I was recently reading the book Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. Among the many nuggets of wisdom that book contains, one stood out above others.
The turnaround of the 1979 San Francisco 49ers struck me as particularly interesting. I could really care less about sports. However, sports often contain similar parallels and analogies that translate well to business and life.
Bill Walsh took over the coaching position when the 49ers were the laughing stock of the NFL. He immediately implemented, what he called his Standards of Performance. Three years later, they had a Super Bowl title.
These standards didn’t focus on scoring goals and running fast instead they focused on the mundane unsexy details of what defines winners from losers.
All coaches had to wear ties, there was no sitting on the field, practice started and ended on the dot. The idea was that by focusing on the small things that they were able to control the big things would start to take care of themselves.
In the past I have called this, “showing up” and as you know, it can be deceptively harder than it sounds.
These Standards of Performance sound eerily similar to habits. Is it possible that by focusing exclusively on developing highly effective, useful, and complementary habits that we too can catapult ourselves to the next level of success?
Arnold Schwarzenegger calls these reps and he applies his reps principle to more than just the gym. He is a living testament to what lots of reps can do in many aspects of life. Real estate mogul, entrepreneur, Mr. Universe, Actor, Governor.
What does this look like in real life?
In my own life, when I abide by a disciplined regimen which includes things I know I need to do but don’t necessarily want to do, not only am I happier, but I am also much more effective and productive.
My personal list of habits is growing and evolving and I am also beginning to recognize that having a list of habits not-to-do is almost as important as having a list of habits to-do. I can check every habit off of my list but if I binge watch Netflix, it throws everything off.
Have a list of to-do Habits. Mine are currently:
- Get at least 7 hours of sleep
- Complete a daily foreign language lesson
- Read a book
- Deep Work
- Update budget
- Exercise
- Meditate
- Have 2 drinks or less
- Write a 5-minute journal
- Make a priorities list for tomorrow
- Eat well
- Do an intermittent fast once per week
My don’t-do habits are much simpler, they are:
- Don’t binge
For many years I have struggled to stick to a long-term vision plan. I guess I could say, that I have failed “to show up” for that. I am also recognizing how not clarifying this vision has hurt me over the years.
Daily habits are wildly important and what they have lead me to realize is that I need some sort of unifying vision that helps me review, look forward, and develop a clear sense of purpose. I am experimenting with a quarterly review system that I think will have great long term benefit.
My quarterly review process currently lives in Asana but I think I will move it to Trello in the next couple months. Not for any particular reason except that I have become more familiar with Trello and see how it could work well.
Define your standard of performance and then build the grassroots habitual daily actions that will help support that vision.
“How we do anything is how we do everything”
~Unknown