Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: This week, we'll be discussing habits, why they matter, some
Speaker 1: good ones to adopt, and how to build them and
Speaker 1: sometimes stop them. Today's tip is to spend more time
Speaker 1: thinking about your good habits than you're bad ones, because
Speaker 1: celebrating the good ones can make them even stronger. When
Speaker 1: we think about habits, our minds tend to drift to
Speaker 1: those nagging ones we've coked with for years. Maybe you
Speaker 1: bite your finger, nails or twist your hair. There have
Speaker 1: been some great books published in recent years about habits,
Speaker 1: such as Charles do Higgs The Power of Habit, which
Speaker 1: explains the Q response reward cycle that has you clicking
Speaker 1: on Instagram every time you see that icon on your
Speaker 1: phone or biting your nails every time your board. Clearly
Speaker 1: people are interested in habits, since James Clear's Atomic Habits
Speaker 1: is currently on the best seller list, and Gretchen Reuben's
Speaker 1: Better Than Before also sold very well a few years ago.
Speaker 1: If you'd like to learn more, those are all great
Speaker 1: places to start. In any case, it is certainly possible
Speaker 1: for someone who's been biting his nails for decades to stop.
Speaker 1: But often bad habits that aren't really hurting anyone are
Speaker 1: better at off managed to simply minimize them, rather than
Speaker 1: throwing the limited resource of willpower into totally eliminating them.
Speaker 1: You learn not to bite your nails in public, for instance,
Speaker 1: rather than holding yourself to the standard of stopping completely. Instead,
Speaker 1: I think you should spend some time really thinking through
Speaker 1: your good habits. There may be more of them than
Speaker 1: you think, and celebrating them can help your life in
Speaker 1: all kinds of ways. For instance, you're listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1: That means you value spending small bits of time in
Speaker 1: ways that help you learn something that's a great habit.
Speaker 1: When you see this and acknowledge it, that encourages you
Speaker 1: look to look for other small bits of time that
Speaker 1: might be used well. Next thing you know, you're putting
Speaker 1: e books on your phone and reading in the grocery
Speaker 1: store checkoutline. I did this exercise for myself recently to
Speaker 1: try to think through good habits I have or my
Speaker 1: family has, that I tend not to dwell on or
Speaker 1: even think of much, partly because they are so automatic.
Speaker 1: For instance, we never have the TV on in the
Speaker 1: background in our house. If someone wants to watch a
Speaker 1: specific show, that's great, but it's never just on. We
Speaker 1: also don't put TVs in bedrooms. I don't think of
Speaker 1: this as deprivation because I can't even imagine why someone
Speaker 1: would want a TV in his or her bedroom. But
Speaker 1: the fact that I think that tells you something right
Speaker 1: there that this is truly an entrenched thing for me.
Speaker 1: I value sleep, and I've built my life to allow
Speaker 1: for good sleep habits. Getting to bed on top time
Speaker 1: as easier when you're not facing the temptation of watching
Speaker 1: just one more show. We also don't drink sugar sweetened
Speaker 1: beverages in our house. In our day to day lives.
Speaker 1: We don't bring them into the house. Again, I'm not
Speaker 1: militant about it, but it would never occur to me
Speaker 1: to buy a two liter bottle of soda at the supermarket.
Speaker 1: I walk past that aisle as if it doesn't exist,
Speaker 1: just as I don't visit the cat food section because
Speaker 1: I don't have a cat. The result is that my
Speaker 1: kids aren't used to sweet drinks, and when my nine
Speaker 1: year old recently picked out a coke at a drug
Speaker 1: store as a treat, it took him two days to
Speaker 1: get through it. Actually, I think half of it is
Speaker 1: still sitting in our fridge going flat. I offer both
Speaker 1: of these examples not so much for the rah rah
Speaker 1: me factor. My kids eat plenty of other junk, and
Speaker 1: they play way more video games than I'd like. But
Speaker 1: if you ask me about my habits, my automatic response
Speaker 1: would be to bemoan that I pick up my nails
Speaker 1: and spend too much time on Twitter. Those things may
Speaker 1: be true, but in the law run, getting enough sleep
Speaker 1: and structurally limiting sugar consumption are probably bigger deals, or,
Speaker 1: for that matter, automatically putting on our seatbelts every time
Speaker 1: we're in vehicles. When I think of these habits, I'm
Speaker 1: reminded that fundamentally, I'm a person who cares about my
Speaker 1: health and cares about my family's health. This is part
Speaker 1: of my identity. When we remind ourselves of our identities,
Speaker 1: we tend to want to strengthen them. With any journey,
Speaker 1: when you sense that you're already on your way, you
Speaker 1: want to keep going because who doesn't like a head start.
Speaker 1: I think we're a family who doesn't drink much sugar,
Speaker 1: and I feel more motivated to cut up a little
Speaker 1: extra produce and become the family that eats their vegetables too.
Speaker 1: So what good habits do you have? Really think about
Speaker 1: this and feel free to list the obvious ones. Say
Speaker 1: you don't smoke. That's awesome right there. You're massively ahead
Speaker 1: of the game. You wash your hands frequently, you floss,
Speaker 1: you contribute to your retirement account automatically. You pay your
Speaker 1: bills in full and on time. When you think of
Speaker 1: all these things, you can keep your annoying tendency to
Speaker 1: say um or like frequently in context. To take some
Speaker 1: time today to think about all the good habits you
Speaker 1: already have. Then take a moment to appreciate them and
Speaker 1: think about how you might expand them in the meantime.
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
Speaker 1: the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four then breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast Podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.