Gary North

July 1, 2009

I used to hold small conventions of 250 paying attendees at $495 each. I made good money doing this. But I stopped. Why?

One reason was that I realized that people were not getting their money's worth. Why not? The information was good. The presentations were motivational. Yet people would not take action.

Why not?

Procrastination. Fear of failure. Loss of enthusiasm. Lots of things.

After a lot of reading about reasons for non-starting, I began to see a pattern. A person is serious about making a major change for 72 hours. This is three days. After this, his enthusiasm cools. The tyranny of the urgent takes over. His normal routine takes over anything left over by the tyranny of the urgent.

This pattern has a name: the 72-hour rule. Here are some articles on it:

72-hour rule
Getting the most out of goals
Goal-setting

The average person means well. He knows he must change. But he delays for 72 hours. That de-rails his plans.

I encourage you to decide today to a one step in your debt-reduction plan. Any step will do. Take it within 72 hours. Then take the next step within 72 hours.