Everyday Habits & Hacks

Hello, Cadre family. Happy Tuesday. Happy August. I can't believe we're in the second day of August in 2022. What is happening here? It's so wild. The year is moving right along. So I thought now that we're eight months in, just about. I mean, we're in the 8th month here of 2022, I thought it would be a great time to sort of check in with your habits. And I'm reading a great book that I am rereading called Atomic Habits by James Clear. And it's just a great little reset. You know, we're three quarters of the way through the year, and I just figured if you want to make the third and fourth quarters so great and so productive, efficient, effective, what better thing to do than check in with your daily habits?

So I've read this book before. It really is remarkable. Tiny changes, remarkable results. James Clear is not kidding with this book. So today I want to talk to you about what a habit is exactly. And then when you want to see small change in your life, four things that you can for questions that you can ask yourself when it comes to wanting to see that change and just kind of check in with yourself, what are those questions? To know that you're on the track for change, and then how you can create that change.

Four ways to do that. And then my healthy habits and my habits in my day, week, month, and year. So the first question, or the first thing I want to say is, what is a habit? A habit is a behavior that's been repeated enough times that it becomes automatic in your life. So things like getting up, making coffee, making your bed, what are those things that are just so innate that they just happen for you and they can be really hard to break, but really easy, I think, to create. So sometimes you might find yourself wanting to break a bad habit and having a really difficult time with that, or wanting to implement a habit that is healthier for you and just getting yourself into that mindset of changing up your routine.

So if you want to see change, and if you want to see change in the habits that you have daily, to be more productive, like I said, more efficient, more efficient at home, more efficient in work, because I do believe what happens at home trickles into the workplace and vice versa. I know that when I have healthy personal habits, I'm way more productive at work. If I exercise, I know I'm going to have a lot more energy for the tasks that need to get done. Things like that. So asking yourself these four questions, how can I make it obvious?

So what cues you? I'll give you a for instance. Sometimes I love caffeine. Sometimes I go a little overboard on my caffeine. So what cues me for change is getting a headache. Perhaps your head hurts after cup number three of that coffee that you just so crave in the morning, you start to see that it doesn't really feel good to have that caffeine, and that might be a habit that you want to change or break. So cueing you would be the headache that you get. Right. The second question is, how can I make this change attractive?

So, you know, you might want to be able to focus or feel good for your day. So that's attractive to you. It's not attractive to you to know that you're going to get a headache during the day that doesn't feel good to me. And anticipating that could create a lot of anxiety or stress. So really thinking about, you know, what would make this attractive to me to create this change in my life. The third question would be how to make it easy. So not only do you want to make it attractive? Well, yeah, I definitely want to, you know, have a productive day and clear my head and not be in pain, but I also want to make this change easy.

So how am I going to do that? In order to implement that change and make it easy for you? I have. I'll give you an example. I have a nespresso machine at my house when I want to cut caffeine. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna stop ordering those nespresso pods and I'm going to create that change. I'm going to make it really easy for myself by not having the coffee in front of me at home, because I am home most of the time working from home. If it's not available to me, it's very easy to not consume it.

So if you are making it easy by not even bringing it into your home, that is the way to go if you're looking to create that change. And the last question that you want to ask yourself is, how can I make this satisfying? So what's the appeal to giving up coffee if I love it so much? Great question. If you want to make this a sexy choice for you, let's just say. Or an attractive choice, maybe when you are switching from your coffee to, say, green tea and then eventually weaning off if you want to, perhaps you're taking your green tea and you're making it into a matcha drink or something that you might order at the drive thru, at a Starbucks or a nice coffee shop.

Make it satisfying and make it attractive to you so it feels like you're satisfying that craving. Sometimes it's just the art of sipping something through a straw. And I use caffeine as an example because sometimes that's a change I want to create in my life. When it gets a little out of hand, I like to take breaks. So I use this as an example because it's something probably a lot of us can relate to. And a lot of times when you want to create change in your life, you want to create it to be healthier and to be more efficient and productive and feel like you're getting the most out of your day.

So those four questions again. How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive, how can I make it easy? And how can I make it satisfying? So, going further with the how, a couple more things. Four more things that I will share with you and how I think and how James clear will say in this book, I'm going to recap this for you. Of course, this is the shortened version, but four ways to implement this change. So number one, set the intention. If you are thinking it, chances are you're going to be doing it.

So really visualize yourself moving away from coffee, if that's what it is, moving away from the bad habit that you want to take away and moving mentally into the habit that you want to create. The second thing is, make it who you are at your core. So when you're visualizing yourself as somebody who is blank or who does blank, I am somebody who no longer drinks coffee. I am somebody who is a matcha drinker, or I don't need caffeine to get through my day. I need exercise, perhaps. So really making it at your core.

I am not a coffee drinker. And setting that intention for yourself, as well as speaking it into existence for you mentally. And that's going into the third thing is speaking it into existence, like I just said. So not only are you visualizing it and you're making it who you are and how you present yourself when somebody offers you, would you like a coffee? Actually, I'm not a coffee drinker, but thank you. Not only are you speaking it into existence, but that can be a mantra that happens every single day.

So you're thinking it, you're feeling it, you're visualizing it, and now you're speaking it and you're saying it out loud. No, thank you. I don't drink coffee, but I appreciate you. I'd love a tea. So speaking it into existence will help put it out into the universe and set the intention for you, not just mentally, but really physically and out loud. And the last thing is implementation. So the fourth thing is just really implementing that and sticking to that. And I think that's the hardest part.

But these other three steps will lead you into being able to implement it in a way that works best for you. So those four things can help get you through. Lastly, I just want to share some of my habits and some of the things that help really set the tone for my day. And I will share with you that one of my mentors, Jesse Itzler, talks a lot about daily vitamins, things that you want to implement in your day that can be a daily practice to help set the intention and to help you create these healthy habits.

So he has a sheet called a vitamin tracker and you fill it in every month. That's ten things that you want to accomplish in your day. Maybe you get to at least three of them, but they're all things that you want to work toward achieving in order to have a happy, healthy, fulfilled life that feels efficient and effective, like I said. So I love having daily vitamins that I know will set the tone for a great day. For me. Things like making my bed, I love making my bed. It makes me feel like I've checked one thing off of my list and I know that I'm setting the tone for an organized.

Another thing is scheduling everything out on my calendar. So not relying on my memory because I can't do that anymore. And really scheduling everything. It could even be a ten minute meditation. It could be filling out a daily vitamin tracker. Everything needs to be scheduled for me. So I know that it's there. I've written it into existence or I've typed it into existence. I've put it out there and it's there for me as part of my day that matters. If it's scheduled, it matters. And then waking up early.

I love waking up early so I can get everything done that's on my to do list. But it also maximizes my time and gives me that quiet time in the morning so I can really set the intention for my day. Another thing that I love to do that is a great healthy habit is moving my body. I will be honest, there are days when I don't wanna move my body and maybe it's just a 15 minutes walk, maybe it's just walking around my backyard with my dog while I'm throwing the ball for him, but making sure that I have some type of physical movement in my day.

Again, setting the tone for a healthy, productive day. And the last thing is a little bit more just intentional and something that I like to practice. But I like to practice setting daily boundaries. So setting boundaries allows me to really focus on my own personal habits and the things that I want to accomplish. It means cutting the noise and really being able to tell people no to the hard nos and yes to the strong yeses. So setting boundaries is absolutely a daily habit of mine that I will not give up.

No turning back now cause I've seen the freedom that it provides for me. So I hope that this was helpful for you. If you get a chance to read James Clear's book Atomic Habits, show it to you here one more time. Look at all my notes. I love post its if you get a chance to pick it up. He goes way more in depth, but I just thought I would share what I'm reading right now and share some helpful tips for you guys to have a productive day, week, month and especially end of 2022. So thanks for tuning in and I will see you guys next time.