Let’s talk about ‘The Process of Transformation’ and how you can use this process to transform your life by establishing better self-leadership habits.

A photon of light exists simultaneously in two states: as a particle (here and now) and as a waveform (pure potential).

Likewise, as we are all made of light energy at our core, everybody has two states of existence:

1. 1. The state where we are now—current (here and now).
   2. The state where we want to be—desired (potential).

Whether your current state is meaningful and fulfilled and you want your future desired state to remain the same, or your current state lacks meaning and is unfulfilled and you want your future desired state to be completely different, you still exist in two states—where you are now and where you want to be.

But whatever state you are in currently, the successful arrival at your desired future state requires three things:

1. 1. An effective formula.
   2. Effective discipline.
   3. Effective habits.

Without these three things, getting to where you want to get to will be due more to good luck than to good process.

But successful people don’t rely on luck. They may take calculated risks, yet these risks are always backed up by a solid process, rigid discipline, and good habits.

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the richest men in history, didn’t rely on luck for his fortune.

In an interview with Time Magazine in 2018, he spoke of the importance of having an effective process:

If you want to improve something, look for ways to build better systems.

How Effective Transformation Works

A good example of an effective formula is a diet.

If your goal is to lose a specified amount of weight or to eat healthier, then following a nutritional diet is the first thing you need to do.

Your current state is your body’s current weight or Body Mass Index (BMI) and overall healthiness. Your desired state is a lower body weight or BMI, or improved healthiness.

To get to your desired state, you need to be disciplined in following your chosen diet. You will face temptations whenever you see an advert for McDonalds or Dominos Pizza, or when you drive past your favourite bakery or patisserie.

But you need to be disciplined. You need to keep in mind your desired outcome and resist any temptation to break your diet.

Once you have established a disciplined diet, this then becomes a new habit and you will find it easier to resist temptation the longer you follow your dietary plan.

This is simply what good self-management looks like, and you know you have reached the level of a new habit when you go to do something differently (for example, eat a pizza, drink alcohol), and it feels ‘not you’ or awkward.

In time, once you’ve started following your diet (formula), you are disciplined and resist temptation until a new eating habit has been developed, you will achieve the results you are after.

Your results will look after themselves when you look after the process.

This process, which I discuss in my book, The Flea Circus, is the exact self-leadership process you use to build your effectiveness, the master key to success:

-> Follow a formula. Be disciplined. Make it a habit.

If you are proactive in doing this, then you remove luck from the equation and you greatly increase the odds of getting to your desired state, which is being highly effective.

The formula we use is The Effectiveness Equation: E = MC², which you can implement in your day-to-day activities and thus transform your life.

Why Effective Transformation Fails to Happen

Most people, however, fail to achieve the results they want and had hoped for because:

1. 1. They fail to create or find an effective formula.
   2. They are not disciplined even if they do find an effective formula.
   3. They establish bad habits.

If you don’t find an effective formula, then any formula will do. But that means any result will do, and this is no way to build effectiveness or achieve your goals.

If you’re not disciplined, if your want is weak and your desire to achieve your goal is lukewarm, then it will be easy to get distracted and be led astray from your plans.

If the habits you have formed are dubious, inconsistent, or even self-destructive, the chances of achieving your goal are severely limited.

Or worse, your situation deteriorates and you end up being worse off than when you started.

Q: Consider when you had been less successful than what you had hoped. Was it due to any or all of the below?

1. 1. 1. No effective formula.
      2. Ill discipline.
      3. Bad habits.

Transform How You Think

Take a moment to consider your answers above and whether the outcome would have been more successful if you had followed an effective formula, been more disciplined, or developed better habits.

Q: Describe how the outcome would have changed, and give your reasons, if you had:

1. 1. 1. An effective formula.
      2. Been more disciplined.
      3. Developed better habits.

Following this process of formula-discipline-habit is essential if your intention is to break through your barriers and become a person of high effectiveness.

It is essential because your success will be the result of what process you implement; and the process you choose to implement will inevitably be the result of a positive mental attitude—from the way you think.

The opposite is also true.

Failure to plan or to follow a formula, being ill-disciplined about that plan, and hanging onto bad habits are essential if you wish to develop ineffectiveness and fail in your endeavours.

Failure, therefore, is also a process, and it generally arises from a negative mental attitude—from the way you think.

How you think will be the difference between being a person of success or a person of failure.