JONGSON PARK

In elementary school, I’d make small little mistakes on math tests. I’d know how to solve the problem but I’d make absent-minded mistakes. So I got into the habit of checking, and re-checking, creating systems to and checks to make sure I didn’t make those small little mistakes. As I’ve gotten older, I find myself triple-checking my work to make sure there aren’t any simple mistakes. Because there’d be times where I’d check something and I still missed something, maybe because I was just going through the motion. Sometimes it’d be very time consuming and exhausting to do. I’d recheck and recheck because I wasn’t sure if I’d just gone through the motion and actually confirmed there weren’t any errors. It was redundant and time consuming, and it would become very draining to stress about feeling like having to recheck something I already checked.

The one way I found how to stop feeling like I need to check it again, is I’ll trigger a sensation or feeling while checking my work, maybe it’s being present and in the moment when I’m checking it, but when I feel that sensation and presence, there is a very clear validation and confirmation that I’d checked it and I hadn’t just gone through the motions.

A new skill I’m trying to acquire and develop. Having a bit more intentionality in areas where I find myself just bringing the bare minimum energy required. There really shouldn’t be an excuse for conserving energy or being able to find a way to remap the way for energy to be returned in settings where I usually end up feeling drained. The feeling of being drained is usually because of energy being consumed by my defense mechanism of a situation that I don’t like, is stressful or are fearful about.

My challenge is more in social settings and relationships so my focus has been being more open and responsive in my environment. Being more open and giving in social interactions, having more awareness and empathy. I’ve noticed my low-key guardedness going away and it’s been having an overall positive and beneficial response.

Learning about mental efficiency. As a survival mechanism, our body is always trying to find ways to conserve energy. In our physicality, movements, personality, thinking, relationships, society… etc. We put our energy in places, we get rewarded, returns energy and re-energizes us. Maybe it’s reading, working out, going to a party. Maybe it’s avoiding or putting in the bare minimum energy requirement in situations that our drains energy, is taxing or stressful, maybe things like thinking, social settings, work, etc.

Building bulletproof habits doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, it’s impossible just by definition. Habits are built and fortified over time and it takes patience, duration, sustainability. People want or have the idea it’s just a matter of making a decision and following through with will-power.

I think we’ve all been down that road, making a decision, trying to maintain a perfect track record but one mishap or setback and it all comes crashing down. It feels like a failure, a waste of time, we conclude, we don’t have enough will-power or maybe we’re just not good enough to make it happen. And that one setback becomes a defining moment, it’s the impasse, the impossible obstacle, the psychological and emotional monster we cannot defeat. Because we will always be faced with that “mess up” that will ruin the perfect track record, that will “defeat” our will-power. And trying again becomes even more difficult more impossible, because we’ve already been defeated psychologically.

If you want to build bulletproof habits but have been using that kind of method and can never get it to stick. Here’s a different approach…

Snowballing Streaks
Snowballing streaks isn’t about trying to maintain one unbroken, perfect track record. It’s about building up, scaling a progression, forged in the fire, slow-tempered with patience, sustainability and duration. Go from once a week, to twice a week, to thrice a week, four times a week. Snowball the streaks. Or go from from 7 minutes everyday for a week or two, then go to 14 minutes everyday for another few weeks and so on.

It’s isolating each action into its own individualized moment. These individual actions pool into their own group of small streaks that eventually progress into longer streaks. Then all these groups of streaks is what becomes the one-big, bulletproof habit.

This method doesn’t rely on one decision and one perfect track record. This method doesn’t hinge on the success or failure of the strength of our will-power. In fact it’s actually a basis for building and making our will-power more dependable and reliable.

• The Art of Progression
• 80% Rule
• Snowballing Streaks
• Smart Stacking
• Success Reframe
• Strategies for Success
• The Benefits