Once you know something, you see it everywhere.

This is something Mike has said to me on a few occasions and it's so true. Once you really internalize something, really know it, it gets fed back to you from all angles…

I just watched Dr Phil McGraw (right) talk about New Year's Resolutions and goals while I was having lunch. And it was very gratifying to see some of our philosophies and techniques mirrored back to me.

You see, I'm a fan of Dr Phil. Yes, he knows how to make captivating TV (and that's a big part of his work) but he really knows his stuff and he really knows people. He very quickly spots underlying causes — reasons why people are suffering, or being held back from better, happier lives.

A few things in his New Year's Resolutions show jumped out at me because they were similar in nature to some of our own techniques — outlined in both our New Year's Resolution report and our Habit Guide eBook.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised — after all: what works, works.

But the truth is I was a little surprised. After all, Mike wrote Habit Guide straight from the heart. No research, no direct outside influence, no lifting other people's ideas.

It was simply a pouring out of his knowledge and experience, from transforming his own life and from coaching others one-to-one.

So it was gratifying to hear Dr Phil talking along similar lines to us. Here's a couple of examples…

He talked to a girl who was still holding on to the blanket she'd had since the day she was born. She's now 22 YEARS OLD! As you can imagine, there wasn't much left of the blanket — in fact it looked like an old dog toy.

But she was still using it for security, for 'safety'. It was still going everywhere with her, even to bed.

Dr Phil naturally recommended the blanket got phased out, but he also emphasized an important point:

If something in your life serves a purpose and you take it away, you have to put a new tool in its place.

This really jumped out at me because substituting a different behavior is one of the techniques we cover in Habit Guide…

You see, it doesn't matter if it's an unwanted behavior (like carrying around a 'safety' blanket as an adult), a bad habit or an unwanted thought.

It's very difficult to just remove something out of your life. You need to replace it with something else, something positive. If you try to simply stop doing something, you'll feel the 'hole' and will eventually seek out the old behavior, or habit.

Another thing Dr Phil mentioned was that the goals you set should be specific and measurable — how else do you know when you've succeeded? Or when you've failed?

It's about clarity. It's about knowing what you're aiming for. Again, this is something that experience has taught us time and again. And it's another fundamental point in Habit Guide.

Take care,
~ James