The Power of Crisis and How You Can Use Problems to Change Anything

Here at Habit Stacker, we have given you a system for making change, blogs, podcasts, a mobile app, and a course. With all that, you may still feel like you have everything you need, but you don't know when the best time is. The best time is always today, but I'm not going to clickbait you like that because now is the obvious answer. The real answer you may not like that much, though. There is only one force that is powerful enough to make everyone change the way they do things, the power of crisis. Now it is for those who are motivated and disciplined. The rest of us only make a change when we are going through a crisis.

The Power of Habit 

Author Charles Duhigg talks about the power of crisis in his book The Power of Habit. He gives countless examples of companies on the brink of disaster and how people try hard to bring light to some of these situations. In one case, it was a train station set on fire, and in the other, it was a factory that someone died at.

Both situations resulted in death, the ultimate crisis! In both situations, leaders used these situations to get their people to change. To implemented no rules, procedures but most importantly, for this to be successful, the everyday workers needed to adopt new habits, and in both cases, they did.

Crisis makes you stop and reevaluate what you are doing. When you are in a routine, it can be like a spell. You are not paying attention to if your habits are bad or not. In these situations, the teams had horrible habits that were dangerous for them all. Death woke them up to what was happening, so something new could be used.

My Whole Story is Built On Crisis 

I read the power of crisis I realized that my entire story of building habits is built on the power of crisis. When I was 13 I broke my leg in a pre-season football game, but I did it brutally. I had a spiral fracture, like when you grabbed a tree branch and twisted it until it broke. It was brutal and the most pain I can remember ever being in. It just happened that my brother was coming off of a significant injury to his knee that also required surgery.

Up until this point, my brother and I had mostly relied on talent. Don’t get it twisted; we trained every day we worked hard, but success is not about the obvious things. Many athletes show up to practice every day, but not many do the little things required to succeed.

Our parents used this moment to get us to change our habits big time. When you are 13 and 16, and you cant play sports any more because you’re hurt, that is a major crisis! Your entire identity gets snatched away in a second (which is a problem itself, but that’s for another day).

The Little Things to Succeed

• Resistance training for injury prevention
• Sleeping
• Eating better
• Taking Supplements

The Little Things

The above four habits are the things my parents got us to focus on. All of these habits are little things. You know it’s a little thing when you can do it every day for a week, and you notice no difference. They are not quick fixes. You sleep an hour more each night, and after 10 years you have slept 3,650 more hours than your competition. That is the power of the little things.

We were both willing to make these changes. The first reason we had a big dream. We wanted to get scholarships so we could leave Canada, and both of us ended up doing just that. The second reason we were willing to change is that we both did not want to have season-ending injuries. If doing the little things was the answer, then we were on board with it.

Use Your Pain 

If you want to use the power of crisis, you can't run from the crisis. When things go wrong in your life, you have to take some time to think about the root issue. Figure out what is going on. Once you know you have to develop a plan to make sure it does not happen. That is the logical side of things.

You need to work on an emotional why as well. You have to be self-motivated to get off your butt and change your life, and pain is a good reason to do so. Doctors can tell someone to start walking daily for years, and they will not do it. Next thing you know, they have a heart attack and almost die, and you see them work their butts off to start walking daily. Why? That is the power of crisis.

The question you have to ask yourself is, are you going to wait for a near-death experience to start changing? Death has a crazy way of doing that. I never started taking my time seriously until one of my best friends committed suicide. It showed me how precious life is, and I stopped wasting the seconds and hours.

What is your pain? What disgusts you about yourself or your life? Let that negativity drive you. In today's society, we are all about telling ourselves that we are awesome, but you can’t lie to yourself. If your job disgusts you, let that be the catalyst to start your own business. If you are tired of being single, let it be the drive to become more attractive and put yourself out there more.

Set Your Missions and Goals

Once you have your why and drive, you still need to put down a mission and some goals. They fit into this whole picture. Habits are meaningless when they don't fit into a larger picture. For example, someone may want to stop the habit of swearing. That habit needs a why to stick and make sense to put effort into changing. You could have a mission of ending childhood obesity and starting a summer camp for obese kids. You realize that you can't have these little kids listening to you swear every two seconds for a month.

When you ask most people what they want in life, they often are great at comping goals but not so much in coming up with a mission or habits. It's like Goldilox, the mission seems too big, and the habits seem small, but goals seem just right. You need all three, though.

Mission

• What you want to accomplish on your death bed
• You never really accomplish your mission because it's that big
• There is always more work to be done

Goals

• It can be the target you want to hit to help you achieve a goal in the next month up to the next 20 years.
• Goals should act like stair steps towards your mission
• Some should be super easy to help you gain momentum
• Others should be hard to help you stretch and grow
• Review these once a day to remember your why

Habits

• Daily activities that help you get closer to your goals
• You spend the most time focusing on your goals
• These are the small things that don't seem to matter that make a huge difference with consistency over a long period of time

Do you see why you need all three? They all need each other. The big vision provides a why, but the habits are the real work. The habits are mundane and the reason people get bored and quit.

Conclusion 

If you want to reap the benefits of habits, sometimes you have to use a crisis in your life to get it started. No one asks for problems, but problems can be such a blessing in disguise. Don’t let a considerable issue hit your life and not use that pain to improve your life and your situation. You have to use it for your benefit and not your demise. The power of crisis can make you change the most stubborn of habits in a day.