In his latest book, Financial Sorcery, Jason Miller devotes a chapter to the concept of the Set Point. The original theory is that every person has this built-in mechanism that determines how much bodyfat they will carry. Attempts at changing one's amount of bodyfat through dieting will be affected by this set point, as it compensates in order to keep your body in that state. So far there are only theories as to how a person's set point can be adjusted, but in terms of weight loss, one of the prevalent theories is that exercise helps to lower it.
Jason takes this concept and puts a somewhat different spin on it. Instead of just a biological mechanism that determines bodyfat, he applies it to areas outside of that, such as finances, love, spiritual practices...just about anything. In this way, the concept of the set point becomes a place where, deep down, you are comfortable, complacent, and/or acclimated. By this line of thought, a person can have any number of set points in life.
For example, one set point that I had, which plagued the ever-living shit out of me revolved around the times I get to sleep at night, and the times I get up in the morning, especially on workdays. I work an 8-5 job Monday thru Friday, and every morning, silly as it sounds, I could not stop myself from hitting the snooze button until 6:50-7am. As a result, I ended up being perpetually behind every morning. Some days I could get to work on time, some days not. Fortunately my bosses don't track my time, and I would make it up at the end of the day. Still, it bugged me.
Being a constant, daily source of frustration, I decided that this set point would be the first one I released using Jason's technique. I originally learned the technique from the Strategic Sorcery course. The version of the technique in Financial Sorcery is, however, mostly the same. The basic technique involves reliving a time where you gave in to the set point, mental fold it up, and place it into a visualization of elemental fire, destroying it. It is repeated on 9 consecutive days, and then after that you put all your effort into improving. And once you see success, the set point is reset.
After completing this technique on my sleep/time-management set point, I found myself finally able to get up with my alarm and get to bed when I wanted. The relief and the extra time it has afforded me in the mornings has been fantastic! Going forward, I have other set points to work on with this technique, and I'm looking forward to the change within myself that will result.
As you can imagine, I definitely recommend the Set Point Release technique that Jason writes about in Financial Sorcery (hell I recommend the entire book). It can give you the edge you need over those habits which you usually feel so powerless to resist. Give it a try. What do you have to lose (aside from repression)?
I've often suspected this to be true in my own life and have actually run little experiments which seem to confirm it. Thanks for the reference. I'll have to try Jason's technique
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading Financial Sorcery. In fact I planned on putting up a review on my blog this week. Another author that I would recommend if you dig Jason Miller is Tim Ferris who wrote the "Four Hour Work Week" which is where I first became familiar with the idea of testing a product to see if there is a demand. He also wrote the "Four Hour Body" which has some excellent tips for rapid fat loss, diet, and exercise. The diet in that book actually isn't that bad.
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