Every time I start seriously exercising this hits in about week ~4. Sadly, I only generally keep it up for 6 months before falling back to old habits.
Professionally: email lists. If you have any reason to have a blog, you should have an email list. It surfaces the identities of the people who are actually interested in what you have to say, and ties people to you much, much tighter than "Oh yeah, that thing you wrote in 2011 that I read, that was a cool thing."
Businesswise: man, so many things could go here. How about "Put our sales process in a flowchart and execute from the flowchart, not from I'm-smart-and-can-extemporize-in-real-time. Adjust flowchart as required." Relatedly: answer common objections once, offline. Cache the answers. Repeat back from the cache, not from "best halfway decent thing you can remember to say in real time."
« Relatedly: answer common objections once, offline. Cache
the answers. Repeat back from the cache, not from "best
halfway decent thing you can remember to say in real time."»
Can you elaborate on that? I'm wondering to what situation you are referring to and what kind of objections you mean here?
Surely you've seen it here on HN. People will find a way to bitch about anything. Criticism is a signal that people care about the issue you're trying to address, but you've just failed to communicate your values correctly. Turn that criticism into an opportunity to correct that failing.
Applies pretty much to anything. Basically, it's a self-maintained FAQ, and you realise that the first law of the FAQ is that people won't read the FAQ (well, some do), but you can point them there when they ask a FAQd question.
I've approached this variously and at different times on stuff I blog, mailing lists, or just maintaining my own offline factoid / response collections. A filebase you can quickly query and recall is good, my current subreddit is useful as I can keyword search it and pull up articles for reference in other discussions.
A real key is that not only do you not waste time on repeated answers, but you get the opportunity to improve your responses. If information changes, or you find a better reference, or you see (or come up with) a better argument or example, you can include it.
I've applied this in programming, hobbies, economics, politics, and other fields.
Yeah, these can be great. Don't, however, be aggressive about it. Nothing turns me off faster than being a paragraph into something to have the page dim and an overlay appear asking me to sign up for email updates.
If you want better luck making the exercise (or any other) habit stick better. Try one or more of the following:
* reduce the habit down to a ridiculously small subset of the habit. Eg. "I will floss every day" becomes "I will floss my upper, front two teeth". Or "I will exercise every day" becomes "I will change into my exercise clothes and step out my front door.". You don't have to floss all your teeth... just one. You don't have to actually exercise, just change and step outside
* put the habit trigger (your floss, your running shoes, whatever) where you have to trip over them during your regular routine. Eg. keep your exercise clothes on the chair where you sit to use your laptop or watch your tv
* put up a calendar where you have to see it every day (like at the dining table) and a red marker on a string (so you can't "lose" it) and make a Seinfeld chain
* enlist the aid of your family and friends. "Spouse... I'm doing this thing that's hard for me. I need you help. Please help me. And let's have a reward... if I [perform habit] for [reasonable time period... say daily for 6 weeks] I will take you to (or make it possible for you to) do [some activity spouse likes but doesn't get to do often]"
* have a big reward to work towards, but also lots of little rewards along the way to reenforce the good behaviour. Just make sure they don't undercut the habit
* make a consequence for failure. Something that won't really hurt you but will definitely sting. Make sure your friends and family know about it so you feel social pressure to go through it. "If I break the chain more than twice, I will publicly donate $1000 to [political party that I hate]... and the money will come from my budget for [hobby I love]"
* remove triggers for the habit you want to replace. Eg. If you want to eat healthy, then remove all non-healthy food from your home... don't hide it, don't put it somewhere out of reach so it will be inconvenient... get rid of it completely
* don't give yourself any wiggle room. Make your rules absolute. If you think you need an out (eg. might need to break $diet_plan due to business dinner) then explicitly give the authority to someone you trust and who has an interest in your overall success. Eg "I will strictly follow $diet_plan. My cheat day is Saturday when I can also eat [list]. Any other time, $spouse (or $friend) has to agree. Even so, I will stay within the following limits: $list"
* Plan out in advance how you will handle the curveballs that life throws at you (especially important to learn from the ones that caught you the previous times). How will you respond to $X? ... Decide now instead of hoping that future you will be able to detangle from the stress of $X enough to think clearly
* Take on only one habit at a time. Start the next improvement only after the current one is firmly entrenched.
If you have more then one, choose the one that makes the other ones easier
TL;DR; Assume you will be weak. Assume that it will be hard to walk the path of $good_habit and fall back into $bad_habit. Do everything you can now to set future you up for success by removing decisions, removing temptations, getting help from others, and making it more painful/embarrassing to give up than it is to simply do the new habit.
That sounds very similar to BJ Fogg's tiny habit's program. He adds in the idea of tiny celebrations and doesn't talk much about consequences or including other people. But he runs a free email program nearly every week that you might be interested in. http://tinyhabits.com/
If you have any reason to have a blog, you should have an email list.
Is it better to write posts for a blog than an email list, then? I feel it's better for someone relatively unknown to start out with a blog, then perhaps switch to a mailing list when you're better known. (Case(s) in point: you, Jason Calacanis, etc.)
It doesn't have to be an either-or thing. Use the blog to collect emails, then send occasional announcements / links or particularly high-quality content via the email list.
Hey Patrick, I posted this on another thread, but try focusing on flexibility first. Strength will come later. You can pretty much always stretch and will start seeing feedback. If you get into a routine, you will feel MUCH better and more alive.
This is very good advice. I've had trouble with flexibility for as long as I can remember. I've recently started some light exercise again and including yoga for just 5 to 10 min has made an enormous difference.
For me, seeing progress towards my goals is very helpful. This can be snapping a photo once/week in a mirror, recording your lifting progress, etc.
Another big aspect is sustainability (just like with your work life). You can make yourself train really hard for 2 hour workouts, 6 days a week and see massive progress, but once the progress starts to plateau it will be very difficult to stay motivated if your workouts aren't actually enjoyable. A good workout partner will give a lot of encouragement and enjoyment out of workouts.
Another option is to do activities that you find inherently fun - join a rec sports league, take up cycling, play racquetball, etc. Rather than zone out playing video games or watching TV, put on your headphones and go for a hike. Variety is a good thing.
What's your motivation for exercising? If it's for its own sake, or just yourself, it can be very hard to maintain (my gazillion attempts at starting in the past demonstrate this).
Find something to exercise for. It's not: I want to exercise for me. It's not: I want to exercise to exercise. It's: I want to exercise to reduce my cholesterol so I live past 50. I want to exercise so I can participate more fully in (rec league sport, martial art, hiking), and not be the slow guy that gets gassed after 5 minutes. I want to exercise so I can keep my weight under 200lbs (creeping back up, but that was adding in a strength routine so good weight, waist is still slim). It can be vanity. It can be to take care of someone (ever had a sick or injured friend or family member and been unable to help them move? It's not a pleasant feeling, they need help and you're there but can't offer it.).
Someone else suggested below to get a personal trainer just to get over the hump. Alternately, schedule firm dates to exercise with someone else as a change of pace.
Professionally: email lists. If you have any reason to have a blog, you should have an email list. It surfaces the identities of the people who are actually interested in what you have to say, and ties people to you much, much tighter than "Oh yeah, that thing you wrote in 2011 that I read, that was a cool thing."
Businesswise: man, so many things could go here. How about "Put our sales process in a flowchart and execute from the flowchart, not from I'm-smart-and-can-extemporize-in-real-time. Adjust flowchart as required." Relatedly: answer common objections once, offline. Cache the answers. Repeat back from the cache, not from "best halfway decent thing you can remember to say in real time."