High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 230: How to Make or Break a Habit

Episode Date: January 22, 2019

“There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.” Zig Ziglar   High performers realize that they can make or break a habit. They realize that small changes is the way to make a change – get 1% better each day. And when making a habit, they make it obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying.   High Performance Power Phrase: I am in the driver’s seat of my life. I can make any change I put my mind to.

Welcome to High Performance Mindset with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Do you want to reach your full potential, live a life of passion, go after your dreams? Each week we bring you strategies and interviews to help you ignite your mindset. Let's bring on Sindra. It's high performance mindset on the Country Club today with Dr. Sindra Kampoff. Good morning, Sindra. Good morning. It's great to be here on this cold day. Yeah, great to have you in today too. And we're talking about a good topic, how to make or break a habit. I think this comes in handy as we're like a few weeks into the new year. And maybe people have come up with some ideas that they haven't been able to quite follow through on, I guess. We always start with a quote.

What's the quote for today? There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs. Zig Ziglar. All right. So how do you want to start this today? So I was thinking 21 days into the new year, perhaps, you know, you're not making as much progress as you want on the goals that you set at the beginning of the year.

You didn't write any goals down, right? So perhaps thinking about a new habit or breaking an old habit could be beneficial. And so as we're thinking some of the habits that you might do every day or frequently that aren't helpful is maybe hitting the snooze button or maybe you don't exercise like you want to or eat like you want to or maybe you're not as productive at work. So you might have habits that aren't very productive at work. So that's kind of what I'm thinking about as we start today. All right. So you have said before that it's better to make some small changes towards a goal. What do you mean by making small changes? And I mean, let's just say the goal is just throwing a random one out there,

but lose weight. It seems to be a lot of people's. What are the small changes that lead to that? Yeah. So I've been reading this book by James Clear and his book is a New York Times bestseller. It's called Atomic Habits, an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. Okay. So he gives a stat about if you get 1% better every day, right? Because that's the small changes you want to make towards your goals. And if you get a little bit better every day, there's compound changes over time.

So I saw the math. And if you work to get 1% better every day, that's like 37 times better at the end of the year. And over two years, it's not just like 74 times better, but 1400 times better. And if you compound that change over four years, it's not just like 74 times better, but 1400 times better. And if you compound that change over four years, it's like 2 million times better. Wow. All right.

So small changes. Yeah. Let's apply this to us now, though. How does it apply? Okay. So the key to habit change is really not just one small change, but many of them. Right. And then these small habits start stacking up. And so that means, you know,

if you never stop working to improve every day, then you can, you know, make these small changes even bigger. Maybe it's, again, something that you want to change that you're eating or, you know, even the small changes you make for that is going to make a big difference every day. All right. So what is the first question we should start with for ourselves?

At the beginning of the year, you know, a couple weeks ago, we talked about, like about what do you want to do for the year? And this question instead, I want you to think about is like, who do you want to be for the year? Who do you want to become more of? And because your identity is really the driver of your habits. So maybe, you know, this year you'd like to be more fit or more productive or more present with your family. You know, for me, when I think about that question, I want to be more present with my kids when I get home. I want to, at the end of the year, lose some weight and be more fit, right?

So those are my things I'm thinking about as I think about the habits that I want to break. I'm in a similar position where I would like to be more fit, I guess. I think we all are. You know, I do a lot of working out. I go for a few runs a week at this point. I go to the gym and I lift some weights, and I feel like I do a fairly good job with that. But I know that my problem is portion size.

Yeah. I don't necessarily eat bad. I don't eat too poorly all the time. I mean, I'm not 100 percent. Just too much. But yeah. But then I sit there and I'm like, well, this is good. I might as well just keep eating it.

Yeah. And knowing when to just say when is something I need to be better at. Yes. So think about that as we're talking about this. Okay. Okay. And so, well, I'll be thinking about that. What's going to support us in these new habits and what do you mean by that?

So you want to make it easy for you and think about how you can redesign just these small things in your world to create this new identity. And the more that you do it, right, the more you believe that you're that person. So even my streak right now, I ran every day for 30 days. And so I'm like, okay, I'm back to becoming a runner. So my identity is changing a little bit. So we're going to talk about four laws of behavior change to help you think about that new habit. All right, let's tackle a couple.

What's the first one? Okay, first one, we want to make it obvious. The key is to decide what you're going to do. So for example, if you set the intention that I will exercise in the morning, the more precise you are with that language, like exactly when you're going to do it, the better. And you want to make it obvious. So let's say you put your clothes by your bed.

You make it obvious the first thing you're going to do when you get out of your bed. Or you don't put the fruits in the refrigerator. Maybe you put them out so you can really see them. So it's obvious. Okay. All right. Second one? The second one is to make it attractive.

So think about what are the benefits? How are you going to feel after you go and exercise? How are you going to feel after you eat that salad? How will you feel if you just eat this small portion instead of this large portion that we maybe don't really need? So if you give yourself a reward or you tell yourself why it's attractive, maybe you start with the fruit that you really like. All right. What about the next two laws?

Third one is make it easy. So put it in your schedule to make it easy, for example, or even eating the fruits that maybe are easier to eat, like a banana or an apple is easier to eat than an orange that you have to peel. Right. The fourth one is to make it satisfying. So one way to do this is if you make a habit tracker, it'll be more satisfying for you because you can see the streak you're on with your habit.

And so it feels good, right? So since I started my running streak, I put a counter on my fridge, and now my boys are even asking me when I don't have it written in, Mom, did you run today? Nice. And they're even writing it in there for me. So be thinking about maybe how you could track your habit. And once I committed to doing it every day, I haven't made an excuse.

And how would you say that this applies to us? So the way it applies to us is consider a habit that would support this identity this year. So how can you make it obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying? And then consider, you know, how could you make a habit tracker? There we go. Maybe a piece of paper on your fridge or a journal or put it on your calendar or in your phone or something like that. So what about the things we want to stop doing?

What do we do about those things that, you know, I need to stop X, Y, Z? Exactly. So let's take these principles and turn them around. So number one would, instead of making it obvious, make it invisible. So don't buy the junk food or throw away what you have. Or get rid of your kids because they have lots of candy around the house. Exactly. Exactly.

Or ask them to hide it somewhere you can't find it, right? Away from me. This next one would be make it unattractive. And so think about how you aren't going to feel good if you eat that extra food. Number three, make it difficult. So you have to drive to the grocery store to buy the junk food. That would be difficult. The last one is to make it unsatisfying.

So consider what would happen if you didn't break the habit. How might you feel or what are the consequences if you didn't break that habit? So you have a final point for us? Yep. So if we want to change our lives, or, you know, we kind of think that change is really easy, but often we, you know, stop these new ways of maybe eating or exercising or these new productivity habits. But we have to think about how the results aren't immediate, right? And the 1% change every day is going to lead to big results. We got to stick with it. Stick with it. Stick with it. Because our bad habits are habits. They're habits.

We created them and we need to now change them. And we can. And they can. It can be done. Yes. And that's good to know. Some good pointers along the way today. Let's summarize this topic today. What would you say? So I'd say high performers, those people who work to reach their potential, they realize that they can make or break a habit and they can make the small changes that they need to just 1% better every day. And when they make a habit, they think about how can it be obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. Nice.

And a power phrase to wrap up with today. I am in the driver's seat of my life. I can make any change I decide to. That's a perfect, you're on your way to work right now. Behind the wheel of your car. You are in the driver's seat of your life. And today's a great day to start. So if we want to get in touch with you and learn more or ask any questions or pick up the book or listen to the podcast,

there's so much going on. How do we get in touch? You can head over to DrCindra.com and that's where you can find the information. Or this is going to be uploaded to the podcast today. And you can find that on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, iHeart Radio. All right, always some really good stuff with Dr. Sindra Kampoff today and High Performance Mindset. Thank you very much.

Thanks for having me. Thank you for listening to High Performance Mindset. If you like today's podcast, make a comment, share it with a friend and join the conversation on Twitter at Mentally Underscore Strong. For more inspiration and to receive Sindra's free weekly videos, check out DrSindra.com.