How to be 10% better in 2022 | Clutterbug Podcast # 118
00:00Today we're talking about motivation, accountability, and how you can be 10% better in 2022.Hey, clutterbugs, welcome back and happy new year.Today we're talking about changing our lives in 2022.And listen, I am not a New Year's resolution person only because I make myself these really big goals and then I go hard for maybe a week if I'm lucky, sometimes too, if it's a miracle year.And then I fall off the wagon because I've given myself these really hard changes that I want to make in my life, these big changes.And it's a concrete goal and it's sort of all or nothing.Like I'm going to go on a keto diet and no longer eat carbs or I'm going to run three times a week.Or I'm going to only eat healthy food and I'm going to give up junk food.
01:08Or I'm going to declutter and organize my entire house.They're ridiculously big, insane things that I usually do when it comes to New Year's resolutions.And then what this does when you give yourself a really big concrete goal like this is it sets you up for failure.When you have this all or nothing approach and you fail, which we all will, it gives ourselves permission to just quit.Instead, my goal for this year is to be 10% better.I just want to be, and not even, I just want to be better.I don't want to work out three days a week.I just want to be more active.
01:50I want to be healthier.I want to eat less sugar and less carbs.I want to be nicer.And I put this on my Facebook page on New Year's Day.And somebody said, I also said I want to be kinder, 10% kinder.And somebody said, how do you measure that?How are you 10% kinder?is it that you're only kind to one out of every 10 people? And I find this so hilarious. Like,
02:14obviously I'm not doing a really good job articulating this. I just don't want to give myselfconcrete goals because I know I'm going to fail. I just want to give myself overall goals andreally make an effort to achieve them. Maybe I'll be 25% better or 100% better. But the point isto not give myself an out. Because it's,If I mess up, that's okay because I just have to be a little bit better than I was the day beforeor last year.I don't have to completely change myself.And I look to one answer when I'm thinking about this, and that is James Clears Atomic Habits.
02:58The book Atomic Habits is by far the most motivational, inspirational, and life-changing bookthat you can read about habits because it breaks them down into tiny microscopic atomic habits,hence the name of the book, small things that you can do that add up to a big difference.And James Clear says, instead of saying, I'm going to only eat carb-free food, you can say,what would a healthy person eat every day? And you're looking at things differently and you're justmaking, you're just adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. You're just cutting out some carbs andsugar. Instead of reaching for the pot of gold chocolates, you're going to grab some grapes instead. Right?There isn't room for failure if it's okay if you eat the pot of gold chocolate. Doesn't mean you've failed
03:52because your goal is only to be a little bit better. It's only to make small changes. And all ofthese small changes will add up to a huge, huge goal. We're breaking this all or nothing cycle.instead we're making small tiny habits towards the person that we want to be and focusing instead ofthe goal the end goal instead we're focusing on the why we want to achieve that goal and it alwayscomes down to the person we want to be so instead of saying I'm giving up carbs you're going to sayI'm going to be a healthier person I'm going to feel better about myself I'm going to putreally nutritious food into my body so that I can improve my health. You're really making it a positivething and you're taking pressure off yourself and but you're still having those goals. So instead of
04:46I'm going to get my house organized and be a tight, you know, be like this really organized person,you're just going to say, I'm going to live a less chaotic life. I'm going to be more organizedso I have more time and feel less stressed.That's what this is really about.And what would an organized person do?They would probably spend a few minutes every dayjust working on a small thing.It doesn't mean you have to rent a dumpster
05:14and completely become a minimalist in 2020 too.It means every day you're going to spend 15 minutesdoing a small thing that gets you closerto the person that you're.you're craving and the home that you're craving. We talk about this a lot in the Take Your HouseBack course. So Don from the Minimal Mom and Dana from a Slab comes clean and I have gotten togetherto do an online course called Take Your House Back. And the whole focus of this is making small,tiny changes as a group to have a big impact. It's five minutes a day. It's starting with just
05:55getting trash out of your house, just doing the dishes every single day, just making sure that you'redoing laundry consistently so that you're never falling behind. And we stack and we stack on top of that.Well, then we'll start decluttering your entrance way and then we declutter the kitchen andthen we declutter other areas. And before you know it, your entire house is under control.And then we add in organization and then we add in routines. But we do it in a way that isreally achievable because it's all about tiny changes in your mindset and tiny changes in your habits.So let's talk about the two most important parts of creating a new habit.Whatever it is you want to do in 2022, if you want to focus on your house or your health or your
06:44friendships, your relationships, your finances, your career, or all of those things, how do we actuallydo it without having a brain transplant or giving ourselves these insanely unattainable goals and thenfailing and feeling like crap about ourselves for the rest of the year how do we really do it it comes downto two things we need motivation and we need accountability so let's start with motivationsometimes you feel really motivated especially at the beginning of the year it's like a newIt's a new you. You can really make a difference. But what it really comes down to is your why.Why you want to change? Because suddenly we see organizing the house as I'm going to feel good aboutmyself. I'm going to be able to give my kids the house that they deserve. I'm not going to fight with
07:36my husband about clutter anymore. I'm not going to have to spend my weekends cleaning the housebefore I can have people over. I'm no longer going to have to spend time in the day looking for theextra shoe or my keys or my cell phone or that thing I knew I was supposed to.return but I have no idea where it is my life is going to be less stressful and less chaotic that is yourwhy you don't want to get organized because you want it to look like a magazine that's a bonus whenit really comes down to the why it comes down to how you want it to make you feel and that is yourmotivation but that wanes we forget that's what it really comes down to why are we why do we lackmotivation because we we forget we forget to be inspired we forget about the why we want to achieve
08:24these things and then we only look at oh yeah i said i was going to declutter oh man i'm putting that offtill tomorrow we no longer feel that that that excitement anymore and how do we get that back allthe time how do we consistently have that we have to be reminded of our why and i think the bestway to do this is with a vision board. Now before you start thinking that I'm talking about youcutting out pictures from magazines and putting it on Bristol board and hanging it on your wall,that is not what I mean by a vision board. What I mean by a vision board is a place where you'revisually reminded of your wise, of your motivation, of the things you want to achieve in a way thatmakes you feel excited and in a way that is also subconscious.
09:14Visual reminder of your goal is a subconscious reminder of your goal.Subconsciously, if every day you open your phone and your lock screen, it could be your visionboard, right?Is a picture of, I don't know, healthy food and someone jogging and, and, you know,whatever it is that else that you have for a goal that you find inspiring.If you're glancing at that every time you pick up your phone, you're subconsciously going to be remindedof your why. And then 10 minutes later, will you head to the kitchen, are you going to grab thechocolate or are you going to grab the fruit? You might be more inclined more often to grab the
09:52fruit because you're reminded that it's important to you, that you make healthy choices.And so I have a vision board that I have in my office. I have a vision board that I have in my craft roomand I have my lock screen on my phone. I also have a reminder every morning when I get up.My alarm on my phone has the title of my goals. Listen, I don't always follow them all,but this I found in the past, this subconscious, subtle, visual reminders of a vision board.Again, you can write these things down. You can write motivational words or your goals on yourbathroom mirror. You can have them printed out and put them on your fridge. You can print picturesthat are your why that motivate you and remind you of your why and put them in frames in your home.
10:45You can print them in black and white and just have them on a bulletin board. You can have remindersof your phone that just pop up alarms, your Alexa can remind you. You can create a graphic anduse it as the lock screen screen on your phone or a screensaver on your computer. Whatever it is.or you can print out pictures or use magazine clippings and make it on a big Bristol board.Whatever it is, it doesn't really matter.This is about making your dreams come true by reminding yourself of what's really important to you all throughout the day.A lot of people call this manifestation.I don't think it's the universe giving you some magic woo-woo stuff.
11:25This is you doing it.You are giving it to yourself because you're subconsciously reminding yourself that this is apriority for me. And this is something I want to focus on. Okay, so motivation. That's a really easy wayto motivate yourself on a daily basis to achieve the goals that you want to achieve. And this doesn'tmean that you're not going to not do them sometimes. You're going to fail. There are going to be dayswhere you screw up and eat a box of chocolates or don't do your dishes or don't tidy or don't pick upor don't spend 15 minutes decluttering. But I promise you that you're going toto do it at least 10% more than you did before you had the visual reminders or the auditory
12:09reminders before you had your vision board. So the second thing that we do, the second part ofcreating and really achieving new habits is accountability. So if your motivation is your why,your accountability is your how. Accountability means, okay, it's really, and it's really,great I'm feeling motivated and I'm feeling inspired but how do I actually do the things?How do I how do I actually like do the things on my to-do list or these goals?And it comes down to accountability. We need to be accountable to either ourselves or to someoneelse. We need to set an actual goal with a date and be accountable to either ourselvesor someone else. I really suck at being accountable to myself. But what that looks like for a lot of
13:06people is, okay, I'm going to start being a healthier person and eating healthier. So every Sunday at9 a.m., I'm going to create a meal plan for the next week that has healthy meals for dinners andlunches and breakfast, or maybe just dinners. But you're going to set a date with yourself tomeal plan or you're going to set a date with yourself to budget or you're going to set a date withyourself to spend 15 minutes decluttering and maybe that's every day at four when you get home from workor every day at 9 p.m. before bed you're going to spend 15 minutes working on yourself. This is whataccountability looks at looks like. It's setting a small goal and setting yourself a time that you're going todo that goal or a day that you're going to do that goal and hold yourself accountable. But if you're
13:55like me, I really suck at self-accountability. It's really easy for me to say, oh, I'll just do ittomorrow. I don't feel like doing it right now. I'm going to do it tomorrow, which is why I needaccountability from someone else. So this is where you reach out to a friend or a family member andsay, hey, can you bug me every week to do this thing? Or you join a Facebook group where everyone elseis holding each other accountable and you're doing weekly tasks and you're joining, you know,these support groups where you're talking about it with other people and you're on your phone and thesepop-ups are coming up of other people doing it and you're like oh yeah i got to do that too i'm accountable tothat person which is why people hire coaches and life coaches and why people join courses because that
14:41holds them accountable and sometimes just spending money on something hold you accountable to thatthing because you're like i just spend a hundred dollars on this course i better show upbecause I paid for it. And that course is holding you accountable, which is why,shameless plug, so many people have had so much success with the Take Your House Back course.Not only do we have ongoing weekly challenges in the Facebook group, but you have thousands ofpeople who are wanting to declutter their home too that are in the group, supporting you,cheering you on, and holding you accountable. Plus, you have Don Dana and I with our courseand all of the videos that you watch, reminding you, holding your hand, pushing you,
15:26cheering you on through the steps. And on January 15th, we have an all-day live declutter,which I think is like the most motivating thing because you're on Facebook alive with literallythousands of other people. And we're going room by room with you. And it's like boot camp.We're, during my sessions, I scream at you to let go of things. And it's like so much energy.and you're because it's accountability it's accountability but you don't listen yes it's a shameless plug forthe take your house back because i'm really proud of it but you don't need to pay for that courseyou just need to find a way to either hold yourself accountable or to have somebody else be youraccountability partner and that is the secret to achieving your goals maybe it's a gym partner
16:18you're joining a gym with somebody and you're going to go with them or you're going to startwalking with a walking group with a bunch of people you don't even know just by putting a poston Facebook or joining even a free decluttering group on Facebook or organizing group or a health groupor a low carb group or whatever it is find like-minded people that can help hold you accountableso you have your how you have your whywhich is your motivation. You're going to do a vision board. You're going to make it a lock screen.You're going to set reminders. You're going to write something on your fridge or on your bathroom mirror,whatever it is. So you can every day be reminded of your goals. And then you're going to have your
17:01accountability, your how. So you actually show up for yourself and do the work.I just want to finish by saying two more quick things. And that is, I think it's really important.that you never stop learning and that you never stop having self-discovery and and this when I think of allthe people in my life that I find really inspiring and they're doing great things or they're just ohthey're like ridiculously happy successful whatever it is that I find really admirable about themthey all have one thing in common all of them and that is they've never stopped trying to self-improvethey're reading self-help books or they're watching YouTube videos on self-improvement or they're listeningto podcasts they're learning they're educating themselves they're growing as a person and you're doing
18:00that right now just by listening to this podcast so if you do nothing else this year i would encourageyou to read the book atomic habits by james clear and also to read the book the four tendenciesby Gretchen Rubin. If you're not a big reader, get the audiobook. Get them from your local library.They're free. You can download the MP3. You can listen to it on your phone or wherever you listen toyour podcasts or find a podcast about these subjects. It's all about just being the best person you canbe, especially for 2022. Listen, things have been crazy the last couple of years. Butwe're taking back control of our lives, of our homes, of our happiness, and we're striving to bejust 10% better than we were last year. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed
19:02and I'll see you next time.
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