Simple. We develop in Agile methodology and it’s worth noting the Agile Manifesto and relating that to my sport of choice, Ironman.

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

If I had to imagine the endurance athletes manifesto, it would look as follows:

Individuals and interactions over teams and equipment
Results and Performance over smack talk & speculation
Sponsor collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

When I clicked those simple things, a massive pause occurred in my mind. I had to rethink the way I went about everything. I consulted my peer group for the smartest info, worked with a coach, a strength coach and developed working collaborations with my sponsors instead of race reports and negotiation. Today, I got the go ahead from a sponsor for 2012 on just what is says in the manifesto there. Collaboration, Interaction, Change, Performance. I am so excited about the future at the moment because the present is filled with opportunity.

Next year, I plan to race 3 Ironman races. Stupid? Read THIS FIRST. Add in 3 Xterra races, Sani2c, Wines2Wales, 70.3 Buffalo City, 2 Oceans Half Marathon, possibly African-X and who knows what else, right? Does NOT mean I am racing them all to win, but whilst I can, I am going to race as much as possible, before life settles into the routine where it’s not possible to race AS much.

Whilst the pause for the end of the year is approaching rapidly, I urge you to find a space to truly pause before the year resumes with a bang in January. Recharge fully, breathe deep and for a week or two, walk slowly, ride with open eyes and run some new trails like a kid. The pause is coming quickly, are you ready?

Today I am not going to speak about my weekly totals. It was virtually an off week with more work and really, more opportunities than I care to even get into. It’s an exciting time out there. Hope you are making the most of it, too.

Today I wanted to talk about what drives us. What makes us give the extra mile. What makes us get up at 5am and go for a jog before heading to meetings, work, proposals, deadlines, stress, pressure, commitments and then possibly back to the gym for a swim before heading home to spend time with friends and family, cook & deal with admin & possible more work.

What kind of idiot does that?

This guy.

Me.

I am not here to waft through life. I am here to live. I am here to eat the best food, ride the best trails, run in the wildest frontiers, to eat more of the best food, to laugh the loudest, the hardest and the most. To brave the circumstances and scare the living bejissus out of myself from time to time. To doubt if I can achieve the lofty goals I have set, to practise milking the journey to that ever changing goal.

I am here to wander among the masses and inspire you to be more. I am passionate about that, about you. I want to push my body to the absolute limit and then crush the limit. Human limitations are just that. Limits. Rules. If there was never anybody who pushed or broke limits then we would surely still be in the stone age. That human willingness to go above and beyond it what drive us.

Yes, I suffer. I hurt. Great. Awesome. I am smiling all the way because I feel absolutely amazing when I am out training and racing. I am happiest when I have no idea how the hell I am going to get through, shortly followed by absolute euphoria when I am through it. That is the essence. Hence the picture. Its Tour de France time. For the 200 best cyclists in the world to ride over 30 mountains in 3 weeks, only to finish in absolute agony with cold sores, strains and tendonitis. For what? Only one dude can win.

Its not only about that one guy. It’s about the celebration of the pinnacle of how far and hard a human being can ride his bicycle. It’s about celebrating the marvel of watching these guys race down twisty roads much faster than the cars can. It’s about celebrating how absolutely amazing we are as a species.

We are driven beyond comprehension. Only the brave….

It is so beautiful and so simple and so primal that I cannot yet fully comprehend how grand it really is. I do believe I have a small insider view but really, I know that every couch potato is inspired when they see the willingness of these guys to hurt beyond comprehension, just to make it to the top of that last climb.

I am going to fill my body with best, most natural food I can find. It will be tasty beyond wowness, fill me with energy beyond zest and give me the appreciation of being responsible for how I fuel my engine.

I am going to explore the entire world. I am going to give back to those who I love with all my love. I am going to be peaceful and appreciative of the simple beauties of the world. I am inspired by people, by their amazing ability to overcome.

I want more of that.

What are you doing to get more of that?

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” - Socrates

I have had a mild obsession with Magnum White Almond for the last week. I have managed to eat one every second day, even though I am lactose intolerant and know I shouldn’t. It got me thinking about why I love this silly thing so much, and how I should go about maximising the experience whilst not passing wind 24/7. Here is my solution, and its pretty brilliant, I’d say.

I would like to chat to you about the capacity for enjoying less. Before you buff off to another site as that may offend you, note that I am not saying get rid of stuff you like. I am saying, enjoy less time wasting rubbish, and maximize the experience on the good stuff.

Is it difficult to enjoy less? No, not really, but it takes a change in mindset, which as with many such changes takes time and adaptation.

If you enjoy Magnum White Almond (drool), as I do, when confronted with a fridge of it would you also enjoy eating as much of the entire fridge as possible? I know that’s what many of us do when faced with delicious food. Eat as much of the stuff as possible, until we are so full, that we feel ill for a day afterward.

But what if you learned to enjoy just a few bites of the ice cream? And with each bite, savor the flavor, the coldness, the creaminess, the almonds wrapped in the decadence of the white chocolate?

If you love clothes, instead of buying more and more each weekend, can you learn to cull your wardrobe into a few quality, beautiful pieces that you can wear often, and enjoy more? How many of us have a cupboard full of clothes that we hardly wear? Shoes that we hardly wear?

The same applies with anything we love … including online reading and communicating (email, Twitter, Facebook, forums). We often seem obsessed with more of it. But instead, consider reading just the quality stuff, and if a blog or Twitter feed doesn’t deliver quality consistently, consider dropping it. I sat at a networking thing today where everyone was on their phones all day. I check my phone alot when I am not busy, but when something interesting is going on, skip it, just for an hour or two. Turn your phone off for a weekend, go to the beach, walk up a mountain and forget about what other people are doing, and focus on what you are doing…

Learn to love less television, movies, chatter, spending, shopping, eating out, junk food, technology, consumption, productivity. You get the idea.

When you focus on enjoying less, you focus on full enjoyment. You learn to be content with little, and when you do that, a life of happiness is at your disposal. The only limit to your happiness, then, is how much you can learn to enjoy less.

I have had a bit of an arb day. I guess that my weekend of excess (2 races in one day, travel, langarm in Langebaan till 4am) is paying out bad dividends. Only my fault, isn’t it. Not that I have any regrets.

I managed to take roughly 6 minutes off on the same course as we did in the first week of December. Progress where I was hesitant is a great thing. We then took out, for fun, the 3 man teams in the super sprint relay. That just felt good, albeit super painful at the time.

This on 6 hours sleep, after a long week and a nice drive up the west coast. I then topped it off my having a few local brews and dancing till 4am without a wink’s sleep. The Bar-One men on SABC3 can eat their hearts out.

This did take my deep fatigue to a new level though, and I slept quite a bit on Sunday into Monday, but am really paying the price today. Our morning ride was not quite the quality it normally is, and I had to sleep over lunch today, as I am just tired.

Last night I also had sweet cravings. Never a good sign. Always a sign that I am pushing it a little. Eating, sleeping & exercise habits are the first things to do when I am overdoing it (in that order). But least there is quite an easy equation that precedes the bad habits:

It goes something like this.

1. I am responsible for how I feel right now.
2. My decisions are mine and I am in full control of them.
3. When I make bad decisions based on a lax attitude towards being responsible for myself, cravings come.

Being responsible for myself was quite a revelation for me. Everything is so easy in this world. Access to crap is everywhere. Look around you – fast food, credit, wonder make-up to hide bad habits, products to make you thin for a while (but which ruin your body’s internal systems), instant love, etc are all crap.

Gordo always says “There is no easy way” and my synopsis of what he means is that for you to be responsible for your body, your mind, you heart and your soul, the quick, easy decision is not the one which gets you there.

Once you have gone the route to eat “clean” it’s hard to go back to feeling bloated and tired, but you would never have known the difference if you just continued to do it.

When I started ME intervals people laughed at how silly they looked. I was doubting them as they really hurt, and really made me tired. Now, looking back, for roughly 6 months of focussed work, I could have made the change 5 years ago when I first heard of them. I tried it then, but it was too “hard” for me then.

What stimulus do you know about that you are not applying because its too “hard” ?

Everything seems hard right now, but when you look back you are generally quite stoked about it. Some of these for me:

1. Letting go of my ego as much as possible made me a human being instead of a human doing. I became real. I was open to much more real emotion but the world was a more colorful place. The cold hearted machine was gone.

2. Changing my diet to eating real food. I reckon 100% more energy, 8-9kg less body weight. Amazing not only for that but because I picked up smell, taste, I learnt to love to cook and I eat more than I did before.

3. ME intervals on the bike. The sole reason I am able to do what I can now on the bike. It helps that I am 8-9kg lighter as well, but I am far more powerful out there. My run has improved as a result as well.

4. De-cluttering my mind. I used to think ALL the time. I couldn’t switch off. I was chasing money, fame, prowess, popularity. It consumed me. I broke down. I sold just about everything I owned. I started living more of a minimal life. I now sleep within 5 minutes of getting into my bed. I now have space in my mind for me, for friends, for loved ones. For life.

Responsibility is not always easy, and going back from where it takes you is not always a great place, but the choice is yours.

Right here.

Right now.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

Our daily lives are often a series of habits played out through the day, a trammeled existence fettered by the slow accretion of our previous actions.

But habits can be changed, as difficult as that may seem sometimes.

I’m a living example: in tiny, almost infinitesimal steps, I’ve changed a laundry list of habits. Quit smoking, stopped impulse spending, got out of debt, began running and waking early and eating healthier and becoming frugal and simplifying my life and becoming organized and focused and productive, ran three marathons and a couple of triathlons, started a few successful blogs, eliminated my debt … you get the picture.

It’s possible.

And while I’ve written about habit change many times over the course of the life of Zen Habits, today I thought I’d put the best tips all together in one cheatsheet, for those new to the blog and for those who could use the reminders.

Keep it simple
Habit change is not that complicated. While the tips below will seem overwhelming, there’s really only a few things you need to know. Everything else is just helping these to become reality.

The simple steps of habit change:

1. Write down your plan.

2. Identify your triggers and replacement habits.

3. Focus on doing the replacement habits every single time the triggers happen, for about 30 days.

That’s it. We’ll talk more about each of these steps, and much more, in the cheatsheet below.

The Habit Change Cheatsheet

The following is a compilation of tips to help you change a habit. Don’t be overwhelmed — always remember the simple steps above. The rest are different ways to help you become more successful in your habit change.

1. Do just one habit at a time. Extremely important. Habit change is difficult, even with just one habit. If you do more than one habit at a time, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Keep it simple, allow yourself to focus, and give yourself the best chance for success. Btw, this is why New Year’s resolutions often fail — people try to tackle more than one change at a time.

2. Start small. The smaller the better, because habit change is difficult, and trying to take on too much is a recipe for disaster. Want to exercise? Start with just 5-10 minutes. Want to wake up earlier? Try just 10 minutes earlier for now. Or consider half habits.

3. Do a 30-day Challenge. In my experience, it takes about 30 days to change a habit, if you’re focused and consistent. This is a round number and will vary from person to person and habit to habit. Often you’ll read a magical “21 days” to change a habit, but this is a myth with no evidence. Seriously — try to find the evidence from a scientific study for this. A more recent study shows that 66 days is a better number (read more). But 30 days is a good number to get you started. Your challenge: stick with a habit every day for 30 days, and post your daily progress updates to a forum.

4. Write it down. Just saying you’re going to change the habit is not enough of a commitment. You need to actually write it down, on paper. Write what habit you’re going to change.

5. Make a plan. While you’re writing, also write down a plan. This will ensure you’re really prepared. The plan should include your reasons (motivations) for changing, obstacles, triggers, support buddies, and other ways you’re going to make this a success. More on each of these below.

6. Know your motivations, and be sure they’re strong. Write them down in your plan. You have to be very clear why you’re doing this, and the benefits of doing it need to be clear in your head. If you’re just doing it for vanity, while that can be a good motivator, it’s not usually enough. We need something stronger. For me, I quit smoking for my wife and kids. I made a promise to them. I knew if I didn’t smoke, not only would they be without a husband and father, but they’d be more likely to smoke themselves (my wife was a smoker and quit with me).

7. Don’t start right away. In your plan, write down a start date. Maybe a week or two from the date you start writing out the plan. When you start right away (like today), you are not giving the plan the seriousness it deserves. When you have a “Quit Date” or “Start Date”, it gives that date an air of significance. Tell everyone about your quit date (or start date). Put it up on your wall or computer desktop. Make this a Big Day. It builds up anticipation and excitement, and helps you to prepare.

8. Write down all your obstacles. If you’ve tried this habit change before (odds are you have), you’ve likely failed. Reflect on those failures, and figure out what stopped you from succeeding. Write down every obstacle that’s happened to you, and others that are likely to happen. Then write down how you plan to overcome them. That’s the key: write down your solution before the obstacles arrive, so you’re prepared.

9. Identify your triggers. What situations trigger your current habit? For the smoking habit, for example, triggers might include waking in the morning, having coffee, drinking alcohol, stressful meetings, going out with friends, driving, etc. Most habits have multiple triggers. Identify all of them and write them in your plan.

10. For every single trigger, identify a positive habit you’re going to do instead. When you first wake in the morning, instead of smoking, what will you do? What about when you get stressed? When you go out with friends? Some positive habits could include: exercise, meditation, deep breathing, organizing, decluttering, and more.

“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” – Mark Twain

11. Plan a support system. Who will you turn to when you have a strong urge? Write these people into your plan. Support forums online are a great tool as well — I used a smoking cessation forum on about.com when I quit smoking, and it really helped. Don’t underestimate the power of support — it’s really important.

12. Ask for help. Get your family and friends and co-workers to support you. Ask them for their help, and let them know how important this is. Find an AA group in your area. Join online forums where people are trying to quit. When you have really strong urges or a really difficult time, call on your support network for help. Don’t smoke a cigarette, for example, without posting to your online quit forum. Don’t have a drop of alcohol before calling your AA buddy.

13. Become aware of self-talk. You talk to yourself, in your head, all the time — but often we’re not aware of these thoughts. Start listening. These thoughts can derail any habit change, any goal. Often they’re negative: “I can’t do this. This is too difficult. Why am I putting myself through this? How bad is this for me anyway? I’m not strong enough. I don’t have enough discipline. I suck.” It’s important to know you’re doing this.

14. Stay positive. You will have negative thoughts — the important thing is to realize when you’re having them, and push them out of your head. Squash them like a bug! Then replace them with a positive thought. “I can do this! If Leo can do it, so can I!” :)

15. Have strategies to defeat the urge. Urges are going to come — they’re inevitable, and they’re strong. But they’re also temporary, and beatable. Urges usually last about a minute or two, and they come in waves of varying strength. You just need to ride out the wave, and the urge will go away. Some strategies for making it through the urge: deep breathing, self-massage, eat some frozen grapes, take a walk, exercise, drink a glass of water, call a support buddy, post on a support forum.

16. Prepare for the sabotagers. There will always be people who are negative, who try to get you to do your old habit. Be ready for them. Confront them, and be direct: you don’t need them to try to sabotage you, you need their support, and if they can’t support you then you don’t want to be around them.

17. Talk to yourself. Be your own cheerleader, give yourself pep talks, repeat your mantra (below), and don’t be afraid to seem crazy to others. We’ll see who’s crazy when you’ve changed your habit and they’re still lazy, unhealthy slobs!

18. Have a mantra. For quitting smoking, mine was “Not One Puff Ever” (I didn’t make this up, but it worked — more on this below). When I wanted to quit my day job, it was “Liberate Yourself”. This is just a way to remind yourself of what you’re trying to do.

19. Use visualization. This is powerful. Vividly picture, in your head, successfully changing your habit. Visualize doing your new habit after each trigger, overcoming urges, and what it will look like when you’re done. This seems new-agey, but it really works.

20. Have rewards. Regular ones. You might see these as bribes, but actually they’re just positive feedback. Put these into your plan, along with the milestones at which you’ll receive them.

21. Take it one urge at a time. Often we’re told to take it one day at a time — which is good advice — but really it’s one urge at a time. Just make it through this urge.

22. Not One Puff Ever (in other words, no exceptions). This seems harsh, but it’s a necessity: when you’re trying to break the bonds between an old habit and a trigger, and form a new bond between the trigger and a new habit, you need to be really consistent. You can’t do it sometimes, or there will be no new bond, or at least it will take a really really long time to form. So, at least for the first 30 days (and preferably 60), you need to have no exceptions. Each time a trigger happens, you need to do the new habit and not the old one. No exceptions, or you’ll have a backslide. If you do mess up, regroup, learn from your mistake, plan for your success, and try again (see the last item on this list).

23. Get rest. Being tired leaves us vulnerable to relapse. Get a lot of rest so you can have the energy to overcome urges.

24. Drink lots of water. Similar to the item above, being dehydrated leaves us open to failure. Stay hydrated!

25. Renew your commitment often. Remind yourself of your commitment hourly, and at the beginning and end of each day. Read your plan. Celebrate your success. Prepare yourself for obstacles and urges.

26. Set up public accountability. Blog about it, post on a forum, email your commitment and daily progress to friend and family, post a chart up at your office, write a column for your local newspaper (I did this when I ran my first marathon). When we make it public — not just the commitment but the progress updates — we don’t want to fail.

27. Engineer it so it’s hard to fail. Create a groove that’s harder to get out of than to stay in: increase positive feedback for sticking with the habit, and increase negative feedback for not doing the habit. Read more on this method.

28. Avoid some situations where you normally do your old habit, at least for awhile, to make it a bit easier on yourself. If you normally drink when you go out with friends, consider not going out for a little while. If you normally go outside your office with co-workers to smoke, avoid going out with them. This applies to any bad habit — whether it be eating junk food or doing drugs, there are some situations you can avoid that are especially difficult for someone trying to change a bad habit. Realize, though, that when you go back to those situations, you will still get the old urges, and when that happens you should be prepared.

29. If you fail, figure out what went wrong, plan for it, and try again. Don’t let failure and guilt stop you. They’re just obstacles, but they can be overcome. In fact, if you learn from each failure, they become stepping stones to your success. Regroup. Let go of guilt. Learn. Plan. And get back on that horse.

Your net worth to the world is usually determined by what remains after your bad habits are subtracted from your good ones. – Benjamin Franklin

I posted up this link today, as I was walking around Wildekrans Wine Estate, sourcing picture ideas and story concepts for them.

The picture caused a furor on my Twitter account as the replies flooded in. Yes, another tough day in Africa. Indeed, lately, there have been some tough moments and decisions.

You see, a while back I made the decision to go on my ace, to do three things which I was passionate about;

1. Write
2. Coach
3. Grow

So I took the option to coach more athletes, in a better way. All the time I am doing more technical things with my athletes, and indeed, over the next year, the service is set to grow almost exponentially for them, at the same cost. I have time to organize camps, create decent affiliate structures for them, etc.

I took the option to start a small media based business which focused on telling the stories of brands online, through a platform much like Urban Ninja. So far its been great and after a few months of struggling to make payments, I can happily say that I am indeed, above the breadline again.

And lastly, I took the option to stop working so hard, and in a way, live the holiday. I am doing less, traveling less, phoning less, emailing less, and getting alot more done. I don’t fill my day with crap and pretending to be busy, the missus calls that presenteeism, and you can read all about it on her site.

If you have a look at the picture, that was my life this morning. At one point, I sat down in a field of yellow flowers and there were about 200 swallows around me, in a frenzy, chomping away on little creatures in the air. It was so quiet that I could hear the wind in their wings. They got closer and closer and I could have reached out at one point to grab one if I wanted, but the moment was pure and I just let it be.

That was my work, and I know have a sticky story to tell about the farm, about the wildlife there, that indeed, if you wanted the same experience, they would more than likely not care if you went to lie down in the field, preferably with a bottle of their amazing wine of course, and listened to nature doing its thing.

I am taking on new challenges in the next year, learning to ride a mountain bike, paddle in the ocean, and I have a list of things I want to achieve or master as well. Simple things I would never had the time for in my “previous” life, where I spent 8am to 6pm doing very little, actually.

I am fortunate enough to be a simple guy. I love my car, which isn’t fancy. I never want a huge house, and I have amazing people who make my life easier, better. You see their brands on the sidebar, there on the right hand side. They make my life MUCH easier. They help me live the holiday.

Do I want more? Obviously. I had to slow down now, and get the basics right, and from here, I can grow my life with the same focus, the same essentials, even though these businesses are growing, I am going to keep the core the same.

More than anything, I have time again, and time gives me a freedom I had forgotten about. My own time, which I share willingly, but selectively.

2Oceansvibe talks about living the holiday. He does live that brand. I applaud him for the choices he makes (not always easy) to make his dream a reality. At times, you have to take the leap, and go with it. For a few months, you might have to forgo luxuries like movies or dinners in fancy restaurants. Who cares, really? Your ego might tell you that you are cutting yourself short.

If I look back now, I would rather have been breadline based with this freedom, than doing what I did previously.

My hope is that more people will live the dream, the holiday, and get what they want. If you are living the dream, please, let me know, so I can buy you a coffee, and share some of the secrets which can make it so much easier to live a simple life of meaning. I am NOT an expert, I merely have some experience.