Create Momentum with the $10 Touch

As we approach the end of the summer and the kids get ready to start a new school year, I find myself feeling that familiar time of new beginnings. I’m fortunate that my home-based office gives me the flexibility to spend extra time with my girls during the summer months when they are still happy to hang out with me. As the back-to-school season approaches I find myself gearing up for an exciting fall with my Passion Power and Purpose business and thinking about getting my momentum going after two wonderfully relaxing months.

So…how to create momentum after a period of downtime? I use a little trick called The $10 Touch. Here’s how it works:

Humans are  naturally inclined to be pain adverse; to do what ever we have habitually done because it is easier. Changing habits, even if they are good for us, requires that we behave in a different way for a long enough period of time to create a new habit. Many say this takes about 28 days. I would guess even more, or at least 28 days of CONSISTENT behaviour change.

So how do we do this? Many have tried the WILL POWER  approach but that seldom works. Ask anyone who has made a New Year’s resolution. Will power works for a while but is rarely enough. What DOES work however, is The $10 Touch because it gets at what we humans are naturally inclined towards: pain avoidance.

Here are the steps to create your $10 Touch:

1. Decide what you want to change and be realistic about it. If you haven’t done any sit ups last week or for several weeks, saying that you will start doing 50 a day is not realistic for you. Start with deciding to do at least one a day (one always leads to more!) or a minimum of one for two or three days during the week. That would likely be more realistic for you and you can increase it the next week to two. Create a contract around this change.
2. Get an Accountability Partner that will hold you to your commitment and follow through with your consequence when you don’t keep your part of the contract. Likely your life-partner or spouse is not the best choice for this as they are more likely to be soft on you and help you with excuses because, hey…they love you! In the end, this is not going to help you create your new habit.
3. Decide on a consequence that you will experience if you don’t keep your agreement. It should be something that is more painful to you than following through with the behaviour change. Giving money to a family member or a charity is NOT a good consequence as it  will give you good feelings knowing your money will go to a good cause. Better to give it towards a cause you dislike.
4. Connect with your Accountability Partner to report on your results.
5. Receive your consequence when you don’t follow through.

Here’s how I used this to change my daily routine and build momentum in my business:

I call this The $10 Touch. I connected with my Accountability Partner and agreed that I would do one thing each day to move me towards my business goals. At the time I was just starting Passion Power Purpose and my to-do list was HUGE! I was excited about what I was doing but my habit was to do other things because my mind said “this is more important” or “when you finish this”  and as the day went on, I never moved forward. Basically I was avoiding and felt overwhelmed not knowing where to start.  

My contract was that I would give her $10 each day I didn’t do one concrete thing towards my business building goals. I would email her with what I did either that night or the next day. For me it wasn’t the $10, but the pain of hurt pride in giving her any money because I didn’t keep my promise to myself. So for several weeks I did my ONE THING daily and emailed her a quick note about what I did. Before long I had developed a new habit and created some great momentum in my business. I loved the feeling I got each day I emailed my accomplishment and it became EASY to do my one thing. Only twice did I pay her $10 and knew that I was consciously making that decision as I went to bed tired at the end of the day.

So after taking some time off with my girls this summer, its time to resurrect the $10 Touch becaues I know it works. I invite you to do the same. Decide what you want to change, choose something realistic to do differently, get an accountability partner, decide on a consequence, and create a way to report back on your progress.

Enjoy your new habit and the wonderful feeling of creating momentum towards your ideal life!

Question…What new habit would you like to create?