Using Awareness And Intention To Create Supportive Habits

There are two kinds of habits: ones that support what you want to accomplish and ones that get in the way and prevent you from accomplishing what you want to accomplish. (We usually just call them "good" and "bad" habits).
This quick power lecture will give you a new way to look at habits and show you how to make positive habit building easier. Enjoy!

Transcript

All right, So we just talked about motivation. Motivation is key, Literally, If we use the car analogy, Because motivation is the spark that starts everything. If you do not push that button to initiate the excitement, The spark, You're never going to do anything anyway. So motivation is part one. But what needs to happen to make sure that whatever that thing that you got motivated about gets sustained and actually can be realized has to do with habits. What you do every day, Day in and day out, Determines everything you get in life. It's that simple. What you do determines what you get. If you want the same result, Keep doing what you're doing. If you want a different result, You simply need to change what you're doing day in and day out. So it's interesting to think about when people think about habits, They think about needing to start doing something new. So for example, If I decide I want to exercise more, I need to think about, All right, Am I going to walk, Am I going to run, Am I going to join a gym, Am I going to do videos on my phone at home, What am I going to do, I need to make time to do it, Number one. Number two, I've got to add it to a schedule that probably, Whether it's reality or perception, Is already way too busy. I've got too many things, When am I going to find time to do this? We think we need to add things into our lives. Let's say I want to start eating more healthy. Well, Now I've got to do some research about what healthy really is, Then I have to go to the grocery store and get off of autopilot and start really thinking about healthier options. I might need to start learning to cook additional healthy options, Because what I cook now is grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese and just way too much stuff with just nothing but cheese, If you think about it. I need to put time and energy into learning something new and also completely possibly changing some of my environment. That might cost me time, It's going to cost me energy, And it's going to cost me money. Just like we talked about with the yes but in motivation, I've already shot things down before I even started, Even though it might be something I really do want to do. I want to give you a little twist on habits. Habits are not always about starting something new. Often times habits are about stopping something that you're already doing. So that word stop, How do you stop a habit? Because things like cold turkey don't work. Don't ever try and go cold turkey. I'm just not going to eat M&M's anymore. Of course you are. Of course you are. And why wouldn't you if you love them, Truly love them, Fit them into your life. It's not that big a deal. But here's the thing. When I talk about stopping something, It's an acronym I want you to start thinking about. The things you sometimes need to stop in your life are simple things that obstruct progress. Simple things that obstruct progress. In other words, Habits that you have do only one of two things. Habits either help you get somewhere you want to get, Or they completely get in your way. They either impede something you're trying to do and stop it from happening, Or they serve you to support getting to a place you want to go. It's really kind of that simple. Nothing more you need to know about habits. Habits happen in one of two ways. You develop a habit either consciously by making a conscious choice, A conscious decision to do something consistently until you don't have to think about it anymore, Or you develop habits unconsciously. Meaning, You're getting up, You're going through the motions, And any time you're just going through the motions, You're on autopilot. And autopilot is not always a healthy place to be. So is your habit serving you or not? So here's something to think about in terms of habits. We all have habits. Some of them serve us, Some of them do not. I want you to take a look at your life. You can just start right now. You can wake up tomorrow morning and do it, But make a conscious effort within 24 hours of watching this video. Start paying attention to your life and start to realize when are you simply going through the motions. You know that movie Groundhog Day. So much of our time is spent getting up first thing in the morning and doing the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And as we know, You may have heard this before, But Albert Einstein I believe is who's credited with saying, If you're doing the same thing over and over and over, Do not expect a different result. He actually termed it the definition of insanity. So if we keep doing what we're doing, We're going to keep getting what we're getting. If we want something different, We need to consciously make a choice to do something different. But reframe how you say it in your head because it's not about I have to start doing something. It could be I need to stop doing something. Something simple, A simple thing that's getting in my way. It's obstructing my progress. So an example of this might be, Let's say you want to start waking up earlier in the morning for whatever reason. It could be a whole bunch of reasons. I want to start waking up earlier in the morning because you're currently, Let's say one of those people who you make, You sit down every night before you go to bed and you actually start doing math. You sit down and you look at your clock or your phone and you start, Okay, Let's say I need to be up at 645. You kind of work backwards, Right? Okay, If I need to leave the house at eight o'clock, Let's see, I need to be in the shower by like 720. That means I need to get up at seven. I got to pack a lunch for my kid and then he'll take her to school. Okay, So if I set my alarm at 630, I can hit snooze four times and still be awake. So you set your alarm for 630. Anybody else do that? Of course you do. Of course you do. It's part of why you might be watching this video. So we think in terms of I'm going to hit snooze, How can I fit my bad habit into my life? Because my bad habit is getting in the way of me doing something I've just told myself I wanted to do, Get up a little earlier. So let's reframe that in our head. Because a day is never going to start well when your first decision is to procrastinate four times. Think about that. It's never going to end well. Let's give ourselves a chance for a positive outcome. So how can we reframe this in our heads? Instead of thinking I'm not going to hit snooze tomorrow, That's like going cold turkey. No, It's a habit. It's a familiar habit that you've had possibly for years. You're not going to alter it simply by telling yourself stop. That's not going to work. But I don't want you to focus on what you don't want to do. Try focusing on what you want to do. I want to get up earlier. So instead of telling myself I'm not going to hit snooze, What I'm going to start telling myself is I'm going to wake up when my alarm goes off tomorrow. I'm going to hit it off, Not snooze. I'm going to turn it off and I'm going to get up. That's all you need to do. Then wake up tomorrow and do it. You only need to do it once sometimes. Exactly what you wanted is what you got. You go, Well that was easier than I thought. The reality is once I'm standing up and out of bed, I can start moving and get on with my day. It's the thought process of giving myself permission to just lay there and keep hitting snooze. Give yourself permission to do what you want to do. Those simple things that get in your way, Those simple things that obstruct progress, You can begin to stop. Give it a try. See what happens.