Sheldon Mills: welcome to habit master's I'm Sheldon and I'm Jeff, and we are gonna talk more today about triggers not triggers yeah. Action triggers. Action triggers. Yes. Okay.
Which is essentially what.
Jeff Corrigan: An appointment with your future self,
Sheldon Mills: right? It's like deciding what's really important and scheduling it in because your schedule reflects what's actually your priority. Right. Before we get into that, we have a special invite to everybody. Who's listening to this. We finished our course and one thing we've been learning lately is to 10 X, our output 10 X, where we wanna go and grow and something that's essential to that is fast feedback loops. Being able to receive feedback on how to improve, how to change, how to grow.
And so that is essentially what we're asking right now for the month of September. We want to give free access to anybody listening to our course. , to do it because we want feedback. Today I was actually listened to John, Acuff, and he was talking about now, when he writes his book and shares things with his wife, she asked,
do you want compliments or feedback?
Jeff Corrigan: yes. So initially we wanted compliments. Now we're looking for feedback.
Sheldon Mills: We want , fast feedback loops. And that's why we're doing this because it's in a pretty good spot, but we know it could be even better.
Right. We just, but we don't know that without the feedback, if people like you saying this worked good, this didn't, this really resonated, but this kind of fell a little bit flat. Do you know what I mean? We really, really want your feedback. So please email us versus the email.
Jeff Corrigan: Email us at hello at the habit.
masters.com. That's the habit, masters.com.
Sheldon Mills: Email us. And we will get you set up with a free code to do the course
Jeff Corrigan: for you and a buddy.
Sheldon Mills: You had a buddy, right? Yeah. Cause you have to with course, I mean its a buddy it's a week long course. It's it's, it's kind of like our show. We're trying to take the best, the best and, and condense it down to just bite size nuggets.
Jeff Corrigan: yes. It's 15 to 20 minutes for seven days. So it's not gonna take endless time. It's not hours and hours of us talking heads. Really? We give you about 10 minutes of, Hey here's what, what the tool is. Here's how you use it. Go implement it and make sure you check in with your buddy. That's essentially what each day is, is teaching you the principal, giving you some examples and letting you run with it.
Sheldon Mills: Please. You'll love it Yes. Is this for you and us?
Jeff Corrigan: Email us. Hello at the habit, masters.com. And we will send you a free link for UN friend to join it for free for the month of September we just really wanna hear some feedback. So the only thing we commit to you is that you give us feedback or testimonial or both, if you really loved it and it changed , the way you look at your habits, like it should let us know that too.
Sheldon Mills: Okay. Jeff
Action triggers. Let's get into it..
Jeff Corrigan: Okay. So today we already talked a lot about action triggers and setting an appointment with your future self last time. And this week, we really wanted to help you see the value behind that. And also give you lots of examples. Like we promised.
So first and foremost, , it's really hard to make progress on our dreams when our life is full and overwhelming, right. But the key really is moving from a state of reacting to what's happening in your life. And instead creating the life that you want.. And that's why it's so valuable to set this appointment with your future self it's, because you're literally creating the life you want, rather than reacting to the life you have, because if you're reacting to the life you have, you're staying where you're at.
You're gonna stay in a very, maybe a gradual incline, right? We can work a little harder, make a little progress, but if you wanna 10 X, everything like Sheldon and I have been talking about and what we're trying to do in our own life, you have to start acting differently and dedicating and creating time.
And space to make that happen . And it doesn't have to be a lot. I think oftentimes we get into this mode where we think that, oh, well, if I'm gonna make time for something, I have to make lots of time for something. Otherwise it's not worth it. The interesting example, my, my boy he's been reading a lot lately.
And he's, loving reading, he's obsessed. And so he reads, you know, probably almost an hour to two hours a day lately. He just gets really into these books, but it's funny because he's now finished. Three series in a matter of months. And I, told him the other day, I was like, look at you, man.
You just read a little bit every day and boom, you finished three series already like of five books each. Like that's crazy that a couple of years ago he didn't even like to read, or at least he said he didn't like to read right. Was about finding the right book. That's always the key with reading, but that's how it is with our goals too, is it doesn't have to be a lot just make time each day to meet with your future self, to create that future life that you're looking for.
And develop the skill or the talent or the, whatever it is. You're trying to create, build some time around it and start creating your future today.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. There's a quote in here by let's see, I think we Dereks said this to me, busy implies that a person's life is out of control, right? And that could be a hard pill to swallow cause I've, I've felt that the way many, many I'm sure everybody listen is, has felt that many times now.
Right? Like too busy. Right?
Jeff Corrigan: Well, and interestingly enough, as a society, we wear that as a badge of honor. Yeah. Oh, I'm I'm so busy, ,
Sheldon Mills: But your schedule really reflects your priorities and sadly, most schedules are dominated by these, these urgent battles for lesser goals,
It's meetings or zoom calls, or, the need to de-stress and, zone out and right. Yes. Sometimes it's feels like people's schedules don't really reflect their, their real priorities. And we wanna change.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And I like that quote from Robert brat that Ben Hardy he's, one of our mentors is always talking about.
He says we're kept from our goals, not by obstacles, but by a clear path to lesser goals. And isn't that the truth, how often did we get to the end of our day? And we did a whole bunch of stuff. We were definitely busy. We filled up our time, which we always do.
We always fill our time, but with stuff that wasn't taking us where we wanna. It was keeping us where we are, keeping us in the status quo. And we really try to avoid this word called change, but all of us want change, right? We're we're really looking for it. We're seeking change, but then we're unwilling to make a change.
This is the key building action triggers into your life is going to help you make a shift, whether small or large, it doesn't really matter. Just get started moving in a new direction, taking control of your time. I used to listen to a. And one of the main things he's always says, and you must take control of your life.
And then up until now, I don't know that I had a good way to do that. Like a practical method of how to take control of my life until action triggers came along. And now I feel like I do, I have a more practical way of taking control of my life, and it is really just setting an appointment with my future self.
To do something specific yeah. I'm going off on this. Sheldon, where are we going from here?
Sheldon Mills: so we wanna give just a few examples. Although maybe before that you, we had this big conversation a while back about the essence of time, and either you feel you're in control of it or you don't, .
Either you create it or it happens to you. I would say that most of us feel like time kind of happens to us.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Well, and, and also that it's that it's really finite, right? Yes.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. You it's like a, your piece of the pie. And every second that ticks away is like gone and you know what I mean? It's a lot of stress.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And, and then there's this really heavy dose of, we gotta stay busy. I gotta use this time wisely, but then we tend to just be reacting to things rather than creating. Yeah.
Sheldon Mills: At the end of every day, maybe that's the secret here is like, at the end of every day, you've used every minute. Right? yeah, everybody does.
. But how many of those minutes were pushing you, drawing you toward what your future self, the future, you, the future dreams and goals that you want, ?
Jeff Corrigan: Mm-hmm yeah, , that's a great way of looking at it.
There's a quote in Ben Hardy's new book, but your future self now, which we've been reading, if you guys couldn't tell we're into this future self idea. But it's fantastic. And it really has like changed our paradigm for a lot of things, but he talks about Dr. Joe Dispensa explained Newtonian physics is the belief in cause and effect while Einstein physics is the belief of causing the effect when you're causing the effect, then the quantum field of reality is responding to your thoughts, energy and actions.
It literally means you're shifting from reacting to what's Happening. To creating what you want to have happen. And that's kind of the distinction between being driven by the past and holding onto things or being driven by the future and creating things. So I gotta ask you the question, how much ownership are you willing to take of your time?
Yeah, this is the question in the book, but I'm repeating it here. Much ownership. Are you willing to take of your. Maybe right now, that's only 10 minutes a day. You're like, okay, well, I don't know how much time I got available. You're you're feeling very busy. You feeling overwhelmed that we live in that world,
both Sheldon and I have newborns. This is not a foreign concept of us. We have newborns plus multiple other kids. Sheldon has five other kids. I have three other kids all under the age of Sheldon's world 14, mine 11. So , we're no strangers to busy and overwhelm. But here we are making time to do this podcast because we know how valuable it's been for us.
And we wanna share that value with you.
Sheldon Mills: We just talked about this a little bit ago and versus, or right. We gotta eliminate. Some of the the ends in our life we gotta learn to say no to more things. Do you know what I mean? We gotta learn to say no to, I think for most of us probably good things.
Yeah are taking us toward the best things. Yeah. Toward those relationships. We really want with our spouse and children toward, the future and freedom of time and money and relationships and purpose that we really want.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And to emphasize that point, I think you said it earlier, Sheldon, that we're using every minute of every day.
So anything you shift , it's trading for something. Like you've used every minute of every day up to now in your life. right. Yeah. That you've been given . So now it's all about, okay. What few minutes or hours, or hopefully even potentially days in the future. Can I trade for something I really want, for creating a better future?
Sheldon Mills: I'm guessing there's others out there listing that, like this, what we're talking about right now, kind of, for some of us might like makes you anxious. it makes you, you know what I mean? It's almost like that, FOMO of life of doing it right. Or do you know what I mean?
But I was listening to another author and he was talking about it. Doesn't take more time and energy to go from a good relationship to a great relat. He was talking about, oh, what's his name? Oh gosh, what's real estate mogul. You know, he is working, he had a great work ethic and he realized
Jeff Corrigan: grant Cardone
Sheldon Mills: is who grant Cardone.
Yes. Yes. Yes. He's like I was working so many hours a week and it's like for six figure income and. This is his breakthrough, this mental breakthrough. He is like, I can work the same amount of time in work ethic, but instead of working for six figures work for seven or eight figures. Right. Yeah. And literally, I think it's, it's going back to this like higher goals, higher, higher ideas.
It's like, I don't think it takes. You know, a whole lot more time and energy to go from a good relationship to a great relationship. You just have to schedule the right things and decide on the right stuff to do. I just wanna put that out there. It's like, I, I know some people listening, they're just like, you're just stressing me out, you know, like every minute count
Jeff Corrigan: yeah.
Good point. But what you're really saying is it doesn't take more effort to aim high and it doesn't take more time to have a better life. Like it does like the people who are millionaires have the same amount of time in their day as you have right.
The people with amazing spectacular relationships with their spouse have the same amount of time in their day as you have. So I don't think it's about doing more . It's about really emphasizing where am I spending my time and how valuable am I making that time? I think a lot of us get caught up in , this train of I'm just gonna do a lot of things mediocre, right.
And the people who really go for it, they say, well, no, I'm gonna do a couple of things really well. right. Like exceptionally. So I'm not, I'm not gonna settle for. Middle of the road in many areas. Instead I'm going to, to focus on a few areas that I can master and be great at,
Sheldon Mills: yeah. Okay. We have waxed philosophical.
Jeff Corrigan: okay. Now we have promised you examples. Yeah, I think we gave a few right there, but Sheldon, give us a couple of examples of action triggers that have really been working for you. Yeah. Okay.
Sheldon Mills: I gave this one last time, but I'll repeat it real quick. And that is the exercise routine. So the action trigger is the, appointment I made with my future self.
My future dream is my future goals because my future self wants me to be healthy and happy and fit. Yeah. And so every morning it's between when my oldest goes off after school started high school this year and between that, and when the other kids, which are all in grade school right now, there's just little over an hour.
That and that window as when I exercise with my wife, almost always she really helps me. If we do it together, it really helps me like motivates me. .
Jeff Corrigan: And on the level of importance, where does that appointment rank for you?
Sheldon Mills: It. You know, really high. And I can tell you that because it happens almost every day,
Jeff Corrigan: yeah. What, what things have you ever skipped it for?
Sheldon Mills: Well, I mean, my kids, that's the only thing it's like, there's emergency, like something happens at my job profession to, you know, to support my family or there's an emergency with my kids. Right. That's that's it.
Jeff Corrigan: How often does that happen?
Not that often. So you have a sacred appointment. I call these sacred appointments, with your future self daily to exercise and keep your body fit and healthy.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Well, for me, it's actually a two-pronged one. One is the fit and healthy, right. Which ultimately ties into my relationships with my, my children and my ability to serve.
Do you know what I mean? But also , like I said, it used to be more part of my work, but COVID happened. I used to do it during lunches, but now I work from home a lot more. And , it's both health, but also relationship with my wife. It's one of the few times in the day that like we regularly get to do something together.
Jeff Corrigan: Double bonus I like it. Double bonus. Yeah. Okay. What's another one you had another one you said
Sheldon Mills: I'm actually glad you asked that. Cuz you asked how important is it? And it occurred me like it's really important. And I can prove that by how often it is scheduled in and part of my daily routine.
Jeff Corrigan: Yes. And one thing that Ben Hardy's always saying, and in his most recent book, he says your identity is the thing you're most committed to.
And I had never really thought of it that way, because I think a lot of us assume that our identity is just something that's there. Rather than something that's created , but I, I'm not gonna dive into this
Sheldon Mills: choose to change and create.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So anything we change our mind and commit to.
Becomes part of our identity, but you have to actually be committed, you know, like you with your exercise routine and, and whatever that looks like of the future. You, so yeah. What future you are you committed to becoming, and then that immediately changes your identity today? Yeah, that's a whole message of Ben's new book essentially is commit to this future self, make time for this future self and make it happen.
And action triggers are real key to helping you do that. So. Another example, Sheldon. Yeah, I got another one. Okay, good. Are you I'll
Sheldon Mills: do another one. No, you go, you go first. And this is one that I've started fairly recently. But I've been doing pretty, pretty good with it, cuz it's again, I've decided this is important to me.
So I've got one of those like gratitude journals. It's like right. Three things you're grateful for every day, which again, we could go on this whole psychology of, of, you know, finding happiness now. Right. And part of that is gratitude. Gratitude's a big part of that. I've changed that a little bit to three wins for the day.
? Nice. There's oh, people probably sick of the saying Ben hard, his name. He wrote another book called the gap in the gain. Which really struck a nerve with me, cuz I realized how much of my life I lived by, you know, I had 10 things I wanted to do in a day and I got through eight of 'em, but all I thought about was the two I didn't.
. That's all I thought about. So it was like, I, I was living in the gap all the time. And the more I learned, the more I realized, there's such a thing as post traumatic growth, right. Has less to do with what happens to you and more to do on your attitude and your, Decisions to grow from this , there's a quote then maybe some of you would recognize, like the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances, our lives and everything to do with the focus.
I believe that to be more and more true, the more , I think about it, live it, try it. And so that's part of my nightly routine. Before I go to bed is to write three again, sometimes it's just three lines. Right. Cause it doesn't have to be long. Doesn't have to be huge. But I do that at night before I go to bed.
When I remember when I get up in the morning and make the bed actually put the book on my pillow, just to help like be that little extra trigger of don't forget. Right,
Jeff Corrigan: exactly. Okay. So a couple for me, and then we'll finish off with a quote from Napoleon hill from thinking, grow rich, which really kinda solidifies all of what we've been talking about today.
First one, I wanted to share one with my family. So recently we purchased , a little booklet has 54 different ideas on just helping your kids learn about principles of good manners in, in public and just in life. how to win friends and be a good person that people enjoy to have around.
So we've been going through one day at a time. So I set the action trigger, like every evening, as soon as we sit dinner, we all sit down to dinner together. That's one of our like family commitments, always, right. We always eat together at as many meals as possible.
So dinner is one of those every night. Very rarely if I ever missed that, but we sit down to dinner, I pull out this little card and then I have one of the kids read it. And for example, the one yesterday was be kind to your. Friends, younger siblings, essentially. It's like when you're hanging out with people or spending time with a friend, like be kind to the younger siblings, treat their mom and dad with respect, like focus on other people in the family when you're at their house.
And they'll love having you around like random stuff like that, that she's put there that I really liked. And so we just it's insights a little discussion every night about this. So that's one of the action triggers that we. Another one is just my daily routine with a new skill that I'm trying to develop.
You guys have heard me talk about this on podcast. I won't go into too much detail, but every morning I wake up early. So I try to wake up before my family every day, so I can do some exercise, write my journal. Those are all action triggers too, but also. Practice my, my illustration skills.
Cause I, I really wanna illustrate and write kids books as part of like, it's more of a hobby for me at this point, but eventually wanna publish some so, and I've committed myself to publish one before the end of the year. Cause I already have it written I'm halfway through drawing it. So, but I really felt like my skills were lacking.
So I've focused time and attention every day on just learning the fundamentals from experts on an online course. Of illustration and drawing, just getting back to the basics, be mastering that skill from, from the ground up. And so I spend at least a few minutes every day and sometimes it only, I only get to draw like 10 minutes or complete one, two minute course, cuz that's just how much time I, I have available to me at the moment.
But like you said, Sheldon, if you guys want to know this, as doesn't have to be a big thing is go back to one of our previous episodes. We talk about count everything as a win. . , just like Sheldon was saying at the end of the day, start, start living in the gain. What have you done today to move you towards that future self?
And if you're setting action triggers and controlling, even a little portion of your time, you are moving towards that future self. So it will compound. It will compound. It does, , I feel it in my life so much in so many areas, finance relationships work, all of it. Right. Okay. And then one last example of something I do at work.
So every morning when I get to work, the first thing I do is I write down the top three priorities from my day. Like these are the things I absolutely want to get done today. Everything else is kind of side effect. Right. And so it helps me really focus on these are the things I'm gonna do. And anything else that comes to me from other people or through email, I look at that and say, okay, is this worth doing instead of my top three priorities, I'd have to trade it.
Right. So always look at, am I really gonna trade this thing that I felt was so valuable to put on my top three for something lesser or not? So those are three action triggers that I set in my day. Along with hundreds of others. so you guys can take this and use it as you will, but I wanted to share with you one quote before we finish off from Napoleon hill in his book thinking grow, right? She says, remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life to demand abundance and prosperity than is required to accept misery and poverty.
It's kinda like what we were saying. earlier. It doesn't take a lot more effort or time to have a great relationship than it does to have a mediocre one,
Sheldon Mills: but it does take a shift. In priority and the way we think and view and respond. Do you know what I mean? It's not more time, but it is a different way of doing it, ?
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Well, it comes down to this little nugget instead of reacting start creating, , be a better planner, a better visionary of how you want the future to be so rather than not planning and then expecting things to. Turn out the way you want plan and make time to do it. .
Become a creator instead of a reactor. All right. Sheldon, anything else you wanna say?
Sheldon Mills: This has been good. I mean, has again, our, our first and foremost audiences ourselves, we thank you and hope that you get a lot out of this if you have feedback for our podcast, please let us know.
Reviews. We love. 'em just thank you for being here with us on this journey and let's grow together.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Thank you guys so much. We can't even believe how many people listen to this and how exciting it is to hear any reviews. And so if you go to apple podcast and leave us a review, I promise you we will be over the moon, excited and grateful.
We wanna get to a hundred reviews on apple podcast. That's our goal right now. And like Sheldon. We're giving away our course for free for a full month to any listeners on this podcast. So email us hello at the habit, masters.com and we will send you a free link for you and buddy to participate in the course.
It's only seven days and it will change your life. And if it doesn't, please let us know why that's our only commitment to you. Feedback or testimonial or both. thank you so much, it's time to start living your best life..
