The Manifestor's Manifesto

Focus to achieve flow

Focus your efforts on your weekly goals to achieve more and have less stress. 

Extra Bonus: when you discipline yourself to focus on one week at a time you’ll discover you’re able to do more than you thought. 

Get Real

Most of us have a mix of long-term and short-term plans. Everyday you’re confronted with tasks that are urgent and tasks that aren't. 

That’s the real world. That’s how everyone operates. Obviously you can’t eliminate that altogether. 

But…

You can change up your mindset. Fix your brain to where you’re only focused on the week’s tasks that are relevant for you right now, this week. 

How do I do that?

First, plan. Write down what your long term goals are. Next break these down into what you can get done this month, this week, today. 

Remember that note-taking is like having an extra...

Create positive habits with 3 steps

Have you ever tried to start a new habit only to find an old, negative habit that's returned? Do negative habits keep you from being productive?

Here's a simple formula to control your habits and create new ones. I call it the 3 R's.

The 3 R's are Reminder, Routine, and Reward.

When you understand these three things about a habit, you can stop it and replace it with a positive habit. 

What are habits?

First, let’s define what a habit is. The simplest definition is this: a habit is a brain-based response to an external problem.

Over time your brain has learned simple effective solutions to the issues that confront you in life. Your brain turned these into habits as responses to typical problems. 

Habits work on the “if/then principle.” If a certain problem or stimulus arises, then you apply a practical solution. 

If this, then that. 

Example

Some...

Hang out with people better than you

In an earlier habit hack, I talked about the importance of your environment.

Your personal environment is even more important to your success. 

In order to be your best, never be the best in the room.

You want your friends to be smarter, wealthier, and healthier than you.

It’s a paradox. 

If you want to be the best, make sure you’re not the best (in the room). 

Surround yourself with people that will challenge you to be the best version of yourself. 

Here are three reasons why you should never be the best in the room.

1 - Copy success

Surround yourself with the best and give yourself examples of success to imitate.

Everyone thinks they’re unique. Guess what? You are unique! That’s absolutely true. That’s one of the reasons why this habit hack is focused on creating your best self. 

But you still learn through imitation....

Change your environment, change your habits

Habits are tied to your environment. To change a habit or create a new one, create the environment to support it. 

Pavlov’s dog

You know the story of Pavlov’s dog. Pavlov rang a bell every time he fed his dog. Eventually, when Pavlov rang the bell, it made his dog’s mouth water, even when there was no food. His dog linked the ringing bell to food.

Is that the same thing as environment? 

Yes.

 Your environment just means the conditions when a behavior takes place. That can refer to a physical location, but it can also refer to the sights, sounds or even how you’re dressed.

(If you don’t think how you dress affects your behavior, think about the last time you wore a nice outfit. How did people respond to you and how did this affect your behavior)?

“Environment” just refers to all the ways you experience your surroundings through...

Patience + process = success

For this habit hack, I want to get a little philosophical. 

But I’ll keep it simple. 

Here it goes...

Be patient.

But wait there’s more.

Be patient...and stick to the process.

When you do both of these things, you will see results. Whether it’s in your personal life or your business or your health. Be patient with yourself, stick to the process that you’ve made for yourself, and you will see results. 

How is this a hack?

I can hear what you’re saying, isn’t a hack supposed to make something faster and easier? 

Well, yes and no. Any habit hack is different. Some are practical methods to get things done faster for sure. 

But mostly a habit hack is just a way of hacking your brain to get results. That means hacking your way past typical human behaviors that can trip you up. 

And one of the behaviors that you...

Start your day with less stress.

This 5 minute rule is simple.

Here it is: If it takes 5 minutes (or less), do it now.

You always have something to do. Whether it’s things to do at home or at work. It could be responding to that email or putting up a new shower curtain that’s still sitting in the shopping bag. If you can do it in five minutes, go ahead and get it done.

That’s it. 

Like I said, it’s simple. 

What’s the big deal?

Why is it important? Because it makes you more productive. This truly is a “habit hack” because it doesn’t involve a big idea or a change of perspective. 

Just “do this → get more done.”

This works off what I call the Empty Brain is an Efficient Brain Principle. 

What does that mean?

Because your brain’s job is to make you happy, it avoids things that make you unhappy. This includes anxiety and...

A stress free way to get through hard tasks

This is a great rule for perfectionists, and it’s another way to deal with procrastination. 

If you have a task that you don’t want to do, just commit to working on it for five minutes. If you’re procrastinating for whatever reason - whether it’s just something you don’t like doing or you don’t know how to start. Commit to at least five minutes of work.

Here’s the thing. Zero guilt if you don’t want to continue after five minutes. Just commit to five minutes. That’s it. 

Zero guilt

If the inertia is enough to get you over the hump, then keep going and get it done. If the task is still causing frustration for whatever reason, walk away.

This is a simple, low-stress habit hack that can help you leap the hurdles that get in the way of important tasks. 

For this to work, commit to the concept. If you’re not feeling it...

Focus Mindset = more effective than the Work/Life Balance

First off let me say this: this habit hack may not be for everybody. 

That’s true of all habit hacks in general - take what you think makes sense to you - but this one is for overachievers only.

I know this might seem like a cheap, catchy headline, but this really is the sort of habit hack that will only appeal to the entrepreneurial mindset. 

To be happy and more productive, create a Focus Mindset. Think of your work in terms of periods or seasons of focus. Some periods require more focus and some require less focus. Shift between periods of more and less focus and be more happy and productive. 

Focus...and forget about the myth of the work/life balance.

Let me define what I mean.

Why not the work/life balance?

The myth of the work/life balance is the idea that a person’s work shouldn’t overwhelm their life. A person should be able to have a rewarding...

Reward yourself and get more done

Recently, I showed you how to retrain your brain to form new habits with something called Pattern Interrupts. 

This habit hack is different, but it’s based on the same principle. What is that principle? The idea that you can make yourself far more productive by changing your habits at the brain-based level. 

When you understand how habits are formed in the brain,  you'll be in control of your habits and your identity.

How the brain works

So, let’s talk about the brain. Your brain is a powerful machine that wants to keep you alive and happy. Your conscious mind represents your everyday decision making and awareness, but most of your habits and behavior are driven by your subconscious mind. 

Your subconscious is powerful. It gets the job done. Otherwise...you wouldn’t be here. And one of your subconscious mind’s goals is to keep you happy. It’s so important to...

Pattern Interrupts

I want to teach you a practical technique that you can use whenever an old habit rears its ugly head.

You can make all the plans in the world, but sometimes old habits have a way of reasserting themselves in your life. It’s frustrating. Even if you have all the right frameworks and attitude in place, old habits can still challenge you.

That’s why it’s good to have techniques in place that you can use to tackle them on the spot. 

Hey, there’s a reason why they say “old habits die hard.”  

But old habits can die, and if you use this technique, it doesn’t even have to be that hard. 

What are habits?

First, let’s define what a habit is. When you understand habits, you can demystify them and take away their power. 

So what exactly is a habit? 

The simplest definition is this: a habit is a brain-based response to an external...