Do you remember that annoying Microsoft Word paper clip guy? His name was Clippy I think or I may be making that up.
Just to put your mind at rest, this has nothing to do with him. These paper clips can actually help you.
This is based on a story I heard about a stockbroker named Trent Dyrsmid. He was a brand new stockbroker who got very successful, very quickly. Everybody was shocked at how fast he was able to grow his assets, so they all wanted to know the secret of his success.
Trent’s technique was pretty simple. All it took was 2 jars and 120 paper clips. His explanation was straight forward, “Every morning I would start with 120 paper clips in one jar and I would keep dialing the phone until I had moved them all to the second jar.”
Many of us are motivated by visual stimuli. That is why this strategy works so well. One look at your jars and you know where you stand.
You can use this with your health and fitness habits or whatever you are trying to get better at. All you need to do is pick your habit, get 2 jars, get paper clips, and then start moving clips from jar to jar.
Some examples could be:
-Trying to establish the bait of keeping a food journal. You know you eat 3 meals and 2 snacks per day. Your goal is to log in every time you eat, so you need to move 5 paper clips per day.
-Eating vegetables 3 times per day, move 3 clips
-Getting up and walking around every hour at work (8 hours=8 clips)
-Doing a squat challenge where you have to do 100 squats a day? Knock out 10 squats/10 paper clips at a time throughout the day.
There are tons of ways you can use this to increase your level of success. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
