The Change Labs Beta Program – Overview

By Leo Babauta

So what’s this Change Labs Beta program all about? I’m sure you’re wondering, so let’s take a bird’s-eye look.

The official answer: I’m trying to help you make changes and solve problems you’ve been having in your life.

The honest answer: I’m still trying to figure out what Change Labs Beta is going to be, and I will change what the program is as we go along, based on your feedback. So it will be ever-evolving. Kinda like life.

Let’s take a look at what I’m trying to help you with here.

Problems in Our Lives

A lot of you have indicated that you’re interested in solving problems around four main areas: health, relationships, creativity/productivity/procrastination, and finances. That’s a lot to tackle in 8 weeks, so what we’re going to try to do is figure out what these problems have in common.

It turns out, they are really all the same problem.

And if you can figure out the root cause of that problem, you can develop skills to solve it.

And if you can do that, you can eventually work out all your problems, in all those four areas (and more).

So what is that problem? As we looked at in the first mission, that problem is fear. Fear makes us procrastinate, makes us put off the exercise and meditation habit, keeps us doing unhealthy things like eating junk and smoking, makes us put off working on our finances and relationships. It’s a fear that we don’t always see, don’t want to acknowledge, but acts on us nonetheless.

This program is designed to get at the heart and root causes of fear and procrastination. And help you attack the root causes.

In the process, we’ll also be looking at the mechanics of habit change, which are important in attacking those root causes.

What I ask is that you trust me … sometimes the article or missions might not seem relevant to you, but if you work at each one, you’ll be working at this powerful process that I’ve developed to make changes in my life.

How We’ll Do That

The mechanics of this program are going to be evolving, but right now, these are the main ways we’ll be working through the problem:

One article each week — each article is like a chapter in my book. It’s a part of the process of getting to the root causes of fear, which is causing our other problems.
Habit changes — we’ll focus on best practices for changing habits, change one habit at a time, and give ourselves some accountability for that change.
Journaling — the weekly journal entries are important for 1) self-reflection, which is incredibly crucial to this process, and 2) feedback so I can see whether this is working or if you’re having problems/confusion.
Group accountability — we’ll set you up in groups so you can comment on each other’s journals, support each other’s habits. We’re looking for group leaders, if you’re interested please indicate in the group form we’re sending you.

So for you, this will mainly mean reading one article a week, and doing one journal entry, and changing one habit (with daily group accountability).

That’s going to take some work, but I really think it’ll be worth it.

Action Needed: Forming Groups

So your first mission asked you to create an Evernote Journal, but that has turned out not to work well for such a large group. I have a new solution: habit blogs for groups.

How will this work? You’ll each create a free habit blog, for daily habit accountability, and be put in a group where you can see everyone else’s habit & journal posts in your group. Then you can comment on each other, hold each other accountable, ask questions, etc.

Here are the actions I need you to take:

Go to SETT.com and create a free blog for your habits & journaling. Get the url of the blog when you’re done.
Quickly fill out this form for Groups. This will help us create groups for you guys.

Thank you!