Several years ago, a partner and I started a gym in a commercial property I owned at the time. Our main goal was to help our gym members get in the best shape of their lives. We did this by providing great fat burning workouts, fat loss nutrition plans, one-on-one coaching, and weekly accountability. Daily improvement was key.
IF someone followed our System, they would completely transform their bodies.
It was amazing to watch this happen because they became different people in the process. You could actually see their self confidence improve from week to week as they made progress towards their goals. These transformations occurred because each member placed several new forced demands on their bodies. When you force any demand upon your body, it always adapts to that specific demand!
Fast for 48 hours, and your body responds. Reduce your carb intake, and your body will respond. Do a bunch of push-ups every day (our November Badass Challenge) and you force a change in your body. I’ve been doing 140 push-ups a day and I can certainly feel several changes happening on a daily basis. 🙂
The crazy part is that one new forced demand usually leads to several changes. Let’s say you start exercising every day…this new forced demand usually requires you to make several other changes in your life.
- You’ll need to make time for your daily exercise. In most cases, this will require you to trade a lower value activities (watching TV) in order to make time for the higher value activity (exercise).
- Your daily exercise will, more than likely, force you to change how and when you eat. It’s hard to have a great workout if you have a big meal before you exercise.
- Another forced change is that you’ll need more sleep.
ONE New Forced Demand = THREE Improvements
The problem, at least for most people, is that they aren’t placing any consistent specific demands upon their bodies. And because they’re not placing any specific demands, they aren’t forcing positive changes in their lives.
You either forced consistent positive demands upon your body or your body will end up forcing its own demands upon you. These demands that your body forces upon you will (sooner or later) negatively impact the quality of your life.
This same rule of forced demands applies to all areas of our lives…
Your financial situation ALWAYS
responds to the demands you place upon it.
If you start buying new income-producing assets every day, you’re forcing an improvement in your financial situation because you instantly have less money to spend.
This forced financial demand usually requires three important changes:
- You’ll have to start searching for new income-producing assets you can acquire every day. This search requires an investment of your time.
- It will require you to reallocate how you spend money. More than likely, you’ll have to eliminate needless spending in order to have more money available to buy new assets.
- Last but certainly not least, it will require you to get off of your derriere and make more money. 🙂
These three changes were forced upon me when I set a goal to increase my cashflow every day. Think about the average person who doesn’t place any specific demands upon their finances.
No forced demand means no forced financial improvement.
The reason why credit cards are so popular is because they eliminate forced short-term demands upon your finances. You don’t need to have money to buy what you want and because there’s no forced demand, there’s no forced improvement.
If you can buy whatever you want with a swipe of a magical credit card, you don’t have to reduce your spending today. You also don’t have to get off your duff to go make more money.
The problem, as we all know, is that a credit card will ultimately force several future negative demands upon your finances. These future demands will be placed upon you and you’ll have zero control them. 🙁 In fact, credit cards simply move today’s forced demands into the future.
You either force consistent positive demands upon your finances or your finances will end up forcing demands upon you. These demands forced upon you will negatively impact the quality of your life
If all of this isn’t enough, we can also apply this to how we think: Your mind ALWAYS responds to the demands you place upon it.
And once again, most people aren’t forcing any demands upon their thinking. In fact, they’re usually living completely distracted lives because they’re on social media for several hours a day.
You can force changes to how you think by reading, learning and by questioning everything in your life. I read every day and this usually forces me to think about what I’m reading. I question it. I challenge it. I experiment with it. I use it to my advantage.
Let’s put all of this together…
You either place specific demands on your body, finances and thoughts, or negative demands will eventually be placed upon your body, your finances and your thoughts.
Take a second and think about your goals for 2021…
Do you want to get in the best shape of your life?
Do you want to create more monthly cashflow?
Do you want to pay down debt?
What specific demands can you consistently place upon yourself that will force progress towards each of your goals?
Seriously, think about different forced demands you can use for every goal.
If you want to get in the best shape of your life, start exercising every day. If you want more cashflow, buy new income-producing assets every day.
If you want to be debt free, make a small extra payment on one loan every day.
Now hold yourself accountable to these daily demands and you’ll completely transform your life.
Do not let a day pass without doing what you said you were going to do.
“It’s better to do less than you hoped than nothing at all. NO ZERO DAYS.” – James Clear
Do something every damn day.
No, it won’t be easy because you’re forcing yourself to improve.
Small progress is significantly better than no progress. Small progress compounds, zero progress doesn’t.
