A simple four-step framework to completely overhaul your life at any age.

In May of 2010, Rich Roll completed five Iron man length triathlons on all five Hawaiian Islands in under a week. An unprecedented feat of endurance which many said would be impossible.

In addition, Rich has been a top finisher at the 2008 and 2009 Ultraman World Championships In Hawaii. Which consists of swimming 6.2 miles (10 km), biking 261.4 miles (420.6 km) and running 52.4 miles (84.3 km) over the course of three days.

Many consider him to be among the fittest men in the world. And Men’s Fitness Magazine named him one of the “25 Fittest men on earth”.

Yet the most remarkable thing about Rich‘s achievements is that two years prior to competing in his first Ultraman, he didn’t even own a bike.

In fact Rich’s life changed the year he turned 40, when he found himself buckled over in pain defeated by one flight of stairs. With his brow dripping in sweat he foresaw the almost certain heart attack destined for him in the not to distant future.

Rich was 23 kg (50 lb’s) overweight, and although a had been sober off drugs and alcohol since the age of 31, he still had never resolved any of the physical or emotional pains he had developed over years of abuse.

The next day Rich began to overhaul his diet, he became a dedicated vegan, eating nothing but a whole foods plant based diet. It wasn’t long till ambition took hold and Rich found himself back in the pool, and running long distances.

What makes Rich’s story so inspiring is that he made a decision and stuck with it. He had a shift in perspective and was able to tell himself a new story about what he was capable of.

Faced with two options, either reclaim his life the only way he knew how, or face an early grave, leaving his family to fend for themselves.

Today Rich is a successful author and podcaster. His podcasts are routinely in the top 10 on iTunes. And he travels the world inspiring people to find their true potential.

Why is it that some people like Rich are able to overhaul their life so successfully? What makes the effort required to build new habits like the ones needed to achieve such amazing feats of human athleticism so bearable.

The answer comes down to mindset and the stories we routinely tell ourselves. Fortunately we don’t have to hit rock bottom like Rich to gain the benefits a shift in perspective can bring us.

Below are four mindset techniques to help you change the story you tell yourself about what is possible. To change your perspective, you must change the stories that guide the decisions you make every day.

Part 1: Self-Awareness

The first step in changing your life is to be brutally honest with yourself.

Watch what you say about yourself and others.

We’re highly affected by the words we use, and our self talk becomes our identity.

How often have you said to yourself “this is my year. I’m gonna get in the best shape of my life, overhaul my diet and become the strongest version of myself.”

Only to complete your first two weeks successfully, but then miss a day here, sneak some sweets in after work there, and eventually stop trying all together.

The problem with goals like these is that they are externally motivated and extremely vague.

They don’t address the underlying cause that has led you to seek help to gain lasting change.

Human beings are guided by stories, we have stories about “who we are, what type of people we believe ourselves to be, and how we act around certain people and situations.”

These stories are generally picked up in early childhood from parents, teachers, and everyone else that interact with us.

As human beings we need these stories to navigate the world around us. Without them we would be rendered impotent in any action. As it is the stories about ourselves that filter the information we get from the world.

These stories are vitally important to us, but they are just not true. They can in fact be changed.

Any of the below sound familiar:

“I must be married by the time i turn 30.”

“Eating healthy is just too expensive, I barely make enough to cover my basic needs let alone think about eating healthy.”

“Ugh I just don’t have enough time to workout regularly.”

Often we are not even aware that these stories exist, yet they derail our success before we even get started.

When you believe yourself to be the person “Who doesn’t lose weight easily,” what chance have you got to sticking to your plan when the motivation eventually ends.

Action Steps: Cultivate the witness.

This is perhaps the most powerful and most transformative aspect of discovering the underlying stories that govern all areas of your life.

For two weeks set a timer to go off every hour and note what you are thinking about and how you are feeling. Write it down, write how you are feeling, and how you feel in that moment.

Don’t get derailed when you notice a thought pattern coming up that doesn’t serve you. The objective in this first step is to just become aware of the habitual thoughts that are directing your life.

In fact when you catch yourself getting lost in thought, celebrate, rather than feeling guilty. Self awareness is the necessary first step in identifying why it is what you do on a daily basis.

See your thought processes for what they are, clouds passing by the sky. Learn to observe your thoughts without judging them.

The goal is not to change or manipulate the situation. It is open acceptance for whatever is happening in the immediate now. The feelings of the body, your emotions, your thoughts, learn to observe them as if you were another person observing them from afar.

With greater awareness, we make better choices, build stronger relationships, and re-focus our attention on what we can affect, and what we can let go of.

Mastery of this will leave your life transformed. But don’t be fooled. It is simple, but far from easy.

Part 2: Acknowledgement of guilt

How often have you talked to a friend about working out, saving money, or studying for school, and heard them say something like, “Yeah, I know I really should be doing that but…” followed by some lame excuse as to why they’re procrastinating on something important?

“I know I really should be doing that” is just code for “I’m not going to do that at all.”

Why does this happen? Guilt. Plain and simple. It’s the reason why we brush things off with meaningless excuses and run away from the actual issue.

If you really want to stop making excuses and ensure you follow through on the things you want. You need to hold yourself accountable.

Action Steps: Learn from your guilt

When you do feel guilty, follow these steps to address it.

When you realize that you feel guilty about something you’re putting off — like not hitting the gym or eating right — I want you to just take a moment and acknowledge the feeling. Recognize your guilt and ask yourself what is making you feel guilty.

The “five whys” technique.

Sakichi Toyoda, one of the fathers of the Japanese industrial revolution, developed the technique in the 1930s. He was an industrialist, inventor and founder of Toyota Industries.

Toyota has a “go and see” philosophy. This means that its decision making is based on an in-depth understanding of what’s actually happening, rather than on what someone in a boardroom thinks might be happening.

It is remarkably simple: when a problem occurs, you drill down to its root cause by asking “why?” five times. Then, when a counter-measure becomes apparent, you follow it through to prevent the issue from recurring.

Say you feel guilty because you can’t stop eating sugary snacks. You can utilize the technique like this:

Why do I feel guilty?

Because I haven’t been eating properly, I just eat chocolate and sweets all day.

Why haven’t I got something healthy to eat?

Because I can’t stop craving sweets, everytime I walk past the kitchen I have to put something in my mouth.

Why is that?

Because my pantry is filled with sweats .

Why is my pantry fill with sweets?

Because I feel guilty about throwing away so much food, even though it’s bad for me.

See what happened? In less than five whys, we figured out how to begin solving this HUGE issue with just one step: taking the time to clean out the pantry of all the food that does not serve us will go along way in solving this problem. Now this person knows the first step to getting started with his eating habits.

Part 3: Change your story

What we say to ourselves becomes our reality. So often we shoot ourselves in the foot before we have even given ourselves a chance at change.

This happens when we say things like, “I can’t get fit because I have kids and it’s impossible to get fit when you are trying to raise a family.

Once you become aware of the self talk that is happening throughout your day. You can then begin to install new positive stories that will serve you along your journey.

Here is a good story. A friend commented to me a while back, “I want to stop drinking so much but I just can’t stop. What am I going to do on the weekends? Sit at home and do nothing, everyone will think I’m lame.”

See how destructive these stories can be. If my friend wants to slow down on his booze consumption, he has almost no chance if subconsciously he believes that he will lose all his friends if he does so.

My friend didn’t realize that the way he described himself would become a self fulfilling prophecy.

And I am guilty of it to.

Years ago I believed myself to be so shy that talking to anyone was a major challenge.

Now I host workshops talking to groups of people for hours on end without breaking a sweat.

(A workshop I hosted on the benefits of eating fermented foods)

This all changed when I changed the story about what I am capable of.

Action steps: Reframe the way you talk about yourself.

Stop hiding behind the excuses you tell yourself as reasons for not doing the things you need to do.

That includes things like:

“I’m too lazy to workout three times a week.”

“I physically can’t give up sugar, I think I would die if I had to even try.”

“I’m a (Insert bullshit personality type here) that’s why I can’t follow orders.

Recognize these stories and find empowering new ones that will help propel you towards your goals.

However will power alone won’t be enough, you need to build systems that will help you achieve your goals.

Part 4: Build Systems

I was chatting to a friend the other day and I was telling him about a meditation app that I use frequently.

“Although it is nothing special, I could just use a timer, I found that because it has a reminder and it tracks my progress, I tend to meditate more frequently.

In fact in the past 6 months I have sat still in silence for over 24 hours.

However, the strange thing is that when I told my friend he was outraged. He saw it as cheating, that If you can’t meditate on your own without external help then you shouldn’t do it at all.

However, for me it doesn’t matter how I do it, it matters that I just do it and that I do it consistently.

There is a very good reason why building systems into your life is the best way to make sure you stick with a new behaviour.

1. Motivation is not dependable.. Waiting for motivation to fall from the sky so you can accomplish your goals is a good way to never get anything done. Why? Because THAT WON’T HAPPEN. You can’t wait for your “muse” or “inspiration” to strike.
2. You need to build systems instead. The above friend who said I was cheating for using a meditation app is also someone who has been trying to lose weight his entire adult life. But whenever I ask him how it’s going, he says the same thing. “I am just trying to get my head right.”

Translated to “I need to feel motivated before I can make a change, and because he has built no systems to ensure daily action he is left without ever doing anything.

So instead of waiting to be “motivated,” take your goal and ask yourself, “What does it take to accomplish my goal?”

Action Steps: Break it up into tiny steps and get super specific.

The reason why some people are able to achieve so much is that they are super specific about their goals.

An example of a bad goal is “I want to get fit.”

It’s way to vague, and how do you know when you are fit anyway?

A better one is: “I want to run 2km, three times a week, and enter my first marathon 1 year from today.”

See how this last one has built in actionable steps so that you know that you are working towards making it a reality.

It’s focused on the process first by starting off small with three short runs a week. Also, ANYONE can do that.

Over time, you can scale upwards. Over time you can start to introduce healthy eating a few times a week as well, and then before you know it your waistline is smaller and you have some muscles to show for it.

And when you’re making these systems, I suggest putting it all on a Google Calendar.

Schedule the time each week when you will do it, and set a reminder. That way you won’t be looking for motivation when it is time to go for a run.

It also has built in accountability and reward. Everytime you finish a week, and you have run three times, reward yourself.

The truth about achieving your goals

If you want to truly discover what you are capable of and want a systematized methodology of achieving it, there are two fundamental truths you must acknowledge.

• Truth #1: We all have the same amount of time in the day — so STOP BLAMING TIME (or your lack thereof). It doesn’t matter if you’re Bill Gates or a busy parent. You just need to learn how to manage your time better.
• Truth #2: You don’t have to be an emotionless robot in order to achieve your goals. Focus and time management are about mindsets and simple — yet powerful — shifts in how you approach your to-dos.

By adopting the right mindsets, you can create habits that stick instead of struggling to get the simplest of tasks done.