‎“If you can’t explain it simply, you do not understand it well enough.”

The quote from Einstein was given to me when I was reading a great book on the Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. The Apple CEO is known to keep things very simple. Using the presentation secrets, I went to work and I created the first presentation named Change Your Life 2.0

Some of you have already seen the presentation but if you haven’t, here it is…

The presentation features ‘Fred The Frog’ and tells you what it really takes to change! I posted it on Slideshare.net Friday evening last week. Slideshare is the YouTube for presentations, and it was the first time I have ever posted a presentation on Slideshare. I did not know what to expect.

Saturday I received an email from Slideshare telling me that Change Your Life 2.0 had been picked as ‘Top Presentation Of The Day’. I was speechless! More people watched the presentation and on Monday Slideshare sent me another email announcing that Change Your Life 2.0 was the most talked about presentation on Facebook that day!

I realized that I was on to something, and as this blog is being written, the presentation has been viewed more than 14,000 times on Slideshare. That’s a big number for me and a lot more hits than any of blog posts have ever received.

“If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven’t done anything today.” – Lou Holtz

This week, I have created a second presentation, which has been posted on Slideshare today. It’s called Even Superheroes PEE!

This presentation has ‘Dan The Dog’ as the main character. Dan has a big dream of becoming a superhero or SuperDan! Through his struggles he realizes that even Superheroes PEE!

My hope is that you will enjoy the new format, and you can expect more slideshows from the Monster. If you like them, share them. Help get some very powerful messages out to more people.

The presentations have been created for all age groups and both genders. They are supposed to be simple, memorable and FUN!

Beat It!
Coach Bay

“You tried your best and failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.” – Homer Simpson

Are you Homer Simpson? Or are you sick and tired of failing? Do you really want to change? Do you want to be part of the 5% that actually keep their New Year’s Resolutions? Studies have shown that about 80% of all the resolutions are broken by the end of January. If the resolution had something to do with health and fitness (working out, losing weight, quitting smoking, etc), 90% will be history by mid January! By the end of the year, less than 5% of people will have made it through the year with the resolutions intact.

Seriously, that really sucks…

So here are the keys to successful change… Are you ready? At Beat The Monster, we have created the 6S namely, Single Habit, Specific Behaviors, Schedule Rituals, Supportive People, Supportive Environment and Show Me The Money.

1. Single Habit

Focus is critical and while many of us have a list of things that we want to change, it’s important to only change ONE thing at the time. If you want to lose weight, you might be planning on changing your diet and starting to exercise. DON’T do both at the same time. Choose ONE! Make or break the habit for 30 days straight before you start another change. Once you have successfully done 30 days, you can start on the next habit.

2. Specific Behaviors

You want to decide on the specific behaviors that you want to make or break. If you are breaking or stopping a habit, it’s obviously about no longer doing the bad habit. However, it’s more than that. If you are quitting smoking, you are not only stopping smoking. You might want to start a new behavior using nicotine gum to ease the pain. If you are cutting down on the hours surfing the internet, you might replace that time with a specific book that you want to read. If you are starting to exercise, what are you going to do? Are you going to the gym or start walking, running, swimming? Ask yourself what, when and where…

Many people think about what they want to do but they never get really clear. The other important thing is to keep is simple! Start small and build it up. If you are starting in the gym, you might want to go twice a week and then build it up to 3 or 4 times a week later. We are all suffering from positive illusions and we tend to be too optimistic when it comes to estimating our own abilities. Be realistic!

3. Schedule Rituals

Once you have identified what you are going to do, the next thing is to schedule it. Studies have shown that we are much more likely to succeed if we book the time and place in our calendar. If you are going to practice the guitar 3 times a week, you might have decided that you will practice 1 hour on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Most people would stop there and fail! The key is to schedule the actual time and place. You might now decide that you want to play the guitar Tuesday and Thursday at 8 PM after dinner. On Saturday, you will practice at 2 PM after lunch. All practice will be in the guest room at home. That’s specific.

Bottom line: schedule your rituals and put them in your calendar.

4. Supportive People

Other people matter, and you can do so much more when you are supported. We know that with our own internal Homer Simpson, we only have so much self-control and ‘Just Do It’ power! Getting support from other people will greatly improve your changes of success! As we like to say “Success is a team sport”. When we enroll other people, they can take on several roles. Let’s look at the 4E, which are Encourage, Educate, Enforce and Engage.

Encourage: The role of the Cheerleader, who will encourage you and provide you with positive feedback. When you are down, they will talk you up. They will be your biggest fan! The Cheerleader can support you face-to-face, or via phone, email, SMS, Facebook or whatever you decide. A friend of mine simply uses her Facebook friends as cheerleaders. She reports her weight loss weekly on Facebook and gets a lot of support.

Educate: The role of the Teacher. It’s usually someone, who has already done what you want to do. If you want to start running, this person could be a seasoned runner, who can help you with good advice to get started. If you want to stop gambling, find someone who has done it and can show you how. The HOW is critical and many people give up as they simply don’t know how to make changes. Find someone who can show you HOW!

Enforce: The role of the Terminator. This person will not accept any of your usual excuses or stories. They will do whatever it takes to find you and kick your ass if you are not doing what you said you would do. Report your progress (be honest) to the Terminator on either daily or weekly basis, and it will definitely hold you accountable. The Terminator is badass and is likely to own a pump gun and a Harley Davidson.

Engage: The role of the buddy. A person, who wants to make the same change as you. If you want to learn Chinese, team up with someone, who also wants to learn the language. Study and take classes together. It’s extremely powerful to make or break a habit together with someone else.

You do not need to enroll 4 different people. One person can take on more than one role. The key is that you have people around you, who can and will support you.

5. Supportive Environment

The environment is very strong, and you want to create a structure and environment that supports your change. If you are about to break a habit, we recommend that you ‘clean the house’ and get rid of anything that relates to that habit. If you want to stop eating junk food, clean your fridge and cupboards to make sure that you do not have any junk food in the house that will tempt Homer. Instead, fill your fridge with healthy food.

If you want to start reading, find a place where you enjoy reading. It might be your favorite chair or under a tree in the park. If you know that the TV is your enemy, you might want to get rid of the TV for the next month. Move it to the neighbors or put it in the garage. A bit dramatic? Maybe. The point is that we are creatures of habits, and with our limited willpower, our internal Homer Simpson will eventually make us surrender. We have to make it as difficult as we can for Homer.

6. Show Me The Money

Yes, success is also about money and we believe in paying if you do not deliver… Here is how it works. You make a financial commitment to another person (friend or foe). You agree to pay this person a certain amount of money for each week that you do NOT do what you said you would do. As an example, you might want to start running 30 min 3 times a week. You commit in writing to pay a friend or foe US$100 every week that you fail. It will only cost you money if you fail! Success is free! You decide the amount but it has to have meaning. For some that will be US$10 while for others that will be @1,000.

In order for this to work, you have to be absolutely honest and the person that you commit to has to be willing to hold you accountable. No Mr Nice Guy! Think Gordon Gekko from Wall Street (The movie).

“It’s easier to change our environment than to change our mind.” – Dr Brian Wansink

The 6S is a powerful framework, and when you do it, you will be a lot more likely to succeed and end up among the 5%, who make the changes permanent. It’s up to you! It’s not difficult but it’s hard work!

Are you ready to make the New Year an even better year? Are you ready to kick some ass?

Beat It!

Coach Bay

Yes, it’s the environment again! In 2005, the famous Popcorn Study was done in the USA. Professors Brian Wansink and Junong Kimand gave 158 moviegoers either medium (4.2 oz) or large (8.4 oz) tubs of free popcorn that was either fresh or 14 days old (stale).

When moviegoers were served stale popcorn in big buckets, they ate 34 percent more than those given the same stale popcorn in medium-sized containers. The fresher popcorn created even larger appetites: Fresh popcorn in large tubs resulted in people eating 45 percent more than those given fresh popcorn in medium-sized containers. None of the moviegoers actually finished the popcorn.

“I’m someone who believes the only way to see a movie is in a big theater, on a big screen, with a big bag of popcorn.” – Dan Glickman

The two professors asked the moviegoers to describe the popcorn after the movie, and they weighed how much popcorn was left in the containers. As anticipated, the 14-day-old popcorn was described with such remarks as “stale” and “it was terrible.”

Wansink concluded “Large packages and containers can lead to overeating foods we do not even find appealing.” How about that?

In addition, 77 percent of those given the large tubs said they would have eaten the same amount if given a medium container. The big eaters did not even realize that the exceptional amount they ate was due to the bigger size container.

Several of Wansink’s previous studies show that larger portions make people eat more. This is not because of a clean-your-plate mentality, but because large packages and portions trigger people to eat more. In 1996, Wansink gave a group of volunteers different-sized bags of M&Ms that were too large to be finished while watching a movie; those given larger bags ate twice as much as those with smaller bags.

So what can we learn from this? If you want to reduce your calorie intake, get smaller plates! Smaller plates equal smaller portions.

In addition, the portion sizes can also be used to increase the consumption of healthy foods such as raw vegetables.

So here is the message. Buy a big bowl and fill it with broccoli and carrots!

Isn’t that a great idea for Xmas?

Beat It!

Coach Bay