March 19, 2024 • 26 mins
In this episode, I talk about how developing consistent, daily habits has changed my life for the better. I cover:
- 6 tangible benefits I've seen from developing a habit practice
- The habits I do every day, + 2 habits I aspire to do daily
- The tools and resources I use to stay consistent and accountable
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Way of Life: habit tracking
- Headspace: meditation (my link gets you a 30-day guest pass)
- Duolingo: language skills
- Jamie Varon courses
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of How to Be Creative.
This is your host, Kat O'Leary,and today I'm gonna be talking
about the benefits ofconsistency. I wanna start by
saying that consistency in myhabits and daily practices was
really something that I wasonly , um, truly able to master
, uh, beginning last year, soearly 2023. So, I'm going to
(00:24):
talk a little bit about whatthe benefits of developing
daily habits and rituals hasbeen for me. Um, and then I'll,
I'll get a little bit morespecific around what I do every
day and the tools and resourcesthat help me , um, keep up with
my daily goals. Okay, sostarting with the benefits of
(00:47):
consistency , um, the first oneis really improved self-esteem.
So I'd say this was kind of asurprise to me , um, but also
probably the one that has , um,been the most beneficial to me.
So , um, when I say that myself-esteem has improved since
I began doing these , um, dailyhabits , um, I think the best
(01:13):
way to think about this and,and the way that I've talked
about it in the past is , um,have you ever noticed how you
really like people who do thethings they say they're going
to do? Um, so it turns out thatthat actually also works when
the person in question is you.
Um, so for me at least showingup and doing the same things
every day, you know, regardlessof what's going on externally
(01:35):
in my life , um, has reallyenabled me to see myself as
dependable and trustworthy. Um,and I'd go a step farther and
say it's probably also beenhelpful in terms of kind of
self-compassion andself-forgiveness around things
that I've done in the past. Um,so yeah, I , I do feel like I
(01:55):
just like myself a lot better ,um, now that I kind of show up
for myself on a regular basisin a , in a way that I really
wasn't able to in the past.
Next , um, is faster recoveryfrom mistakes. So I used to be
a person who would dwell oneven, you know, the tiniest
mistakes , um, kind of obsessover them , um, long beyond,
(02:18):
you know, when the mistakeactually occurred. Um, but I
feel like being a disciplinedperson actually allows me to
view errors through a slightlydifferent lens. So, you know,
I'm able to sit to kind of takea step back and say, well, you
know, who cares that I did xyou know, tiny thing , um,
because I've meditated everyday this year, for example. Um
(02:40):
, so really what consistencydoes is, is it gives you a
foundation of evidence thatyou're a competent person. Um,
and I find that for me atleast, that kind of cushions
the blow when I do make amistake. And of course, we're
all human, we're all going tomake mistakes. Um, I dunno
about you, but I tend to bevery forgiving with others ,
(03:00):
um, when they make a mistake.
But definitely , um, you know,struggle with , uh, being a
little bit more forgivingtoward myself. Um, and I do
find that , um, having thiskind of habit practice on a
daily basis , um, has made meget better at recovering from
mistakes. Next step isincremental progress. Um, so,
(03:25):
you know, showing up and doingsomething every day means you
pretty much guarantee thatyou're going to get better at
it. It could be learning a newlanguage , um, developing
physical strength by maybeworking out every day , or
honing a craft , um, likeknitting writing, et cetera .
Um, I think it's really easy togive up on something , um,
(03:48):
especially when you're notexperiencing tangible results
early on. But once you stickwith something a little bit
longer , um, you know thatit'll eventually pay off. I
mean, there's just no way thatyou're gonna sit down and do
something day in and day out ,um, for an extended period of
time and not find that your ,you know, your skills are, are
(04:09):
getting better, Giving you thespace to set big goals. Um, so
one thing I found withdeveloping consistent habits is
that it has ultimately createdmore space in my life. Um,
which is maybe surprisingbecause , um, you'd think, you
(04:29):
know, you need to carve out thetime somewhere , um, to do
whatever it is that you'retrying to do on a regular
basis. Um, but it feels to mealmost like maybe I'm a little
bit better equipped to focus mytime. And I'll talk a little
bit about the specific , um,habits that I've developed. One
of which you're not gonna besurprised to hear is
meditation. Um, so I think thatone's an an obvious one where,
(04:54):
you know, meditation is , um,kind of a , a mind practice
where you do develop greaterfocus. Um, but overall, I, I do
find that , um, kind of havingthis system of , of habits that
I do consistently , um, reallydoes kind of create space in my
life overall, even if there is,you know , yet another list of
(05:15):
things to dedicate time to eachday. Um, and also just kind of
building the muscle of doingsmall things repeatedly , um,
does make it a little biteasier to create a plan for
reaching big goals , um,especially those that re
require sustained commitment,like some of the goals that we
were talking about earlier ,um, where, you know, you're not
(05:36):
gonna see progress right away,but over time you really will
see , um, gains Removal ofdecision paralysis is the next
one. So really, when you dosomething every day , you do
that thing every day for thefirst few days that you're
developing a habit. Um, you'regonna need to make a fresh
(05:56):
decision to recommit each day,but after a while, you're gonna
find yourself simply doing it.
Um, so for example, once youbecome a person who works out
every morning, there's noreason or really no room to
re-litigate that decision whenyour alarm goes off , um, it
just kind of becomes rote. Andover time, that obviously makes
(06:17):
it a lot easier to stick withhabits. And then finally,
ultimately, creating thesehabits and, you know, becoming
consistent in them really paysdividends elsewhere in your
life. So for me , um, I'vefound that since I became a
little bit more habit driven ,I'm a lot more methodical in
(06:39):
how I approach other tasks andprojects. So I'll think about
not only, you know, what willneed to happen today to reach a
particular goal , um, but alsohow I can build on that
tomorrow, the next day, etcetera . Um, you know, in , in
order to , um, get to where Iwanna be, you know, 6, 9, 12
months out, I definitely feellike I'm more focused. Um, and
(07:02):
ultimately I feel like I havemore control over my life. So I
do think, you know, and I'msomeone who I , I'm definitely
a morning person. I try to get, um, my habits out of the way
in the morning whereverpossible. Um, I think there's
something for me that reallyworks well in terms of having
something that I can controlfirst thing in the morning, you
know, before I start myworkday. Um, and, you know,
(07:25):
which can often go sidewaysdepending on a number of
variables. Um, but being ableto start my day with a list of
a handful of things that I doconsistently each morning , um,
it really does kind of orientmy brain around the idea that I
have options , um, in my life.
So that's something that I, Ireally appreciate about this
(07:47):
habit practice. Okay, so nowI'm going to transition into
talking a little bit about thespecifics. So what do I do on a
daily basis? Um, so the firstthing, as I mentioned earlier,
I have a meditation practice. Iwill say I have a very casual
(08:07):
meditation practice. Um, Ipretty much max out at 10
minutes of meditation per day.
I know that, you know, some ,uh, people will advise you that
you should do 10 minutes in themorning and 10 minutes in the
evening, at least. I'm notquite there yet. Um, don't know
if I'll get there. Um,generally I'd say on most days
(08:28):
I will do a three to fiveminute meditation practice. Um,
I use the app Headspace totrack my medi meditation , um,
which I really enjoy. They havea pretty large library of
different meditations fordifferent purposes or , or
different things that you'restruggling with in your life.
Um, and I've been using it fora few years. It was actually ,
(08:50):
um, a benefit that was paid forby my old employer. Um, and now
I, you know, I , I like itenough that I , I pay for it
myself now that I, I no longerwork there. Um, so yeah,
meditation I think is great.
Um, I will say I am a bigproponent of the Lazy Girl
morning routine. So the idealversion of meditating for me ,
(09:15):
um, in general is a recliningmeditation. I just prefer that
to seated. Um, but , um, onething about that that's really
great is that , um, I can oftenknock out my meditation
practice before I even get outof bed in the morning. And I
fully support you doing thesame. The second habit that I
(09:37):
do each day is studying Frenchon Duolingo. Um, I, according
to my Duolingo app , um, Ithink I'm a little bit over 400
days, fully admit, there aresome streak freezes that have
been thrown in there. Um, butas of January 1st of this year,
and it's now March 9th when I'mrecording this , um, I have
(09:59):
consistently practiced Frenchon Duolingo every day , um,
which is, we're on , um, the69th day of the year it looks
like. Uh , nice. So , um, yeah,and I, I, one of the things I
mentioned as a , uh, benefit ofconsistency is that incremental
progress. And I definitelythink that learning a new
(10:22):
language , um, or, you know,trying to hone a language , um,
your skills around a languagethat you already know a bit ,
um, this is a key example of ahabit where you're really gonna
see that muscle build overtime. My third daily habit is
writing in my journal. Um , andI'm gonna do an episode on this
(10:43):
, um, a little bit more indepth . But the big thing I do
each day is I write a series ofaffirmations in my journal. Um,
and I won't, I won't dig in toomuch on that, but that's always
where I start. So I start witha set of affirmations. I write
the same ones every day. Um,over time, I may find that some
(11:04):
of them, you know , um, either,you know, they've run their
course and I , I no longer needto kind of , um, repeatedly
write that particularaffirmation each day or maybe ,
um, something else becomes morerelevant. Um, but in general, I
write the same affirmationsevery single morning while I'm
(11:24):
drinking my coffee. Um, and Iusually do it while listening
to Enya , which I reallyrecommend , um, or Noko Flow ,
in particular, greataffirmation writing song. Um,
but yeah, and I find that thathelps me kind of get into the
right headspace for the day.
Um, it's something that I wasresistant to doing for a while
(11:46):
, um, but I really do find thatit , it benefits me , um, and
Jamie Rin , um, whose work Ijust recommend overall , um, to
anyone listening to this whomaybe is interested in becoming
a little bit more consistent.
Recently did a short , um,one-off class. Um, it's
recorded, so you should stillbe able to access it. Um,
(12:09):
called Magical Thinking Ritual,I think it was , um, where she
talked about her, heraffirmation writing practice,
how she goes about selectingthe affirmations that makes
sense for where she is. Um, Iwas already doing my
affirmation practice before Itook this hour long course. Um,
however, I found that it wasreally, really helpful to me in
(12:33):
not only kind of , um,expanding the affirmations that
I was writing each day, butalso really grounding them in,
you know, understanding the gapbetween where I wanna be in the
nearish future and where I amnow, and the types of mindset
shifts that I'm trying toactively make on a daily basis
(12:55):
in order to get myself there.
Um, the next thing is myskincare routine. So I do have
kind of a long involvedskincare routine. Maybe this is
not your thing, if it's notyour thing, that's actually
fine. Um, part of the pointthat I, I hope I'm getting
across is that what reallymatters is finding habits that
(13:15):
work for you. And I don't thinkat the end of the day, it
really matters what they are aslong as they're, you know,
generally good for you. Um, Iwouldn't recommend, you know,
doing Coke every day orsomething like that as one of
the habits you're trying todevelop. Um, but yeah, as long
as there are , you know,positive changes in your life ,
um, really this , you know,it's up to you. What , um, what
(13:38):
habits , uh, help you kind ofunlock the benefits that I
mentioned earlier. Um , soyeah, so skincare , um, I try
to do like a full 10 stepKorean skincare process every
morning. There are some , uh,tools involved as well. I've
got a red light tool and , um,a, I also have a new face. Um ,
(14:00):
and I do find that I see adifference in my skin when I do
that versus when I don't. Um,but yeah, overall I also just
kind of find it relaxing. Um,and I have a personal rule that
I'm only allowed to watchTikTok while I'm doing my
skincare routine. So that'skind of a nice thing to do ,
(14:21):
um, toward the beginning of theday as well. Um, this year I
have actually been taking abreak from alcohol. So one of
my habits that's currently onmy habit app, which I'll talk
about in a bit, is no alcohol.
And so, as I mentioned, we'reon day 69 of the year as I'm
recording this. So I have 60,69 days where I have not had
(14:43):
any alcohol. Um , so the reasonbehind this, and I guess it , I
don't know why it , it matters,but , um, I ended up kind of
accidentally , um, taking abreak from alcohol for most of
the winter last year. And whatI discovered was that I
completely skipped over theseasonal affective disorder
(15:05):
that I've had since I waspretty much a teenager , um,
even though I didn't drink as ateenager. So , um, but I, I
think, you know, I hadn't doneany work on myself in therapy
either. Um, so yeah, so , um,after experiencing that and
just enjoying winter, andparticularly the month of
February, a lot more than Iusually do, I realized that
(15:28):
this is probably something Ishould make an annual thing.
Um, and as of right now, I'mnot really sure when I am going
to start drinking alcoholagain. Um, 'cause I am really
enjoying not , um, but for thetime being, that is one of my
daily habits. And then anotherthing on my list is do
(15:48):
something creative. So thisdoesn't have to be a big thing.
It can be something very small,often it is something very
small. So for me , um, youknow, creating an Instagram
post , um, especially if it's areel or, or something that, you
know, involves a longer captionwhere I actually have to think
and , and do some writing, thatdefinitely counts. Um, you
(16:08):
know, if I work on a craftproject, so I've got , um, I've
got beads to make friendshipbracelets. Sometimes I'll make
a friendship bracelet or I'llmake a lanyard or something
like that. I just want to makesure that I'm carving out space
every day , um, to use kind ofthe creative part of my brain.
I also find that when it'ssomething tangible like a
(16:29):
bracelet , um, or I'm startingto try to get into , um, needle
felting. Um, so I bought a kitfor that. But when it's
something like that wherethere's a tangible result at
the end, I , I just find thissense of satisfaction there
that I don't always get withthe type of work that I do in
(16:49):
my day-to-Day Life. So I'm asocial media strategist by day
, um, and, you know , uh,building a PowerPoint deck or ,
um, writing social posts isn'talways quite as satisfying as,
you know , physically doingsomething with your hands. So I
try to do something creative.
(17:10):
If I can do something tangible,that's even better. Um , and
then a couple of that I try todo every day, but they are not
necessarily must-dos. So theprevious , um, habits that I
mentioned, I do those everysingle day. And I, I kind of re
(17:30):
hit the reset button on January1st. So every single day since
January 1st, I've done those,those things I've already
mentioned. Um, and then theother two that I aspire to. Um,
but I'm not going to beatmyself up over it if I don't
meet this goal every day . Um,it's exercise and close all
three rings on my Apple Watchexercise is the easier of
(17:55):
those. So I'm just glancing atmy habit app, and I'm seeing
that as of today, I haveexercised 10 days in a row. Um,
the standard I use for that is45 minutes because that is what
I have set as the exercise goalon my Apple Watch. Um, and then
closing all three rings, let'sbe real. Um, meeting the
(18:16):
calorie goal is actually thestruggle here. So most days I
do stand for whatever number ofhours. I think it's six that I
have mine set out , which Ibelieve is the default. Um,
but, you know, even when I'mexercising, it's, it can be
hard for me to , to meet thatcalorie goal. And , and it's
again, not something I'm gonnabeat myself up over. So those
(18:39):
are the habits that I do everyday. One thing that I didn't
mention is , um, I've beendoing the New York Times
crossword consistently foralmost three years now. And I
guess in some ways maybe that'skind of an anchoring habit, or
I believe in the Power of Habitby Charles Duhig. Um, he calls
it , uh, Keystone Habits. Um,so there were definitely things
(19:04):
I was doing every day before Istarted this kind of formal
practice where I intentionally, um, do habits each day. Um ,
another one is flossing. I haveflossed almost every single day
since January 1st, 2020. Um,and , um, life hack, if you
want to become a daily flosser,if you're not quite there yet,
(19:26):
my recommendation is to keepyour floss in the shower. Um,
especially if, like me, you'resomeone who loves standing
under a hot shower, it givesyou an excuse to stay in for a
couple more minutes. And , um,I now kind of have it in my
head as like , um, some kind ofcue where, like, if I'm
standing in a , in the shower,I kind of know, oh, there's
(19:47):
some piece of my showeractivity that I haven't done
yet, and then I remember tofloss and the, the floss is
right there. So sidebar there,but , um, recommended. So just
a few things that I use in theway of tools and resources ,
um, to kind of stay on top ofmy habits . So I'd say the
biggest one is my habittracking app, which is called
(20:10):
Way of Life. Um, and I'm gonnadrop these all into the show
notes , um, on your podcastapp. Um, but , um, way of life,
I love it. Um, it's verysimple. You know, it's kind of
green, green if you did it red,if you didn't do it. Um, it
gives you the ability to createchains. So if you do the same
(20:31):
habit three days in a row orlonger, it , um, it tracks it
as a chain. It will also showyou. So let's say I had , uh,
meditated 50 days in a row atsome point last year, and then
I broke that , um, that streak,and then I, you know, never
picked it back up, but now Iwanna pick it back up. But I'm
(20:52):
trying to beat my , um, streakfrom last time, but I don't
remember what it is. The appactually keeps track of that.
So once you hit the three daymark on your new streak, it
will show side by side , youknow, three next to 50. And so
you'll know, okay, 50 is whatI'm trying to beat from last
(21:12):
time. Um, and yeah, I've beenusing this for , um, I don't
know, probably over five yearsnow. Um, I , with, with , um,
you know , not, not that I'vebeen doing it every single day,
four or five years straight,but I do find it's really easy
to keep up with. It kind ofmanages everything for me in
one place. Um, and they send a, a helpful reminder , um, once
(21:36):
a day, or probably you couldset it up a little bit
differently, but I, I just getone at 8:00 PM each day to let
me know that I need to updatemy journal of habits for that
day. So , um, couple of otherapps that I've mentioned in
this episode , um, probablyboth are pretty familiar to
you, but just to mention themagain, Headspace is the app
(21:59):
that I use for meditation. I'veused a few different meditation
apps in the past. I'd say thisis what , this one is my
favorite. Um, the disappointingthing is it used to have a free
version, and I don't believethat is available at all
anymore. So it , it is a paidapp and there are definitely a
ton of resources availableonline for free. Um, I'd
(22:21):
imagine, you know, you couldprobably also stream
meditations on Spotify or, youknow, you can just sit in
silence. You don't actuallyneed to have , uh, someone
else's voice in your head inorder to meditation. That's
meditate. That's one greatthing about meditation. It is
truly free. And then Duolingois, as I mentioned, the way
that I prefer to use to learnlanguage on a daily basis. Um,
(22:45):
at this point, I am gearing upto start taking French lessons
in about four weeks , um, whichI've done in the past, but, you
know, I've been on hiatus for,from them for the past few
years. So , um, excited to rampback up in, you know, in a
classroom setting on my French.
But Duolingo has been reallygreat in terms of helping me
(23:05):
make gains , um, in theinterim. Um, and then one other
thing I wanted to mention , um,which is the source of much of
my inspiration around becomingconsistent in my habits, which
for a very long time seemedlike something that doesn't,
just wasn't kind of , um, itwasn't really second nature to
me. It was something I reallyhad to work at. So I, I wanna
(23:28):
emphasize that anyway, likethis did not come naturally to
me. I , um, I'm not aparticularly disciplined person
, um, innately. Um, it'ssomething where I've definitely
had to develop this habitmuscle , um, for pretty much
every habit that I've mentioned, um, in this episode so far.
(23:49):
But one of the things that wasreally helpful to me and made
me slightly shift my thinkingaround habits and start to
believe that maybe I could beconsistent in mine , um, was
that I took Jamie Verinself-guided course live with
intention a few years ago. AndI definitely recommend checking
that out. I believe she justdid a refresh of it. Um, you
(24:14):
can probably findit@jamieverin.com. I'll drop
the link into the show notes aswell. Um , but Jamie , uh,
she's a writer. She , um, shehas a really fantastic book
called, called RadicallyContent that I recommended to a
bunch of my friends , um, aswell as a novel called Main
Character Energy that just cameout last year. Um, and Jamie, I
(24:37):
think is , uh, she's one of myfavorite Instagram follows
because she just really modelsin real time what it takes to
reach large , um, you know,like your, your big life goals.
Um, and so having followed herwork for several years, I've
actually been able to witnesshow the things that she does
(24:59):
that seem very tiny on aregular daily basis have
ultimately allowed her to havethis career that she's dreamed
of. And so it's been reallyinspiring, but at the same time
it's been , um, really kind ofgrounding for me, I think in a
way , um, because you don'toften get to see that process ,
(25:20):
uh, uh, at such a granularlevel. So I , I feel like a lot
of the time we end up seeingwhat appear to be overnight
success stories , um, whichthere , there's no such thing,
first of all. And yet I thinkour society is, you know, happy
to present things as thoughthat were the case. Um, so
(25:42):
yeah, so definitely recommendJamie as an inspiring follow. I
would also check out hercourses. Um, they've been
really helpful to me. Um, butyeah, I think that's kind of
everything that I wanted to getthrough around developing
consistency , um, aroundhabits. Um, but if you have any
questions as always, you canshoot me an email at kat kt at
(26:06):
how to be creative.org. Um, andI'm hoping that this will help
some of you , uh, start yourown habit practices.
Welcome to another episode of How to Be Creative.
This is your host, Kat O'Leary,and today I'm gonna be talking
about the benefits ofconsistency. I wanna start by
saying that consistency in myhabits and daily practices was
really something that I wasonly , um, truly able to master
, uh, beginning last year, soearly 2023. So, I'm going to
(00:24):
talk a little bit about whatthe benefits of developing
daily habits and rituals hasbeen for me. Um, and then I'll,
I'll get a little bit morespecific around what I do every
day and the tools and resourcesthat help me , um, keep up with
my daily goals. Okay, sostarting with the benefits of
(00:47):
consistency , um, the first oneis really improved self-esteem.
So I'd say this was kind of asurprise to me , um, but also
probably the one that has , um,been the most beneficial to me.
So , um, when I say that myself-esteem has improved since
I began doing these , um, dailyhabits , um, I think the best
(01:13):
way to think about this and,and the way that I've talked
about it in the past is , um,have you ever noticed how you
really like people who do thethings they say they're going
to do? Um, so it turns out thatthat actually also works when
the person in question is you.
Um, so for me at least showingup and doing the same things
every day, you know, regardlessof what's going on externally
(01:35):
in my life , um, has reallyenabled me to see myself as
dependable and trustworthy. Um,and I'd go a step farther and
say it's probably also beenhelpful in terms of kind of
self-compassion andself-forgiveness around things
that I've done in the past. Um,so yeah, I , I do feel like I
(01:55):
just like myself a lot better ,um, now that I kind of show up
for myself on a regular basisin a , in a way that I really
wasn't able to in the past.
Next , um, is faster recoveryfrom mistakes. So I used to be
a person who would dwell oneven, you know, the tiniest
mistakes , um, kind of obsessover them , um, long beyond,
(02:18):
you know, when the mistakeactually occurred. Um, but I
feel like being a disciplinedperson actually allows me to
view errors through a slightlydifferent lens. So, you know,
I'm able to sit to kind of takea step back and say, well, you
know, who cares that I did xyou know, tiny thing , um,
because I've meditated everyday this year, for example. Um
(02:40):
, so really what consistencydoes is, is it gives you a
foundation of evidence thatyou're a competent person. Um,
and I find that for me atleast, that kind of cushions
the blow when I do make amistake. And of course, we're
all human, we're all going tomake mistakes. Um, I dunno
about you, but I tend to bevery forgiving with others ,
(03:00):
um, when they make a mistake.
But definitely , um, you know,struggle with , uh, being a
little bit more forgivingtoward myself. Um, and I do
find that , um, having thiskind of habit practice on a
daily basis , um, has made meget better at recovering from
mistakes. Next step isincremental progress. Um, so,
(03:25):
you know, showing up and doingsomething every day means you
pretty much guarantee thatyou're going to get better at
it. It could be learning a newlanguage , um, developing
physical strength by maybeworking out every day , or
honing a craft , um, likeknitting writing, et cetera .
Um, I think it's really easy togive up on something , um,
(03:48):
especially when you're notexperiencing tangible results
early on. But once you stickwith something a little bit
longer , um, you know thatit'll eventually pay off. I
mean, there's just no way thatyou're gonna sit down and do
something day in and day out ,um, for an extended period of
time and not find that your ,you know, your skills are, are
(04:09):
getting better, Giving you thespace to set big goals. Um, so
one thing I found withdeveloping consistent habits is
that it has ultimately createdmore space in my life. Um,
which is maybe surprisingbecause , um, you'd think, you
(04:29):
know, you need to carve out thetime somewhere , um, to do
whatever it is that you'retrying to do on a regular
basis. Um, but it feels to mealmost like maybe I'm a little
bit better equipped to focus mytime. And I'll talk a little
bit about the specific , um,habits that I've developed. One
of which you're not gonna besurprised to hear is
meditation. Um, so I think thatone's an an obvious one where,
(04:54):
you know, meditation is , um,kind of a , a mind practice
where you do develop greaterfocus. Um, but overall, I, I do
find that , um, kind of havingthis system of , of habits that
I do consistently , um, reallydoes kind of create space in my
life overall, even if there is,you know , yet another list of
(05:15):
things to dedicate time to eachday. Um, and also just kind of
building the muscle of doingsmall things repeatedly , um,
does make it a little biteasier to create a plan for
reaching big goals , um,especially those that re
require sustained commitment,like some of the goals that we
were talking about earlier ,um, where, you know, you're not
(05:36):
gonna see progress right away,but over time you really will
see , um, gains Removal ofdecision paralysis is the next
one. So really, when you dosomething every day , you do
that thing every day for thefirst few days that you're
developing a habit. Um, you'regonna need to make a fresh
(05:56):
decision to recommit each day,but after a while, you're gonna
find yourself simply doing it.
Um, so for example, once youbecome a person who works out
every morning, there's noreason or really no room to
re-litigate that decision whenyour alarm goes off , um, it
just kind of becomes rote. Andover time, that obviously makes
(06:17):
it a lot easier to stick withhabits. And then finally,
ultimately, creating thesehabits and, you know, becoming
consistent in them really paysdividends elsewhere in your
life. So for me , um, I'vefound that since I became a
little bit more habit driven ,I'm a lot more methodical in
(06:39):
how I approach other tasks andprojects. So I'll think about
not only, you know, what willneed to happen today to reach a
particular goal , um, but alsohow I can build on that
tomorrow, the next day, etcetera . Um, you know, in , in
order to , um, get to where Iwanna be, you know, 6, 9, 12
months out, I definitely feellike I'm more focused. Um, and
(07:02):
ultimately I feel like I havemore control over my life. So I
do think, you know, and I'msomeone who I , I'm definitely
a morning person. I try to get, um, my habits out of the way
in the morning whereverpossible. Um, I think there's
something for me that reallyworks well in terms of having
something that I can controlfirst thing in the morning, you
know, before I start myworkday. Um, and, you know,
(07:25):
which can often go sidewaysdepending on a number of
variables. Um, but being ableto start my day with a list of
a handful of things that I doconsistently each morning , um,
it really does kind of orientmy brain around the idea that I
have options , um, in my life.
So that's something that I, Ireally appreciate about this
(07:47):
habit practice. Okay, so nowI'm going to transition into
talking a little bit about thespecifics. So what do I do on a
daily basis? Um, so the firstthing, as I mentioned earlier,
I have a meditation practice. Iwill say I have a very casual
(08:07):
meditation practice. Um, Ipretty much max out at 10
minutes of meditation per day.
I know that, you know, some ,uh, people will advise you that
you should do 10 minutes in themorning and 10 minutes in the
evening, at least. I'm notquite there yet. Um, don't know
if I'll get there. Um,generally I'd say on most days
(08:28):
I will do a three to fiveminute meditation practice. Um,
I use the app Headspace totrack my medi meditation , um,
which I really enjoy. They havea pretty large library of
different meditations fordifferent purposes or , or
different things that you'restruggling with in your life.
Um, and I've been using it fora few years. It was actually ,
(08:50):
um, a benefit that was paid forby my old employer. Um, and now
I, you know, I , I like itenough that I , I pay for it
myself now that I, I no longerwork there. Um, so yeah,
meditation I think is great.
Um, I will say I am a bigproponent of the Lazy Girl
morning routine. So the idealversion of meditating for me ,
(09:15):
um, in general is a recliningmeditation. I just prefer that
to seated. Um, but , um, onething about that that's really
great is that , um, I can oftenknock out my meditation
practice before I even get outof bed in the morning. And I
fully support you doing thesame. The second habit that I
(09:37):
do each day is studying Frenchon Duolingo. Um, I, according
to my Duolingo app , um, Ithink I'm a little bit over 400
days, fully admit, there aresome streak freezes that have
been thrown in there. Um, butas of January 1st of this year,
and it's now March 9th when I'mrecording this , um, I have
(09:59):
consistently practiced Frenchon Duolingo every day , um,
which is, we're on , um, the69th day of the year it looks
like. Uh , nice. So , um, yeah,and I, I, one of the things I
mentioned as a , uh, benefit ofconsistency is that incremental
progress. And I definitelythink that learning a new
(10:22):
language , um, or, you know,trying to hone a language , um,
your skills around a languagethat you already know a bit ,
um, this is a key example of ahabit where you're really gonna
see that muscle build overtime. My third daily habit is
writing in my journal. Um , andI'm gonna do an episode on this
(10:43):
, um, a little bit more indepth . But the big thing I do
each day is I write a series ofaffirmations in my journal. Um,
and I won't, I won't dig in toomuch on that, but that's always
where I start. So I start witha set of affirmations. I write
the same ones every day. Um,over time, I may find that some
(11:04):
of them, you know , um, either,you know, they've run their
course and I , I no longer needto kind of , um, repeatedly
write that particularaffirmation each day or maybe ,
um, something else becomes morerelevant. Um, but in general, I
write the same affirmationsevery single morning while I'm
(11:24):
drinking my coffee. Um, and Iusually do it while listening
to Enya , which I reallyrecommend , um, or Noko Flow ,
in particular, greataffirmation writing song. Um,
but yeah, and I find that thathelps me kind of get into the
right headspace for the day.
Um, it's something that I wasresistant to doing for a while
(11:46):
, um, but I really do find thatit , it benefits me , um, and
Jamie Rin , um, whose work Ijust recommend overall , um, to
anyone listening to this whomaybe is interested in becoming
a little bit more consistent.
Recently did a short , um,one-off class. Um, it's
recorded, so you should stillbe able to access it. Um,
(12:09):
called Magical Thinking Ritual,I think it was , um, where she
talked about her, heraffirmation writing practice,
how she goes about selectingthe affirmations that makes
sense for where she is. Um, Iwas already doing my
affirmation practice before Itook this hour long course. Um,
however, I found that it wasreally, really helpful to me in
(12:33):
not only kind of , um,expanding the affirmations that
I was writing each day, butalso really grounding them in,
you know, understanding the gapbetween where I wanna be in the
nearish future and where I amnow, and the types of mindset
shifts that I'm trying toactively make on a daily basis
(12:55):
in order to get myself there.
Um, the next thing is myskincare routine. So I do have
kind of a long involvedskincare routine. Maybe this is
not your thing, if it's notyour thing, that's actually
fine. Um, part of the pointthat I, I hope I'm getting
across is that what reallymatters is finding habits that
(13:15):
work for you. And I don't thinkat the end of the day, it
really matters what they are aslong as they're, you know,
generally good for you. Um, Iwouldn't recommend, you know,
doing Coke every day orsomething like that as one of
the habits you're trying todevelop. Um, but yeah, as long
as there are , you know,positive changes in your life ,
um, really this , you know,it's up to you. What , um, what
(13:38):
habits , uh, help you kind ofunlock the benefits that I
mentioned earlier. Um , soyeah, so skincare , um, I try
to do like a full 10 stepKorean skincare process every
morning. There are some , uh,tools involved as well. I've
got a red light tool and , um,a, I also have a new face. Um ,
(14:00):
and I do find that I see adifference in my skin when I do
that versus when I don't. Um,but yeah, overall I also just
kind of find it relaxing. Um,and I have a personal rule that
I'm only allowed to watchTikTok while I'm doing my
skincare routine. So that'skind of a nice thing to do ,
(14:21):
um, toward the beginning of theday as well. Um, this year I
have actually been taking abreak from alcohol. So one of
my habits that's currently onmy habit app, which I'll talk
about in a bit, is no alcohol.
And so, as I mentioned, we'reon day 69 of the year as I'm
recording this. So I have 60,69 days where I have not had
(14:43):
any alcohol. Um , so the reasonbehind this, and I guess it , I
don't know why it , it matters,but , um, I ended up kind of
accidentally , um, taking abreak from alcohol for most of
the winter last year. And whatI discovered was that I
completely skipped over theseasonal affective disorder
(15:05):
that I've had since I waspretty much a teenager , um,
even though I didn't drink as ateenager. So , um, but I, I
think, you know, I hadn't doneany work on myself in therapy
either. Um, so yeah, so , um,after experiencing that and
just enjoying winter, andparticularly the month of
February, a lot more than Iusually do, I realized that
(15:28):
this is probably something Ishould make an annual thing.
Um, and as of right now, I'mnot really sure when I am going
to start drinking alcoholagain. Um, 'cause I am really
enjoying not , um, but for thetime being, that is one of my
daily habits. And then anotherthing on my list is do
(15:48):
something creative. So thisdoesn't have to be a big thing.
It can be something very small,often it is something very
small. So for me , um, youknow, creating an Instagram
post , um, especially if it's areel or, or something that, you
know, involves a longer captionwhere I actually have to think
and , and do some writing, thatdefinitely counts. Um, you
(16:08):
know, if I work on a craftproject, so I've got , um, I've
got beads to make friendshipbracelets. Sometimes I'll make
a friendship bracelet or I'llmake a lanyard or something
like that. I just want to makesure that I'm carving out space
every day , um, to use kind ofthe creative part of my brain.
I also find that when it'ssomething tangible like a
(16:29):
bracelet , um, or I'm startingto try to get into , um, needle
felting. Um, so I bought a kitfor that. But when it's
something like that wherethere's a tangible result at
the end, I , I just find thissense of satisfaction there
that I don't always get withthe type of work that I do in
(16:49):
my day-to-Day Life. So I'm asocial media strategist by day
, um, and, you know , uh,building a PowerPoint deck or ,
um, writing social posts isn'talways quite as satisfying as,
you know , physically doingsomething with your hands. So I
try to do something creative.
(17:10):
If I can do something tangible,that's even better. Um , and
then a couple of that I try todo every day, but they are not
necessarily must-dos. So theprevious , um, habits that I
mentioned, I do those everysingle day. And I, I kind of re
(17:30):
hit the reset button on January1st. So every single day since
January 1st, I've done those,those things I've already
mentioned. Um, and then theother two that I aspire to. Um,
but I'm not going to beatmyself up over it if I don't
meet this goal every day . Um,it's exercise and close all
three rings on my Apple Watchexercise is the easier of
(17:55):
those. So I'm just glancing atmy habit app, and I'm seeing
that as of today, I haveexercised 10 days in a row. Um,
the standard I use for that is45 minutes because that is what
I have set as the exercise goalon my Apple Watch. Um, and then
closing all three rings, let'sbe real. Um, meeting the
(18:16):
calorie goal is actually thestruggle here. So most days I
do stand for whatever number ofhours. I think it's six that I
have mine set out , which Ibelieve is the default. Um,
but, you know, even when I'mexercising, it's, it can be
hard for me to , to meet thatcalorie goal. And , and it's
again, not something I'm gonnabeat myself up over. So those
(18:39):
are the habits that I do everyday. One thing that I didn't
mention is , um, I've beendoing the New York Times
crossword consistently foralmost three years now. And I
guess in some ways maybe that'skind of an anchoring habit, or
I believe in the Power of Habitby Charles Duhig. Um, he calls
it , uh, Keystone Habits. Um,so there were definitely things
(19:04):
I was doing every day before Istarted this kind of formal
practice where I intentionally, um, do habits each day. Um ,
another one is flossing. I haveflossed almost every single day
since January 1st, 2020. Um,and , um, life hack, if you
want to become a daily flosser,if you're not quite there yet,
(19:26):
my recommendation is to keepyour floss in the shower. Um,
especially if, like me, you'resomeone who loves standing
under a hot shower, it givesyou an excuse to stay in for a
couple more minutes. And , um,I now kind of have it in my
head as like , um, some kind ofcue where, like, if I'm
standing in a , in the shower,I kind of know, oh, there's
(19:47):
some piece of my showeractivity that I haven't done
yet, and then I remember tofloss and the, the floss is
right there. So sidebar there,but , um, recommended. So just
a few things that I use in theway of tools and resources ,
um, to kind of stay on top ofmy habits . So I'd say the
biggest one is my habittracking app, which is called
(20:10):
Way of Life. Um, and I'm gonnadrop these all into the show
notes , um, on your podcastapp. Um, but , um, way of life,
I love it. Um, it's verysimple. You know, it's kind of
green, green if you did it red,if you didn't do it. Um, it
gives you the ability to createchains. So if you do the same
(20:31):
habit three days in a row orlonger, it , um, it tracks it
as a chain. It will also showyou. So let's say I had , uh,
meditated 50 days in a row atsome point last year, and then
I broke that , um, that streak,and then I, you know, never
picked it back up, but now Iwanna pick it back up. But I'm
(20:52):
trying to beat my , um, streakfrom last time, but I don't
remember what it is. The appactually keeps track of that.
So once you hit the three daymark on your new streak, it
will show side by side , youknow, three next to 50. And so
you'll know, okay, 50 is whatI'm trying to beat from last
(21:12):
time. Um, and yeah, I've beenusing this for , um, I don't
know, probably over five yearsnow. Um, I , with, with , um,
you know , not, not that I'vebeen doing it every single day,
four or five years straight,but I do find it's really easy
to keep up with. It kind ofmanages everything for me in
one place. Um, and they send a, a helpful reminder , um, once
(21:36):
a day, or probably you couldset it up a little bit
differently, but I, I just getone at 8:00 PM each day to let
me know that I need to updatemy journal of habits for that
day. So , um, couple of otherapps that I've mentioned in
this episode , um, probablyboth are pretty familiar to
you, but just to mention themagain, Headspace is the app
(21:59):
that I use for meditation. I'veused a few different meditation
apps in the past. I'd say thisis what , this one is my
favorite. Um, the disappointingthing is it used to have a free
version, and I don't believethat is available at all
anymore. So it , it is a paidapp and there are definitely a
ton of resources availableonline for free. Um, I'd
(22:21):
imagine, you know, you couldprobably also stream
meditations on Spotify or, youknow, you can just sit in
silence. You don't actuallyneed to have , uh, someone
else's voice in your head inorder to meditation. That's
meditate. That's one greatthing about meditation. It is
truly free. And then Duolingois, as I mentioned, the way
that I prefer to use to learnlanguage on a daily basis. Um,
(22:45):
at this point, I am gearing upto start taking French lessons
in about four weeks , um, whichI've done in the past, but, you
know, I've been on hiatus for,from them for the past few
years. So , um, excited to rampback up in, you know, in a
classroom setting on my French.
But Duolingo has been reallygreat in terms of helping me
(23:05):
make gains , um, in theinterim. Um, and then one other
thing I wanted to mention , um,which is the source of much of
my inspiration around becomingconsistent in my habits, which
for a very long time seemedlike something that doesn't,
just wasn't kind of , um, itwasn't really second nature to
me. It was something I reallyhad to work at. So I, I wanna
(23:28):
emphasize that anyway, likethis did not come naturally to
me. I , um, I'm not aparticularly disciplined person
, um, innately. Um, it'ssomething where I've definitely
had to develop this habitmuscle , um, for pretty much
every habit that I've mentioned, um, in this episode so far.
(23:49):
But one of the things that wasreally helpful to me and made
me slightly shift my thinkingaround habits and start to
believe that maybe I could beconsistent in mine , um, was
that I took Jamie Verinself-guided course live with
intention a few years ago. AndI definitely recommend checking
that out. I believe she justdid a refresh of it. Um, you
(24:14):
can probably findit@jamieverin.com. I'll drop
the link into the show notes aswell. Um , but Jamie , uh,
she's a writer. She , um, shehas a really fantastic book
called, called RadicallyContent that I recommended to a
bunch of my friends , um, aswell as a novel called Main
Character Energy that just cameout last year. Um, and Jamie, I
(24:37):
think is , uh, she's one of myfavorite Instagram follows
because she just really modelsin real time what it takes to
reach large , um, you know,like your, your big life goals.
Um, and so having followed herwork for several years, I've
actually been able to witnesshow the things that she does
(24:59):
that seem very tiny on aregular daily basis have
ultimately allowed her to havethis career that she's dreamed
of. And so it's been reallyinspiring, but at the same time
it's been , um, really kind ofgrounding for me, I think in a
way , um, because you don'toften get to see that process ,
(25:20):
uh, uh, at such a granularlevel. So I , I feel like a lot
of the time we end up seeingwhat appear to be overnight
success stories , um, whichthere , there's no such thing,
first of all. And yet I thinkour society is, you know, happy
to present things as thoughthat were the case. Um, so
(25:42):
yeah, so definitely recommendJamie as an inspiring follow. I
would also check out hercourses. Um, they've been
really helpful to me. Um, butyeah, I think that's kind of
everything that I wanted to getthrough around developing
consistency , um, aroundhabits. Um, but if you have any
questions as always, you canshoot me an email at kat kt at
(26:06):
how to be creative.org. Um, andI'm hoping that this will help
some of you , uh, start yourown habit practices.
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