7 Simple Steps To Revamp your 40-Year-Old bad Habits
Do you feel like an old dog that wants to learn new tricks? Before you roll over on your dreams, take note of the most successful pooch of our time: “You've got to go back in time if you want to move forward.” S Dogg, Esq.
Female brunette with towel on head after shower shaving face with foam and blade looking away.
THE BRIEF
Time to read: 4 minutes
Time to action: 60 minutes
Mantra: “The secret to success is constancy of purpose.” – Benjamin Disraeli
Main message: The gap between your big dream and action is laughably small
Stat: 42% of how much more likely you are to action your dream moves if you put them into an action plan
“Stay positive!”
This is easily a contender for the World’s Weakest Advice trophy. Undoubtedly, you would have heard it in some form or another for all of your 40+ years on this planet. And yet, staying positive is your No. 1 tool for making proactive changes.
If you can master positivity, it’s all you need to push you into a place where your mindset makes the dream instead of talking you out of it.
There are more career changes and new starts (and start-ups) than ever before for Generation X. So, before you remove yourself from the possibility of realising your dream. Just ask yourself these simple questions to see if you can put yourself on the right track for what you want to do rather than what you feel you need to be:
What’s your dream? Stress test it
1. Does this dream make your heart happy?
2. Does it take you outside of your current comfort zone?
3. Do you genuinely believe it is achievable?
4. Will it inspire you to, in some respect, become a better person?
5. Will it bring joy to you or those you care about?
6. If you don’t try it, will you regret it?
If it’s a mostly yes series of ticks, you are dream chasing – so good work, and let’s keep it going. Now it’s time for your first checklist:
Risk vs reward… fight!
What’s the worst that could happen? What’s the best-case scenario? Write them both down. Look at them side by side. If the worst-case scenario is terrifying, do you still want to do it? Or does the best case create a sense of calm, like taking a deep breath in and out? Does the best-case scenario make you want to reduce the risk surrounding the worst-case scenario?
Psychologically speaking, this step is crucial. Are you simply saying “no” to risk, or is it a “yes, but…” to the worst-case to develop the best-case scenario? If it's the latter, stick with it, because it’s got traction in your frontal cortex.
It’s all 3-part planning
Turning the idea into actuals is the next critical step. It would help if you had 2 things: an action plan and a business plan. But before you waste time and effort on both, create a simple hybrid to clarify the what and why in minor details.
At FORM, we call it a stretch test. Draft your resources, timings, and actions – the practical “doing” tools that should mitigate some of the fears you fought off a mere paragraph ago. These are all listed below. It’s not a big plan, but it will clarify the daunting task of creating action and business plans.
And yes, 7 steps might sound like a lot, but it’s all pointing in the right direction on the dream path. Refer to the following repeatedly as you move your idea from practical to actual.
Step 1. Vision
Write down what you see this dream being for you. Cover all bases: a second source of income or primary? A way to escape your current setup? Future-proofing? Turning your passion into a career?
There is no wrong here. Just be honest with yourself – something quickly said is often hard to act.
Step 2. Action
Write down why you want to achieve your dream. Keep it clear and concise – this is all about motivation. Do not hesitate to offer yourself the “I feel” option in covering this part. You may need to reflect on it repeatedly as you keep trying to move forward.
Step 3. Timings
Give yourself deadlines. They can be flexible and regularly generous, but they need to be there and stuck to. Now you’ve established what it means to you, how long are you prepared to give it to work, and how much time can you provide it to get there?
Are you suddenly feeling demotivated? Don’t be. Just read your Vision and Action lists above to remind yourself of why you’re doing it. Now, put it in a timeline (nothing too fancy) to see the journey you’re suggesting from start to finish.
Step 4. Challenges
Create a list of any challenges you can see and adjust your timeline accordingly. Each time you hit a new marker on your timeline, revisit the old obstacles and try to add to the next set you see. Do this before you hit your next notable timeline marker.
Step 5. Funding
There are big questions here: can you do this yourself? Do you want your family involved? Does it require external input? Can your own time take on much of the cost?
Write down your conscious thoughts. It will help you to find clarity in this most functional of steps.
Step 6. Team
Who is on your dream team? Consider who will help, of course, but also who will push and teach. Write down the people you can rely on and assign them a role. And don’t forget to tell them once it’s clear, as this makes it real for both of you.
Step 7. Start
Look at point 1 and review it. Are you still interested in trying to fulfill the fantasy? Yes? Then start.
Now, look at your timeline. How long you’ve given yourself? Examine the obstacles you can see and the timing to get around them. Review them. Then start. Whatever it is, if you’re doing it, keep going.
As the Dogg once put it, whatever you’re doing, “If it’s flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, be the best hamburger flipper in the world. Whatever it is you do, you have to master your craft.”
Fo shizzle.
DR DOG
A cognitive psychologist specialising in those most 21st Century of issues: anxiety and depression. Dog is especially good at delivering actionable answers, removing the rhetoric and hyperbole, and focusing simply and directly on practical information that can be used to help mental health on a daily basis.
