Changing my identity to this one thing completely changed my habits…..
I have never believed in affirmations. My favorite social scientist debunked their effectiveness, one of the main reasons being that we are contrarian in nature. So if I say, “I am a good leader,” I am going to think about and recall reasons why I may not actually be a good leader. (You can read on or listen/watch the podcast here)
So, long story short, I didn’t really buy into affirmations…and then I finally sucked it up and got the Miracle Morning.
I heard a lot of my clients talk about the book. I had never been so interested in it because I hate the mornings. But my friend knows the author, and I wanted to get on a podcast. So I read it.
These affirmations were different. Instead of saying…”I am blah blah blah,” it’s suggested to say, “I am committed to blah blah blah.”
Now, THIS is a believable statement. It doesn’t send our minds into contrarian mode, and it also leaves a bit of room for error. If I make a mistake, it’s not such a blow to my identity because I haven’t said, “I am this person,” I have said, “I am COMMITTED to being this person.”
Here are my 3 affirmations:
I am committed to being a good CEO and giving the power to my team and not keeping it for myself. I am committed to being healthy – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I’m committed to being present with my family.
And it’s been working!
Success is an accumulation of habits right? One of my favorite bloggers is James Clear, and his book Atomic Habits just came out. The second chapter of the book is on why habits fail.
Most people change their external to improve their internal, but we tend to not stick with it because if the habit isn’t linked to our identity it’s really hard to maintain.
We don’t want to act in a way that is inconsistent with our identity.
What if instead, we started with changing our identity first.
So I thought about why those affirmations worked. I changed my identity to “I am committed to being this person…” and then the habits to match that identity started falling in place.
Could you make this change to your habits as well? How would this impact your business?
I challenge you to make statements about who you are committed to be in your business:
- I am committed to being a referral generating machine.
- I am committed to being a good leader
- I am committed to being brave
- I am committed to sticking to my plan and staying focused.
If you change your identity to someone who is a referral generating machine- would you remember to ask? Would you perfect your verbiage? Would you learn more about what the best people think and do? What habits would you start? And what would the results be?
If you changed your identity to someone who is committed to being a good leader- how would this change your behavior? Would you listen better? Enroll in a leadership course? Follow great leaders on social media? What habits would you start? And what would the results be?
Can you imagine?
Thanks for reading today’s post! Let’s continue this conversation of getting things done in your business. I am getting together with a few people on Wednesday, November 28th at 9:30am PT/12:30 pm ET to talk about focus. You can register by clicking the link emergesalestraining.com/focus