The Rule of 72: Subconscious Struggle or Success

Do you know how long it takes you to let go of a bad habit such as mindlessly snacking all night in front of the TV?  Remember when you got all excited about that homeJubiläum remodeling project…it wasn’t that hard, yet after a few days your motivation and commitment fizzled.  Or that hot business contact you made that (now) can’t remember your name? How come?

The rule of 72, make it work for you.  No, I’m not talking about the finance rule of 72 that tells you how long it takes to accrue interest.  Instead this is a mind rule; how long your interest will stay focused on a particular subject before it moves on to something else.  That rule is 72 hours, that’s right, 3 days and then you move on.

Let’s explore how this works in life when you want to let go of a habit or pattern considered negative such as too many sweets, too much caffeine or an unhealthy habit like smoking. It will take you 3 days (72 hours) of focused effort to get through this time without falling back into your unwanted ways of coping.  (One of the reasons why Hypnosis works so well; it can numb/minimize your withdrawals so you can move from struggle to success rapidly)

What about the dreams/visions/goals that you want to achieve? Go back to one of the lasts projects that you quickly lost interest in. Once you decided to do it, did you take longer than 72 hours before you acted?  THAT”S IT!  Your door of motivation will only stay open so long before it slams shut.  So step through it with action before it closes.

Finally, a tip for those of you in sales (whether it’s to the public or trying to sell your teenager on the fact of cleaning their room).  When a client shows interest in your product, you have 72 hours to act or they will move on without you.  Let me give you a quick example.  I was at a business luncheon that brought in a very interesting speaker. She told us at the beginning of her presentation not to take notes; she would e-mail them to us.  Great…except that it is a month later and no notes.

Based on what you now know about the rule of 72 you understand that the speaker only had 3 days to contact me or I would lose interest.  Even if her notes were not ready to be e-mailed at that time, she could have dropped me a line (within the 3 days) telling me when they would be ready.  I may still want the services she’s selling, but now my mind is primed to find them from someone else. What business are you missing out on?

The rule of 72; you can consciously choose to make it work for you or allow it to subconsciously sabotage your success.

Supporting Your Success,


Getting known through networkingP.S. If you use networking events to build your business, you only have 72 hours to reconnect with the people you just met or those connections will close. But those connections need to be leveraged or you’ll get caught in the trading-dollars-for hours-cycle. And once you run out of hours, you run out of the ability to make dollars.

Instead, learn how to reach out through Educational Based Marketing that will have you remembered, referred and rewarded with sales while leveraging your talents and time. Discover how to achieve this by clicking HERE.