Stephen Scoggins is an author, inspirational speaker, and 6-time Bootstrap entrepreneur. He’s taking his first company from sleeping in a car to a high 8-figure business, employing hundreds across three states. Now, he focuses on serving the person he once was throughout the fields of life mastery and entrepreneurship.
In this article, we cover the importance of having good habits and staying focused to achieve maximum success in business and life.
How have habits played a role in your success & can you share some of your best success habits?
When I think of habits, for some reason I think of it as a negative connotation. That being said, James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits, is solid. The thing is I think we would be in agreement since what he calls a “habit” I call a principle put to work by developing an underlying routine.
For example, let’s assume I want to get out of personal debt, what I need is not a habit — but a principle of spending less and applying more resources to the debt at hand. So the principle would be “get out of debt,” but I need to set up a routine to change my current behavior pattern.
What is the best way to develop great habits? How can one stop bad habits?
I believe that great “habits” are simple principles of truth in disguise. As a result, I am a firm believer in deciding the outcome I want and working backward towards those actionable steps and milestones I need to get there. A bad habit is nothing more than getting a negative result you are not proud of. For some, it may be as little as consistently embellishing the truth. For others, it may be something more serious like a gambling habit or out-of-control spending habits. At the end of the day, it comes down to three steps.
IDENTIFY — Identify the result you are getting that you don’t want, and take a hard look at where that is rooted in your life and gain perspective all around it. Where did you learn to handle money, relationships, or the belief you have in your potential for the future? Was it a parent, an event, or a school? In other words, who taught you to settle for anything less than your best?
CHOOSE — Choose the polar opposite methodology. For example, if it is a spending problem, then you may decide to go into an all-saving mindset for a minimum of 60 days as your muscle memory of the new routine takes over. That way, it will be far easier to find a balance between the two.
ROUTINE — For me, I had to physically write down what my routine would be on paper in advance of taking action. Then, I would post it in areas of my home where I would have to look at it every day. There is something about keeping promises that you made to yourself as you are learning and growing. I have actually found it can rapidly grow self-confidence.
Can you share some ideas on how we can achieve a state of Flow more often in our lives?
I consider flow to be the art of passionately pursuing an area of focus without being distracted. Distraction is the kryptonite of flow. For example, I am in the middle part of the process of writing my next book. One of the things I have noticed is I can not be in my home or office when I have committed time to write. Why? Because simple interruptions create compounded distractions. In order to have supreme levels of flow, you have to have supreme levels of clarity.
I have only found those moments in picking a date and time on the calendar to disconnect, and just get started.
In all honesty, I will also admit I don’t start out in flow right away. I may write half a chapter not inflow to get to the place where the words just start flowing and ideas start connecting.