#1566 Areté +1° #192: Your Prior Best

Hi, this is Brian.

Welcome back to another Areté +1°, one of 451 micro-chapter big ideas to help you activate your Heroic potential from my new book, Areté.

Again, thank you everyone who has already purchased a copy pre-order. Comes out November 14th.

Let's go.

Today's +1°…

YOUR PRIOR BEST
= YOUR NEW BASELINE

It’s time to put some pen to paper as we begin to architect our protocol. Our unapologetically ambitious target? We want to make your prior best your new baseline.

To do that, we need to spend some time thinking about you at your best.

Let’s grab that flashlight of curious awareness and shine a bright light on those times in your life when you’ve shown up as your best.

If you feel so inspired, grab a piece of paper.

Put “ME AT MY BEST” at the top. Then draw a line right down the middle. At the top on the left side, put “I DO THIS.” At the top on the right side, put “I DON’T DO THIS.”

Now, write down some of the things you DO when you’re at your best and some of the things you DON’T DO when you’re at your best.

Don’t over think. Just write down what comes to mind on your first pass. Make sure you write down what you do Energy, Work, and Love wise when you’re at your best. And, what you don’t do.

Got it? Good. Now, here’s a Pro Tip: Want to feel great more and more consistently?

Do more of the “DO” stuff and do less of the “DON’T” stuff. It’s not easy to do that, but it REALLY IS that simple. (Seriously.)

Now, take another look at all the behaviors on that piece of paper. What’s the #1 thing you do when you’re at your best that you’re currently not doing that, if you did start doing it consistently, would most change your life?

Seriously. What is it?

Got it? Fantastic.

Circle it.

Now imagine your life with THAT habit installed along with all the other ones from the “Do” list. Then imagine deleting all (yes, all!) the bad habits from the “Don’t Do” list.

We KNOW you can do that because you’ve ALREADY done it in the past.

Remember the science of self-efficacy?

As you may recall, one of the most important ways to build your confidence with your current challenges is to recall times in the past where you demonstrated mastery.

With that in mind, we just need you to make your prior best your new baseline.

I’ll leave it at that for now as we’ll spend our time in the next objective talking about the art and science of behavioral change so you can install and delete habits like a ninja.

For now, know this: It’s impossible for me to overstate the power of having clarity on the things that help us activate our Heroic potential and then DOING THOSE THINGS whether we feel like it or not.

Make that: ESPECIALLY when we don’t feel like it.

Here’s to forging your antifragile confidence and making your prior best your new baseline, Hero.