I’m a big fan of transformation. When it sticks. It just that it usually doesn’t. Which is frustrating and demoralizing and makes me want to give up.
Fortunately there are folks like Jim Bunch. People who don’t give up and instead figure out a really cool solution for creating lasting transformation. Seriously.
In this interview on the Unmistakeable Creative, Jim tells us exactly how to create change that sticks.
@9:00 min - Jim was a big personal growth guy. He worked with Tony Robbins for a while. He then went on to form his own business with Bob Proctor and John Assaraf, two other powerhouses in the personal growth movement. The business was successful but Jim grew increasingly disillusioned with the industry.
I lost faith in that industry because I saw thousands of people getting excited, getting pumped up every weekend…but I realized these people weren’t actually changing…they weren’t transforming their lives.
@9:29 min - And here’s why:
What we found was that about 4% of the population can use will power and drive and force to change their behavior. 96% of the population goes through this up-down, up-down, up-down…they end up balancing back to the same equilibrium they had before… It’s the cycle.
@12:01 min - Jim wanted to figure out a way to break the cycle. He met a coach named Thomas Leonard. Thomas taught Jim how to make change last.
Most of these people are trying to use willpower to change their life instead of designing environments… I want you to imagine for a moment that everything that you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, that everything is an environment… These environments are working on you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
And here, @15:36 min, Jim further clarifies this point:
Environments are stronger than will power. Environments will always win over will power because they work on you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but your will power, your desire to change is only on when you are thinking about it.
@13:50 min - So what do you do? This:
You need to learn how to do life by design instead of by default. Doing life by design means that you decide how you want to live and then you simply design the environments to pull you into the bigger you… When you start upgrading and redesigning your environments, everything changes.
@14:30 min - This was my favorite explanation of environments because it speaks most directly to how each environment is affecting your health, your happiness and your wealth:
Everybody has environments and they are either inspiring you or they are expiring you. They are either adding energy or they are draining energy. They are either increasing your focus or they are decreasing your focus.
Instead of trying to use willpower to change results and change behaviors what if you designed environments that caused you naturally to be pulled into a better you? That caused you naturally to be inspired?
My coach says that everything is either empowering or disempowering, there is no neutral. We like to think there is a neutral because it means we don’t have to pay constant attention, not everything matters. But Jim and my coach would disagree. And I’m starting to feel the same.
@19:36 min - The other point Jim spoke to that really resonated was on values: knowing one’s values and creating value in the world.
What I learned later on is that regardless of the financial success that I’d had, what really became the most important thing for me was to live a values-driven life. When I say values I mean the things that are subconsciously motivating me… In my life when I am clear on my values…and I design my environments to express my values, life works.
@20:44 min - And if we don’t know our values, life can fall apart.
Most people are running around out there trying to reach success, trying to motivate themselves… If they don’t know their values, I can promise you they are going to return back to their old behaviors within six months.
@24:48 min - Once you know your values, says Jim, the next most important step for real, lasting success, is to provide value.
If I keep my focus on creating more value for more people, and I challenge myself to do that every day, then the universe works in my favor. I’m creating so much reciprocity from the universe that it has to return to me. But the moment I put all the attention and focus on me, it shuts off the valve. It shuts off the flow.
Right around @33 min Jim and Srini dive deeper into how to design an environment so that one achieves optimal performance and happiness. For that listen to the second half of the interview as well as Jim’s follow-up interview here.
The follow-up interview is fantastic as well: breaking down each of the nine environments in very specific, tangible, actionable ways. Jim starts breaking it down around 13 min.
Real transformation. Lasting change.
