August 9, 2023 • 30 mins
We talk Salsa, Habits and Cereal and how to improve using 3 items from atomic habit. This is the one that Dad makes a mistake and tells everyone he likes weird food at night. And the British Bicycle team determine to improve 1% a day. Atomic Habits by James Clear 3 key points..
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Episode Transcript
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Dad (00:00):
Makes editing a nightmare.
No, I'm just kidding.
People need to know about salsaand cereal.
Okay, we can keep it in.
Well, maybe that'll be the nameof the episode.
Salsa.
You'd get clicks.
But, but really, and and whydid, why does this even matter?
Well, because if I'm really, ifI look and say what would a
healthy person do, I would lookat that and say, they probably
wouldn't eat the cheer, theCheerios or the Frosted Flakes
(00:22):
or the salsa at that time ofnight, especially because I'm
not hungry.
I'm doing it just out of anxietyor stress or, you know,
labeling, whatever that is.
It's, that's keeping me upversus saying, look, it's time
for bed.
I'm not hungry.
Yeah.
And I'm pointing out what'swrong.
And then I step back and say,okay, the 1% rule, how am I
going to get 1% better at this?
(00:43):
Hey, first off, I think having ahabit scorecard would help me in
that 1%, you know, and then Ican start working on some of
these other tricks.
(03:16):
We're starting the new schoolyear for a lot of people.
It's going to be in college.
They've got the new school yearcoming up.
Gideon, what year are youstarting this year?
Gideon (03:26):
I'm going to be my last year of my master's, senior.
Cool.
Ashton (03:35):
You got me beat.
Ashton,
Dad (03:36):
what school year are you starting?
I'm
Ashton (03:39):
going back to my freshman year of high school.
That's
Dad (03:42):
what it's going to feel like a little bit, right?
Yep.
So I thought it would be prettyappropriate to talk this, this
episode is, the goal is to dropthis right about the start of
school school starts in Utah onApril 15th this year, which is
August.
Oh yeah.
It started with an A.
I was close.
So August 15th, and, and whenyou start a new school year,
(04:02):
sometimes you want to come outstrong.
You want to do your best.
You know, you might sit down.
It's kind of like a new year fora lot of adults.
A lot of adults look at Januaryas the time to shine.
To do something new.
So I wanted to talk a little bitabout that.
Have you caught yourself wantingto start something new, but not
quite sure how to do it all thetime?
(04:22):
Yes.
It's fair enough.
So Gideon and I were having thisconversation earlier about the
book, atomic habits, habits.
By James Clear.
This isn't going to be a bookreview.
It probably should be.
There's plenty of informationon, on Atomic Habits.
He talks about a variety ofstrategies and concepts of
(04:44):
building and sustaining positivehabits.
We're kind of just going to grabthree of them.
I think he's got eleven inthere.
But we're going to just grabthree of them that we thought
were important to kind ofhighlight, to focus on, to spend
a little bit of time on.
Just starting those off, thethree that we're going to cover
for, for y'all just so you know,the 1% rule, habit stacking,
(05:05):
habit scorecard.
We'll see where the tangents go,I guess, maybe a little bit, but
the 1% rule getting, do you wantto give us a quick rundown on
that conversation we're having?
Sure.
And
Gideon (05:19):
it might be easier to tell a story along with it.
Love it.
So the British cycling team, I'msure some of you guys have heard
this.
The British cycling team wasdoing very, very, very poorly in
I'm not sure the time period onit, but they were not doing very
good.
And then they got a new managerand his whole point of view was
(05:41):
to, to change 1% better everysingle day.
And so, you know, he do some ofthe typical things like change
the bike seat you know, switchclothes, stuff like that.
And then slowly he got to themore.
Strange things that people mightnot have expected like painting
(06:01):
the inside of their travel vanwhite so they could see all the
dust and just smaller thingslike that and It ended up
compounding Relatively quicklyso in five years the British
cycling team was winning a lotOf events they won.
I think it was 60% of the goldmedals available and so they did
(06:24):
You Very well, and it was veryimpactful for them and the whole
philosophy was if you even dosmall things 1% changes that
Dad (06:34):
Yeah, I like it.
I think that's a good it I likethat you shared it with the
story and kind of gave us a agrasp there So I have to ask
Ashton (06:43):
you said they painted their inside of their van white
so they could see the dust Is
Gideon (06:47):
that because you know, they don't want the writers to
get sick And so the dust was tomake sure they didn't get sick.
And then a lot of their, theirvery high quality bike
components can now get dust inthem or else they wouldn't work
properly.
The white was just to see thedirt around them.
(07:08):
Make
Dad (07:08):
it really easy to see.
Yeah.
And I think also, right.
As, as they paint it white, youcan start to see where the dust
is coming in at and fix thoseproblems.
Right.
That would be the next 1%improvement.
Yeah.
There's lots.
1% doesn't seem like a lot.
Ashton (07:27):
Well, it's interesting this whole idea because Utah the
football team went through acouple of tragedies last year,
two years ago both players thathad were the number 22.
And so it became a thing to saythey were going to be 22% better
every day.
Something one of the playerssaid that passed.
And so every.
(07:49):
Every game and in a bunch of themerch and promo stuff.
It's all 22% better every day,but I was thinking about it 1%
to get to 100% it only takes 100days
Gideon (08:01):
Yeah, 22% is a lot
Dad (08:03):
a lot of percent Yeah, the hard part becomes is so if you
have this big goal, right?
So going into this new schoolyear What might be a big goal
the action think of what yourstudents might have or get in?
What do you have?
What?
What would be that big goal howwould you look at getting 1%
better every day?
(08:27):
I mean, is there something,yeah, either one of you?
Gideon (08:29):
So let's say for a typical high school student, a
big goal would be to have goodgrades for, for scholarships,
especially senior year.
So your goal could be, you know,all A's and then 1% changes you
could do just for an examplewould be to go to sleep on time.
(08:50):
Oh, wow.
Or to, you know, start yourhomework as soon as you can,
like the day you get it, even ifit's not due for a couple weeks,
just set little reminders to dothat or,
Dad (09:02):
I like that.
I like both of those.
You know, yeah, I like that.
You said the big goal is to getA's and then you look at all the
different things that play intothat and you're like, maybe I
don't get enough sleep.
Maybe I'm falling asleep inclass.
Maybe I'm not organized, youknow, so you're going, okay, how
do I get 1% better?
Oh, I'm going to take a notebooktoday or I'm going to write down
something, you know, whatever.
(09:23):
So I think if we're reallyfocused on that daily, it helps
When a habit gets closer to thata hundred percent.
Right.
So let's say you're writing thatin your range.
Okay.
I think the harder part is to gofrom an A to an A, because
you're already up there.
(09:44):
Those are the ones that youstill need to keep evaluating if
that's still an important goal.
And those changes are almostharder to make, because you're
so used to it or they're harderto see, you might be more, more
involved in it.
So I like that.
Cool.
Any other thoughts on the 1%ers?
Gideon (10:06):
I'm not sure.
I mean, you could always look atother, other goals too and find
examples,
Dad (10:10):
but...
I think when the one thing Iwanted to talk about while we're
on this is something you and Iwere talking about and it's
almost what I titled the episodeand then I realized we can
change it a little bit, but itwould, what would, what would an
a student do on that example?
What would, you know, if you'retrying to mirror a college
(10:35):
football player, you want to bea college football player, you
almost have to say, well, whatdoes.
Camerizing do right?
What would and then you've gotto start putting those habits in
place, right?
So so as you're thinking of thisis you said A's you might first
initially step back and go Ican't think of anything So you
might need to go look at whatdoes an A student do?
(11:01):
And that's probably true withthe next ones that we're talking
about too But but I think thefirst thing is to start
identifying where those gapswould be I think the British
cycling team because they werelosing so bad to your point
getting like some of the stuffwas just easy The coach was able
to come in and say we needdifferent bicycle seats.
We need to train harder
Gideon (11:20):
Yeah I was just gonna say they're losing so bad even a
couple big brands would stopselling their bikes to the
British cycling team because itwould
Dad (11:31):
And that's probably fair with some people going to school
having such a hard time gettingup in the morning.
And I love that you said go tobed earlier was one of your
first things, but sometimes inorder to figure out your habit,
you need to look at whatsuccessful people are doing that
are, are, are reaching to thosegoals.
(11:52):
The other one we were going totalk about is habit stacking and
any thoughts on that?
And I've got one that I lovethat I did.
But any thoughts on habitstacking?
Gideon (12:03):
Are you going to explain what it is?
No,
Dad (12:05):
maybe you should do that.
That's a good idea.
Gideon (12:07):
Okay.
I know sometimes I fumble mywords, but I literally listened
to these chapters this morningas I was mowing lawns, but habit
stacking is taking a habit thatyou already have.
Say your morning routine is getup, turn my alarm off, make my
(12:28):
bed, take a shower.
And Let's say this is actuallyan example straight from, from
the book, but let's say that youwant to read every night.
His thing is get up, turn youralarm off, make your bed, put a
book on your pillow, take ashower.
So you're stacking your habitstogether.
(12:50):
So then your brain automaticallyknows, oh, as soon as I make my
bed, part of making my bed isputting that book on my pillow.
So then when you go to, you goto sleep at night.
You're going into your bed,you're like, Oh, there's already
a book here for me to enjoy.
So the whole basis is stackinghabits on top of each other and
(13:13):
then adding little ones thatyou'd like to introduce into
your daily life.
Dad (13:20):
That's a great, that's a great example.
One that I did for me was I knewI wanted to floss my teeth and
it goes back to when I was atthe dentist one time.
He was had to do a root canal.
You guys know what a root canalis?
Have you ever had one of thosedone?
Ashton (13:35):
Nope, haven't had one of those done.
But no, I've heard of them.
They suck.
Dad (13:39):
Yeah, so they drill, they drill through your tooth and
they actually grab the root thatgoes into the, into the bone jaw
of your mouth.
Then they pull it out.
And they do that because you'vegot a cavity or some type of
infection.
And he starts doing this and hegoes, Oh, this is interesting.
I can do this one.
I don't need to send youanywhere.
You have an average sized route.
And I started thinking, I'mlike, average that suck.
(14:01):
I don't want to be.
Yeah.
I don't want to be average.
You know, I looked at him like Ihave, I have an average house.
I have average number of kids.
I have average.
You know, what can I be aboveaverage on?
One thing I realized is if Ifloss my teeth, I asked the
dentist, I said, Hey, if Istarted flossing my teeth every
day, where would I be at?
He goes, man, you'd be in thetop 1%.
He goes, you know what?
(14:21):
If our male clients, excuse me,he goes, you'd be in the top 5%.
He goes, you know, in our, ofour male clients, you'd probably
be in the top 1% of, of peopleif you started flossing your
teeth every day.
So I went home and I thought,okay, I'm going to floss my
teeth, teeth every day.
And I went home and I flossedthem and I went to bed and next
day I got up and I did my thingand went down, laid down to bed
(14:44):
and was laying down at night andthought, how did I do today?
And I said, Oh, great.
Went to sleep.
Woke up the next day and went,Oh, I was going to floss my
teeth every day.
Like I totally spaced it.
And I didn't even think aboutit.
I didn't have, I didn't have areason to think about it.
Never came across my mind.
Like, okay, so one of theproblems I have is I'm not doing
it every day.
How do I do it every day?
How do I do it today?
(15:05):
Stack it with, what can I put itwith?
Well, one thing I do every dayas I shower and I'm, I'm pretty
consistent to shower, I buy mydaily shower.
It's a habit.
Yeah.
Normally in the morning, right.
By get up, I get going.
One of the things I do is I takemy shower and I'm like, oh, if I
anchored this to me, brush myteeth to my shower.
(15:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
Me.
Yeah.
Cause I've already anchored.
That's yeah.
So I, I've already, whenever Ishower, I brush my teeth right
after.
Just what I do like if Ianchored that right there in
that movement and it became partof it I think I can start doing
this so I had no visual Cues,but I didn't know after I
brushed my teeth I was gonnafloss and then then somebody
(15:48):
told me well Maybe you shouldfloss before you brush your
teeth and it doesn't matter tome So I've actually changed it
to where I floss and then brushand I'm like, okay, whatever I
just changed it later, but Ihave never heard flossing
before, but anyway, so I'd flossand I'd go, good job.
And then I'd go on my day,right?
So I gave myself a reward.
You're awesome way to brush yourteeth.
Well, yesterday I caught myself,I showered once in the morning
(16:11):
and then went out and had to fixa car.
And so I just, and it was so hotand I just was hot and dirty.
I, so I got up, I, I did mymorning ritual.
I brushed my teeth.
Flossed, you know, cause nowit's so anchored in there.
I just do it while I take ashower at night, getting out of
the shower, I flossed andbrushed my teeth because it's so
tied to that shower that I didit without even thinking about
(16:34):
it, which I would consider to bea pretty, pretty powerful habit
and a habit stacker.
On that one, I think it's, itstill goes back to what, what
would you want to do?
What, what do you want toimprove upon?
And then, then how do you stackit?
Have you stacked anything,Gideon, successfully that, that,
that you've worked on or?
Gideon (16:53):
Honestly, I don't know.
I'd have to think about it.
Fair.
Unconsciously, sure.
Like, probably bad habits.
Dad (17:03):
Sure.
I think that's, I think that'san easy one, right?
Yeah.
As I catch myself at night andprobably not a habit stacker,
but you know, when I get readyto go to bed, I want to pull a
cold cereal.
And then if I have cold cereal,then I need something salty.
So cold cereal and salsa rightbefore I go to bed is probably
pretty healthy for me.
Perfect.
No, but that's not really ahabit.
(17:24):
Do
Ashton (17:24):
the, do the cold cereal and the salsa get eaten
together?
Dad (17:27):
Oh, it's not within five minutes.
But no, I think a habit.
Salsa is just the milk.
I think a true habit stacker forme that's probably not a good
habit is, is a, like a morningcaffeinated drink.
I'm like, Oh, I need thiscaffeine.
It's just tied to getting up andgetting ready for the day.
Gideon (17:46):
Yeah.
And I think that almostperfectly ties in with the
scorecard.
Dad (17:50):
Yeah.
So thank you.
Yeah.
So the next one we want to talkabout was habits scorecard.
Gideon, did you want to run usthrough that real quick?
Gideon (17:57):
Sure.
So the whole point of the habitsscorecard and you can find your
own habits scorecard on theatomic habits website, just so
we don't like.
You know, we got to give JamesClear's credit because it's a
great book and you should alllisten to it.
And you can find a template ofthe habit scorecard on there.
(18:19):
The habit scorecard is where youwrite down your daily habits and
then next to your daily habityou write if it is a net
positive, a net equal, or a netnegative to where you want to
go.
For an example, let's use amorning routine again, just
because it's easy.
(18:40):
Let's say you wake up, turn offyour alarm, check your phone
make your bed, shower, have acup of coffee, have some cereal,
something like that.
So then you'd write down, nextto your, next to your habits,
whether they're adding to yourlife, it's equal, or if it's
(19:02):
like a bad habit, then you'dwrite a minus.
So, waking up, equal, turn offyour alarm, equal.
Checking your phone, it'sprobably net minus, probably
shouldn't be doing that.
Making your bed, positive,shower, positive.
So you just, you go through andyou can consciously see what
(19:23):
you're doing to either help orhurt where you want to go.
And he said that sometimes thatmight not be enough and before
you do anything, you say toyourself out loud I am
performing this task, like, I'mabout to check my phone in the
morning and it is not helpingme.
(19:46):
And he's just like, you gotta beconsciously aware of what you're
doing to, to know.
Ashton (19:56):
I was curious, so I googled it, and it's pretty
interesting, you know, he talksabout here, James Clear, I'm
assuming it's he he talks aboutthe habit scorecard, and he
talks about, actually, firstthing I noticed is, flossing his
teeth came after brushing on hisscorecard.
Oh, there you go.
Just, for the, for the audience.
Dad (20:15):
Yeah.
I, I'll tell you what though,it, it comes before, it
definitely comes before puttingon sunscreen.
Yeah.
Because i've also locked in thathabit and i've done it backwards
and it is nasty Get a little bitof sunscreen sunscreen.
No, no when you put sunscreen onyour face and then you grab the
floss
Ashton (20:33):
Yeah, that'll do it.
The mints and spf don't gotogether.
Well, not at all.
He talks about how habits arenot good or bad but effective or
non effective Or yeah, there'sonly effective habits and then
there's some that don't qualifythe only other thing That he
talks about here that I think isactually pretty interesting, is
(20:53):
he brings up the Japaneserailway system, and I'm sure he
talks about this in the book andhopefully he didn't just mention
it as I was reading it, but hetalks about how the operators on
the railway system will pointand call out the trains.
Things so like he says this isdirectly from his website a page
called the habit scorecard usethe simple exercise to discover
(21:15):
Which habits you should change?
He says as each operator runsthe train they proceed through a
ritual of pointing at differentobjects and calling out commands
when the train Approaches asignal the operator will point
at it and say signal is green asthe train pulls into and out of
each station The operator willpoint at the speedometer and
call it the exact speed Everydetail is identified, pointed
at, and named aloud.
I think that's prettyinteresting.
Like, if we, if we pointed outand named aloud our habits in
(21:38):
the morning, kind of like thehabit scorecard, but a little
bit more, less righty downy, butmore point outy.
If I pointed at my phone in themorning and said, I'm gonna
check it now, I probablywouldn't, because I'd then have
the presence of mind to not to.
Unless I needed to I mean unlessI wanted to but I don't know I
think pointing out.
(21:58):
It's pretty
Dad (21:58):
interesting Well, I and the premise behind that is that
you're aware of the behavior,and then you're just bringing it
up and saying I'm about teachips and salsa and then you can
say wait Is that really gonna beis that really gonna be the best
thing to do right now before Igo to bed?
Right, so I like that is is thecalling it out pointed out.
(22:19):
Thanks for that example.
That's great.
Ashton (22:21):
No worries I know I have never thought of salsa and
cereal going together.
That's super interesting.
Dad (22:26):
I'm gonna have to try that now Well, it's just the sweet
and the salt.
Well, they're not togethertogether
Gideon (22:31):
Also for milk with your Cheerios is not the way to go.
Well,
Ashton (22:35):
that's cuz you're eating Cheerios Cheerios aren't
Gideon (22:37):
as good.
Do you imagine Captain Crunchwith salsa?
Ashton (22:40):
Yeah.
Stop.
It might be nice.
Stop.
Fruit Loops, I think would bebetter.
No.
Cause then, cause then it wouldbe more like a No.
The mango salsa stuff?
The...
Yeah, I don't know what you'retalking about.
It's so different.
You know, like the super sweetsalsa?
You don't know what
Dad (22:53):
I'm talking about?
I do know what you're talkingabout, but I don't know why
you'd mix that with cereal, so.
Well, you brought it up.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop usthere before we get too down,
too far down that rabbit hole,which we tend to do.
Makes editing a nightmare.
No, I'm just kidding.
People need to know about salsaand cereal.
Okay, we can keep it in.
Well, maybe that'll be the nameof the episode.
Salsa.
You'd get clicks.
But, but really, and and whydid, why does this even matter?
(23:15):
Well, because if I'm really, ifI look and say what would a
healthy person do, I would lookat that and say, they probably
wouldn't eat the cheer, theCheerios or the Frosted Flakes
or the salsa at that time ofnight, especially because I'm
not hungry.
I'm doing it just out of anxietyor stress or, you know,
labeling, whatever that is.
(23:35):
It's, that's keeping me upversus saying, look, it's time
for bed.
I'm not hungry.
Yeah.
And I'm pointing out what'swrong.
And then I step back and say,okay, the 1% rule, how am I
going to get 1% better at this?
Hey, first off, I think having ahabit scorecard would help me in
that 1%, you know, and then Ican start working on some of
these other tricks.
Oh, the, how would I, how wouldI have it stacking if I knew I
(23:57):
was going to go up and read abook?
Hey, that'd be great.
I'm going upstairs.
I'm going to brush my teeth.
I'm going to go read my book andI'm going to go to bed.
Another interesting thought
Ashton (24:05):
there is it makes the 1% easier to identify.
Like if you've got to have ascorecard of 100 things on it,
you know, you just got to changeone of them.
I was going to say 10, you onlyhave to change one, but that's
10%.
That might be a
Dad (24:16):
little ambitious.
Yeah, but that's a really goodpoint.
And I think part of that is justidentifying the different steps.
Gideon (24:23):
That's, that was the whole point is to, to identify
and know what you're doing.
Then you feel in control.
Dad (24:30):
I think it'd be fair to challenge us and the listener on
this one is we get ready forthis new school year and we're
getting back into differentrhythm and, and, and activities.
We take the time and step backsay what do I really want to
achieve.
And then what would theprofessional, the, the great
example of that how would theydo it, what would they do, and
(24:53):
then put the 1% rule in place,work on habit stacking and get a
habit scorecard.
So that we can really improve.
And have the best school yearpossible, or the best teaching
the best school year, every workyear.
Yeah.
Maybe even just the best self,the best self, and really just a
(25:14):
chance to start over.
Take, take it as a chance to,instead of just looking at it in
January and writing down a wholelist of things, go ahead and
start in August 15th, go aheadand start September 1st.
Just start.
Makes editing a nightmare.
No, I'm just kidding.
People need to know about salsaand cereal.
Okay, we can keep it in.
Well, maybe that'll be the nameof the episode.
Salsa.
You'd get clicks.
But, but really, and and whydid, why does this even matter?
Well, because if I'm really, ifI look and say what would a
healthy person do, I would lookat that and say, they probably
wouldn't eat the cheer, theCheerios or the Frosted Flakes
(00:22):
or the salsa at that time ofnight, especially because I'm
not hungry.
I'm doing it just out of anxietyor stress or, you know,
labeling, whatever that is.
It's, that's keeping me upversus saying, look, it's time
for bed.
I'm not hungry.
Yeah.
And I'm pointing out what'swrong.
And then I step back and say,okay, the 1% rule, how am I
going to get 1% better at this?
(00:43):
Hey, first off, I think having ahabit scorecard would help me in
that 1%, you know, and then Ican start working on some of
these other tricks.
(03:16):
We're starting the new schoolyear for a lot of people.
It's going to be in college.
They've got the new school yearcoming up.
Gideon, what year are youstarting this year?
Gideon (03:26):
I'm going to be my last year of my master's, senior.
Cool.
Ashton (03:35):
You got me beat.
Ashton,
Dad (03:36):
what school year are you starting?
I'm
Ashton (03:39):
going back to my freshman year of high school.
That's
Dad (03:42):
what it's going to feel like a little bit, right?
Yep.
So I thought it would be prettyappropriate to talk this, this
episode is, the goal is to dropthis right about the start of
school school starts in Utah onApril 15th this year, which is
August.
Oh yeah.
It started with an A.
I was close.
So August 15th, and, and whenyou start a new school year,
(04:02):
sometimes you want to come outstrong.
You want to do your best.
You know, you might sit down.
It's kind of like a new year fora lot of adults.
A lot of adults look at Januaryas the time to shine.
To do something new.
So I wanted to talk a little bitabout that.
Have you caught yourself wantingto start something new, but not
quite sure how to do it all thetime?
(04:22):
Yes.
It's fair enough.
So Gideon and I were having thisconversation earlier about the
book, atomic habits, habits.
By James Clear.
This isn't going to be a bookreview.
It probably should be.
There's plenty of informationon, on Atomic Habits.
He talks about a variety ofstrategies and concepts of
(04:44):
building and sustaining positivehabits.
We're kind of just going to grabthree of them.
I think he's got eleven inthere.
But we're going to just grabthree of them that we thought
were important to kind ofhighlight, to focus on, to spend
a little bit of time on.
Just starting those off, thethree that we're going to cover
for, for y'all just so you know,the 1% rule, habit stacking,
(05:05):
habit scorecard.
We'll see where the tangents go,I guess, maybe a little bit, but
the 1% rule getting, do you wantto give us a quick rundown on
that conversation we're having?
Sure.
And
Gideon (05:19):
it might be easier to tell a story along with it.
Love it.
So the British cycling team, I'msure some of you guys have heard
this.
The British cycling team wasdoing very, very, very poorly in
I'm not sure the time period onit, but they were not doing very
good.
And then they got a new managerand his whole point of view was
(05:41):
to, to change 1% better everysingle day.
And so, you know, he do some ofthe typical things like change
the bike seat you know, switchclothes, stuff like that.
And then slowly he got to themore.
Strange things that people mightnot have expected like painting
(06:01):
the inside of their travel vanwhite so they could see all the
dust and just smaller thingslike that and It ended up
compounding Relatively quicklyso in five years the British
cycling team was winning a lotOf events they won.
I think it was 60% of the goldmedals available and so they did
(06:24):
You Very well, and it was veryimpactful for them and the whole
philosophy was if you even dosmall things 1% changes that
Dad (06:34):
Yeah, I like it.
I think that's a good it I likethat you shared it with the
story and kind of gave us a agrasp there So I have to ask
Ashton (06:43):
you said they painted their inside of their van white
so they could see the dust Is
Gideon (06:47):
that because you know, they don't want the writers to
get sick And so the dust was tomake sure they didn't get sick.
And then a lot of their, theirvery high quality bike
components can now get dust inthem or else they wouldn't work
properly.
The white was just to see thedirt around them.
(07:08):
Make
Dad (07:08):
it really easy to see.
Yeah.
And I think also, right.
As, as they paint it white, youcan start to see where the dust
is coming in at and fix thoseproblems.
Right.
That would be the next 1%improvement.
Yeah.
There's lots.
1% doesn't seem like a lot.
Ashton (07:27):
Well, it's interesting this whole idea because Utah the
football team went through acouple of tragedies last year,
two years ago both players thathad were the number 22.
And so it became a thing to saythey were going to be 22% better
every day.
Something one of the playerssaid that passed.
And so every.
(07:49):
Every game and in a bunch of themerch and promo stuff.
It's all 22% better every day,but I was thinking about it 1%
to get to 100% it only takes 100days
Gideon (08:01):
Yeah, 22% is a lot
Dad (08:03):
a lot of percent Yeah, the hard part becomes is so if you
have this big goal, right?
So going into this new schoolyear What might be a big goal
the action think of what yourstudents might have or get in?
What do you have?
What?
What would be that big goal howwould you look at getting 1%
better every day?
(08:27):
I mean, is there something,yeah, either one of you?
Gideon (08:29):
So let's say for a typical high school student, a
big goal would be to have goodgrades for, for scholarships,
especially senior year.
So your goal could be, you know,all A's and then 1% changes you
could do just for an examplewould be to go to sleep on time.
(08:50):
Oh, wow.
Or to, you know, start yourhomework as soon as you can,
like the day you get it, even ifit's not due for a couple weeks,
just set little reminders to dothat or,
Dad (09:02):
I like that.
I like both of those.
You know, yeah, I like that.
You said the big goal is to getA's and then you look at all the
different things that play intothat and you're like, maybe I
don't get enough sleep.
Maybe I'm falling asleep inclass.
Maybe I'm not organized, youknow, so you're going, okay, how
do I get 1% better?
Oh, I'm going to take a notebooktoday or I'm going to write down
something, you know, whatever.
(09:23):
So I think if we're reallyfocused on that daily, it helps
When a habit gets closer to thata hundred percent.
Right.
So let's say you're writing thatin your range.
Okay.
I think the harder part is to gofrom an A to an A, because
you're already up there.
(09:44):
Those are the ones that youstill need to keep evaluating if
that's still an important goal.
And those changes are almostharder to make, because you're
so used to it or they're harderto see, you might be more, more
involved in it.
So I like that.
Cool.
Any other thoughts on the 1%ers?
Gideon (10:06):
I'm not sure.
I mean, you could always look atother, other goals too and find
examples,
Dad (10:10):
but...
I think when the one thing Iwanted to talk about while we're
on this is something you and Iwere talking about and it's
almost what I titled the episodeand then I realized we can
change it a little bit, but itwould, what would, what would an
a student do on that example?
What would, you know, if you'retrying to mirror a college
(10:35):
football player, you want to bea college football player, you
almost have to say, well, whatdoes.
Camerizing do right?
What would and then you've gotto start putting those habits in
place, right?
So so as you're thinking of thisis you said A's you might first
initially step back and go Ican't think of anything So you
might need to go look at whatdoes an A student do?
(11:01):
And that's probably true withthe next ones that we're talking
about too But but I think thefirst thing is to start
identifying where those gapswould be I think the British
cycling team because they werelosing so bad to your point
getting like some of the stuffwas just easy The coach was able
to come in and say we needdifferent bicycle seats.
We need to train harder
Gideon (11:20):
Yeah I was just gonna say they're losing so bad even a
couple big brands would stopselling their bikes to the
British cycling team because itwould
Dad (11:31):
And that's probably fair with some people going to school
having such a hard time gettingup in the morning.
And I love that you said go tobed earlier was one of your
first things, but sometimes inorder to figure out your habit,
you need to look at whatsuccessful people are doing that
are, are, are reaching to thosegoals.
(11:52):
The other one we were going totalk about is habit stacking and
any thoughts on that?
And I've got one that I lovethat I did.
But any thoughts on habitstacking?
Gideon (12:03):
Are you going to explain what it is?
No,
Dad (12:05):
maybe you should do that.
That's a good idea.
Gideon (12:07):
Okay.
I know sometimes I fumble mywords, but I literally listened
to these chapters this morningas I was mowing lawns, but habit
stacking is taking a habit thatyou already have.
Say your morning routine is getup, turn my alarm off, make my
(12:28):
bed, take a shower.
And Let's say this is actuallyan example straight from, from
the book, but let's say that youwant to read every night.
His thing is get up, turn youralarm off, make your bed, put a
book on your pillow, take ashower.
So you're stacking your habitstogether.
(12:50):
So then your brain automaticallyknows, oh, as soon as I make my
bed, part of making my bed isputting that book on my pillow.
So then when you go to, you goto sleep at night.
You're going into your bed,you're like, Oh, there's already
a book here for me to enjoy.
So the whole basis is stackinghabits on top of each other and
(13:13):
then adding little ones thatyou'd like to introduce into
your daily life.
Dad (13:20):
That's a great, that's a great example.
One that I did for me was I knewI wanted to floss my teeth and
it goes back to when I was atthe dentist one time.
He was had to do a root canal.
You guys know what a root canalis?
Have you ever had one of thosedone?
Ashton (13:35):
Nope, haven't had one of those done.
But no, I've heard of them.
They suck.
Dad (13:39):
Yeah, so they drill, they drill through your tooth and
they actually grab the root thatgoes into the, into the bone jaw
of your mouth.
Then they pull it out.
And they do that because you'vegot a cavity or some type of
infection.
And he starts doing this and hegoes, Oh, this is interesting.
I can do this one.
I don't need to send youanywhere.
You have an average sized route.
And I started thinking, I'mlike, average that suck.
(14:01):
I don't want to be.
Yeah.
I don't want to be average.
You know, I looked at him like Ihave, I have an average house.
I have average number of kids.
I have average.
You know, what can I be aboveaverage on?
One thing I realized is if Ifloss my teeth, I asked the
dentist, I said, Hey, if Istarted flossing my teeth every
day, where would I be at?
He goes, man, you'd be in thetop 1%.
He goes, you know what?
(14:21):
If our male clients, excuse me,he goes, you'd be in the top 5%.
He goes, you know, in our, ofour male clients, you'd probably
be in the top 1% of, of peopleif you started flossing your
teeth every day.
So I went home and I thought,okay, I'm going to floss my
teeth, teeth every day.
And I went home and I flossedthem and I went to bed and next
day I got up and I did my thingand went down, laid down to bed
(14:44):
and was laying down at night andthought, how did I do today?
And I said, Oh, great.
Went to sleep.
Woke up the next day and went,Oh, I was going to floss my
teeth every day.
Like I totally spaced it.
And I didn't even think aboutit.
I didn't have, I didn't have areason to think about it.
Never came across my mind.
Like, okay, so one of theproblems I have is I'm not doing
it every day.
How do I do it every day?
How do I do it today?
(15:05):
Stack it with, what can I put itwith?
Well, one thing I do every dayas I shower and I'm, I'm pretty
consistent to shower, I buy mydaily shower.
It's a habit.
Yeah.
Normally in the morning, right.
By get up, I get going.
One of the things I do is I takemy shower and I'm like, oh, if I
anchored this to me, brush myteeth to my shower.
(15:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
Me.
Yeah.
Cause I've already anchored.
That's yeah.
So I, I've already, whenever Ishower, I brush my teeth right
after.
Just what I do like if Ianchored that right there in
that movement and it became partof it I think I can start doing
this so I had no visual Cues,but I didn't know after I
brushed my teeth I was gonnafloss and then then somebody
(15:48):
told me well Maybe you shouldfloss before you brush your
teeth and it doesn't matter tome So I've actually changed it
to where I floss and then brushand I'm like, okay, whatever I
just changed it later, but Ihave never heard flossing
before, but anyway, so I'd flossand I'd go, good job.
And then I'd go on my day,right?
So I gave myself a reward.
You're awesome way to brush yourteeth.
Well, yesterday I caught myself,I showered once in the morning
(16:11):
and then went out and had to fixa car.
And so I just, and it was so hotand I just was hot and dirty.
I, so I got up, I, I did mymorning ritual.
I brushed my teeth.
Flossed, you know, cause nowit's so anchored in there.
I just do it while I take ashower at night, getting out of
the shower, I flossed andbrushed my teeth because it's so
tied to that shower that I didit without even thinking about
(16:34):
it, which I would consider to bea pretty, pretty powerful habit
and a habit stacker.
On that one, I think it's, itstill goes back to what, what
would you want to do?
What, what do you want toimprove upon?
And then, then how do you stackit?
Have you stacked anything,Gideon, successfully that, that,
that you've worked on or?
Gideon (16:53):
Honestly, I don't know.
I'd have to think about it.
Fair.
Unconsciously, sure.
Like, probably bad habits.
Dad (17:03):
Sure.
I think that's, I think that'san easy one, right?
Yeah.
As I catch myself at night andprobably not a habit stacker,
but you know, when I get readyto go to bed, I want to pull a
cold cereal.
And then if I have cold cereal,then I need something salty.
So cold cereal and salsa rightbefore I go to bed is probably
pretty healthy for me.
Perfect.
No, but that's not really ahabit.
(17:24):
Do
Ashton (17:24):
the, do the cold cereal and the salsa get eaten
together?
Dad (17:27):
Oh, it's not within five minutes.
But no, I think a habit.
Salsa is just the milk.
I think a true habit stacker forme that's probably not a good
habit is, is a, like a morningcaffeinated drink.
I'm like, Oh, I need thiscaffeine.
It's just tied to getting up andgetting ready for the day.
Gideon (17:46):
Yeah.
And I think that almostperfectly ties in with the
scorecard.
Dad (17:50):
Yeah.
So thank you.
Yeah.
So the next one we want to talkabout was habits scorecard.
Gideon, did you want to run usthrough that real quick?
Gideon (17:57):
Sure.
So the whole point of the habitsscorecard and you can find your
own habits scorecard on theatomic habits website, just so
we don't like.
You know, we got to give JamesClear's credit because it's a
great book and you should alllisten to it.
And you can find a template ofthe habit scorecard on there.
(18:19):
The habit scorecard is where youwrite down your daily habits and
then next to your daily habityou write if it is a net
positive, a net equal, or a netnegative to where you want to
go.
For an example, let's use amorning routine again, just
because it's easy.
(18:40):
Let's say you wake up, turn offyour alarm, check your phone
make your bed, shower, have acup of coffee, have some cereal,
something like that.
So then you'd write down, nextto your, next to your habits,
whether they're adding to yourlife, it's equal, or if it's
(19:02):
like a bad habit, then you'dwrite a minus.
So, waking up, equal, turn offyour alarm, equal.
Checking your phone, it'sprobably net minus, probably
shouldn't be doing that.
Making your bed, positive,shower, positive.
So you just, you go through andyou can consciously see what
(19:23):
you're doing to either help orhurt where you want to go.
And he said that sometimes thatmight not be enough and before
you do anything, you say toyourself out loud I am
performing this task, like, I'mabout to check my phone in the
morning and it is not helpingme.
(19:46):
And he's just like, you gotta beconsciously aware of what you're
doing to, to know.
Ashton (19:56):
I was curious, so I googled it, and it's pretty
interesting, you know, he talksabout here, James Clear, I'm
assuming it's he he talks aboutthe habit scorecard, and he
talks about, actually, firstthing I noticed is, flossing his
teeth came after brushing on hisscorecard.
Oh, there you go.
Just, for the, for the audience.
Dad (20:15):
Yeah.
I, I'll tell you what though,it, it comes before, it
definitely comes before puttingon sunscreen.
Yeah.
Because i've also locked in thathabit and i've done it backwards
and it is nasty Get a little bitof sunscreen sunscreen.
No, no when you put sunscreen onyour face and then you grab the
floss
Ashton (20:33):
Yeah, that'll do it.
The mints and spf don't gotogether.
Well, not at all.
He talks about how habits arenot good or bad but effective or
non effective Or yeah, there'sonly effective habits and then
there's some that don't qualifythe only other thing That he
talks about here that I think isactually pretty interesting, is
(20:53):
he brings up the Japaneserailway system, and I'm sure he
talks about this in the book andhopefully he didn't just mention
it as I was reading it, but hetalks about how the operators on
the railway system will pointand call out the trains.
Things so like he says this isdirectly from his website a page
called the habit scorecard usethe simple exercise to discover
(21:15):
Which habits you should change?
He says as each operator runsthe train they proceed through a
ritual of pointing at differentobjects and calling out commands
when the train Approaches asignal the operator will point
at it and say signal is green asthe train pulls into and out of
each station The operator willpoint at the speedometer and
call it the exact speed Everydetail is identified, pointed
at, and named aloud.
I think that's prettyinteresting.
Like, if we, if we pointed outand named aloud our habits in
(21:38):
the morning, kind of like thehabit scorecard, but a little
bit more, less righty downy, butmore point outy.
If I pointed at my phone in themorning and said, I'm gonna
check it now, I probablywouldn't, because I'd then have
the presence of mind to not to.
Unless I needed to I mean unlessI wanted to but I don't know I
think pointing out.
(21:58):
It's pretty
Dad (21:58):
interesting Well, I and the premise behind that is that
you're aware of the behavior,and then you're just bringing it
up and saying I'm about teachips and salsa and then you can
say wait Is that really gonna beis that really gonna be the best
thing to do right now before Igo to bed?
Right, so I like that is is thecalling it out pointed out.
(22:19):
Thanks for that example.
That's great.
Ashton (22:21):
No worries I know I have never thought of salsa and
cereal going together.
That's super interesting.
Dad (22:26):
I'm gonna have to try that now Well, it's just the sweet
and the salt.
Well, they're not togethertogether
Gideon (22:31):
Also for milk with your Cheerios is not the way to go.
Well,
Ashton (22:35):
that's cuz you're eating Cheerios Cheerios aren't
Gideon (22:37):
as good.
Do you imagine Captain Crunchwith salsa?
Ashton (22:40):
Yeah.
Stop.
It might be nice.
Stop.
Fruit Loops, I think would bebetter.
No.
Cause then, cause then it wouldbe more like a No.
The mango salsa stuff?
The...
Yeah, I don't know what you'retalking about.
It's so different.
You know, like the super sweetsalsa?
You don't know what
Dad (22:53):
I'm talking about?
I do know what you're talkingabout, but I don't know why
you'd mix that with cereal, so.
Well, you brought it up.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna stop usthere before we get too down,
too far down that rabbit hole,which we tend to do.
Makes editing a nightmare.
No, I'm just kidding.
People need to know about salsaand cereal.
Okay, we can keep it in.
Well, maybe that'll be the nameof the episode.
Salsa.
You'd get clicks.
But, but really, and and whydid, why does this even matter?
(23:15):
Well, because if I'm really, ifI look and say what would a
healthy person do, I would lookat that and say, they probably
wouldn't eat the cheer, theCheerios or the Frosted Flakes
or the salsa at that time ofnight, especially because I'm
not hungry.
I'm doing it just out of anxietyor stress or, you know,
labeling, whatever that is.
(23:35):
It's, that's keeping me upversus saying, look, it's time
for bed.
I'm not hungry.
Yeah.
And I'm pointing out what'swrong.
And then I step back and say,okay, the 1% rule, how am I
going to get 1% better at this?
Hey, first off, I think having ahabit scorecard would help me in
that 1%, you know, and then Ican start working on some of
these other tricks.
Oh, the, how would I, how wouldI have it stacking if I knew I
(23:57):
was going to go up and read abook?
Hey, that'd be great.
I'm going upstairs.
I'm going to brush my teeth.
I'm going to go read my book andI'm going to go to bed.
Another interesting thought
Ashton (24:05):
there is it makes the 1% easier to identify.
Like if you've got to have ascorecard of 100 things on it,
you know, you just got to changeone of them.
I was going to say 10, you onlyhave to change one, but that's
10%.
That might be a
Dad (24:16):
little ambitious.
Yeah, but that's a really goodpoint.
And I think part of that is justidentifying the different steps.
Gideon (24:23):
That's, that was the whole point is to, to identify
and know what you're doing.
Then you feel in control.
Dad (24:30):
I think it'd be fair to challenge us and the listener on
this one is we get ready forthis new school year and we're
getting back into differentrhythm and, and, and activities.
We take the time and step backsay what do I really want to
achieve.
And then what would theprofessional, the, the great
example of that how would theydo it, what would they do, and
(24:53):
then put the 1% rule in place,work on habit stacking and get a
habit scorecard.
So that we can really improve.
And have the best school yearpossible, or the best teaching
the best school year, every workyear.
Yeah.
Maybe even just the best self,the best self, and really just a
(25:14):
chance to start over.
Take, take it as a chance to,instead of just looking at it in
January and writing down a wholelist of things, go ahead and
start in August 15th, go aheadand start September 1st.
Just start.
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