August 3, 2025 • 29 mins
Creating positive habits transforms your life, yet most of us find ourselves trapped in negative cycles of scrolling, junk food, and poor sleep. What separates those who successfully build good habits from those perpetually stuck in unhealthy patterns?
The key lies in understanding how our brains physically change during habit formation. When you repeat an activity for 21 consecutive days, you begin building neural pathways that make behaviors automatic rather than requiring constant willpower. This biological reality explains why those first three weeks of any new health practice feel so challenging - and why missing even one day can subtly undermine your progress.
Instead of relying solely on discipline, successful habit-builders use strategic accountability systems. These range from technological tools like habit tracking apps (Habitica, Habit Bull, Strides) to analog methods like vision boards and journaling. One particularly powerful technique involves writing detailed descriptions of your ideal future in present tense, as though already achieved. When revisiting such a document written 30 years earlier, everything on it had manifested - from rebuilding family life after divorce to creating a business aligned with natural talents.
Community support represents another crucial element in habit formation. Finding people who share your health goals creates natural accountability and provides invaluable experiential wisdom. Whether joining condition-specific support groups or workout partners, these connections amplify motivation and practical knowledge.
"Habit stacking" offers perhaps the most efficient approach to building positive routines - attaching new behaviors to existing ones. Rather than trying to remember multiple new practices, simply connect them to actions you already perform automatically, creating a domino effect of positive change with minimal mental effort.
The journey of habit formation ultimately reveals profound truths about yourself - what motivates you, what obstacles appear consistently, and what strategies work for your unique temperament. Be patient, make adjustments when needed, and remember that everyone's path looks different. Share your own habit-building experiences or health journey on a future episode by reaching out at grumbinejoe@gmail.com.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and I just want to share a
little gratitude for everybodywho supported this podcast, and
whether it's by listening orsubscribing, or sharing talking
about it or even participatingas a guest, sharing, talking
(00:25):
about it or even participatingas a guest.
This has started out as a laborof love and it continues as
such, but fortunately, the showis actually standing on its own
two feet now, and thesubscriptions are at least
paying for the price ofproducing the show and allowing
us to produce it in a higherstandard, and so we're I'm super
(00:48):
grateful for all of that, andif you're interested in
participating as a guest, youknow I would love to hear your
story.
I'd love to talk about yourjourney to health, whether
you're a patient or somebody whohas made some discoveries along
the way.
Maybe you've got questions,maybe you want to do an online
(01:09):
consultation live.
We haven't done that yet, butmaybe that would be a good
podcast.
Practitioners, physicians,authors there's a place for all
of it.
I believe that having a robustconversation about a topic such
as healthy living brings us toanswers, real answers, truthful
(01:34):
answers, not just one person youknow, with one point of view,
one set of experiences, or knowone company trying to promote
one product or idea or service.
So if you're interested inparticipating, you can either
respond through whatever theplatform that you're listening
(01:56):
to.
Generally there's a place toleave a comment.
You can put up a review thatwould always be wonderful or
reach out grumbinejoe atgmailcom I'm pretty sure that's
in the show notes.
If not, I'll make sure that itis and you know, let's schedule
an interview.
(02:17):
So today I want to talk abouthabits, especially building
habits.
So it seems that we are in aconstant state of habits and
ruts, and more often than notthey tend to be negative or
unhealthy habits.
(02:38):
Whether it's scrolling in yourlittle square box or eating junk
food or gossiping, or stayingup late at night doing stupid
shit or drugs or alcohol or, youknow, bad eating habits,
(02:59):
whatever, it's so easy to fallinto a negative habit, a habit
that has some kind of a rut, andI want to talk about building
good habits.
It's an activity for 21 daysstraight that you start to build
(03:26):
the neural pathways that willcause a habit to exist.
Now, how do you get yourself todo that, though?
There's straight up willpowerand discipline.
Hey, if you've got it, use it.
You can just decide to make ahabit.
How many of us do that?
On January 1st with our NewYear's resolutions, I'm going to
(03:48):
go to the gym, I'm going to runa mile every day, I'm going to
whatever, insert good habitthere and a week or two into it,
there's always that reason that, well, maybe not today or maybe
I'll just do halfway.
The second you compromise thatrepetitive motion, you undermine
(04:12):
it, you give it less value and,yeah, we can always make those
choices and get back to it.
That's the one good thing.
That's why I've never been abig Alcoholics Anonymous fan,
even though I know it helps alot of people.
The crutches are too easy toturn into excuses, I think.
(04:32):
However, you know, use whatworks.
That's my answer.
That's what I'm doing in myhealth journey is if it works,
I'm doing it and that's what I'mtrying to share here.
So I did a little bit ofresearch, not just my own
personal experience, but I'mgoing to look at with the old
school ways, you know, man upand just do it.
(04:56):
But I'm going to jump into somemore modern applications and
technological tools.
(05:18):
Negative experiences orfeelings or impressions about
all the technology we rely upon.
I find myself relying upon itas well.
I'll use AI a little bit toresearch a topic sometimes, or
(05:39):
I'll use my GPS instead of a map, or relying on my knowledge of
the lay of the land or thesethings.
So we're using apps more andmore and trying not to rely on
any of these too much, but thereare some good ones out there.
So I want to start out with alittle bit of technology as far
(06:01):
as tools go.
So there are some apps outthere that track habits, and I
think that's a lot of.
What is required to create ahabit is to be accountable.
So when I started losing myweight, I made a habit of
(06:22):
weighing myself at the same timeevery day.
Made a habit of weighing myselfat the same time every day and,
no matter what, when I get up,do my business, and so you know
I have this pretty accurate uhrecord of my weight gains and
(06:43):
losses, monitored basically fromthe same spot each time and
paying attention to that, andit's been helpful.
I I was able to create abenchmark of where I'm willing
to go above or not and where I'mwilling to go below or not.
(07:05):
I've had to deal with both ofthose, especially with my cancer
journey.
I never thought I would have todeal with a low weight
acceptable level, but I came upto it and I had had to
acknowledge it and it came fromthe same thing, from that, that
recurring, uh habit of weighingmyself at the same time every
day.
Now there are that's just medoing it, there's no, nothing
(07:29):
tracking it.
But there are habit trackingapps and uh, there's one called
habitica and and it turnsturning tasks into like a game.
There's Habit Bull allows youto track multiple habits at a
time and be able to visualizeyour process.
(07:51):
There's another one calledStrides.
It's got all kinds of featuresand reminders for different kind
of goals.
And then there's loop habittracker um, kind of an intuitive
, more straightforward habittracker, and and that's, you
know, just to track the habits.
There's also productivity andto-do list sort of apps.
(08:15):
There's to--do list, trello,microsoft to-do.
You can even use things likeOutlook or you know even your
calendar and just set reminders.
These are all simple deals.
There's also mindfulness andreflection tools.
There's a little diary programs, daily, oh streaks, uh,
(08:39):
reflective, reflectily.
These are all, um, you know,apps that can help you do things
like reverie, with a, with anaccountability.
And then nowadays there are somany ways to find things like
(09:01):
motivation and inspiration tocause us to find a habit or to
solidify a habitual practice.
You know you can go tosomething even just like
Pinterest and and set up a boardthat reflects the thing you're
(09:21):
doing, or quotes, or, you know,put up like a vision board.
Those are, those are.
You know you can do itelectronically on something like
Pinterest or or old schoolschool.
I think it's a great activityto sit down with your
construction paper and cut outmagazines.
And you know drawing picturesand make that vision board.
(09:46):
I have a big artist pad that Iuse not often enough, but when I
do I look back and I see theprogress.
Every time I create a newvision board, I look back at the
last one I did and I say, wow,look at that, look at how far
I've come.
And a lot of that has to dowith being accountable and
(10:09):
setting goals and creatinghabits as a result of those
things.
Putting your goals in front ofyou is a tool that will help you
to accept them and createpractices that will ultimately
become habits.
You know, for me I have asimple weight and measurement.
(10:32):
I have goals, and that's thefirst piece.
Then I have a scale.
It's a, you know, visual scale,a mental scale, and I place the
thing that I'm looking to do onthe scale and it either helps
me get to my goal or keeps mefrom it.
And if I'm on my track and I'mdoing what I should be doing, I
(10:58):
stay with the things that arehelping me get to my goals and
avoid the things that arekeeping me from them.
I think it's been a very it's atool.
I learned from a spiritualpractice I studied many years
ago and it was a great tool.
And you know I take bits andpieces from the journeys that I
go on and if I see somethingthat works, I try to repeat it.
(11:21):
You know that's anothermeasurement.
It doesn't work.
Is it helping um goal or not?
Is it something that's good?
That that I'm seeing what Iwant to see out of it?
Well, so, keep doing it is.
It doesn't seem to work.
You know you got two choicesmake a modification to it, keep
trying a little bit more, or letit go, do something else.
(11:45):
So these are all tools that youcan use.
You know things like YouTubeyou can set, or even what do you
call it?
There's a?
There's a Google program thatyou can track keywords Uh,
there's.
There's all kinds of of places,but YouTube's great because you
(12:05):
can set up your own playlistand you can create a search for
different types of content.
Maybe it's motivational uhspeakers, maybe it's a fitness
person, maybe it's somebody thatis going through healing
themselves of cancer or someother disease, maybe it's an
(12:28):
addiction group or somethinglike that.
These are amazing tools thatare out there and you can find
endless sorts of of information.
There's podcasts.
Hopefully, you would find thispodcast something that's worth
following because it will helpyou find your way to health and
find your way to good answers.
(12:48):
If not, there's lots of otherpodcasts that maybe you'll find
yourself more aligned with adifferent one.
Hey, find what works for you.
That's the key to this wholedeal.
You know the physical tools.
I'm I'm probably the mostaligned with.
(13:08):
You know so things like journals, and you can create specific
journals for specific projectsor general journals.
I think journaling itself is ahabit that, if you can get
yourself into and make itimportant, can be one of the
most beneficial tools you couldever have.
The best habit you can have.
(13:30):
You can create they have habittracker journals.
I mean, geez, we live in thisworld where, whatever it is, if
you can think about it, it'sprobably already been made and
you know, if you type in asearch tools to build good
habits, you'll find tons ofthings.
You know, even just that, usingyour AI to go find these kind
(13:52):
of answers yeah, I'm not sayingthat any of these things are
bulletproof answers.
Yeah, I'm not saying that anyof these things are bulletproof.
I'm just saying, just likeeverything in this podcast, all
the answers.
Find your way, find the thingthat speaks to you in the best
possible way.
You know, things like stickersand charts I think are cool.
(14:13):
Again, vision boards, any typeof.
There's a tool that I've usedand I recommend it to people and
it's kind of like a visionboard, but you can do it with
words, we can do it withpictures, but the idea is to
(14:33):
describe your perfect life inthe greatest detail that you can
and instead of saying this iswhat I want, you see that it's
already happened and you saythis is what it'll look like
when I'm at my perfect liferight now, the way I see it.
Here's what I have, and I tellyou what.
I've done that a few times andwhen I do it it works, in fact,
(14:58):
so well that one time I did thisI don't know probably 30 years
ago, and it came out of theadvice of a mentor and I've only
had a few mentors in my lifebut this guy had some really
good advice for me at that timein my life and he gave me this
tool and I used it, I ran withit and I drew this map and I
(15:33):
don't know, it was probably fouror five years ago, but I look
back at this tool that I hadwritten and, son of a bitch,
everything that I put down hadhappened and they were not
little things, they were thingslike I.
(15:54):
You know, at the time I wrotethis, I was recently divorced
and single and I wanted a stablerelationship, a family.
I wanted that.
I wanted a stable relationship,a family.
I wanted that.
At the time I had lost my homeand I was living in an apartment
and I wanted some land again.
I wanted to own a home and havea land.
I wanted a business where I didthe things that came natural to
(16:18):
me, just all these pieces.
And then, you know, severalyears later, I went back and I
looked and no shit if I hadn'tchecked off everything on that
list and I didn't even look atit again after I wrote it.
I wrote it and I put it awaysomewhere.
So these are tools.
Vision boards can be powerful,especially if you do them
regularly, you know, create amarker maybe four times a year
(16:44):
and revisit your vision boardand don't look at the old one
until you've made the new one.
Make that new one first andthen go back and look at the old
one and see where you've comefrom and see what's changed.
These are all good things.
Community is powerful.
Are all good things?
(17:10):
Community is powerful Findingpeople that share your goals and
experiences.
So for me, in my journey to healmyself from cancer, I have
found a number of groups DrHoffman's group, which there's a
link in this show notes of thispodcast.
I found Mark Simon's group.
He has a website called Noriand I found that group to be
(17:32):
very interesting and informative, and some of the people on Dr
Hoffman's group are in MarkSimon's group.
That's great.
We share these commonexperiences, remind each other
of things that we've learned.
I found a Facebook group ofpeople that are going through,
(17:53):
or have gone through, squamouscell carcinoma, just like me,
and this has got over 1,700active members around the world.
So I'm seeing this wealth ofexperience.
That is my experience and it'shelping me solve problems that
are unique to my experience.
There's all kinds of Facebookgroups, meetup groups, you name
(18:18):
it.
There's all kinds of places tofind people that are like-minded
.
It doesn't take much effort,but you know, again, go to your
AI, your Google and search thesesorts of things and you'll find
them.
Creating your own small group ishuge, especially for being
(18:42):
accountable.
So if you find, you know, someworkout buddies, if your goals
are to get healthy physically,well then great.
Find some people that sharesome of the same goals.
If you're running, if you liketo run, then find some running
buddies.
If you lift weights or do yoga,pilatesates, whatever is your
(19:03):
your poison, find people to dothat with that share your goals
and hold each other accountable.
That's kind of the wholepractice with aa is you have
sponsors and and people thatshare their experience and you
hold each other accountable.
That part of those kind ofprograms I do support.
I think that's important.
(19:24):
All the rules and regulationsI'm not so keen on, but that
part of it I think is powerful.
So connect yourself with peoplea person or people that you
share goals and values with, andhold each other accountability.
Goals and values with, and holdeach other accountability.
(19:50):
Things like time managementtools can be very helpful,
because I think a lot of times,the thing that keeps us from
keeping a good habit fromdeveloping is we never have time
because we're busy with all ofour bad habits, we're busy
scrolling, we're busy watchingthe videos, we're busy yapping
and gossiping and doing all thestupid shit to take our time and
we don't make the time to dothe things we really want to do.
(20:10):
And so managing your time canbe powerful.
It can.
You'd be surprised how muchtime you can clear out when you
prioritize and actually startbeing accountable for the things
that you have time for, because, frankly, you're the only one
that decides that.
So if you go, well, I don'thave time for this, well, why
not?
What do you do it instead?
And you know things like screentime monitors.
(20:33):
They're important because itreminds you hey, look at that,
yesterday you spent eight hourson the frigging screen.
What were you doing?
If you're doing research andimportant stuff, then great,
acknowledge it, own it, use itas a tool If you're wasting your
time on stupid shit, well,maybe you could have done
something better with it, own itas well.
(20:54):
So this is all good stuff.
There's drastic measures likebehavioral change techniques.
I mean things like holdingyourself accountable, giving
yourself consequences.
You say to yourself well, if Ido this and I manage to do it
for a period of time, I givemyself a reward.
(21:15):
If I don't do it, maybe yougive yourself a consequence.
Maybe you're able to bedisciplined enough to do
something like that.
There's extreme measures,things like NLP,
neuro-linguistic programming.
There's all types of energywork, hypnosis, self-hypnosis,
affirmations.
There's all kinds of things youcan do to cause your behavior
(21:39):
to change.
But I think the most importantthing to do is to own it, to
make the decision, to say outloud this is what I'm doing,
this is what I want to do.
I'm doing this because I wantto own it.
And so many times we makeexcuses for why we did something
or didn't do something.
Well, you made me do this or Idid it because of this.
(22:02):
No, no, no.
Own it.
And if you can do that, you'dbe surprised how many things
you'll start to do that you setout to because there's nobody.
It's like that Zeppelin songnobody's fault but mine.
And if you can own that, well,guess what?
You're just making choices.
And you come to realize that,yes, you're just making choices.
(22:23):
So, you know, get out there andstart making some good ones.
Habit stacking is another littletool that can get you to a goal
.
So, if you think about it, yougo well, you know, I want to be
healthy, I want to lose weight,so I'm going to start eating
better.
Okay, cool, maybe you do aseries of things to eat better.
(22:44):
Maybe you cut the sugar out,maybe you cut the processed
foods out, maybe you startgrowing your own food, maybe you
start, you know, choosing tomake your own food more and
being mindful of the ingredienton and on and on, label reading,
sourcing your food, all ofthose things.
But stacking these habits cansometimes make it easier.
(23:07):
It's like chunking a big taskout into smaller tasks and when
they overlap and feed each other, you know, you say to yourself
well, I'm going to startintermittent fasting.
Okay, well, great, when I getoff my fast, I'm frigging hungry
.
What am I going to eat?
And then you go okay, well,remember, we're not eating this,
(23:28):
that or the other thing, or weare eating this.
You just stack these habits andyou'd be surprised how powerful
that can be.
Or even things like timetables,like say, well, every day I
make coffee, every day I go andI take a dump in the morning.
Every day I brush my teeth.
Every day I tie my shoes.
Whatever is your, you'realready given.
(23:51):
Well, attach a habit to thatand say, well, you know what,
every time I'm sitting on thattoilet, I'm going to set the
timer, I'm going to meditate forfive minutes.
Five minutes, two minutes, oneminute, whatever.
Give yourself something that'sattainable.
After I brush my teeth, I'mgoing to drink a big glass of
water, whatever.
You can stack these thingsanyway, but I think it can be.
(24:11):
A powerful tool is to attachone good habit to another.
There are lots of good resources.
There are lots of good speakers, tools, authors here's a couple
of just off the cuff.
There's books, audio books,physical books, workshops,
(24:35):
seminars.
There's so many tools ofreinforcement and being told
what to do by people who havedone it.
There's a book called AtomicHabits by James Clear, the Power
of Habit by Charles Duhigg,mindset by Carol S Dweck.
(24:55):
These are all good resources,but there's so many, so many.
But there's so many, so many,and maybe looking at your goals
and finding a resource that'smore tied to your goal in
particular than just setting thehabit might be better for you.
There's online courses.
(25:17):
There's just so many greatresources, so I don't know.
I think that we've touched on alot of good ideas.
Just remember, to create a goodhabit, it's going to probably
involve a combination of tools.
It's going to involveconsistency.
(25:38):
It's going to involveself-awareness.
It's going to involvecommitment.
It's going to involveself-awareness.
It's going to involvecommitment.
It's going to involveaccountability, motivation and
all of these things.
So go after a big goal, startsmall.
The hardest step is the firststep.
(25:58):
The second hardest step is thelast step.
Be patient with yourself.
Be willing to make adjustments.
If you screw up, pat yourselfon the back and say all right,
well, let's get up and do itagain Quickly.
Don't give yourself time tofall into another bad habit.
Be willing to adjust and asyou're working towards a goal
(26:22):
and creating a good habit,you're going to get to know
yourself better and you're goingto learn how you respond better
.
And remember the things that Ido may or may not be things that
will work for you.
I'm just sharing my experiencewith you and invite you to come
on the show and be a guest anddo the same.
So I think there's a lot ofgood information here.
(26:44):
I want to thank everybody whohas supported the show once
again, and if you think this isa good show, tell somebody about
it, make a post, share thissomewhere.
Those are things that reallylet me know that you matter, or
that this work that we domatters, and really, if you want
to go deep, you can subscribefor as little as three bucks a
(27:05):
month and access some reallypersonal, private content and
more to come.
So thank you to everybody who'sbeen a part of this show and we
will see you next time.
Well, hello and welcome back to the Healthy
Living Podcast.
I'm your host, joe Grumbine,and I just want to share a
little gratitude for everybodywho supported this podcast, and
whether it's by listening orsubscribing, or sharing talking
about it or even participatingas a guest, sharing, talking
(00:25):
about it or even participatingas a guest.
This has started out as a laborof love and it continues as
such, but fortunately, the showis actually standing on its own
two feet now, and thesubscriptions are at least
paying for the price ofproducing the show and allowing
us to produce it in a higherstandard, and so we're I'm super
(00:48):
grateful for all of that, andif you're interested in
participating as a guest, youknow I would love to hear your
story.
I'd love to talk about yourjourney to health, whether
you're a patient or somebody whohas made some discoveries along
the way.
Maybe you've got questions,maybe you want to do an online
(01:09):
consultation live.
We haven't done that yet, butmaybe that would be a good
podcast.
Practitioners, physicians,authors there's a place for all
of it.
I believe that having a robustconversation about a topic such
as healthy living brings us toanswers, real answers, truthful
(01:34):
answers, not just one person youknow, with one point of view,
one set of experiences, or knowone company trying to promote
one product or idea or service.
So if you're interested inparticipating, you can either
respond through whatever theplatform that you're listening
(01:56):
to.
Generally there's a place toleave a comment.
You can put up a review thatwould always be wonderful or
reach out grumbinejoe atgmailcom I'm pretty sure that's
in the show notes.
If not, I'll make sure that itis and you know, let's schedule
an interview.
(02:17):
So today I want to talk abouthabits, especially building
habits.
So it seems that we are in aconstant state of habits and
ruts, and more often than notthey tend to be negative or
unhealthy habits.
(02:38):
Whether it's scrolling in yourlittle square box or eating junk
food or gossiping, or stayingup late at night doing stupid
shit or drugs or alcohol or, youknow, bad eating habits,
(02:59):
whatever, it's so easy to fallinto a negative habit, a habit
that has some kind of a rut, andI want to talk about building
good habits.
It's an activity for 21 daysstraight that you start to build
(03:26):
the neural pathways that willcause a habit to exist.
Now, how do you get yourself todo that, though?
There's straight up willpowerand discipline.
Hey, if you've got it, use it.
You can just decide to make ahabit.
How many of us do that?
On January 1st with our NewYear's resolutions, I'm going to
(03:48):
go to the gym, I'm going to runa mile every day, I'm going to
whatever, insert good habitthere and a week or two into it,
there's always that reason that, well, maybe not today or maybe
I'll just do halfway.
The second you compromise thatrepetitive motion, you undermine
(04:12):
it, you give it less value and,yeah, we can always make those
choices and get back to it.
That's the one good thing.
That's why I've never been abig Alcoholics Anonymous fan,
even though I know it helps alot of people.
The crutches are too easy toturn into excuses, I think.
(04:32):
However, you know, use whatworks.
That's my answer.
That's what I'm doing in myhealth journey is if it works,
I'm doing it and that's what I'mtrying to share here.
So I did a little bit ofresearch, not just my own
personal experience, but I'mgoing to look at with the old
school ways, you know, man upand just do it.
(04:56):
But I'm going to jump into somemore modern applications and
technological tools.
(05:18):
Negative experiences orfeelings or impressions about
all the technology we rely upon.
I find myself relying upon itas well.
I'll use AI a little bit toresearch a topic sometimes, or
(05:39):
I'll use my GPS instead of a map, or relying on my knowledge of
the lay of the land or thesethings.
So we're using apps more andmore and trying not to rely on
any of these too much, but thereare some good ones out there.
So I want to start out with alittle bit of technology as far
(06:01):
as tools go.
So there are some apps outthere that track habits, and I
think that's a lot of.
What is required to create ahabit is to be accountable.
So when I started losing myweight, I made a habit of
(06:22):
weighing myself at the same timeevery day.
Made a habit of weighing myselfat the same time every day and,
no matter what, when I get up,do my business, and so you know
I have this pretty accurate uhrecord of my weight gains and
(06:43):
losses, monitored basically fromthe same spot each time and
paying attention to that, andit's been helpful.
I I was able to create abenchmark of where I'm willing
to go above or not and where I'mwilling to go below or not.
(07:05):
I've had to deal with both ofthose, especially with my cancer
journey.
I never thought I would have todeal with a low weight
acceptable level, but I came upto it and I had had to
acknowledge it and it came fromthe same thing, from that, that
recurring, uh habit of weighingmyself at the same time every
day.
Now there are that's just medoing it, there's no, nothing
(07:29):
tracking it.
But there are habit trackingapps and uh, there's one called
habitica and and it turnsturning tasks into like a game.
There's Habit Bull allows youto track multiple habits at a
time and be able to visualizeyour process.
(07:51):
There's another one calledStrides.
It's got all kinds of featuresand reminders for different kind
of goals.
And then there's loop habittracker um, kind of an intuitive
, more straightforward habittracker, and and that's, you
know, just to track the habits.
There's also productivity andto-do list sort of apps.
(08:15):
There's to--do list, trello,microsoft to-do.
You can even use things likeOutlook or you know even your
calendar and just set reminders.
These are all simple deals.
There's also mindfulness andreflection tools.
There's a little diary programs, daily, oh streaks, uh,
(08:39):
reflective, reflectily.
These are all, um, you know,apps that can help you do things
like reverie, with a, with anaccountability.
And then nowadays there are somany ways to find things like
(09:01):
motivation and inspiration tocause us to find a habit or to
solidify a habitual practice.
You know you can go tosomething even just like
Pinterest and and set up a boardthat reflects the thing you're
(09:21):
doing, or quotes, or, you know,put up like a vision board.
Those are, those are.
You know you can do itelectronically on something like
Pinterest or or old schoolschool.
I think it's a great activityto sit down with your
construction paper and cut outmagazines.
And you know drawing picturesand make that vision board.
(09:46):
I have a big artist pad that Iuse not often enough, but when I
do I look back and I see theprogress.
Every time I create a newvision board, I look back at the
last one I did and I say, wow,look at that, look at how far
I've come.
And a lot of that has to dowith being accountable and
(10:09):
setting goals and creatinghabits as a result of those
things.
Putting your goals in front ofyou is a tool that will help you
to accept them and createpractices that will ultimately
become habits.
You know, for me I have asimple weight and measurement.
(10:32):
I have goals, and that's thefirst piece.
Then I have a scale.
It's a, you know, visual scale,a mental scale, and I place the
thing that I'm looking to do onthe scale and it either helps
me get to my goal or keeps mefrom it.
And if I'm on my track and I'mdoing what I should be doing, I
(10:58):
stay with the things that arehelping me get to my goals and
avoid the things that arekeeping me from them.
I think it's been a very it's atool.
I learned from a spiritualpractice I studied many years
ago and it was a great tool.
And you know I take bits andpieces from the journeys that I
go on and if I see somethingthat works, I try to repeat it.
(11:21):
You know that's anothermeasurement.
It doesn't work.
Is it helping um goal or not?
Is it something that's good?
That that I'm seeing what Iwant to see out of it?
Well, so, keep doing it is.
It doesn't seem to work.
You know you got two choicesmake a modification to it, keep
trying a little bit more, or letit go, do something else.
(11:45):
So these are all tools that youcan use.
You know things like YouTubeyou can set, or even what do you
call it?
There's a?
There's a Google program thatyou can track keywords Uh,
there's.
There's all kinds of of places,but YouTube's great because you
(12:05):
can set up your own playlistand you can create a search for
different types of content.
Maybe it's motivational uhspeakers, maybe it's a fitness
person, maybe it's somebody thatis going through healing
themselves of cancer or someother disease, maybe it's an
(12:28):
addiction group or somethinglike that.
These are amazing tools thatare out there and you can find
endless sorts of of information.
There's podcasts.
Hopefully, you would find thispodcast something that's worth
following because it will helpyou find your way to health and
find your way to good answers.
(12:48):
If not, there's lots of otherpodcasts that maybe you'll find
yourself more aligned with adifferent one.
Hey, find what works for you.
That's the key to this wholedeal.
You know the physical tools.
I'm I'm probably the mostaligned with.
(13:08):
You know so things like journals, and you can create specific
journals for specific projectsor general journals.
I think journaling itself is ahabit that, if you can get
yourself into and make itimportant, can be one of the
most beneficial tools you couldever have.
The best habit you can have.
(13:30):
You can create they have habittracker journals.
I mean, geez, we live in thisworld where, whatever it is, if
you can think about it, it'sprobably already been made and
you know, if you type in asearch tools to build good
habits, you'll find tons ofthings.
You know, even just that, usingyour AI to go find these kind
(13:52):
of answers yeah, I'm not sayingthat any of these things are
bulletproof answers.
Yeah, I'm not saying that anyof these things are bulletproof.
I'm just saying, just likeeverything in this podcast, all
the answers.
Find your way, find the thingthat speaks to you in the best
possible way.
You know, things like stickersand charts I think are cool.
(14:13):
Again, vision boards, any typeof.
There's a tool that I've usedand I recommend it to people and
it's kind of like a visionboard, but you can do it with
words, we can do it withpictures, but the idea is to
(14:33):
describe your perfect life inthe greatest detail that you can
and instead of saying this iswhat I want, you see that it's
already happened and you saythis is what it'll look like
when I'm at my perfect liferight now, the way I see it.
Here's what I have, and I tellyou what.
I've done that a few times andwhen I do it it works, in fact,
(14:58):
so well that one time I did thisI don't know probably 30 years
ago, and it came out of theadvice of a mentor and I've only
had a few mentors in my lifebut this guy had some really
good advice for me at that timein my life and he gave me this
tool and I used it, I ran withit and I drew this map and I
(15:33):
don't know, it was probably fouror five years ago, but I look
back at this tool that I hadwritten and, son of a bitch,
everything that I put down hadhappened and they were not
little things, they were thingslike I.
(15:54):
You know, at the time I wrotethis, I was recently divorced
and single and I wanted a stablerelationship, a family.
I wanted that.
I wanted a stable relationship,a family.
I wanted that.
At the time I had lost my homeand I was living in an apartment
and I wanted some land again.
I wanted to own a home and havea land.
I wanted a business where I didthe things that came natural to
(16:18):
me, just all these pieces.
And then, you know, severalyears later, I went back and I
looked and no shit if I hadn'tchecked off everything on that
list and I didn't even look atit again after I wrote it.
I wrote it and I put it awaysomewhere.
So these are tools.
Vision boards can be powerful,especially if you do them
regularly, you know, create amarker maybe four times a year
(16:44):
and revisit your vision boardand don't look at the old one
until you've made the new one.
Make that new one first andthen go back and look at the old
one and see where you've comefrom and see what's changed.
These are all good things.
Community is powerful.
Are all good things?
(17:10):
Community is powerful Findingpeople that share your goals and
experiences.
So for me, in my journey to healmyself from cancer, I have
found a number of groups DrHoffman's group, which there's a
link in this show notes of thispodcast.
I found Mark Simon's group.
He has a website called Noriand I found that group to be
(17:32):
very interesting and informative, and some of the people on Dr
Hoffman's group are in MarkSimon's group.
That's great.
We share these commonexperiences, remind each other
of things that we've learned.
I found a Facebook group ofpeople that are going through,
(17:53):
or have gone through, squamouscell carcinoma, just like me,
and this has got over 1,700active members around the world.
So I'm seeing this wealth ofexperience.
That is my experience and it'shelping me solve problems that
are unique to my experience.
There's all kinds of Facebookgroups, meetup groups, you name
(18:18):
it.
There's all kinds of places tofind people that are like-minded
.
It doesn't take much effort,but you know, again, go to your
AI, your Google and search thesesorts of things and you'll find
them.
Creating your own small group ishuge, especially for being
(18:42):
accountable.
So if you find, you know, someworkout buddies, if your goals
are to get healthy physically,well then great.
Find some people that sharesome of the same goals.
If you're running, if you liketo run, then find some running
buddies.
If you lift weights or do yoga,pilatesates, whatever is your
(19:03):
your poison, find people to dothat with that share your goals
and hold each other accountable.
That's kind of the wholepractice with aa is you have
sponsors and and people thatshare their experience and you
hold each other accountable.
That part of those kind ofprograms I do support.
I think that's important.
(19:24):
All the rules and regulationsI'm not so keen on, but that
part of it I think is powerful.
So connect yourself with peoplea person or people that you
share goals and values with, andhold each other accountability.
Goals and values with, and holdeach other accountability.
(19:50):
Things like time managementtools can be very helpful,
because I think a lot of times,the thing that keeps us from
keeping a good habit fromdeveloping is we never have time
because we're busy with all ofour bad habits, we're busy
scrolling, we're busy watchingthe videos, we're busy yapping
and gossiping and doing all thestupid shit to take our time and
we don't make the time to dothe things we really want to do.
(20:10):
And so managing your time canbe powerful.
It can.
You'd be surprised how muchtime you can clear out when you
prioritize and actually startbeing accountable for the things
that you have time for, because, frankly, you're the only one
that decides that.
So if you go, well, I don'thave time for this, well, why
not?
What do you do it instead?
And you know things like screentime monitors.
(20:33):
They're important because itreminds you hey, look at that,
yesterday you spent eight hourson the frigging screen.
What were you doing?
If you're doing research andimportant stuff, then great,
acknowledge it, own it, use itas a tool If you're wasting your
time on stupid shit, well,maybe you could have done
something better with it, own itas well.
(20:54):
So this is all good stuff.
There's drastic measures likebehavioral change techniques.
I mean things like holdingyourself accountable, giving
yourself consequences.
You say to yourself well, if Ido this and I manage to do it
for a period of time, I givemyself a reward.
(21:15):
If I don't do it, maybe yougive yourself a consequence.
Maybe you're able to bedisciplined enough to do
something like that.
There's extreme measures,things like NLP,
neuro-linguistic programming.
There's all types of energywork, hypnosis, self-hypnosis,
affirmations.
There's all kinds of things youcan do to cause your behavior
(21:39):
to change.
But I think the most importantthing to do is to own it, to
make the decision, to say outloud this is what I'm doing,
this is what I want to do.
I'm doing this because I wantto own it.
And so many times we makeexcuses for why we did something
or didn't do something.
Well, you made me do this or Idid it because of this.
(22:02):
No, no, no.
Own it.
And if you can do that, you'dbe surprised how many things
you'll start to do that you setout to because there's nobody.
It's like that Zeppelin songnobody's fault but mine.
And if you can own that, well,guess what?
You're just making choices.
And you come to realize that,yes, you're just making choices.
(22:23):
So, you know, get out there andstart making some good ones.
Habit stacking is another littletool that can get you to a goal
.
So, if you think about it, yougo well, you know, I want to be
healthy, I want to lose weight,so I'm going to start eating
better.
Okay, cool, maybe you do aseries of things to eat better.
(22:44):
Maybe you cut the sugar out,maybe you cut the processed
foods out, maybe you startgrowing your own food, maybe you
start, you know, choosing tomake your own food more and
being mindful of the ingredienton and on and on, label reading,
sourcing your food, all ofthose things.
But stacking these habits cansometimes make it easier.
(23:07):
It's like chunking a big taskout into smaller tasks and when
they overlap and feed each other, you know, you say to yourself
well, I'm going to startintermittent fasting.
Okay, well, great, when I getoff my fast, I'm frigging hungry
.
What am I going to eat?
And then you go okay, well,remember, we're not eating this,
(23:28):
that or the other thing, or weare eating this.
You just stack these habits andyou'd be surprised how powerful
that can be.
Or even things like timetables,like say, well, every day I
make coffee, every day I go andI take a dump in the morning.
Every day I brush my teeth.
Every day I tie my shoes.
Whatever is your, you'realready given.
(23:51):
Well, attach a habit to thatand say, well, you know what,
every time I'm sitting on thattoilet, I'm going to set the
timer, I'm going to meditate forfive minutes.
Five minutes, two minutes, oneminute, whatever.
Give yourself something that'sattainable.
After I brush my teeth, I'mgoing to drink a big glass of
water, whatever.
You can stack these thingsanyway, but I think it can be.
(24:11):
A powerful tool is to attachone good habit to another.
There are lots of good resources.
There are lots of good speakers, tools, authors here's a couple
of just off the cuff.
There's books, audio books,physical books, workshops,
(24:35):
seminars.
There's so many tools ofreinforcement and being told
what to do by people who havedone it.
There's a book called AtomicHabits by James Clear, the Power
of Habit by Charles Duhigg,mindset by Carol S Dweck.
(24:55):
These are all good resources,but there's so many, so many.
But there's so many, so many,and maybe looking at your goals
and finding a resource that'smore tied to your goal in
particular than just setting thehabit might be better for you.
There's online courses.
(25:17):
There's just so many greatresources, so I don't know.
I think that we've touched on alot of good ideas.
Just remember, to create a goodhabit, it's going to probably
involve a combination of tools.
It's going to involveconsistency.
(25:38):
It's going to involveself-awareness.
It's going to involvecommitment.
It's going to involveself-awareness.
It's going to involvecommitment.
It's going to involveaccountability, motivation and
all of these things.
So go after a big goal, startsmall.
The hardest step is the firststep.
(25:58):
The second hardest step is thelast step.
Be patient with yourself.
Be willing to make adjustments.
If you screw up, pat yourselfon the back and say all right,
well, let's get up and do itagain Quickly.
Don't give yourself time tofall into another bad habit.
Be willing to adjust and asyou're working towards a goal
(26:22):
and creating a good habit,you're going to get to know
yourself better and you're goingto learn how you respond better
.
And remember the things that Ido may or may not be things that
will work for you.
I'm just sharing my experiencewith you and invite you to come
on the show and be a guest anddo the same.
So I think there's a lot ofgood information here.
(26:44):
I want to thank everybody whohas supported the show once
again, and if you think this isa good show, tell somebody about
it, make a post, share thissomewhere.
Those are things that reallylet me know that you matter, or
that this work that we domatters, and really, if you want
to go deep, you can subscribefor as little as three bucks a
(27:05):
month and access some reallypersonal, private content and
more to come.
So thank you to everybody who'sbeen a part of this show and we
will see you next time.
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