As an overworked entrepreneur, Grunburg set out to establish some balance and clarity in his life by attempting a “bucket list” (lifestyle/non-work related) item. The goal was to enter an elite paddleboarding race and complete a 32-mile open-ocean paddle — an event known as the Catalina Classic.
He later applied the very same technique to complete another major goal, an Ironman-distance triathlon. Both were successfully accomplished, yet he had no prior experience or base knowledge — no paddleboard, no road bike, not even running shoes.
He shared the methodology with a group of fellow entrepreneurs who were looking to achieve their own BIG goals. Before long, the group was sharing terrific feedback about the process and were experiencing incredible results for themselves; from doubling company revenues to losing weight and even surfing a dream 30’+ wave (story is in the book), just to name a few. Martin Grunburg is the author of “The Habit Factor: An Innovative Method to Align Habits with Goals to Achieve Success”
Favorite Success Quote “Action is the real measure of intelligence”~Napoleon Hill Key Points1. Habits are the Measure of Your Value to Society
At the end of the day, after all is said and done, one of the greatest determining factors of your value to society will be the habits that you cultivated. If you made a habit of greatness, innovation, kindness, and massive action, then this will be your legacy.
On the other hand, if you actively cultivated the habits of sloth, unreliability, greed, and selfishness, than your legacy will reflect this.
The impact that you have on society is directly proportional to the quality of the habits that you create in your life. Focus on creating beneficial habits and eliminating the rest, and you will leave this world better than you found it.
2. Habits are a Vehicle to Achieving Your Goals
Many say that achieving a goal is the best way to create a habit, however, the opposite seems to be true. If you focus your efforts on building habits that will aid you in your journey to a certain goal, you will expedite the process of reaching the goal itself.
Take time upon setting each new goal to ask yourself which habits will be most beneficial to helping you attain the goal and then focus on creating those habits.
3. P.A.R.R. (Plan, Act, Record, Reassess)
The general process for creating new habits is to:
Plan: Decide upon which habit you want to set, and why. Make sure you have the desire to achieve this habit, and the reasons to back up the desire. Then begin with small steps.
Plan to take one small action maybe just a few times each week. So if you are trying to get healthy, drinking 10 glasses of water on Monday and Friday or going for a 15 minute job on Tuesday and Thursday.
Set the initial plan for 28 days, and at the end of those 28 days, follow step 4.
Act: The next step is to actually do the small action for the big habit. Make sure you build in room in your plan for failed days.
For example, if your goal is to wake up at 5 a.m. and your plan is to start by waking up at 5 two times a week. Even if you fail on one of the scheduled days, you will still be able to try again the next day and meet your goal for the week.
Record: Be sure to record your thoughts, feelings etx. etx. during this process. Not only will this help you to stay committed and keep your motivation going strong, but it will also help you to decide at the end of the trial period whether or not this is really a habit you want to have.
Reassess: At the end of the 28 day period, sit down and assess how the plan went. Did you feel the benefits you thought you would from the habit? Did it have the desired affect? Was it harder or easier than you thought to keep?
Based off of your assessment, you can now either set another 28 day plan, this time a bit more difficult, or you can abandon the habit all together.
Example: In the interview, Andrew and Martin used the example of waking up earlier to illustrate how this process would work. The following is a rough outline of that process.
First, you would make a plan, clearly writing out why it is that you want to wake up early and what this will do for your life. Decide on a low frequency “intro” period to this habit, say waking up at 5 a.m. two times each week, on Monday and Thursday for the next 4 weeks.
Now you take action, waking up at the prescribed times each week. You miss one or two days, and instead of failing the entire week, simply wake up early on a Tuesday or Friday, still meeting the quota of twice a week.
Each day when you wake up, you take 10 minutes to jot down how you feel about the habit process, and how you feel this new habit is serving you.
Then at the end of the 28 days, you review your notes and decide that you want to make this a permanent habit in your life. So now, you reassess and restart deciding to try another 28 days, this time, however, waking up at 5 a.m. 4 days a week.
You then repeat this process until you are waking up at the prescribed time 6-7 days a week.
By creating the habit in this way, you set yourself up for success and long term achievement as opposed to going balls to the wall and fizzling out after a week.
