Most people use Willpower to drive change. Here’s what to do instead.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Get entire transcript, longer summary and audio here

Most people drive change through pure willpower. In the process they do more harm than good. Rather than doing that, let’s focus on how you might design change into your life.

Eight ways to drive change in your life

1. Know your why. Recognize work you find meaningful. Keep a closer track of the activities that you do during the day and how energized you feel. Also, we are more willing to do things for other people. So figure out how the change you want to drive benefits the people that matter to you.
2. What you measure matters. Especially when you begin a change, you need to measure what is in your control, that demonstrates your best self. This could be the effort you put into it, the number of hours worked, the number of unique ideas you generated.
3. What shows up on your calendar? Do you have actual deadlines setup that you work towards.
4. Momentum: The hardest part is getting started. In the beginning you have to be willing to look for early wins. And you have to be willing to start before you feel fully prepared.
5. Your identity: You can tell yourself a better story, on your identity. That generates action in the direction of the identity you want to drive. That reinforces your stories and beliefs, and that reinforces your identity. We can all grow into the person we want to be by telling ourselves stories and reminding ourselves of the identity of the person we want to become, and then reinforcing them through daily actions.
6. Repeating the change you want to drive. Repetition makes change stick
7. Make the change you are going to drive ever-present in your life.
8. Experimentation. Bring other people along by suggesting small experiments rather than massive changes.

Four foundational habits

1. Consciously shaping how you show up to any situation. Don’t let situations determine that. Determine that for yourself.
2. Communication — speaking, writing and listening. That determines your Personal Brand
3. Influence others deeply by getting them to think differently, by role modeling behavior, and by challenging them to do better
4. Essentialism. Anything in your life must either be a hell yeah, or a no

Two support systems

1. Find a coach
2. Find a mastermind group.

If you liked the blog post, you would love my free workshop, “5 Steps our Product Manager Clients Take to Land Their Dream Job, Increase Their Salary by 200%+, and Accelerate Their Career.” Go ahead, enroll now!