Personal Development Hacks
Personal development used to be my Achilles heal…
I dreaded the thought of it.
Mainly because I was in such a bad place in my life, that it felt like I could never “get out”.
But even though it felt impossible, there was still this little voice in my head that wouldn’t stop pestering me…
“Keep going…” … “Try again…”
And so, I kept stumbling my way forward.
No major improvements, but there was progress.
And those little inches forward set me up for one of my big personal development breakthroughs.
My Biggest Personal Development Breakthrough
Podcasts have played a big role in my transformation.
One podcast in particular is the “Huberman Lab” podcast, developed and hosted by Dr. Andrew Huberman, a tenured Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Standford School of Medicine.
In one episode, Dr. Huberman mentions the “4 Day Rule” and how it relates to working out, specifically.
The idea is, if you work out just 4 days in a row… not a week, not 21 days, but 4… and you do it at a consistent time every day (let’s say, the morning)…
Then what your body will do is recognize this pattern and start feeding you energy 30 minutes prior to your workout.
This is a prebuilt mechanism that has been with us since caveman days and it’s the body’s way of preparing us for strenuous activities and events.
Naturally, I tried it and it worked!
It worked so well, in fact, that I haven’t stopped working out ever since I started.
That was over 7 months ago, and I’m addicted to it now.
Using the 4 Day Rule In Other Contexts
After having success with my workouts, I was extremely curious to see if this concept would work in any other part of my life.
And I’ve found that it does… BUT… there’s a caveat.
In order for this to work, you have to be doing something “strenuous”.
Essentially, you have to be doing something that makes you uncomfortable… uncomfortable enough to not want to do it again.
That’s the key.
It needs to be something that your body will dread doing, and if you can push through the first 4 days, then you’ll start to build an immunity and tolerance to it.
For me it was daily phone calls and daily content creation.
I always got uncomfortable just thinking about doing those things… even though I’m technically good at them.
But I said to myself, “Let’s just commit to doing it for 4 days straight and see how it goes.”
And when the 4 days passed, I said, “Okay, another 4 days.”
Next thing I knew… I had this blog up and running, my Instagram page has been flourishing, and I’m actually getting clients from my content!
The Habits You Build, You Do So Atomically
Everything that you do on a daily basis is engrained in your body… it’s a habit that lives within your atoms.
If you can respect that fact, then you’ll have a much easier time with changing your habits and ultimately, your lifestyle.
A great book on this topic is Atomic Habits by James Clear.
This book – along with the lecture by Dr. Huberman – were the reasons why I’ve been able to completely transform my life.
I am eternally grateful to them both, and I hope that their works do as much for you as they did for me.
