Getaways, Monsters, and Helping Others

Imagine the world is going to be taken over by a group of flesh-eating monsters. These monsters will arrive in 1 year, and will disable all forms of transport. They have one weakness – they can only move for an hour a day and move at about 5 miles an hour. But you are not currently fit enough to outrun them.

In the intervening year, would you:

a) Do nothing

b) Read a book about running and hope it makes you fast enough

c) Work out for 10 hours one day a month

d) Train each day until you can jog for an hour at more than 5 miles an hour

Hopefully, most of you will pick option d) and stay safe…

As far-fetched as this scenario is, it’s illustrative of a larger point. If you want to create change, then there is really only one way to do it – regular practice. Simon Sinek raises this point when discussing leadership skills – he points out that just as you don’t go from not being physically fit to being physically fit overnight, you don’t go from being a poor leader to a good leader from a day of training.

Friend of BillionMinds Natalie Wood recently shared with us a great graphic on this (reproduced with thanks to Engage to Evolve and LMI Switzerland).

See how the initial “hit” fades rapidly, versus consistent practice yielding actual behavior change.

That’s exactly what we saw when we shifted BillionMinds training away from workshops, and towards our 10-minute learn/do experiences. Not only is this type of training easier to fit into people’s lives, it actually creates lasting change.

So before you reach out to pay for another webinar, or buy another book, remember that not only will it not work for you, it won’t work PERIOD. That type of training is broken, so avoid it like you would avoid one of those flesh eating monsters.