. The great inventor and businessman, Thomas Edison was well known to record not only his many successes but also his many, many failures. Edison knew that there was a reason why something did not work and if he understood those reasons he would not make the same mistake twice. Besides, he would also learn how these failures could be successes in another area of interest.

On your journey to achievement always have a notebook handy to record your results. Learn from the successes and from the failures and you will always turn your failures into successes. Success-minded people know that nothing in life is ever wasted if you can learn from it. The greatest education you will ever get is that of experience.

#5 Track Your Progress / Not Your Failures

Where we can always learn from our failures, they are not the thing we measure success by. When things are difficult and we want to give up, one way to defeat discouragement is to look at past success and know that we can do it again.

Success-minded people know that success leaves clues. Not just the success of others but also our own. Each time you succeed it is because you did things that caused success. Think about just what those things were and record them. Keep a running record of all successes so that when you are faced with a difficult challenge you can see just how you did it before.

#6 Never See Success as the End of the Journey

The completion of a goal is never the end of the journey. Success-minded people need to understand that it is the process of achieving a goal that give us excitement and drive, not the achievement itself. I have seen too many people who worked hard to achieve their dreams only to lose it all because they stopped working at it. Success is never stagnate. It has to keep growing in order to be maintained. That is why you need a plan for when you achieve as well as for when you don't.

Do you have a goal waiting in the wings for the time when you achieve the one you are after now? What will you do once you see the success you seek today? The best way to never get discouraged or to give up is to have a new goal or new dream that you will move into right away. The best way to reward yourself for achieving a goal is to set a new one immediately.

When I finish a book and send the last draft off to the publisher I always celebrate by starting the next one. The reason for this is simple. I am just like 90% of other writers who once they stop to rest, they never start again. The world is full of people who achieved a goal and decided to reward themselves by "taking a break". The problem is, most do not recover from that break and therefore never achieve anything more. Simple law of nature: when something stops growing, it dies.

#7 Avoid Negative People

It true! There are vampires out there and they are looking for you! They can be your co-workers, store clerks, passersby or even in your own family. We of course do not call them vampires, however, do not doubt that they will suck the live out of you faster than you can notice it happening. These are the negative people in our lives.

I know it sounds hard to call these people vampires. Some are people we love and care about. You must understand that there is no greater enemy to the success-minded person than the influence of negative people in our life. They will steal our dreams, defeat of efforts and destroy our desire to succeed. Some even do it out of love, but is still harmful all the same.

You cannot always remove the negative people from our lives but we can control the influence they have on us. If someone is known for cutting down your dreams the best way to handle it is not telling them your dreams in the first place. Be wise on who you seek for advice and direction. Just because you are thirsty you would not drink from a bottle of poison would you? So do not give a negative person the power in your life that will destroy you and your goals.

#8 Find Encouragement

If you do not tell the negative people in your life your dreams, who do you tell? You want wise and solid counsel, not just someone who will tell you what you want to hear, right? Seek out positive, success-minded people who care about your success. They will be the ones who will encourage you and still tell you if you are heading in the wrong direction. They are the ones who build you up and help you to understand that you can succeed. Remember the great words of author Mark twain who said, "Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you too can become great."

Positive people are a great value in our lives. Their encouragement and inspiration will move us forward during the time when we feel like giving up. They will always be honest with us and yet they will never deny our goals or belittle our dreams. They may not always understand why we are pursuing the dreams we have chosen, but they always respect the fact that our dreams are ours to choose and ours alone.

#9 Have Determination

The most powerful and sure way to keep from giving up is simply not to. I know that sounds simplistic and even dumb to say, however, it is the simplest truth and, as we see in Occam's Razor: "If you have two equally likely solutions to a problem, choose the simplest." In short, the simple answer is the best. Can you think of a way to not giving up that is more simple than, just don't do it?

The great thing about determination is that you do not have to keep making a decision as to what you will do. The decision is made once and you only have to follow it. What happens when things fall apart? You keep on going. What happens when I keep failing at what I do? You keep on going. What happens when it seems no hope is in sight? You keep on going. To quite is never an option. To give up is not on the table for discussion - no matter what you think or feel.

Success-minded people must understand that giving up is to lose it all. It is a matter of survival, not just feeling better. During England's darkest days during World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill knew that to give up or to surrender was not going to stop their destruction but in fact cause it. His words must be noted by every success-minded person who has ever felt like giving up on their dream. "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be;" Churchill said. "for without victory, there is no survival."

#10 Take Action / Keep Moving

Nothing happens without action! That is a fact. This you can take to the bank - and if you take action you will get to go to the bank. No matter what your dream is or how impossible your goals, if you do not take action you will never achieve them. If you do take action, you are on your way to success and there is little to stop you.

The best way to not give up is to not stop long enough to think about it. There is always some action that you can take at any time. The great thing about taking action is that it works if the action is small or big. I will say, if you want massive results you will have to take massive action, however, if you can only take small steps you will still move forward.

Action causes forward movement and as long as you are moving forward you are fulfilling your goals. Don't stop, don't think that you can rest a bit and then start again. Remember, those who stop to rest do not start up again. You lose momentum when you stop. Keep moving and you will find that you never lose ground and you always achieve the goal in the end.

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This One Strategy Can Help You Stick With Your Good Habits Every Day

In 1993, a small bank in Abbotsford, Canada hired a 23-year-old stock broker named Trent Dyrsmid.

Dyrsmid was a rookie and nobody at the firm expected too much of his performance. Moreover, Abbotsford was still a relatively small suburb back then, tucked away in the shadow of nearby Vancouver where most of the big business deals were being made. The first popular email services like AOL and Hotmail wouldn’t arrive for another two or three years, so geography still played a large role in business success. And yet, despite his disadvantages, Dyrsmid made immediate progress thanks to a simple and relentless habit that he used each day.

On his desk, he placed two jars. One was filled with 120 paper clips. The other was empty. This is when the habit started.

“Every morning I would start with 120 paper clips in one jar and I would keep dialing the phone until I had moved them all to the second jar.”

—Trent Dyrsmid

And that was it. 120 calls per day. One paper clip at a time.

Within 18 months, Dyrsmid’s book of business grew to $5 million in assets. By age 24, he was making $75,000. Within a few years, outside firms began recruiting him because of his success and he landed a $200,000 job with another company.

Volume of Work

I asked Dyrsmid about the details of his habit and he said, “I would start calling at 8am every day. I never looked at stock quotes or analyst research. I also never read the newspaper for the entire time. If the news was really important, it would find me from other ways.” 

In other words, Dyrsmid had decided that success in his field came down to one core task: making more sales calls. There was no secret sauce. There was no magic bullet. Good habits were the magic bullet. And so, Dyrsmid put his energy toward the fundamentals that actually determined success rather than getting distracted by the details. In fact, he eliminated every detail that detracted from the task.

Consider how this strategy may have differed from his peers and colleagues. It’s not hard to imagine other stock brokers in the firm spending their mornings catching up on research, checking the latest analyst reports, or digging through stock quotes. These are actions that are easy to justify. After all, shouldn’t a well-informed broker perform better? By the time they began making calls, however, his fellow brokers would already be dozens of calls behind Trent. Add that gap up, day after day, and it isn’t hard to imagine why Trent performed so well relative to his peers.

Trent Dyrsmid’s story is evidence of a simple truth: Success is often a result of committing to the fundamentals over and over again. (See: “Everybody already knows that” is very different from “Everybody already does that.”)

Habits That Stick vs. Habits That Fail

Compare Trent’s results to where you and I often find ourselves. We want to be consistent with our workouts, but struggle to make it into the gym. We know we should write more Thank You notes, but can’t seem to find the motivation to get them done. We’d like to achieve our goals, but still procrastinate on them.

What makes the difference? Why do some habits stick while other fail? Why did Trent’s paper clip habit work so well? And what can we learn from it when it comes to improving our own behavior?

The Power of a Visual Cue

I believe that the paper clip strategy works particularly well because they provide a visual cue to perform the behavior.

Here are a few reasons visual cues work well for building new habits…

Visual cues remind you to start a behavior. Whenever you are excited and motivated about starting something new, it can be easy to convince yourself that you will simply remember to do your new habit. “I’m going to start eating healthier.” Or, “I’m going to focus and get to the gym more often.” A few days later, however, the motivation fades and the busyness of life begins to take over again. Hoping you will remember to do a new habit is usually a recipe for failure. This is why a visual stimulus, like a bin full of paper clips, can be so useful. There is no need to write a Post-It Note or set a reminder on your phone. The paper clips are sitting right there and staring you in the face. They are always reminding you to get started.

Visual cues display your progress on a behavior. Everyone knows consistency is an essential component of success, but few people actually track how consistent they are in real life. Without data, however, it is so easy to lie to ourselves about how reliable our habits are in real life. The Paper Clip Strategy avoids that pitfall. If the paper clips haven’t been moved, you haven’t done your habit today.

Visual cues can have an additive effect on motivation. As the visual evidence of your progress mounts, it is natural to become more motivated to continue the habit. The more paperclips you place in the bin, the more motivated you become to finish the task. (Visual cues can also be used to provide fear-based motivation. I have heard of weight loss clients moving glass marbles from one bin to another for each pound they lose. Once you move a marble over, you definitely don’t want to move it back.)

Visual cues can be used to drive short-term and long-term motivation. The paper clip strategy provides a visual cue that drives your behavior on any given day. Each morning, however, you start from scratch with no indication of how you have done over the previous weeks and months. This is where another type of visual cue can be useful. The “Don’t Break the Chain” Calendar that I described in my article on the Seinfeld Strategy can be used to showcase your consistency over longer periods of time. By stacking these two methods together, you have a set of visual cues that track your progress over the short-run and the long-run.

Creating Your Own Paper Clip Strategy

There are all sorts of ways to use the paper clip habit for your own goals.

• Hoping to do 100 pushups each day? Start with 10 paper clips and move one over each time you drop down and do a set of 10 throughout the day.
• Need to send 25 sales emails every day? Start with 25 paper clips and toss one to the other side each time you press Send.
• Want to drink 8 glasses of water each day? Start with 8 paper clips and slide one over each time you finish a glass.
• Not sure if you’re taking your medication three times per day? Set 3 paper clips out and flip one into the bin each time you swallow them down.

Best of all, the entire strategy will cost you less than $10. Grab a box of standard paper clips. Then get two standard paper clip holders. Decide your habit and start moving those bad boys from one side to the other.

Everyone likes to believe they are the exception and that the standard rules of human behavior don’t apply to them. “I’ll remember to do this habit because I really care about it.” Or, “Trust me, I work hard every day.”

In truth, we all have a tendency to revert to the mean. We all drift back toward our default behaviors. We tend to remember our good days and brush away the below average performances by seeing them as exceptions. That is why we need visual cues to track our progress truthfully and provide a trigger to get us moving each day. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244904