The Manifestor's Manifesto

Take care of yourself and do more

Self-care is important. Self-care matters.

Take care of yourself and be more productive.

You want results. 

When you’re focused on results you think about action and what you can do. 

Nothing wrong with this.

But when you focus too much on action and neglect self-care, you take away your ability to be more productive.

Remember that removing anxiety is one of the key ways to make your brain more efficient. When you take away anxiety, your brain is better at achieving your goals. 

Focus too much on “always doing” without taking care of yourself and you create anxiety.

And that’s bad. 

Be productive. Be active. But don’t forget to take care of yourself. 

“Process, not goals.” 

Be process-oriented, not goal-oriented. 

Don’t be so focused on goals that you forget the process. If you...

Use this knowledge for change

The habits you have - good and bad - fit your identity. 

Just like your clothes fit your body, your habits fit who you are now. 

Change your identity to change your habits.

Think about it. You want to look sexy on the beach this summer. What has to change first, your body or your swimsuit? 

If you want to lose weight, you can’t just buy a smaller pair of pants and expect to solve the problem.

Believe me, I’ve tried. 

If you want to look sexier or lose weight, you have to start with your body first. You have to get in shape and solve the underlying issue. Then you find the clothes that fit.

It’s the same with habits. People try to change their habits first, but that won’t work. 

Habits form around your identity. Just like the only clothes you can wear are the ones that fit your body. It’s the same with habits. Your habits...

How it works

Habit stacking is a great way to use the power of your old habits to create new ones. 

You might have heard of habit stacking. Or you may think you’ve heard of it because it…sounds kind of jargon-y and familiar?

Habit stacking is when you link a new habit with an old habit that you already do.

By linking a new habit with an old one, you’re “stacking” the new habit on top of your brain’s programming for the old habit. This reinforces the new habit with your brain’s pre-existing programming.

Why it works 

When you start with a habit that you already do regularly, you’ve got a built-in trigger to create the new habit. 

Create an association between the two and soon you’ll start adopting the new habit as well. 

And it’s all built on an old habit that you already had!

What old habits?

It doesn’t matter. Everyone has habits that...

Sleep better and be more productive

Some things are simple. Sleep is one of those things. 

When you get good sleep - and enough of it - then you’ll improve your ability to get things done. Not to mention you’ll also be happier and healthier too. Because who doesn’t like to sleep?

But in terms of habit hacks, sleep is an easy way to improve your habits and be more effective in reaching your goals. 

If you want to improve your sleep, play binaural beats while you’re sleeping. (I’ve already talked about the importance of avoiding blue light and screens before sleeping here). 

What are binaural beats?

A binaural beat is a tone your brain produces when you hear two different tones in each ear. 

If you hear a tone at 100 Hertz (Hz) in your left ear and a tone of 120 Hz in your right ear, then your brain will make up the difference and “produce” a tone of 10 Hz. 

Your...

How your identity drives your habits

I want to share with you something that has transformed my life and tons of others.

It’s called the Be - Do - Have model.

Ready to transform your life? 

Focus on who you are first and who you want to be BEFORE you start thinking about what you want and how to form habits.

You’re not going to have the success you want until you become the person that has that success. It’s all about identity. 

Identity

How does this happen? How can you shift perspective to your identity?

Sounds hard.

But it’s not. Because if you have a goal in mind - something that you want or a habit you want to form - then you already have a corresponding identity attached to it. 

You just haven’t made yourself aware of it. 

When you think about getting up every morning to work out at the gym. Hit the pool. Lift some weights. You’re already imagining that person you want to...

Change your beliefs, change your habits

Before you think about the new habits you want, think about the old beliefs you have now.

If you try to change a habit without checking your beliefs, then it will be much harder to make that change permanent. 

You might change a habit for a short time. You might get up in the morning and go to the gym for a week or two. 

You might start eating healthy for a little while, but if your underlying beliefs don’t change, then the new habit won’t last. 

Our habits always snap back into alignment with our beliefs.

Why?

That’s because our beliefs affect our habits. And our brains will always seek alignment between our beliefs and our habits.

Your subconscious will produce results in your life that are congruent with what you believe. In a weird way, it’s a way of keeping you happy, because our brains don’t like conflict.

Because your brain wants to...

Why it’s okay to operate out of other people’s comfort zone

If you want to create a new habit, stop people pleasing. You don’t have to do what other people expect you to do. 

And that’s…okay.

I thought this was an important message to send out at Christmastime, because dealing with family and friends and Christmas, while wonderful, can also be stressful. 

During Christmas we think about our lives and changes that we want to make in the new year. 

And unfortunately, being around loved ones, we sometimes feel that we’re kept in a box. Because they expect us to act a certain way.

And you have to get over that. 

The idea of people pleasing could be a long article, because it’s a big topic. So I may write about it again later. But right now I just want to talk about one specific aspect of people pleasing.

And that aspect is habits.

It’s all habits

...

An easy way to plan your day 

Multi-tasking does not work. If you want to be successful and accomplish your goals, then this is one myth that you need to let go of.

A lot of people think they can multitask, but that’s just a coping mechanism for our overworked, overscheduled world. But if you want to get more done, then start by accepting this truth.

That’s because concentration is one of the first rules of success. The more that you’re able to focus on and pay attention to one thing then the more you’ll be able to get the job done and do it well.

You’ve probably noticed, but this is one of the main points in a lot of habit hacks, you’re more productive when you’re able to eliminate unnecessary thoughts and emotions from the task at hand. 

Remember that your brain is an efficient machine. In order to help your brain be more productive, remove anything that drains energy or focus. 

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Don’t fight emotions - use them 

You’re an emotional animal. As much as we think of ourselves as rational, thinking creatures, the truth is that our emotions drive a large part of our behavior. But we don’t like to admit that. When we act emotional, we think we’ve done something wrong. We often try to think of ways to overcome our emotions through reason.

That wastes energy. It doesn’t work. And in the end...why not just use the power that emotions have to create the habits and success that you want?

Don’t fight your emotions. Leverage the power of your emotions to create the habits you want.

Identify the emotion

Think of the habit that you want to form and identify the emotion that you would feel if that habit were already automatic and easy. When you do this, you’re telling your subconscious, “I want to feel this way” and your subconscious will develop a plan to make that happen.

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Not a goal, part of the plan

Exercise is important. 

You know this. Of course you do. 

But are you doing it? Or is it something you’re about to start tomorrow. Or next week?

Everybody knows you need to exercise, but for some entrepreneurs it’s one of the first things to fall by the wayside. 

We’ve all been there. You know exercise is key. Who doesn’t know that? But there comes a time when you’re busy with a project, so you let the workout slip that day thinking it’s nonessential in that moment. Then one day turns into a week, then another week.

And before you know it, you haven’t been to the gym in months. 

Or worse.

Look, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. This is one of those things that we all know but we don’t all practice. But if you want to be more productive and successful, then you need to understand why exercise is essential.

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