The 21 Day Miracle: How To Change Anything in 3 Short Weeks

by Ed Rush

You’ve been told that slow and steady wins the race. And you’ve been told that persistence and consistency create champions. They don’t. That’s because in real life, the rabbit always wins. Always.

This book is about winning. Every time.

The Most Successful People Design Their Lives Around “Strategic Sprints.”

Simple: big goals and big focus. No email. No texting. No Facebook-Distraction-Time-Suck. Just writing, recording, and creating.

Here is the process: it takes 3 Days to break you, 14 Days from the start to obliterate any old habit patterns, and 21-Days from the start to make you a full-fledged member of the pack.

When it comes to accomplishing your dream, you don’t have to do it all at once.

Take today as today and do today what you can do today. Forget tomorrow. It’s a long way from now and not that important. As a very wise Man once said, "Tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

The 21-Day Miracle

1. State your desired result.

Once you’ve identified your desired result, it’s time to do something with it. Good: Write it down. Better: Write it down and then say it out loud. Best: Write it down, say it out loud, and then post it somewhere you can see it every day. Better Than Best: Write it down, say it out loud, post it somewhere you can see it every day, and then tell the world that for 21-Days, this is what you’re going to do. Listen, there is something magical that happens with accountability. Your excuses fall away and your persistence doubles.

2. Associate a strong emotion to your desired result.

3. Create the plan and take action.

Days 1-3: The Challenge

The first 3 Days are the hardest. In fact, most of the real work happens right here at the beginning. The good news is while these are the hardest, they won’t feel like the hardest. That’s because you’ll be riding a wave of excitement that has the power to propel you to Day 4. In these first 3 Days, just remind yourself that you don’t really need to do the whole 21-Days. You just need to do today. You can always quit and break your toe on the wall tomorrow. But today, you’ll persist. Once you do that, you’ll find yourself at Day 4 where the real work begins.

Days 4-7: The Urge

This is when most people quit—right in the middle of week 1. While Days 4-7 are not the hardest days, they certainly feel like it. During these days, you’ll be accosted and tempted by both your Inner and Outer Critics and you’ll want to give up and move on. Plus, you’ll think this process probably won’t work anyway.

Day 8-14: The Pendulum Swings

Your biggest challenge during Days 8-14 is thinking you’ve achieved a result when you haven’t. The temptation to quit isn’t because this isn’t working but because it is. You’ll want to take what you have and move on to something else. Don’t do it. You committed to 21-Days. Finish the 21-Days. Remember, your results are on the way, but haven’t arrived yet. Stick around long enough to get your results.

Day 14-21: The Momentum

By Day 14, your old habits are gone. Long gone. The only thing left is a small, faint, critical voice in the background that you can go ahead and just disregard. You’ll feel great and you’ll be surprised that it was ever that hard. In fact, you’ll be surprised that anything was that hard.

Day 22: Celebration

You did it. And you should be proud. You have done what no one in today’s culture does—you’ve taken charge of your life and replaced one habit with another. Plus, you now have a tool and the confidence to use it.

An imperfect 21-Days is better than no 21-Days.

“Hive-Minded Lemmings.”

Simply put: the average mind is a complete mess—a whirring, uncontrolled beehive of who-knows-what with thoughts full of whatever-happens-to-come-next.

If you want extra firepower, you might benefit from one of the many meditation apps on the market. They can be very effective for guiding your mind into a place of rest. The two apps I currently recommend are HeadSpace and BrainWave.

I then put it into a statement that starts with I reject the lie that ____________ (negative thought pattern) and ends with I choose instead to believe that ____________ (positive thought pattern).