Your World Within Podcast by Eddie Pinero - 7 Habits for Life

Episode Date: January 14, 2021

"Your habits will determine your future" - Jack Canfield This episode discusses 7 habits that changed my life....

What's going on, guys? Today I'm going to talk about seven habits that have transformed my life. Some of them I've been doing forever. Some of them are relatively new, but all of them add value to my day and my life overall in some capacity. So whether we're talking, you know, expanding my mindset, contributing to my business, allowing me to be more proficient, allowing me to be more creative, maybe just life, you know, my happiness, my well-being overall. Every single one of those things matters. And it's important to position yourself. so that you can win in those areas and be the best version of yourself possible. And so I've picked up some hacks and some routines along the way that I want to share with you. Hopefully there's something here you can use in your life. So let's dive into it.

So the first one is win the morning. W. Clementstone is a great quote. He says, big doors swing on little hinges, meaning there's little things we do in life that when we find them and we do them, they have monumental impact. And so for me, that is the morning. It's waking up when I say I'm going to wake up. That alarm clock goes off. I get out of bed, walk across the room, shut it off, and I start my day, period, no matter what.

You know, that, to me, is the first battle. It's the first demon that is defeated, that's been conquered. And that creates a sense of winning. It creates a sense of being in control. And I really do believe in the power of momentum. That carries with me throughout my entire day. and I've, you know, I've experimented enough that I know when I'm loose on that, when I'm lax on when I get up, or if I hang out in bed for a few more minutes or whatever, it really does impact the rest of my day. So I'm very specific about that. Not to mention if you get up, you know, you have that precious clarity, that quiet, no social media, no distraction.

It's you planning out your day, being methodical, and, you know, really launching yourself into a success. rest of the day. Number two is read every single day. This is drastically transformed my life. You know, a lot of people talk about reading. They say read, read, read, read, you should read books, read books, but no one talks about the why, you know, and it's like we live, it doesn't matter how smart you are. You know, you live in the little corner of your universe, of your world, and that's what you know. But to immerse yourself in stories and ideas and concepts and different opinions and, you know, history, understanding when, where, and why. All these things culminate into an experience, into value. You can offer the world that so many people can't. It literally

transforms the way you look at life. And there's just, you can't beat it. I mean, there's nothing more precious or valuable than that. So I make sure it's what I call a non-negotiable. It doesn't matter how busy my day is I am reading. Now, I use. the term loosely because I do it in two ways. Before I go to bed every night, I do have a physical book, hard cover, soft cover, whatever it is, and I'm reading until I fall asleep. So, I don't know, maybe 20, 30 minutes usually. But the middle of my day, and I'll talk about this in a second when I'm talking about scheduling, I do a 90-minute walk, period. And I'm listening to Audible between 1.5 and two times the speed, depending on the narrator, right? You don't want to

want it to be so fast, you can't understand it, but just to the point where it's fast, but you're capturing everything. And 90-minute walk at that speed and the amount of books you consume is just crazy. Not to mention, you know, if you're listening to podcasts in the car or while you shower or do the dishes or whatever, I mean, you turn it into a machine. You're just taking in so much. And the advantage that gives you, you know, I believe that our greatest successes are the little things that most people don't do or walk right by. And every once in a while,

instead of listening to music, if you're thrown on a podcast or listening to an audio book, the value is just astronomical. So I think I've made my point in demonstrating how much it means to me, but I would advocate. And maybe it's not a 90-minute walk or, you know, obviously it's not a one-size-fits-all.

You've got to figure out where it fits into your day and your life and how you're doing it, whether it's an e-reader or a book or Audible or, you know, there's library apps. Libby is one for, at least I know my folks up in Boston, where you can get free audiobooks. There's a lot of ways, but make sure you find time to do that. So the next one is creating a schedule that allows you to win.

Might seem intuitive, not so much, right? So my goal when I go to bed at night, my head hits the pillow, is to know that I created objectives and I met or exceeded them. It matters. It matters just like waking up in the morning. right to feel like you're conquering the tasks in front of you it's it's you know it's how you take on the identity of someone that's winning and in control um and i can tell you as someone that's experimented a lot with this you know i've tried 20 minute blocks hour blocks with 20 minute breaks um and what i've

found and that's you know two of many things i've been trying i've been testing things for a while with this what i found is anytime i make my life an excel spreadsheet i lose and i lose because life gets in the way, whether it's coffee with someone or, you know, a client or lives or social media obligation. I mean, whatever it is, right? You find yourself behind in the morning. You're not catching up. And there's no worse feeling than always being behind, particularly when it's because of parameters that you set in place. So remove them, right? That's what works best for me, a bend but not break methodology. And I have two blocks. I wake up, I do my morning thing, and then it's block one, which is, you know, whatever the biggest, most taxing project is. I have my 90 minute walk, and then it's block two, which is whatever the other second most important task is that day. Now, of course, there are other things. Like I mentioned, there are our clients and social media obligations and other things I'm writing and maybe it's friends or coffee or whatever. I mean, you can let your imagination wander. We have things in our life that we need to do. You can put them in. And I do usually in block two, but they have to really matter because I'm making space for them

in an area where, you know, I already have a big priority. So it helps you keep your your schedule clean and it helps you be methodical about how you're spending your time, but also gives room to breathe, which is important. You know, life is not black and white as much as we try and make it or want it to be. There's a lot of gray space there. So I create a schedule that allows me to get done what's important. also leaves room for life. The next one, which is particularly relevant with all of us working at home now,

or so many of us, I've been working out of my home for a long time, but it's separating where you work from where you relax. As Stephen Pressfield talks about in the War of Art, it's having that sacred space to sit down and separate the rest of your life from the task at hand. It's a, I don't want to be a, I don't want to use the term battle again, but it's sort of the test of will to be able to sit down,

block everything else out and allow what needs to come out of you to come out. And what I've found is, you know, when I do that on my bed or, you know, somewhere that's kind of lax or, you know, not specific, I just don't perform as well. It's not conducive to my best work and saying what I have to say. So, and by the way, from 2017 to 2020, I lived in a studio apartment, right? So it's not like, you know, you need some big place to do this, right? For me, it was a desk in one corner of the place and then, you know, everything else on the other side or not near the desk. So I knew when I sat down at that desk what I was doing and I made it happen. So separate where you work from where you relax and hang out.

The next one is do something every day that scares you. Nothing crazy, nothing drastic, but something that pushes you out of your comfort zone a little bit. It's amazing how when we're not aware of this, our inclination is to stagnate. Our inclination is to find a routine and stick with it. Hours become days, become months, become years, and we leave a lot of growth and potential on the table

simply because we haven't asked ourselves, what can I do that puts me in a little bit of discomfort? right so again nothing crazy like for example for me there's social networks that outside my comfort zone right they're not the youtube the instagram the twitter the facebook it's like moving on to tic tox of the world or moderating conference terms on clubhouse things that are very new um that um gravitating towards them right and then you know maybe it's writing something submitting it to an outlet i mean whatever it is but but there's so much on the table that you could be doing that you're not. And when you start with little things and, you know, dive into them, what you see is

over time in a month or two months, those little things that made you nervous now are daily routine. You don't even really think much about them. Now you move on to bigger and better things, which down the road will seem insignificant, right? It won't mean anything. So it's that ladder of growth. It's starting at the bottom rung and moving up and it's how you evolve. Those things matter and they're very impactful. The next one is separate yourself from your phone. The reality is we are addicted to these things. We can't sit and think without pulling them out and scrolling through them. And so the question I started to ask myself is how do I mitigate that? Because it's an incredibly powerful tool and we know that. We understand that. I run my digital

business from it. I network with it. You know, you can buy, sell things from it. Like I don't need to explain that piece, but it's the distraction. How do we mitigate that? Like water is essential, but you can also drown in water. So it's how do you find the good in this tool? How do you find the good in this tool. And, you know, what I've found is, I mean, pretty intuitive separating myself from it. It used to be, Eddie, no, you use it for work. So you can't. But, you know, when you mix the two, there's lost opportunity. You're wasting time. You're exhausting energy. And it's just, it's not smart. So when I sit down to write, I take the phone, I put it in the room next door, can't use something that's not there. Boom, done. Another thing is an app called Forest,

where you plant a digital tree, basically. So you set a timer, so say you want 60 minutes of uninterrupted time. Set a timer for 60 minutes, a little tree starts to grow. If you open your phone and you close the forest app to do anything else, the tree dies. So kind of gamifies it, guilt trips you a little bit. You know, James Clear in Atomic Habits, he talks about the power of creating obstacles for yourself in the way of things you don't want to do. So the best way to quit a habit is to make it as hard as possible.

for you to do that thing. Well, that's an example of a little obstacle you can create, and I'm sure there are others. Putting it in a different room is absolutely an obstacle, but put barriers between you and your phone. You'll find that, one, you have more time, and two, you're way more effective with the time that you do have. The last one is clean your space, and it's an easy thing you can do to create calm and clarity. You know, I used to not care about this, and, you know, when my life was chaotic or stressful, my physical world was directly proportional. I wouldn't clean up anything. You know, my apartment or my house would be a mess, but it'd be like, it doesn't matter. Who cares? Focus on the important things. The reality is, you know, clarity in your physical environment

contributes to clarity in your mind. It's very difficult to sit down when, when, you know, your desk is cluttered, your room is cluttered, you're amidst chaos, and be it your best. And so what I've found is, This is another simple win. When you clean your environment, clean your room, clean your office. It's just, it's one package. It allows you to find clarity and calm in how you're thinking. And I'm going to leave you with a little bonus, right? So I went through seven things that I've experimented with.

I've found value in. They've helped change my life. Okay. Those things might not work for you. But what I hope they do is, push you to question your situation and try things and experiment. There's a quote from Charlie Munger that really stuck with me. It's simple. He says, you are your own experiment. You have to try things. And it's one of the reasons sometimes I struggle with what I read and stuff in this, you know,

the self-help industry, the self-help world because people talk about things like it's black and white. And sure, there's commonality and there's overlap. But the reality is you'll only know what works for you when you experiment and see what works for you. And so don't be shy. Don't be hesitant. Push boundaries, test things, try things. That's the only way you'll arrive at your most effective, efficient, happy, healthy lifestyle. You know, if some of these work for you directly and you can plug and, you know, move on, that's amazing. But the real win here is to take these concepts and ask yourself, how can I utilize them in a way that's best for me? And so I hope if anything this video added that, provided that for you and will help you on your way to whatever is you

moving towards. So have an amazing day. Catch you later.