It’s been both thrilling and terrifying starting a company from scratch once again.  We anticipated challenges – but the nature of the challenge is always different than expected.

I’ts important to seek help early and often.  I’ve learned to ask myself this question during my weekly reviews: Where could I ask someone for help or advice?

Revv Culture

How can we bake asking for help into Revv from day one?

Coaches.  

I’ve found assistance from professionals to be absolutely key for anything I’m working on in my life.  The cost is easily justified by the progress.

So literally the first check out of the Revv bank account, before paying ourselves (that won’t happen for a while) is to my executive coach Marcy.

Marcy is helping me tackle my professional development challenge: Leading from empathy, compassion  humility  and emotional calm.  She is a neutral and knowledgeable outside voice on co-founder issues, employee blow-ups, etc.  She helps me work through personal issues as well – from motivation to relationships.

Derek just hired his coach Ann this week.

There is something profoundly wonderful and effective about having a one-on-one interaction with a true professional who’s job is to help you solve the issue at hand.

We hope that this cultural statement will begin to set the tone for what we are building at Revv.

Move your life forward in the direction you think is awesome.  At full speed.  We’ll help.  That’s the magic of life.

It’s also profoundly good for Revv.

I spent the last few days celebrating being back in Boston and turning 30.  In the process I went from peak-of-health to hungover and low-energy.  Happens sometimes.

I noticed something interesting today: I can use a current weakness to isolate (and then fix) vulnerabilities.

My asthma was triggered during my party-cycle.  Last night I finally reached an acceptable level of lung function – deep breaths without trouble, no fluid in my lungs, etc.  I saw some left-over whipped cream in the fridge and figured I’d polish it off.  Within 10 minutes I started hacking up goo and felt my breathing quality diminish substantially.

I’ve been experimenting with removing dairy from my diet recently.  At first I noticed nothing, then after 1-2 weeks a slight improvement in skin quality, digestion, and asthma.  I wasn’t convinced it was the dairy as I’d made a number of other changes during this time period.

Now I’m pretty sure dairy is a problem for me.  The weakness in my lungs made me much more sensitive to the impact and I got a clear signal.

I’ve begun thinking about how this principle can be used in other arenas:

• What is painful to spend money on while I’m spending my savings vs. earning a salary?
  • Pain = rent, car, $5 latte, taxis
  • No Pain = quality food, skiing, dinner out with friends, travel
• Ask even during company growth periods: If a 50% budget-cut was required ASAP – what would be painful to let go and what wouldn’t be?
• I’m a bit tired and cranky – who do I still want to spend time with?

Not sure where this line of thinking will take me – but excited to find in moments of weakness the best opportunity for diagnostics.

Sebastian Marshall started a great discussion on the power of structural improvements.

What are Structural Improvements?

Sebastian: Stuff that improves things permanently after effort is made once.

Derek: Changes that require NO ONGOING MAINTENANCE.

It’s useful to note the difference between a structural improvement and a habit.

Here are some habits:

• Going to the gym – you need to keep going to see results.
• Calling your family every week – you need to keep calling.
• Taking cold showers – hurts every time.
• etc.

True structural improvements require NO EFFORT TO MAINTAIN:

• Learning to type
• Blackout curtains in your room
• Reduce car insurance premium
• Move in with your family

It’s a bit grey.  I’m counting as structural changes things that become truly automatic.  Drinking coffee becomes automatic and you aren’t going to ‘fall off the wagon’ like going to the gym.

Habits take up some level of time and mind-share.  It’s possible to regress.  Structural improvements are much more permanent.

I’ve got ideas for structural improvements I’d like to make.  Some are a bit wacky

Technology

• Learn to type.  Might as well use Colemak
• Get a faster laptop
• Learn keyboard shortcuts
• Fix annoying laptop issues – like failed suspend actions, display quirks

Learning/Thinking

• Improve speed reading
• Listen to audio at 2x speed
• Improve memory
• Develop higher intelligence
• Improve judgement, decision making

Emotions

• Improve empathy, compassion
• Become a better listener
• Everyday mindfulness

Environment

• Live somewhere I love
• Reduce/eliminate commute time
• Associate with people who bring me joy

Physical

• Improve posture
• Reset my gut
• Improve balance

I’m committing to working on one structural improvement at at time at least.  Right now – learning Colemak.  I can’t believe I’ve gone so long with learning to type…

Now that I’ve moved on from Zeo and started Revv I’ve had time to digest.

Jay Althoff - one of the rockstars at Zeo – suggested I ask this simple question:

What did I learn from Zeo?

I learned that the people you work with are everything: the source of the great happiness and success and the source of great unhappiness and failure.

I learned that I am very comfortable being the rebel leader – but need to get more comfortable being a true leader.

I learned that company culture is the single most important factor in my personal happiness, fulfillment, and success.

I learned that I must build closer and more open relationships with people that I’ve labelled as *tough* for me to work with.

I learned that having passion is key.  Most of the early progress and wins at Zeo came from passion and not ‘progress.’

I learned how to really listen to customers.  Have a vision, then relentlessly check your hypotheses against reality.

I learned that $ doesn’t solve problems – it amplifies trajectory.  Good or bad.

I learned a bit about how to listen and empathetic.  I learned that I really need to build these skills if I want to be happy and fulfilled in life.

I’m eternally grateful for these lessons and for the wonderful relationships built during 9 years at Zeo.

I’m often inspired by Julien Smith.  His blog post on becoming fucking awesome really jump-started my personal development and directly inspired the name for this blog.

He’s just inspired me again – with a solid post on how he goes about his daily life to get his work done.

Go read his post now.

Will take <5 minutes… click here.

OK

I’m going to describe how I work first – in a similar format to Julien.  Then I’ll think through what I can learn from him.

How I Work

I wake up to a *very* regimented morning routine (inspired by this post from Asian Efficiency).

Goal:

• Get basics done
• Set up day for success
• Create new habits
• Be time efficient

I occasionally review my morning routine and add/subtract/modify.  It’s helpful to refer to these goals.

OK – the routine:

• Get up

I typically wake up without an alarm after 8-9 hours of sleep.  I set an alarm – but make sure that I’ll be well rested enough to wake naturally.  Currently on an ~10:30-6:30 schedule.

• Pee
• 500 ml water
• Take meds
• Make bed
• Meditate

Right now I’m working on meditation big-time – an awesome friend of mine (Ravi) is coaching me.  I spend 20-30 minutes morning and evening meditating.

• 9 minute abs
• Walk dog
• Give meds to dog
• Floss
• Brush teeth
• Wash face
• Shave
• Pluck
• Moisturize
• Deodorant
• Tea tree oil

Before my morning routine was in place I would waste mental energy thinking ‘should I shave now or after exercise? Is it worth getitng the tweezers out today to pluck eyebrows?’ – what a waste.

• Coffee

Blended with clarified butter or coconut oil

• Write in gratitude journal
• Random act of digital gratitude/kindness professionally
• Reach out to a friend

Here is what is AMAZING about a morning routine.  I’ve been trying to do those three things for a long time and not succeeding.  Now anything that takes <5 minutes can be shoved in as a trial.

• Tracking sheet for yesterday:
  • Binary questions on diet, exercise, masterpiece etc.
  • Then 2 free-form introspective questions:
    • Celebrate today’s victories! Were there any emotional victories?
    • What do I really not want to do or think about today? 
• Build daily plan – review weekly plan, calendar and have written daily plan

I use Asana to organize my life according to categories/visions/daily tasks.

• Do least desired action (that can be done at that time and place)

Use the powerful Premack’s Principle to set up the day for success.

OK – the day has begun.  I then use Asana, my calendar, and my whim to direct my days.

I’ve tried to establish a nightly routine with power – but have found that I’m generally tired.  So I keep it simple:

• Magensium Supplement
• Asthma Inhaler
• Brush Teeth
• Meditate
• Go to Bed

The strict nature of these routines is new – and I’m absolutely loving it.  It’s been easy to install these because right now I have a very easy and regular schedule.  This will be *much* more challenging with travel, stress, relationships, children, etc.  But I think possible…

The other challenge is that this routine take a loooong time.  By the time I’ve completed my least desired action it can be 2 hours!  What’s helped me here is remembering that while a bit of this is overhead (floss, walk dog, etc.) – much of the work is real and has major benefits (reach out to someone, do least desired task.)

What I learned from Julien

The first think I noted is that Julien’s methods aren’t all that different from what I’ve established.  Then – I started learning

Lift: I keep track of big-ticket items I’d like to get done in Asana.  Using Lift for things that are more habit-like makes sense.  ’Write project plan’ -> Asana.  ’Empathize with a stranger’ -> Lift.

Plan the order of the day to be cheery and motivated: I generally only plan the morning well – then I work at whim.  It makes a ton of sense to do an easy -> hard -> easy -> exercise -> hard.

Force introspection: My daily review forces a bit of introspection, and I do a weekly long-form journal.  But I bet that more free-form introspection would be excellent for me.

Bitch slap tomorrow: I love the idea of getting one last thing done in your day.

Personal Operating System

I’ve been playing around with an interesting concept that further enhances my ability to do what I want to do.

It seems that questions like these come up with regularity in my life:

• I committed to going to a social event – but I’m not feeling social.  How do I get myself in the mood to be social?
• I’m feeling low energy and tired.  How do I re-energize?
• I’m feeling a bit down.  How do I get happy?

I’m beginning to think of things in a state-diagram fashion.  Julien uses this simple productivity chart to decide what to do next work-wise.  Could a similar ‘program’ be put in place for emotional and physical state?

States:

• Planning
• Creative Work
• Rote Work
• Learning
• Passive Relaxation
• Mindlessness
• Sadness
• Anxiety
• Tired
• Unmotivated

Interventions:

• Nap
• Cold Shower
• Meditate
• Caffeinate
• Exercise
• Call a Friend
• Gratitude Exercise
• Watch a comedian
• Watch inspiring TED talk
• Create an easy win
• Pre-commit publicly

Now one would arrange these states and interventions logically and during the day when you feel stuck or not moving in the right direction – mentally refer to the operating system.

I’m feeling tired right now.  I have some rote work I need to get done, then I’ve got an event where I’ll want to be social.

• Exercise -> Cold Shower -> Rote Work -> Call a Friend -> Head to Event

I’m feeling unmotivated right now – but need to get a big creative task started!

• Create and easy win -> Watch inspiring TED talk -> Do Creative Work

I really like this concept.  I’m also inspired by how Tony Robbins describes state changes.

I’m having trouble putting it together in a format that I can use and share – help appreciated!

Being able to change habits offers the key to living fulfilled lives.

After reading The Power of Habit we began to understand how habit formation works in the brain, in people’s lives, and in society.  About a million product ideas popped into our heads.

Can we build tools to help people take control of their habits?  First step – customer interviews!

Problem Interviews

We followed the problem interview format from Running Lean.

Here were the falsifiable hypothesis we decided to test:

• Understanding: People regularly have new habits they want to form or bad habits that they want to break.  They act on this.
• I just don’t know how to get started on a some habits
• I commit to a habit – but then I forget.  
• I remember what I’m supposed to do – but I lose willpower and give in.
• I do well for a while – then self-sabotage when I’m feeling a bit down.

We interviewed 14 folks (to whom we are very grateful!)  We tried to go wide and broad – but folks were generally within our networks or one step removed.

The True Power of Habit

We knew we were on to something after hearing how folks answered this key question.

What would be different if you could reliably break and build habits?

• “Ohh wow – if you could do that… at the end of your day you can make your life look like anything you want to.”
• “I would … wow … would have some more stability.  Would feel at less of a risk.  Would feel more secure – personally and professional.”
• “Life would overall feel a bit better.  If I can get myself to habits faster… I can be more efficient at work … sleep less, be awake more, make more out of the hours of the day.”
• “Would be more productive, happier.  Upside would be tremendous.”
• “Feels like I would be closer to self-actualization, that vision of balance.  This would be the thing that would get me there.”

Those are powerful benefits.  Happiness, security, life balance.  Good stuff.

How do People Think About Habits?

Key customer personas emerged around habit change.

Process Driven Self Improver: Frequently reflects on life, decides to implement new habits.  Has a process for doing so and is reasonably effective at making changes.

Frenetic Self Improver: Always working on lots, has tons of ideas for how to improve their life – but no structure within which to make fast progress.  Often over-commits.  Doesn’t establish behavior change triggers, lets life get too ‘crazy.’  Big swings of up and down – do really well for a while, then lose willpower and backslide.

Focus Area Improver: Generally has a small list of items that they are ‘working on.’  The list changes occasionally upon self reflection or facing new challenges in life.  This persona really varies in how effective they are in making habit changes.

Changes only with Pain: Personal development and habit change happens after a looong accumulation of pain.  Sometimes a change is brought on by a life transition like a move, new job, break-up.  Not structured and typically fails to build new habits.

See any of these in yourself?  Did we miss any?

Customer Problems

This led to an articulation of what key customer problems exist in this space.

Conviction + Belief: I lack true conviction in why I need to change and true belief that I can change.

Life Fit: I’d like to change, but I can’t find a way to fit the habit into my life given many other priorities.

Lack Habit Practice: I know I’d like to make a change – but I can’t seem to get started or establish a routine.  Person has a low ability to establish a realistic routine and then has predictable trouble on willpower/follow-through.  Doesn’t set good triggers, etc.

Lack Willpower: Energetically lacks the willpower to follow through on commitments.

Comparing this list to the hypothesis we came in with is instructive.  Only one hypothesis remains untouched (Willpower).  A few hypothesis were combined into Habit Practice.  Conviction/Belief and Life Fit emerged as key problems.

Two Core Problems in Habit Change

I’d like to make a radical suggestion.  There are only two key problems in habit formation.  Lack of Conviction/Belief and Lack of Habit Practice.

Both Life Fit and Lack of Willpower are primarily manifestations of these two deeper problems.

A few examples from our interviews.

K. Has a young family which pulls most of his attention.  He would like to build an exercise habit.  At it’s core this habit could be accomplished in less than 15 minutes a day.  What stops him?  Whenever he thinks about exercising he feels simultaneously the prospect of pain (exercise isn’t always easy) and deep guilt (that he should instead be doing something for his family.)  He prioritizes family.  Why?

• Exercise for K. is a big, long process of heading to the gym.
  • At it’s core this is a Lack of Habit Practice.  If the goal is to keep in shape – K. could accomplish that with a 10 minute body-weight exercise set at home conveniently tied to a trigger that happens everyday.  Would actually be easy to involve the family if that helped.
• K. worries that he really doesn’t have time to exercise – and that he should either be earning $ to support his family or spending time with them directly.
  • At it’s core it’s a lack of Conviction.  K. doesn’t truly believe that building a must-do exercise habit is key.  (and maybe it isn’t…)

T. is trying to quit smoking.  She has tried off and on for years – and this year it’s one of her top 3 priorities for change.  Ultimately she wants to quit so she doesn’t die early and can be there for her family.

• At it’s core it’s a lack of Conviction.  T. admits that even though she knows she should quit – she enjoys smoking and doesn’t want to give it up.  Secondarily – excellent Habit Practice would offer ways to ramp down without undue cravings and pressure.

Let’s Talk Product!

Most habit change products on the market work on the mechanics of habits.  Reminders and encouragement, data tracking and visualization.  Lift, Runkeeper, Beeminder.  Fundamentally these are tools that make it easier to build a good Habit Practice.

Tiny Habits is an experiment designed to go even further – by coaching you directly on Habit Practice it becomes easier to identify good habit change principles and then apply them in your life.  Leo Babuta has another great program called Sea-Change.

So there are good emerging tools that help you build a good Habit Practice.

The gap seems to be in Conviction and Belief.  This is something that heavy-weight social support like Alcoholics Anonymous groups do an excellent job with.

Product notion: Building Conviction that change is a must and Belief that change is possible is key to habit formation.  Start with a goal of yours – exercise, meditation, inbox zero.  We’ll help you build conviction by giving you timely and relevant reasons to change.   A quick text ’10 minutes of intense exercise a day increases your testosterone 50%’ or a short article in your inbox on ‘How meditation makes you a better parent.’

Product notion: There are certain principles that make habit change more likely to be successful.  Create a software environment where these principles are embedded.  1. Pick a habit. 2. Make sure it isn’t too hard (give examples – no 100 pushup habits before 50 pushup habits). 3. Rehearse possible failure points and what they will do. 4. Pick support partners. 5. Pick a reminder system. 6. Make a conviction statement. 7. Sign up for conviction building, 8. etc.  Don’t make it lightweight.  Make it heavy.  Want to dick around and maybe make a change in your life?  Use something else.  Do you really fucking need to make this change in your life?  Signup here.

What about Willpower?

OK – now I’ll contradict myself.  Willpower may not be as key as Conviction/Belief and a solid Habit Practice – but it can make things easier.

Someone with relatively low stores of willpower will have to start smaller, build a relatively larger amount of conviction to  make a change, etc.

So it’s worth thinking about how to deliberately build the willpower muscle as well.  Build comfort with being uncomfortable.  My friend Todd has a whole blog – Getting Stronger – dedicated to building this skill.

Product notion: Doing things that are slightly uncomfortable helps us build willpower – which has impacts across our whole life.  Discover what people find comfortable and uncomfortable.  Ask them to push through a little bit of discomfort ever day.  Focus on stuff that builds willpower – like holding your breath or squeezing a door handle until you can’t – without having the mental/cultural baggage of challenges relating to food, exercise, etc.

Killer Idea or Kill the Idea?

There are clear problems in the space with really deep benefits for consumers.

Current solutions are an excellent start – but there is tons of good work that can be done here.

But… we aren’t that excited about any of our product notions.  Not sure why – but we’re not jumping with excitement to go build.

So for now we are going to keep learning until and if we come up with something really worth exploring.  The most exciting way to learn more is by trying.  Derek and I are each picking up a couple folks who could use coaching on habit change.  We’ll help some people out and see what we learn.

We remain excited about this space.  By learning these principles I’ve already made a few key tweaks to my world.  I established better triggers for when I give Lyra (my dog) her meds and a bath.  I’m having some success using the trigger of ‘Hello/Hi’ to practice empathy by thinking or asking genuinely ‘how is your day going?’

Process is Key

One of the things Derek and I are most excited about while kicking off Revv is running a fast-cycle, customer rich process for product development.  Start with founder vision and then constantly check hypothesis against reality.  In the early days when ideas are just forming we are doing this through customer interviews.

In a departure from standard lean startup protocol we’ve decided to be really open about our experiments and what we’ve learned.

• Publicly articulating what we learned helps us think things through.
• By being transparent we are also likely to learn a ton from potential customers and experts in the space.
• We hope this information will be valuable to individuals and other leaders looking to solve similar problems.

Social Support for Personal Development

It’s clear that social support is absolutely key for making life changes.  Derek and I have been heavily influenced by concepts in books read (lifeline relationships, MasterMind groups), and by successful programs for behavior change (Alcoholics Anonymous, Weight Watchers.)

What kicked off this investigation was a nostalgia for a group Derek and I are a part of.  CCCC (Conversation, Cigars, Cognac, and Chocolate) is an informal group of guys.  We used to meet up for a long, slow evening about once a month.  It began as just friends catching up – but developed into deeply understanding and helping each other move forward in our lives.  Despite the value we’ve found it very hard to keep up with given geography, babies, and work challenges.

The Interviews

So we kicked off a series of interviews (interview guides in Running Lean are good.)  Here were the hypothesis we set out to test:

• Customers in our target segments understand how important social support is in the self improvement process.
• ‘I want to make improvements in my life by I don’t have people in my life who I feel can help me.’
• ‘My current family, friends, coworkers won’t understand and support the improvements I’d like to make in my life.’
• ‘I’m embarrassed to bring my self improvement path (and by default my problems) to my family, friends, coworkers.’
• ‘I don’t want to burden my family, friends, coworkers with the self improvement help I need.’

What we learned was fascinating.  And humbling.

Except for a small group of personal-development minded individuals – we found:

• People don’t actively do ‘personal development.’  They solve specific problems in their life.
• People don’t join groups to work on their problems.  They work on it themselves or with a few close friends one-on-one.

A couple quoted responses to this question:  What sort of groups do you involve in your self improvement projects?  This could be a loose group of parents, a church group, etc. – really anything.

“No.  I had a shortlived workout group.  In general I never associates with big groups of people.  Improvement is a sustained individual effort.”

“I would like to turn to something like this – but haven’t.  It would be useful but I haven’t done it. “

“I am bad at asking for help.  Not good at admitting I need it.  ‘I need help’ – something would have to be falling apart to do this” 

“Lowest priority for me.  I consider this generic information - doesn’t address my problems.”

People just don’t think about personal development and social support in the ways we hypothesized.  Would it be beneficial for them if they did?  Probably.  Will they?  Nope.

Personas in Personal Development

Through the course of these interviews and a later set of habit formation interviews we have come to better understand where our customers are coming from.

Some quick personas emerged.

Process Driven Self Improver: Frequently reflects on life, decides to implement new habits.  Has a process for doing so and is reasonably effective at making changes.

Frenetic Self Improver: Always working on lots, has tons of ideas for how to improve their life – but no structure within which to make fast progress.  Often over-commits.  Doesn’t establish behavior change triggers, lets life get too ‘crazy.’  Big swings of up and down – do really well for a while, then lose willpower and backslide.

Focus Area Improver: Generally has a small list of items that they are ‘working on.’  The list changes occasionally upon self reflection or facing new challenges in life.  This persona really varies in how effective they are in making habit changes.

Changes only with Pain: Personal development and habit change happens after a looong accumulation of pain.  Sometimes a change is brought on by a life transition like a move, new job, break-up.  Not structured and typically fails to build new habits.

Do you see yourself in any of these personas?  Which are we missing?  It was fascinating to us to see how truly different people are.

Outcome of Experiment

We killed the experiment into personal support groups after about six interviews.  Specific group support is likely to be relegated to major addiction problems or very process-driven self improvers.

The good news is that through the course of interviews we ran into a much more interesting problem in professional development.  On my eighth interview of the week I was chatting with a fellow startup CEO.  By the time we chatted we’d ‘killed’ the group support interviews and had moved on to habit formation.  But he was so excited about group support that he had to talk about it.  He felt that there were certain issues that are shared by entrepreneurs like him.  How to grow a team, how to raise financing, how to balance a family and the startup   He was very interested in getting together with a group of like-minded folks and having the session moderated by someone more experienced.  He had explored communities like Venwise - but he couldn’t get in (didn’t meet a revenue target), didn’t want to pay that much, and wasn’t jazzed about schlepping across town for in-person meetings.

New Product notion: There seem to be two options for professional support groups.  Either pull it together yourself (hard, messy) or join an exclusive, in-person, expensive moderated group.  There may be a place for a lighter, virtual offering for entrepreneurs, product managers, etc.  Join up and state where you are coming from and what you’d like to accomplish.  Get matched into a group of 5-7 like-minded folks and take part in moderated, structured, monthly half-day virtual meetings to make progress.  Take the excellent group support model and make it not just available to executives in scaled companies – but to everyone else.  Product management support group, new company founder support group, political campaign manager support group, etc.

So Idea 1: Make it easy for groups of people to come together for deep personal development morphed into Idea 2: Make it east for groups of professionals with similar problems to come together in deep support groups.

Glad we talked to customers before building a product no one would use

Would love to get feedback on professional support groups!  Next step will be a series of solution interviews to see if we would solve real problems with the product we are envisioning.

Productivity Shockers

This post continues a fun series on shocking ways to improve your productivity.  The inspiration on this series comes from T.A. McCann and Tim Ferriss.  T.A. suggested coming up to speed quickly on productivity by doing a blog series on productivity tools people actually use – and Tim’s 4 Hour Chef inspired a strategy of looking for outliers in productivity and not 1-2% improvements.

Last time we heard from Seth Roberts about  “quasi-reinforcement“, and Ari Meisel on getting rid of all to do lists.  Ari has a great deal running on AppSumo right now – check it out!

For more on how people work – Lifehacker is running an excellent series.

Asian Efficiency

Don’t you love being able to shortcut your mental processes with racial stereotypes?  Asian Efficiency uses this to quickly get across their point: Geeky (reformed?) asians are the most productive people on the planet and we can learn their tricks.

I owe my super-productive morning ritual to the folks at Asian Efficiency – who described how to set up a morning ritual.

Simply put – these guys kick ass at getting shit accomplished.  I interviewed Aaron.

What is the most impressive productivity technique that no one is using?

Aaron: Solar flaring. Starting with a tiny bit of momentum them exploding into
lots of productivity.

What is the craziest productivity technique that actually works?

Aaron: I don’t know if you’d call it crazy but green tea. Lots and lots of green
tea.

What are the biggest myths in productivity?

Aaron: The biggest myth is that you’re either born productive or you aren’t. Kind
of like being born organised/wealthy/whatever or not. Total myth.
Productivity can be learnt just like anything else.

Ben: Damn fucking right.  Talent is Overrated.

What software aids for productivity do you actually use regularly?

Aaron: Mac OS X. Switching over from Windows was like a 400-500% jump in
productivity overnight.

Ben: Ubuntu is also sweet.  Another 200%?  It’s just not worth being frustrated by our technology.

This reminds me to brainstorm and invest in more structural improvement.

If you were to train me for four week to become the most productive person on 

the planet and had a million dollar bet on the line – what would the training look like?

Aaron: It would be intense, grueling and done outside your normal environment.
We’d break you down to your core and strip away the excess and build up
from that.

Look for more on productivity as we gear up to launch our first beta product – Revv Co-op!

Who’s Got Your Back?

Who’s Got Your Back highlights the extreme power of deep, open relationships in our business and personal lives. This is a concept that can transform me.

Many of my interactions are shallow – even with good friends, close colleagues, and family.  It’s a point that we often lose in the hubbub of life.  Some of my most treasured memories and personal growth experiences occurred during the course of long hikes.  Hours of walking with a good friend and nature.  Discussion ensures – often profound.  We don’t have these moments often enough.

I’ll quickly summarize what I learned and my action plan.

Have Deep Relationships, not Just ‘Connections’

Keith’s first book – Never Eat Alone – is about the power of having a wide network that you keep in the loop as you move through business.  Only after having challenges in his personal and professional life did he realize that depth of relationships are perhaps the key to growth and fulfillment.

I agree.  Having truly deep and meaningful conversation about hopes, dreams, and fears has been the driving force between almost all of my masterpiece days.  Especially important are deep relationships with people who are different from you.  I’m surrounded by brilliant, challenging, fun-loving folks – who are generally quite a bit like myself.  I’m looking forward to expanding my circles.

It’s about Vulnerability through Safety

‘Talking about my fears and making myself vulnerable has, quite simply, changed me.  I can now see my behavior clearly and work to overcome it.’

Keith lays out the foundation of deep relationships quite well.  My takeaway – it comes down to mutual safety and the resolution to be vulnerable.

Both are challenging. It takes resolve and guts to be vulnerable.  It’s much easier to have a light conversation about how great things are than bringing up something that is really making you sweat.  Safety is particularly tough for me.  I can be very aggressive, I don’t always listen, and I am not as empathetic as I’d like.  And a deep conversation isn’t possible unless people feel safe.

Accountability is Key

Once you’ve established deep relationships you’ll immediately want to begin working on what comes up.  Anything from a resolution to lose weight to a commitment to giving back – talk must lead to action.

‘The key is to formalize the accountability relationship and give it structure and a regular schedule.’

Organizations like YPO and EO are formal peer mentoring groups that create an environment for deep relationships and a structure for accountability.

Product notion: There seem to be two options for support groups.  Either pull it together yourself or join an exclusive, in-person, expensive moderated group.  There may be a place for a lighter, virtual offering for entrepreneurs, product managers, etc.  Join up and state where you are coming from and what you’d like to accomplish.  Get matched into a group of 5-7 like-minded folks and take part in moderated, structured monthly half-day virtual meetings to make progress.

Product notion: Our first product experiment at Revv is Co-op – a Google+ Hangout App that matches you with a ‘study buddy’ to get work done.  Accountability is key – but it’s pretty heavy-weight.  I’m intrigued by the concept of a ‘Personal Daily Stand-up.’  Each day you make a short list of what you hope to accomplish and share it with a small accountability group.  Report in the next day on progress and give good feedback and encouragement to other members of your group.  Light, easy, valuable.

Sparring

It’s not all about peace and love in deep relationships.  Verbal sparring is highly encouraged.  I originally thought ‘yeah – I have no problem with sparring!‘  But upon reflection others have said that I’m belligerent, stubborn, and argumentative.  Not what I’d like to put forth in the world!

Here is what I learned that will make verbal sparring far more effective for me:

• Know I am biased.
• Realize that I would love to have my mind changed – that’s progress and learning!
• It’s not about winning, it’s about intellectual progress.
• Make sure people feel safe and respected.
• Truly listen when someone speaks – rather than formulate ‘winning’ arguments.

My Weaknesses and My Plan

I’ve been inspired by the resources this book provides. Here are two major goals for my personal growth:

• Become a leader who directs his actions through empathy, compassion, humility, and emotional calm.
• Understand and resolve issues related to fear of abandonment that cause anxiety in relationships.

I’ve got some early wins to demonstrate the power of these concepts.  While having a ‘light’ conversation with a friend recently – I recognized the opportunity to deep dive and have a meaningful discussion.  I led with humility and vulnerability.  I had a problem she could help me think through and it was close to an open wound.  That led to a long discussion that covered both of our childhood fears, our mentors, and our improvement plans.  Being open and vulnerable was hard in.  The rest was easy.

Applied Expertise

We are kicking into learning overdrive at Revv.

Outcome statement: Become applied experts in making change easy.

This will require an understanding of psychology, neuroscience, behavior change, coaching, and more.  The keys for changing your life and building tools to help others change.

Note the focus on applied expertise – not scientific expertise.  We’ll consult with those folks – our job is to put this stuff to use.

With that in mind – I just crashed through The Power of Habit.  What follows is a summary of what I took away in my own life and for Revv products.  Hope you find it useful in your life as well!

The Habit Loop

The core principle of The Power of Habit is in the ‘habit loop.’  The loop is at the core of understanding and modifying our habits – ie. all the things we do that we don’t actively think about.

Consider the running habit.  The Cue is seeing the running shoes in the morning.  Routine – go for a run.  Reward – rush of endorphin.  And most importantly – what makes the habit loop turn is a *craving* for the reward (ie. a craving for the rush of endorphin.)

How to change habits

The easiest way to change a habit is to keep the exact same structure but change the Routine.  So the same Craving, Cue, and Reward – but run a different Routine.  My habit challenge below.

Habit: Angry outbust at something in my way.

• Cue: Feeling of frustration
• That dehumidifier is loud and I can’t hear conversations!
• Routine: Feeling of anger and articulation
• Why is that thing so god-damn loud?!
• Reward: Not my fault!  Feeling of superiority.

Product notion: Some researchers implanted an electrical stimulation device into the basal ganglia region of the brain to help reduce cravings for alcohol.  Is there a less effective but far less invasive way to interrupt cravings?  Trans-cranial direct current stimulation, binaural beats or other audio stimulation, and accupressure all come to mind as possibilities.

Belief

If you believe you can change you are much more likely to.

There are a few ways of building belief:

• Put your faith in a higher power.  Turns out Alcoholics Anonymous actually coined the term higher power.
• Join a group where change being possible is part of the thinking.
• Build your belief by accumulating a number of small victories.

I can point precisely to the moment that my personal development started take off.  I had tried various things over the years and generally developed slowly – I didn’t have a strong believe that I could change.  Then I took a 30 day Paleo Challenge and ate only meat, veggies, nuts, seeds, fruit, good fats.  After only 2 weeks I had higher and more consistent energy, lost fat, put on muscle.  Success in this one area of my life gave me the belief that I could make subsequent changes.

Willpower

The Power of Habit contains a brief but powerful interlude on willpower.  Turns out that by building willpower deliberately and husbanding it’s use we can make habit change easier across the board. I got a heavy dose of this in The Willpower Instinct as well.

Ways to build and manage willpower:

• Do some really hard shit – like Crossfit or a cold shower.  It’s painful – but builds your willpower.
• Don’t beat yourself up for a lapse in willpower – softly acknowledge the slip and confirm that you will get better over time.  This was my main take-away from The Willpower Instinct.
• Anticipate and plan for times your willpower may be challenged.  ie. Slap a banana on your desk in the morning in anticipation of a sugar craving later in the day instead of getting caught with your willpower down by the break-room and cookies.

Familiarity

This one was fascinating to me.  Our brain craves familiarity over liking.  So if an unfamiliar song shows up on the radio – even if you like it you are more likely to switch the channel than if a familiar and un-liked song comes up.  This is why you sometimes find yourself singing along to the dumb Brittany Spears song that you hate.  It’s never happened to me… but you get the idea

The solution for new ideas, habits, products – dress them up as something familiar.

My morning routine is a great place to sandwich in new habits.  If I decided I needed to paint my toenails every day (unfamiliar!) I’d just shove it between brushing my teeth and shaving and it would be habit in no time.

Product notion:  Derek and I have both noted that our weekly/daily review systems are hugely important in our lives.  It’s going to be hard to convince other folks to adopt this somewhat unfamiliar habit of planning.  So why not integrate a very simple planning system directly into email – where you will almost certainly be first thing in the morning and all day long (unfortunately…)  Gmail plugin that asks you for your One Most Important Task for the day and then makes it visible all day long until you check it off.

The Breaker

The book ends with a pretty spectacular section on how to break habits.  Huge simplification:

• What is the Routine you want to break?
• Experiment and find out what the Reward is.
• Experiment and find the Cue.
• Use the same Cue and Reward – change the Routine.

What Else?