A good friend, Salo Mizrachi,  gave me some advice about how to develop my work as an author. He told me about the 90-day challenge. This challenge requires you to write an article everyday for 90 days. He went on to tell me that this is how you write a book.  You do not sit down and write a book from start to finish you in fact sit down to write each day for a certain period or for a certain word count. Salo and his wife Tali have built a successful business called EZ packing. He taught himself about digital marketing and kept going on his enterprise until he gradually increased sales. We met at my Raglan Jiu Jitsu club and he told me that building his business was just like Jiu Jitsu. You learn techniques step by step and make them your own. You persist and keep going.

There is a great quote by Og Mandino

The Ant who devours a tiger

I will be liken to the raindrop which washes away the mountain;

the ant who devours a tiger;

the stars which brighten the earth;

the slave who builds a pyramid.

I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated will complete any undertaking.

In Jiu Jitsu we are often told that a Black Belt is a White Belt who just kept showing up. I started Jiu Jitsu at the encouragement of my son and have been training now for 10 years. If my body holds up maybe one day, I will be a Black Belt. Along the way I have learnt so much not just about Jiu Jitsu but about myself.

Stephen R Covey has a brilliant quote from his book the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, ‘The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.’

Mark Twain stated, ‘The secret of getting ahead is to get started.’

We can read about the challenges, read the quotes and become motivated but

How do we keep going?

How do we sustain our goal?

In my Leadership classes I often refer to setting a fitness goal and joining a gym as an analogy for setting S.M.A.R.T goals. This analogy is used because most people can identify with fitness goals and dieting and the times, they have not been able to follow through or ‘keep the main thing the main thing’.

My son and I have joined forces to support the opening of his gym Journies in Hamilton. (New Zealand). We had several discussions about the offering and Sam came up with Journies – More than a Gym.

Sam’s Gym offers not only a place to workout but is the one stop shop for high quality training. Sam’s background include time with the Chiefs, and the Steelers as the Strength and Conditioning coach. He is also qualified to deliver nutritional plans. Journies further provides Work Life Balance seminars and access to Leadership training. That’s quite a delivery.

Why?

Because change takes a massive amount of energy. The brain consumes a lot of energy. We all need support through change as we grind our way to goals that we know are good for us.

But why do we not always achieve our goals?

What happens along the way?

Distractions! The chocolate cake, the chocolate, the warm bed, the late night, the social media, Netflix, YouTube. I confess to spending hours watching Jiu Jitsu techniques as I was enticed to skip from one cool takedown to a slick submission to a neat trick for armbars, and it goes on and on. I could have just gone to the dojo and drilled the stuff I already knew. The repetition perhaps becomes boring and we get distracted.

I recommend a book by Nir Eyal called INDISTRACTABLE How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life.

Nir Eyal discusses the fact we use modern devices to give us distraction because they are filled with algorithms and techniques to effectively distract us. The question is not why are we easily distracted but what are we distracted from?

Nir Eyal suggest we seek to avoid pain or discomfort. He also suggests that Time Management is pain management. I like that!

We join a gym and lose the motivation. We set a goal and we do not follow through. These are the reasons we do not achieve according to studies by social scientists.

• The mind doesn’t like to be bored – The best way to improve in Jiu Jitsu is to drill techniques over and over and over. The owners of Martial Arts schools know this to be a fact of training. The problem is that people get bored and they would stop attending class. To avoid this club owners, present new techniques and drilling is emphasised. Drilling is limited to the point where it does not get boring. Once the brain has automated a process or sequence it looks for more stimulation or for new things. For some the new things might just be at the Mall or on Netflix.

• Most people have a negativity basis – We tend to default to an emphasis on negative memories. These are the memories that hold more passion and are recalled as more vivid recollections. At one point in my career I worked in telecommunications. My title was Problem Manager. When something went wrong in the telephone network, I was required to gather the facts determine the root cause and secure permanent corrective actions to ensure the event did not occur again. This was done in haste. The reality was the network was up and running perfectly 99.999% of the time. At one time I said to my manager, “Hey Boss I want to change my title” his response was ,”What are you talking about?” I said, “I think the title ‘Problem Manager’ is negative. I would like to change it to the ‘Happiness and Light Manager’ and write reports about things that go really well!” he said, “Get back to work!”

• Rumination – It is easier to recall negative events and bad experiences, and chew over them again and again. This can contribute to depressive thinking.

• Adaptation – Shawn Accor discusses this point in his book ‘The Happiness Advantage” He says that we often play happiness leapfrog and push happiness “over the cognitive horizon” We say to our selves I will be happy when I have a new car. We get the new car and then say I will be happy when I have enough for a deposit on a house. You get the deposit and the new house, and you say I will be happy when I have paid off my mortgage.

What do we do?

We hopefully can identify with why we are distracted. So, here are a couple of things that my son Sam and I have been working on. For me this is important in supporting people through their Leadership Training. For my son Sam and I it is important to help people through their fitness Journey at Journies. That is why we say we are More Than a Gym

Nire Eyal suggests

“Effort pacts make us less likely to abandon the task at hand. Whether we make them with friends and colleagues, or via tools like Forest, SelfControl, Focusmate, or kSafe, effort pacts are a simple yet highly

effective way to keep us from getting”

I stated at the start of this article that my friend Salo Mizrachi the founder of EZPacking, challenged me to writing 1 article a day for 90 days. That is my effort pact. That is also part of the Philosophy at Journies.

Nir Eyal also states

“In the future, there will be two kinds of people in the world: those who let their attention and lives be controlled and coerced by others and those who proudly call themselves “indistractable.” You’ve taken the first step toward owning your time and your future.”

It is great to learn and great to find new things. Part of the trick is to feed new things into the main thing.  Diving deeper into the thing we seek. Expanding our knowledge on the topic of our endeavour. Planning our time or as we have learned our Pain Management is important.

Set your goals. Keep going.