Name and tame your fear
What motivates you?
You need to identify what’s clearly at stake if you DON’T change a habit.
Do you want to stop smoking?
Why? What will happen if you don’t? Bad health? Money lost to the cost of cigarettes?
You want to start working everyday at 4 a.m. Why? What will happen if you don’t put that habit in place? Lose a promotion? Not earn enough to buy a nicer car?
You can think about this from any angle you want, but answer the question, “if I don’t change this habit, what will the result be?”
You can identify the positive result of success or the negative result of failure, but you need to clearly visualize whatever that thing is that’s at stake with your desire to change a habit.
Wait a minute?
Doesn’t the Identity Factor stress the importance of getting rid of anxiety and limiting beliefs? How can it be a good thing to focus on something negative?
Skin in the game
The Identity Factor is rooted in reality. It’s rooted in how your brain works and how it works to achieve goals. Nothing more and nothing less.
The subconscious is the part of your brain that achieves goals. It wants to keep you alive, happy, and successful. Unfortunately our conscious, analytical mind gets in the way of this a lot of the time. That’s why it’s important to remove anxieties and limiting beliefs that we’ve learned through habit.
This frees up your subconscious to work more efficiently and make you happy. This sounds as simple as “avoiding negative thoughts,” but there’s more to it.
Avoid negative thoughts, yes. But don’t avoid reality. The Identity Factor isn’t based on the “power of positive thinking” - it’s based on the power of realistic thinking.
Part of being realistic is looking at the habit you want to change and then creating a clear picture of what the stakes are.
But doesn’t this still create a fear-based motivation? Shouldn’t habits be changed on the level of identity and not out of fear?
Fear is the mind killer
Let’s talk about how fear works.
How do the best horror movies scare you?
By showing you as little as possible. You’ll catch a glimpse of the killer or the monster but you don’t see the whole thing until the suspense has been ramped up throughout the whole movie.
It’s called the “don’t show the monster” rule and it works.
Why is it so effective at creating fear?
Because fear thrives on the unknown. Fear works on the imagined possibilities. On all the “what ifs?”
When fear is undefined, it gets bigger and more terrifying.
That’s why you need to define what is specifically at stake with a habit you are trying to change.
No shame in being human
Look, we may not want to admit it, but there are fears and hopes baked into every big effort at change. We have fears that exist in the back of our mind, and the brain hates dealing with anxiety and fear.
It’s draining and it sucks energy away from your subconscious and its ability to achieve goals.
But this is where a great counter-intuitive truth lies. It’s the sort of thing that you can miss with an overly simplistic “power of positive thinking” model of action.
By acknowledging what’s at stake if you don’t change a habit, you define your fear. If you don’t define your fear, then it grows bigger and more shapeless in the back of your mind.
It’s the “don’t show the monster” rule. The longer you pretend to ignore your fear, the suspense ramps up and the fear grows.
Remember that your subconscious wants to avoid anxiety and negative emotions.
If you don’t acknowledge what’s at stake, then your subconscious will create strategies to avoid your effort to change altogether...precisely because it doesn’t want to deal with the negative emotions and fear.
It’s all about visualization
When you acknowledge what’s at stake if you don’t change your habit, you can paint a clear, visual picture of what this means.
If you want to quit smoking, imagine the potential effects to your health. High medical costs. Reduced quality of life.
If you want to be more productive, imagine the things that will be out of reach if you don’t change habits. Picture yourself driving the same car, wearing the same clothes, working the same job you’re sick of...whatever that thing is.
It’s just like the visualization technique that we discussed earlier. The key is that you must be specific. This way you can draw a picture for your subconscious to say “this is why I want to change this habit. To avoid this outcome.”
This is how you give your subconscious a clear outline of what you want to achieve and what you want to avoid. By defining what’s at stake, you’re preventing a vague, shapeless fear from forming in the back of your mind.
By naming what’s at stake, you’re not motivating yourself through fear. You’re taking fear out of the equation altogether.
Work with Anthony and hit the rocket fuel 🚀button on your success!
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