Habits 2 Goals: The Habit Factor® Podcast With Martin Grunburg | Goal Achievement, Productivity & Success Simplified

“Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.” ~Nathanael Emmons One Saturday, driving to the office before a Habit Factor Group Challenge event, MG records this quick episode to underscore what seems to elude so many of us: that habit should be used as a tool, one that is consciously constructed, with practice, (following P.A.R.R.) to serve us unconsciously. This is what is meant by holistic thinking, rather than, "I don't believe in habit," as one "guru" put it to Martin, adding, "I only believe in mindfulness." That is both a noble and silly proposition. Habit isn't something one "believes" in. Habit isn't going anywhere, just like the moon isn't going anywhere. Thus, thinking holistically, one can intentionally cultivate the habits that will serve them unconsciously.  So, what habits are you making your servants? Enjoy the episode! How are you going to improve your results in 2021? Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge TEXT your toughest #habits and #goals questions and be eligible

"Unfortunately, we're all not going to be lucky enough to have a near-death experience." During a recent interview (which has yet to air) for another habit-related podcast, host Brian Conroy said something interesting: "You know, I don't mean to sound skeptical, but these other authors, what's interesting...is they've all had near-death experiences." While the interviewer's point was not lost, the message had a more meaningful application, thus MG's answer above. Since near-death experiences force us to ask the tough questions, the realization is that we should ALL be "lucky" enough to encounter them. However, this isn't likely to happen any time soon for most of us, so we'll have to do the next best thing: Use our creative imaginations and pretend we have almost died! Near death experiences lead us to ask reflective questions, such as, What has my life meant? What have I shared/given? What have I learned? What have I achieved and experienced in this life? Perhaps even better, "If we were to die tomorrow, wha

Q: How long should I be tracking my habits? A: How long do you plan on living? After a recent presentation to an entrepreneur group, the question came up, "How long should I be tracking my habits?" MG's response, "How long do you plan on living?" Coming on the heels of recent episodes, "Habit Tracking is for Humans" and "What are the Most Important Habits?" the realization is this; we should track the habits that help us achieve our most important goals, for the majority of our life.  Taking a page right out of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography, who, after nearly sixty years of tracking his habits (virtues), said of the practice, "though I never arrived at the perfection I desired... I was a better and happier man for the effort." Then, Ben concluded, "I hope, therefore, that my descendants shall follow the example (habit tracking) and reap the benefit." While tracking habits for the rest of your life may seem extreme, at first, it's efficacy has been proven time and again and has a profound effect not just o

"You cannot change your destiny overnight but you can change your destination." Why do we feel the urge to create new years resolutions? Why do we so often struggle to keep them. What is it about the end of a year that makes us reflect and assess our achievements? MG and Jen discuss, from their personal experience, a few key ideas about why we setup goals and then are unable to follow through. If you're thinking, "I've heard this before" chances are very good you haven't. Tune in and find out what makes all the difference to ensure your 2021 is the best year ever! Enjoy the episode! How are you going to improve your results in 2021? Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge TEXT your toughest #habits and #goals questions and be eligible for giveaways each week! 619-547-1915 *** New listeners: By texting the word "HABITS" to the mobile phone number "33444" you will instantly receive your "hack"/habit tracker/habit development template, or you can download it here: thehabitfactor.com/templates. Feel free to

"When it comes to habit development, humans can, and should, leverage their innate capacities of choice, intention and reflection." Today's Mind-Bullet is about why habit tracking is beneficial. AGAIN. After being interviewed for a habit-specific podcast recently, the host was left a bit befuddled as MG challenged much of what the host was told were "best practices" around habit development. At one point, the host mentioned that a habit expert and behavioral scientist had insisted that habit tracking was not a requirement or even a recommended practice, and that habit-tracking apps didn't work. The truth is, people do not need to track habits in order to develop them. Unfortunately, people forge habits all the time unintentionally, and regrettably, they are habits that do not serve their goals. It's worth considering that if habit-tracking apps didn't work so well, why would there be so many of them? And, nearly all of them have entered the app marketplace after The Habit Factor was introduced more than a dec

"If you can't explain it simply, you do not understand it." ~Einstein Today's Mind-Bullet investigates the significance of simplicity and its application in life. It's been said that simplicity is a symbol of sophistication and elegance, and many great thinkers have touted its importance. Consider Apple products and their legendary simplicity in design and use. Steve Jobs lauded simplicity many times, saying, "Simple can be harder than complex; you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple." Allegedly, Leonardo Da Vinci said something similar: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Even if he didn't say it, it's tough to argue. Einstein reportedly echoed the sentiment, saying, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." The message and theme is consistent and applicable to all aspects of our lives. In particular, we should strive for simplicity in thought—clarity—when setting goals and objectives. Success becomes easier with clarity, and clarity becomes easie

"A problem well stated is half solved." ~Charles Kettering Still time to jump into the LIVE, Five-Day, Get Unstuck Habit Factor Challenge! How are you going to improve your results in 2021? Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge Today's Mind-Bullet investigates the significance of questions. Arguably, a person's level of "success" may come down to the quality of the questions they ask themselves during their lifetime. For instance, everyone may say they want to be a "success," but how many take the time to define exactly what success means to them by asking themselves some hard, revealing questions? It's hard to hit a target you can't see. Questions direct our attention and our focus, as well as our emotions. When we put our attention and intention toward solving the problems that matter most in our life, we change our life's direction. Our ability to solve the toughest problems we face is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions we ask. Questions—great questions and their answers—produce va

"Creativity demands space, time and most of all energy." How are you going to improve your results in 2021? The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" Begins this Thursday, November 12, 2020! Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge Today's Mind-Bullet investigates the requirements for a creative life! Since life tends to be a mass of problems, one after the other, it's essential to view creativity as problem solving in action. To be creative, one needs ample time and space, to both wander and wonder. Creativity, as we reviewed in a prior episode also requires an "empty" mind which provides the space necessary to receive and conceive of new ideas. Further, creativity demands energy! "When you devote time to your energy, your energy returns to you time." Thus, creativity is essential to a life well-lived and a requirement to create one's "success". To create your ideal future, you simply must constantly create! Enjoy the episode! How are you going to improve your results in 2021? The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challeng

"Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold and dung. Before you understand it, it's like gold; after you understand it, it's like dung." ~Zen Saying The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" Begins Thursday, November 12, 2020! Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge **TEXT your toughest #habits and #goals questions now to MG and be eligible for weekly prizes! 619-547-1915 GOLD and DUNG! Today's special episode is about gold and dung and what really makes the difference in a person's life. Enjoy! The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" Begins Thursday, November 12, 2020! Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge **TEXT your toughest #habits and #goals questions now to MG and be eligible for weekly prizes! 619-547-1915 *** New listeners: By texting the word "HABITS" to the mobile phone number "33444" you will instantly receive your "hack"/habit tracker/habit development template, or you can download it here: thehabitfactor.com/templates. Feel free to share the episode and leave a review on iTunes!  Recommended in this e

"The extraordinary life demands extraordinary effort." The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" Begins Wednesday, 11-12-20! Visit: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge **It's twu, it's twu! TEXT MG direct your toughest #habits and #goals questions now: 619-547-1915 Extraordinary Adj: Very unusual or remarkable. Today's MBM sheds light on the idea that "different," "unusual," and "remarkable" not only define an extraordinary life, but also create the path to an extraordinary life. If you want to lead a life that is extraordinary, the only way possible is to do things differently. To be unusual. MG shares that when he added the above quote to the Habit Factor app, he wasn't entirely clear about the meaning of "extraordinary effort." Now, its core idea— it's theme—is crystal clear. For us to experience extraordinary results in our life, we must zig when other zag. We can't stay with the crowd and stand out from the crowd at the same time. To be remarkable suggests differentiation, NOT necessarily just working harder.

How does the behavior scale?  **NEW: Text MG direct your toughest #habits and #goals questions now: 619-547-1915 The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" ENDS THIS WEDNESDAY 10-28-20! Because all exercises and live sessions are recorded, you can still sign up today: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge Today's MBM brings us to the idea of compounding behaviors. It's fairly trendy to hear entrepreneurs talk about "scaling" their business, and about the importance of business models that will scale. If you can make a profit with 10 customers, it stands to reason you want to be able to get to 1,000 customers as effortlessly as possible. The right "model" will allows that, but the wrong one? Well, it will just create a nightmare, or in a best case scenario will be limited in its growth potential. When it comes to our behaviors, it's certainly worth asking some similar questions: "How does IT scale?" In other words, how does that one behavior scale? What will the compounding effects of that behavior be in a year, or ev

"The map is not the territory." ~Alfred Korzybski **NEW: Text MG direct your toughest #habits and #goals questions now: 619-547-1915 The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" starts THIS THURSDAY 10-22-20! Sign-up today: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge Alfred Korzybski was a Polish-American independent scholar who developed general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of semantics. He argued that human knowledge of the world is limited both by the human nervous system and the languages humans have developed. (A topic previously covered here: https://podcast.thehabitfactor.com/language-and-thought-s4-49/) Thus, Korzybski posited, no one can have direct access to reality, given that the most we can know is that which is filtered through the brain's responses to reality. Enjoy the episode! **NEW: Text MG direct your toughest #habits and #goals questions now... 619-547-1915 The Habit Factor® "5-Day Challenge" starts THIS THURSDAY 10-22-20! Sign-up today: https://t

"The greatest give you can give your loved ones is your own personal development." Text me your toughest #habits and #goals questions right now... directly to: 619-547-1915 and say hi today! This is a very special Habits 2 Goals, Thursday episode about the upcoming "GET UNSTUCK 5-Day Challenge" starting NEXT THURSDAY 10-22-20! You can learn more and sign-up here: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge This has been called a Master Class in Goal Achievement so even if you're not stuck, you know that mastery is about learning and relearning You can learn more and sign-up here: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge · What: The 5-Day Get Unstuck Challenge · When: Begins 10-22-20 · Includes: Live 60-minute sessions daily PLUS, A Live Q&A Bonus Day · Where: In a LIVE, Private Facebook Group I can’t wait to see you on the "inside" and get started! Join MG on the newest THF Community Texting Platform (message and data rates may apply). Simply text Martin directly to: 619-547-1915 and SAY Hi! Today!  *** New list

"The greatest give you can give your loved ones is your own personal development." This is a very special Habits 2 Goals, Thursday episode about the upcoming "GET UNSTUCK 5-Day Challenge" starting NEXT THURSDAY 10-22-20! You can learn more and sign-up here: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge This has been called a Master Class in Goal Achievement so even if you're not stuck, you know that mastery is about learning and relearning You can learn more and sign-up here: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge · What: The 5-Day Get Unstuck Challenge · When: Begins 10-22-20 · Includes: Live 60-minute sessions daily PLUS, A Live Q&A Bonus Day · Where: In a LIVE, Private Facebook Group I can’t wait to see you on the "inside" and get started! *** New listeners: By texting the word "HABITS" to the mobile phone number "33444" you will instantly receive your "hack"/habit tracker/habit development template, or you can download it here: thehabitfactor.com/templates. Feel free to share the episode and leave a review o

"The mind is for having ideas, not holding them." ~David Allen *Important Note*: The "GET UNSTUCK 5-Day Challenge" begins 10-22-20! Sign up today: https://thehabitfactor.com/challenge A cup is designed to be empty, not full. Its value comes from being able to fill it up. This is true for minds, as well. Keeping an open and empty mind allows for creativity, innovation, and learning. MG shares the classic parable about the Zen master who pours tea for his student and just keeps pouring—even though the tea is spilling out of the cup onto the table and floor. The student jumps to his feet. "Master," he screams. "My cup is full already!" "Then you see," says the master. "I, too, cannot put anything in your cup if it is full already." Learning new languages tends to be much easier for young children, not because they're smarter, but rather because they don't come with preconceived notions, judgements, and opinions about what they will learn or even how they will learn it. The key to keeping an empty mind is to disp

"To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one."  ~Jiddu Krishnamurti One of the reasons it's called, The Habit Factor® is because the habits we perform most often, powerfully compound over time. Where you are right now, is the result of your habits compounding. Nobody becomes rich or fat overnight. (lottery aside) Small actions compounded (over time) reveal massive results (positive or negative)  (excerpt, The Habit Factor® 2010) Today's episode is a classic reset for The Habit Factor and we're gonna add the explicit tag just in case; "What are the habits that really freakin' matter in our life? Give that question some thought and the best answer can only be; the habits you perform the most. So, what are they? MG runs through a wide array of habits beginning with our breathing. Breathing, he points out, only influences everything. Then there is your THINKING. And, categorically, our thinking about important aspects within our life, ourselves, our self-concept, others and even

"The smarter the person, and the smarter the device, the greater the complications. This episode's original title was "Simple Truths," because wherever you find real challenges in your life, the answers are often simple. Instead, we decided to call it "Complications," inspired by the Apple Watch, which refers to its smart device apps as "complications" when they're displayed on the watch face. Why would they call this device's apps complications? Because as feature-rich and helpful as they are, they complicate the device's original mission: telling time. Life is similar. If we have financial troubles, chances are all we have to do is remove the complications and find the simple truth: Why aren't we paying ourselves first? Too much drama in your life? What complications could you remove to restore peace? Often, the answer to our problems lies in the power of LESS—fewer complications. Think about your biggest problem. What simple truths lie at its core? What complications can you remove? Paring things down to s

"Where is your error log?" A number of professions require error logs. The way programmers improve their software is to review the error logs. The way pilots become better is to review logbooks. To keep and review a personal "error log" is just another way to affirm the importance tracking our habits, journaling and documenting our efforts as we move toward our goals. Without a log of our efforts, it's hard to identify a trend and know what is effective and what isn't. Where is your error log? Enjoy the show! *** New listeners: By texting the word "HABITS" to the mobile phone number "33444" you will instantly receive your "hack"/habit tracker/habit development template, or you can download it here: thehabitfactor.com/templates. Feel free to share the episode and leave a review on iTunes!  ***** Subscribe iTunes here! Subscribe: Android | RSS ***** TOOLS/BOOKS WE RECOMMEND: Bucket List PRO (iOS app) iTunes Grab your FREE copy of As a Man Thinketh (PDF) right here: As a Man Thinketh The 3 C's of SucCcess (Mi

"What he wanted most of all was a large waste basket to which he could consign all his false starts and mistakes." ~Walter Isaacson (Einstein: The Man, the Genius and the Theory of Relativity) How big is your wastebasket? How many false starts and mistakes do you create on any given day? [Excerpt] When shown his corner office at the institute (Princeton) Einstein was asked to indicate what he may need in the way of equipment, his requirements were not onerous, just a bit of office furniture and some stationary. What he wanted most of all was a large waste basket to which he could consign all his false starts and mistakes." Imagine being asked about your new office requirements and your one requirement is that the waste basket is large enough to handle your false starts and mistakes. Creativity demands activity. Einstein believed imagination was more important than knowledge because imagination is about the future and knowledge represents the past. We can all stand to learn from his example and embrace mistake

"Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar." ~Erica Jong The interesting thing about acquired tastes is they can apply to seemingly every aspect of our life. Whether it's beer, whiskey, running a marathon or managing frustration, it's all an acquired taste. The first key to developing any acquired taste is to have an open mind. Too often people shun ideas immediately based upon a bias or story they've held onto. For instance, for the first 35 years of his life, MG was convinced that jogging was one of the "stupidest things anyone could do." His rationalization, "If there wasn't a team to run for or a ball to run to, why would you run at all!?" Today, he can't go a week without at least a couple 3-4 mile runs, at a minimum. Over time people evolve, and it's important to reexamine and experiment to test our conclusions, judgments and opinions. Doing so can enable personal growth. Heck, for most people, personal development itself is an acquired taste. Enjoy the episode! *