Habits 2 Goals: The Habit Factor® Podcast with Martin Grunburg

"Narrative imagining—STORY—is the fundamental instrument of thought. Rational capacities depend upon it. It is our chief means of looking into the future, of predicting, of planning, and of explaining." ~Mark Turner EVERYTHING is a F*cking STORY goes on sale 10.1.22! Grab the FREE excerpt while available: https://everythingastory.com "EVERYTHING" culminates nearly 20 years of deliberation, collabo...

" Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards ." ~Søren Kierkegaard EVERYTHING is a F*cking STORY goes on sale 10.1.22! Get the FREE excerpt now: https://everythingastory.com "EVERYTHING" culminates nearly 20 years of deliberation, collaboration, and meditation, all in the interest of deconstructing human behavior for the purposes of goal achievement. EVERYTHING has broken...

"If I gave you $1,000 to track 3 habits for one day could you do it? Everyone knows that they could!" Martin recaps seven notable and common mistakes people make when trying to develop new habits. #1) They forget IT'S A PROCESS! Unfortunately, many believe habit tracking is an ALL or nothing proposition! "It doesn't matter if you've failed 163 times, you are experimenting—keep trying!" #2) They si...

"Habits and goals, by design, complement each other."   Oh, the irony. W hen The Habit Factor® was published in 2010, the idea of using habits to achieve goals as a process for goal achievement was unheard of . The Habit Factor's subtitle demonstrates its originality at the time: An Innovative Method to Align Habits with Goals to Achieve Success . Due to its predominantly negative connotation, all...

"Everything is difficult before it is easy." ~Thomas Fuller Resistance comes in many forms. The wind is a terrific example. It turns out that without any wind trees cannot grow strong and will topple over. The same is observed in our life. If we are without resistance—if there is no pressure—how can we grow stronger? Pursing goals and ideals provides ample resistance to grow, learn and become stro...

"Being off-balance is a sign to adjust, to move in the opposite direction—to regain equilibrium." Far too many Goo-Roos insist that balance is BOGUS—that BALANCE doesn't exist. What they appear to be missing is the dynamism of life. Life is hardly a static event. In fact, the very sensation that one is off-balance is proof that balance exists! The key is the awareness. The sensation of being off-b...

"Today is the eight day of the month. Tomorrow is the 13th." ~Zen Koan Skills vs. habits. Habits vs. skills. What's the difference? Bound by language, experts in behavioral science tend to struggle as they attempt to delineate the two. (See Zen koan above).   MG suggests these scientists are missing the most important aspect of their relationship: How similar habits and skills are! There are many...

"Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things they are transformed." ~Thich Naht Hanh In a universe comprised of energy, it's impossible to extract negativity. So, what is it's value? It turns out, negativity has tremendous value. Within medicine for instance, a negative Covid-19 test is very positive. Science experiments with negative results bring the scientist closer to a correct solutio...

"Genius is the infinite capacity for taking pains." ~Thomas Carlyle Pain is something everyone can relate to. Pain hurts. Yet, what happens when we pursue a goal and along the way, encounter pain? Should we just quit? Another definition of pain is "careful effort; great care or trouble." Pain is often a requirement for growth and learning. And, pain is a key, leading indicator that one is on the p...

"The successful person is just the average person, focused ." Why are deadlines important? Deadlines create pressure. Pressure creates focus and concentration, which are essential components of productivity and creativity. The accordion method, much like the whimsical musical instrument, works by creating pressure and then releasing it. The accordion is a terrific model for how anyone can intentio...

"So many Goo-Roos preach the idea that you should just focus on your strengths. The reason it's called 'Personal Development' is it involves both—improving your weaknesses and capitalizing on strengths." "Shouldn't people just focus on what they are good at?" Someone asked MG this question when he recommended tracking fitness habits even if fitness isn't someone's strength.  It's crucial to point...

"Effort is the special ingredient that helps one to develop discipline. P.A.R.R. is the process that reduces the effort." Effort, as a concept, is so significant that it's part of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path. While there are very few things we can control directly, our effort is one of them. In a post-game press conference, pursuing his 4th NBA title, Steph Curry reminded the press, "The one...

"An essential ingredient to scheduling and habit building is experimenting." MG and Jen discuss this week's all important topic: How to use scheduling to best cultivate habits. In short, the day and time you choose to cultivate a habit largely depends upon the habit itself. If the habit is creative, such as "writing" you may want to set aside the times of day you are most creative. If the habit is...

"A ritual is simply a series of habits." MG and Jen discuss a particularly interesting relationship between habits and rituals that is rarely, if ever, talked about. Consider the times you have sudden insight; driving, showering, napping, sleeping, jogging, or lifting weights. Performing habits tends to trigger creative insight, perhaps due to the brain wave frequency in which habit operates—the A...

"Be quick, but don't hurry." ~Coach Wooden Festina Lente : Augustus, the Roman emperor, thought so much of the adage that its symbol ended up on an ancient Roman coin—a dolphin wrapped around an anchor. What is Festina Lente? Festina Lente is the wise and powerful reminder that our time is precious and limited. Thus, it's imperative to move (and live) with a sense of urgency while at the same time...

"How well you load the dishes determines the quality of the wash." Once again, we revisit the dishwasher in this episode, "The Dishwasher 2." The idea of proper dishwasher loading calls to mind the GIGO concept. GIGO simply means Garbage In, Garbage Out. GIGO originated in the programming world, and the idea applies to many other aspects of our lives. Consider your fitness level relative to your e...

"It costs $0.00 to become a master of habit and skill development. Understanding how to cultivate habitstrength™ is your first key." ~Grunburg Forgive the swearing! For 12-plus years, Martin has taught and preached that habit development for humans has little to do with Cue, Routine, Reward – aka the "Habit-Loop" – and much more to do with intention, action, and reflection. The "Habit Loop" concep...

"Golf is a game of inches and the most important are the six inches between your ears." ~Arnold Palmer Much like golf, LIFE is often a game of inches. It's the "six inches" betwen our ears that we tell ourselves all sorts of stories. Stories about ourselves and the world at large. These stories tend to reveal themselves in our decisions, actions and results. At any given moment, one could be telli...

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now." ~Confucius How happy would you be if nothing changed over the next ten years? How would you like to develop physically, emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually, financially, professionally? Who is responsible for those changes? This quick-hitter H2G "tweener" episode will have you appreciating that NOW is the b...

"450+ episodes which presents to any new listener the 'Choice Paradox'—more becomes less." As we wrap up Season 8—the Ocho— we want to highlight H2G's most popular and essential episodes OF ALL-TIME . Each grouped into a handful of important categories; Mindset (6), Success (6), Self/Relationships (6), Habits (8), Goals (6), Most Popular (15) and Interviews (7)! Seven important categories and 50+...

"Nobody likes burpess until they love burpees." Without getting too metaphysical, it's important to realize LIFE is simply a one-day-at-a-time "event". Thus, the importance of cultivating the habit of exercise, which helps to optimize one's emotional and physical wellness from one day to the next. MG was contemplating why he enjoyed burpees so much. The answer suprised him. He thought he exercised...

"I must've interviewed 50 business people that summer...they all had a common theme—GOALS!"~Jack Daly H2G welcomes back the legendary business sales coach and icon, Jack Daly. Jack's releasing his 10th book, Life By Design . The 15-time Ironman competitor has also completed 100 marathons in 50 states and on seven continents. He achieves his goals and lives life to the fullest by following his own...

"Habit: A shackle for the free."~Ambrose Bierce In 2009, MG was tasked with developing a logo for The Habit Factor® app. The vision of the infinity symbol was one that he couldn't escape.  He proceeded to integrate the infinity symbol as the cross-beam within the letter "H". The reason for the infinity symbol? The more he reflected upon habit, the more the idea of universal patterns came to mind....

"Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such."~Henry Miller What's the main difference between "successful" people and "failures"? Arguably, it's that they've simply compiled more daily "wins" over their lifetime than loses. It's actually a bit more nuanced than that, as any given day may provides critical defining "moments". What's an example of a critical defi...

"If work expands to fill the time allotted, then you can count on 'stuff'  expanding to fill the space allotted." Aristotle once observed, "Nature abhors a vacuum." This week, MG combines A's brilliant observation with Cyrile Northcote Parkinson's "law," known as "Parkinson's Law" — "Work expands to fill the time allotted." The resultant corollary: "Stuff expands to fill the space allotted." To il...