Why Copying the Habits of Successful People May Not Help You

Happy 2016 again folks!

I hope the year’s gotten off to a great start for you.

Okay so, I was catching up with an old friend a few days ago. We were talking about 2016 resolutions when he said he was going to start listening to the Rocky theme song every morning. The rest of the conversation went a little something like this;

Me: Have you seen any of the Rocky movies?
My friend: No
Me: Have you seen Creed?
My friend: Not yet
Me: So why would you listen to the theme song?
My friend: Because XXX said he does before he gives a speech
Me: Do you give a lot of presentations or speeches at work?
My friend: No
Me: What do you hope to ignite by listening to the rocky theme song?
My friend: I don’t know
Me: What do you mean you don’t know?
My friend: I figure if it works for XXX, it’ll work for me
Me: But how is it supposed to work for you? XXX listens to it with purpose. Maybe makes him feel invincible and gives him the confidence to speak publicly…? If you don’t have a desired outcome, you might as well listen to “my neck, my crack” (yes I really said that)
My friend: I gotta go Oby, I’ll talk to you later
Me: Wait
*call ended*

See why I don’t have a lot of friends?

Believe it or not, my intention wasn’t to make him feel stupid or judge him. I simply wanted to try to explain a point:

Copying someone else’s life habits (without a clear sense of what you hope to achieve by doing so) will not help you!

Ever wonder why you doing something doesn’t seem to work for you, only to go on IG and read someone’s testimony about  how she or he did that same thing for a shorter time period and achieved greatness?

Most of us don’t get what we want because we don’t know what we want.

I am ALL for having rituals/habits, but I’ve learned that the trick is in finding and doing things that work for you!

Example:

Last year, I listened to Davido’s song Aye every morning until June 6th. My siblings and I were planning a huge Surprise 60th Birthday Party for my mom at the time. My mom loved that song. So our vision was that immediately she walked into the party venue, we would scream surprise (innovative right? Lol), the DJ would play the song Aye and we’d jumpstart the party from there. It may not make sense but listening to that song made the planning process endurable for me. Between the strategy meetings with siblings, negotiating with Vendors, last minute cancellations, and dealing with extended family, there were so many times I felt defeated. But then I’d listen to Aye and imagine the look on my mom’s face when we screamed surprise and her dancing that song and that kept me going. When the day finally came and everything played out as we planned (even better), there are no words to describe how happy I was.

Listening to Aye everyday did not make my mom’s party a hit! It simply created a positive feeling in me that motivated me to push through the planning process because I conditioned myself to do so. Make sense?

So please, as you do your research on how to better yourself this year, create strategies with clear end results in mind. Don’t just do something because the rich and famous do.

As always, thank you so much for reading!!
Love always,
The Wawa-NewYorker