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Taking the Best from 2020 to Build Success for 2021 – Part 2

me&my health up podcast episode #34 – Transcript

Anthony Hartcher 0:00
Welcome to another episode of me&my health up, health up seeks to enhance and enlighten the well being of others. This recording is part two of our topic of taking the best from 2020 to create success for 2021.

Let’s recap, part one. But before I do that, just remind you. I’m Anthony Hartcher. I’m a clinical nutritionist and lifestyle medicine specialist. I do this podcast because I really want to improve your health and well being. And I share this information based on the three degrees that I’ve obtained over my lifetime and my 30 years of experience of learning, implementing and reviewing and implementing, again, health tips, techniques, whether that’d be lifestyle or nutrition.

And I have the formal background of a Bachelor of Health Science in nutrition and dietetic medicine as well as a bachelor of complementary medicine, and a Bachelor of Engineering in chemical.

So let’s recap episode or part one. So it was episode three of Ask your nutritionist. And this series is where listeners put forward their questions as to they’re seeking clarity answers. And they want that provided by an expert. And this question was about the year that’s just been and well, we’re still, you know, it’s December now. So we’re finishing up the year 2020.

And some people have really just had a bad year, essentially, you know, things haven’t gone well for them. And there’s others that also experienced the pandemic. However, they’ve had a good year. And so there’s these two ends of the spectrum where you’ve had both would have experienced the pandemic.

But one one side has had a bad year, the other side has had a good year. So in part one we discussed, what is it that in a shape CEUs? Why do some people experience the same event yet take away a totally different experience. And I mentioned in part one of the podcast, that the glass was half empty in terms of some people’s perception, and that’s how they see life is everything’s always half empty.

That’s how come you know the plate that I’m receiving in the restaurant, the same meal is not as good as the person next to me that’s ordered the same meal. And that’s how they perceive the world is that the world is against them. And that, yeah, and it does actually manifest that to them. So what we put out is what we get back.

And this is exactly what’s happening around the glass half full approach towards the pandemic COVID-19. You know, some people have seen it as a coach, what can I get out of this? What can I learn from it? What how can I grow from it. And I mentioned in part one, that my own personal story was I also lost my income over that lockdown period. And I thought, well, I want to do something I want to contribute, I want to help others. And so I decided to run some webinars around some relevant topics at the time.

So it was how to stress less has the head of best manage the situation. So stress management techniques, it was some sleep techniques, tips, sleep hygiene, and there was webinars on how to boost your immune system using food and lifestyle medicine, and many more, and they’re all available on YouTube under near my wellness look up me and my wellness, you’ll find the channel that I’ve posted all these webinars too, and they’re still relevant today.

You know how to boost your immune system is going to be very relevant going forward and how to manage stress very relevant how to get the best night’s sleeps. So I did that. It didn’t bring an income for me, but it got me in motion and it got me moving in the direction I love to move towards and that’s helping as many people as possible so I was able to continue to do that yet without an income.

However, it got me into new areas that I may have had some inclination to want to get into them at some point in time, but that was in the distant future and So what the COVID did was forced my hand to say, well, I’ve got no other choice, man or webinar, I’ve got no experience in running webinars, I didn’t even have the software, I had no idea. I hadn’t didn’t even have the content. I had some content. But I didn’t have all the content. And so I had to go and research put together the presentation, I had to look for platforms that I could use for free.

Because I wasn’t earning any money. I certainly didn’t want to spend more money. And so I found some platforms that could enable me to run the webinar. I promoted it on Eventbrite, shared it on social media, performed the webinars, and the webinars, were, you know, some went well, some didn’t, you know, had internet cut out on remember, certainly one webinar. And yet it didn’t stop me from continually look at the, you know, what I just done around executing that webinar, How can I improve it next time, and looking for better ways in which I could get better connection, and constantly looking for those elements of improvement in what I was doing.

I’d started, I certainly wasn’t an expert, and I was learning on the go. Similar to this podcast, this podcast arose from COVID, I was doing the webinars and realise that I also received an audio recording from zoom. And I thought, well, I could also interview other healthcare practitioners find out more about what they do, and how they help others, help promote them during this period. And so obviously, getting their name out there, at the same time learning myself learning more about what they do.

I started podcasting, it was certainly, you know, it started out a bit scratchy, I didn’t even have a microphone, I was just using the computer, mic and speaker and, and that, you know, resulted in you know, not so great sound quality. However, it didn’t stop me from having a go constantly improving. And through that process, I actually came to the realisation that I’m enjoying it, I like it. And that then helped me. Fine tune reinvest.

And so I’ve now got a microphone, you’re hearing this from a this has been recorded on a microphone on software, that I found that very good for editing, yet, I don’t know how to edit. But that would be that’s my, in the future, I’m planning to do editing around the podcasting, and even improve what you hear. And so at the moment, what you hear on these podcasts is raw and authentic.

It’s unedited. So that’s me learning, I don’t know how to use the software. And, yeah, we’re going on a journey together. And the reason why I’m sharing this was that was pretty much what Part one was about, it was about how you could either see the event as a glass half empty, or you could see it as glass half full, I certainly took the half full approach. But I heard stories about those that saw it as half empty, and everything went wrong. And when you put out there, that everything’s going wrong the world against me, you often get reinforcement, because you’re you’re seeing the world from that lens, and You Your mind is looking for, I need to justify why I’m feeling this way why I’m behaving this way. And you’ll find more evidence.

And so hence, you end up more looking for those glass half full moments, and you take them on board. Whereas if you see it from the other perspective, glass half full, then you will take more of those you experiences in and you’ll continue to manifest the glass half full outcomes, and hence you will, Your emotions will reflect that your behaviour reflects that.

And everything compounds in a positive sense as opposed to going in the opposite direction, where it’s against you, everything’s working against you. And that’s compounding. And so that’s how some people experienced 2020 was just a compound one after another of bad events and realising that it was probably from the same initial source and what how they perceive that initial source being the pandemic, and then they were looking for more and more bad news to justify the way they were feeling and behaving.

So that was really part one is our perception becomes our reality, because that’s where we focus and where we focus is where our energy goes. So if we focus on glass half full That’s where our energy is going to go, we’re going to feel that way, we’re going to behave that way. So you’ll feel down, you’ll feel, you know, not energetic, and you will have conversations that aren’t great. And that person’s probably thinking, I don’t feel good at coming out of that conversation, they may or may not want to catch up with you again. And vice versa. You know, if you’re seeing everything as half full, and how I can contribute, how can I make this better? What learnings Can I take from it, that compounds you exhibit that emotions of feeling great or moving forward. This is a bad event, however, I’m making the most of it, and that compounds.

And so that was pretty much part one of this episode of taking the best from 2020, to build a successful 2021. So at the end of the podcast, and you can listen to it, it’s the previous podcast is that I said, you know, I want you to reflect on 2021. And then you know, what’s worked well for you. That’s what we want to continue, you know, you’ve picked up some good habits, there’s certainly some good habits that everyone’s picked up from 2020, whether it be from cooking more, whether it be from exercising more, whether it be fun spending more time with your children, your your partner, there’s plenty of good to take out of it.

So that’s, we certainly want to bottle the good hand, we want to unplug or let go down the sink, the not so good. And so this episode is about helping you unplug and get rid of those old habits and create the habits that you want to create for 2021. So that 2021 is a successful year for you, you feel at the this time next year, that you’re a different person. And that’s what I would like this podcast to initiate that thinking process around letting go of 2020 and rebuilding for 2021. So what we’re going to do is focus on habit forming.

So forming good habits. And basically, just Yeah, not really putting attention and energy into the bad habits. But just so the good habits overwhelmed the bad habits, that’s probably certainly the area of focus, I’d like to take however, you know, we can change or we can, what we can do is substitute those bad habits for better habits.

Let’s get into what we’re about to talk to. So this information is from a book I listened to on Audible, which was one of the things I also picked up through this period was you know, subscription to Audible as I could listen to books in my so called downtime. So you know, when I’m travelling, I’m delivering food or I’m travelling to pick up my children from sport, I can listen to a book that’s going to take me forward and closer to being able to help more people and get better success with the clients that I support.

I picked up this book called Atomic Habits by James Claire. And it is fantastic. It definitely the best book I read during 2020. And I’d like to share with you some of the principles and by all means, certainly, I’m paraphrasing his work, I’m not going to present it in in the way he presents it he obviously does a better job much better job being the author. However, I’m going to take what I learned from it and share that with you in anticipation that you’ll go and listen to the book or buy the book, because I think it’s a really good way to finish this year and to restart next year.

And yeah, I learned so much from myself and some of it I intuitively was doing whether it be through trial and error over the years because I’m certainly an experimenter in my own health and have always you know, read up on the latest trends latest research and you know tried them myself and try variations myself and you know, why is health journeys always been that compounding, calm compounding year on year making small incremental improvements over time, I certainly am much healthier than what I was in my 20s but is only come about through incremental improvement.

This book is essentially you know, stating that Atoms make up molecules. So, you know, they’re very, you know, we can’t see them to the human eye we just see matter, right? So you know, we see the table, we see the chair. However, everything all matters made up of these atoms that make up molecules. And so it’s all about doing the small things, making small changes, that over time will compound and transform into the change that you desire.

And what I really loved about the book was that it put it in the context that, you know, habit, creating can be looked at either you’re just looking at, you know, the outcome, you’re focused on the outcome, or you’re going to focus on the systems, or you’re going to focus, ultimately, on self identity. So there were the three areas, so very much we take that outcome, focus.

That’s goals. So James clarifies that, it’s better to actually focus on the systems that will eventually take you to that goal. So it’s the process focusing on the process, and doing that, and doing that well. And refining that, as opposed to getting stuck on the goals. And the measures are associated with that goal. So it’s more the behavioural side of things, it’s the actions that you take, that are more beneficial in the long run. Because, as he points out, is that that goal only, you know, at that point in time you feel great about it, it’s more about the journey towards that goal. And the person you’ll become in, you know, creating or achieving that goal is more important.

It’s better that we focus on the process and make sure you’re enjoying the process, because it will keep us tracking towards our goal. However, you know, we’re not defined by that goal, we have defined by the person we become in achieving that goal, and then we looking at further improving that self identity. And that’s a never ending journey, we can always improve ourselves incrementally every day in every aspect of our life.

So that was, I guess, a high level message that I got from the book. And ultimately, you know, when you creating these new habits, you want to be seeing it as creating a new version of you. And so that ties in well, with the new year coming up is New Year new you. And this is your start to fight in rediscovering the new you and becoming the person that you want to become. And it’s a it’s an incremental improvement over time. So it’s not a destination, it is a journey. And it’s important that we enjoy that journey that we embark on.

He’s put it in these and I’m paraphrasing it again, these principles for success. So the first one is awareness of your existing habits. So that’s the reflection on 2020. So it’s looking at the habits that are undesirable that you’ve picked up in 2020, being aware of them and where they exist in time and location of your day. So for example, if you’re sleeping in and missing your opportunity to exercise and just turning up for work, then that, you know, it’s acknowledging that, you know I was I had a different pattern.

Before different habit before when I was travelling to work is that I’d wake up, I’d go to the gym, get ready and then go to work. And that was turned upside down when COVID hit because I didn’t need to go into the office. So I had, you know, I had more opportunity to sleep in which can be a good thing too. You know, if you if you’re not getting enough sleep, then getting a bit more sleep is only going to benefit your health.

So what it is it’s reviewing your habits. Looking at your your morning routine, your you know your routine during the workday, your routine in the evening, and looking at each of the tasks that you do, and then putting next to it, whether it’s positive, whether it’s negative, or whether it’s neutral. James clear, says to put a plus sign for positive and negative sign for negative and equals for neutral. So there’ll be certain activities that are neutral that you don’t need to you know that they’re not taking away from your goal, or they’re not taking towards it and there’ll be certain activities that are taking towards it and that’s positive and there’ll be ones that taking you a step back and they’re negative.

Let’s look at you know, that morning routine, let’s revisit that. You know, you’re a person that normally exercise in the morning you’ve lost that and you know you’re sleeping in and just Turning up for work and you’re not feeling in a great resourceful state. So now it’s looking at that task and making it more attractive, because the other important point that James raises, is that we are driven towards pleasure and away from pain.

We have this, you know, it’s innate within us. You know, it’s from our ancestors, that we want to go towards pleasure and away from pain. And we realise that, you know, we’re always trying to avoid painful situations, and we’re always seeking pleasure, you know, whether it be in career success, whether it be in you know, it could be in your social life, it could be, think you understand where I’m going towards, we’re always going towards those points of pleasure, away from pain. So you need to make that attractive.

So it’s now focusing on what is it that you could do, that’s going to be an attractive form of exercise. So for example, you may hate getting up and going into the gym with everyone else, and feeling like you’re in the rat race, and you know, going through your motions, and then you know, going to work, you may be someone that loves dancing, for example, then it could be doing some dancing. And that’s like, at the end of the day, the important aspect is really, it’s movement.

It’s about moving the body, and our body was designed to be moved, and less about the form of exercise, you want it to be something that you move towards. And so if dance is that activity that you love, and can’t get enough of, then that’s going to be something to look forward to, you’ll be thinking the night before, I can’t wait to wake up and do my dance routine, or I can’t wait to go to that Zumba class, and just dance with the music and getting my body in rhythm with the beat. And so this is what makes goals attractive is by doing things that we like, essentially. And so that not saying exercises, I’m only exercising, if I’m doing high intensity training, yes, that’s a form of exercise. But it’s not the only type of exercise, we need to do variety and exercise, we want to be enjoying a base load of movement.

So that base load for that dancer can be doing, you know, majority of the week dancing, or it could be for that person who loves walking, it could be walking. And then they add some variation into their exercise week by maybe dropping in a run when they feel like it. So when they’re feeling energetic and feel like you know, I want to break up this routine, then they go out for a run. So this is what makes it attractive is when you see exercise is not in our predetermined mindset, a fixed mindset. It’s more about the movement and that movement.

There’s many ways to enjoy movement, for example, I went to the beach the other day for an ocean swim. And when I got down there, the waves looks really great. And I’m thinking, I’d like to enjoy myself and you know, frolic in the sea, you know, dance with the waves. And so I just I decided to body surf instead of actually doing an ocean swim. And I didn’t feel bad about it at all, because I knew that I was moving my body. I was expending energy, which was the whole purpose in going down there in doing an ocean swim. And I was doing it in a different way that I enjoyed. And it adds that spice that variety in terms of your exercise habits. So it makes you want to keep going back, if you’ve got that variety, you’ve got a base level, so I have a base level of ocean swimming that I do.

And you know, it’s okay to deviate a little bit from that base level to same with you know, you’re walking and you might feel like running one day long as if that base load of activities there, which could be a dancing, and then you drop in maybe a high intensity exercise session, and you enjoy that variety. And so that’s only going to make your exercise exercise regime for the week look more attractive.

So, the other important point, he makes certain terms of, you know, he puts across in terms of making things more attractive is pairing your activities or your habits so, like, there’s a need and want Okay, so you want to watch your shows tonight. For example, you’ve got a Netflix, maybe it’s the crown that you’re watching, you’re looking forward to watching that. So that’s your wants, your need is that I need to move more because I’m, you know, living a sedentary life, I realised that to be healthy, I need to move my body. So therefore, what you could do, but before you watch the crown, you actually do some exercise. And that exercise could be a bit of dance.

The other thing that James really makes important is when you’re starting out to, you know, change this habit, you know, to create new habits, it’s important to apply this Two Minute Rule. So you just get into the habit as quickly as possible by making it as attractive and easy and easy as just doing it for two minutes, or less than two minutes. If it’s a task that takes longer than that time, then your attractiveness was probably, you know, it was going to be hard to form a habit, whereas, you know, you’ll make up excuses.

For example, you’ll say, I don’t have, you know, don’t have half an hour for the crown, I’ve only got, you know, when you got a couple of minutes. So, you know, that’s, I guess the point is that you won’t make up excuses. And you’ll think two minutes as long I can easily do anything for two minutes. So you know, if meditation is something that you want to embrace in the new year to help you, you know, calm the mind to help you better manage stress, in order to, you know, don’t think that you have to do 10 minutes of meditation a day, no, start with two minutes, or one minute, just one minute, you’ll find one minute in a day. And it could be first thing upon waking, you just lie there and connect with your breath, for one minute before waking, very easy to do.

And maybe the attraction there is you love getting up for breakfast. So you know, before I have breakfast, I’m going to meditate for one minute, excuse me, I’ve been talking non stop, and I need to brace I get excited when I’m talking about, you know, wanting to help you. So that was important, it was the pairing. So you know, for a parent, you know, they want their kids to eat more vegetables, probably, it’s less harder to get kids to eat fruit, but certainly the veggies so it you know, it can be well, you get these chips that you want, if you eat the vegetables, and so the want of the kid is to eat the chips, or to have the dessert, the need is that from the parent, which is a as a result of that will become an important for the kid to have going forward into the future is that the vegetables are very important.

You know, we want you to eat your vegetables, because they make you grow up healthy and strong. However, we’re not denying you of the pleasures of life. I’m just saying it, eat your vegetables, and you’ll get what you want. And you can control the portion of what they get. And, you know, I’ve adopted this with my children.

And I often find that they’re eating everything on their plate without, you know, that takes a while to drive in this behaviour. And sometimes they don’t want dessert. You know, because the parents are leading by example, they don’t have dessert, you know, I’ve grown out of the habit of having dessert, or I have, you know, a dessert that healthier version of desert or whatever like that. But yeah, because kids always look up to their parents and take leadership from their parents.

In this case, they’re seeing their parents eat the vegetables, maybe enjoying those chips on the side or whatever, whatever it may be. And then, you know, it could be ice cream or whatever. But I find that my kids now eat their vegetables and half the time they don’t even ask for dessert. Sometimes they will and we give them dessert. However, it’s a requirement to always eat your vegetables. And we educate them and empower them as to why it’s important.

And over time, they get to like vegetables and you don’t have this conversation anymore. They just eat the vegetables. So that’s part of the strategy of making it attractive is pairing it with your need your desire your you know what you want to achieve with a current want.

The next one, in order to make it attractive, was about surrounding yourself in people that that need is the norm. So for example, you know, if you hang out with healthy people, they’re normally eating well and so there’s Less desire for you to do anything else, because we have a human desire to fit in. So we always want to fit in. And that’s a survival mechanism, you know, we need to find our tribe, with a tribe, it’s greater than the sum of the parts, provides more protection or provides more assurance it, you know, we leverage off each other’s strengths.

As a tribe, we can progress forward and thrive. Without our tribe, it’s hard to survive, there’s certain things that, you know, we may not be able to do that well, and we have to do, and as a result of not doing it well, and not being able to do it, then, you know, it affects our ability to survive. So we are wired to, you know, conform really, with the people we hang out with, to be included to feel that feel that inclusion.

And so you want to find your tribe that has a common interest of yours, that also shares that need that you want, such as I said, healthy eating, I mean, maybe a running group, for example. So you might want to eat healthy, you join the running group, because you like running. And as a result of hanging out with those people.

They eat well, they go, they choose restaurants that only serve healthy food. And as a result of that you are, you know, fulfilling your need without much effort, because you’re just fitting in and it’s survivable. And over time, that becomes habitual, and you just do it, and you enjoy doing it, and you’ll probably look forward to it.

The other principle for success around creating new habits is making it easy and rewarding. So, you know, I did cover off some aspects of how to make the habit new habit attractive. But to make it easy to you know, it’s really keeping it simple, and not over complicating it. So, for me, for example, around podcasting, okay, I, I didn’t even have a mic, but I had a computer with a mic and had it speaker. And so you know, I considered I had the equipment, I didn’t even have a platform of which I could upload these recordings to I found a recording software that I could download for Windows 10.

I had that, then I, you know, found a host where I could upload my podcast and share it with you. And I subscribed and I had no experience on podcasting, I had no idea, I still don’t even know how to use a software well today, all those I know is how to cut the gap at the start to when I say welcome, that’s the only thing I do around editing my podcast. Yeah, eventually I’ll learn this. But the most, you know, the thing I focused on was just breaking down the bigger task, I want to execute a podcast into smaller steps bite sized steps.

So it is finding the software recorded to its then finding the platform or upload it to and just learning some basic steps on how to do that. And over time, the hosting podcast platform, which I’m hosting is from Buzzsprout. They provide education for their creators. And so I listened to that education.

So I’m improving over and over again. And you know, they mentioned sound quality is really important. So I invested in a mic eventually. But I really kept the basic tasks simple. And I didn’t wait until I had perfected podcasting or learn all the theory and then had to apply it by then, you know, having to think that I need to learn all the theory that’s boring, right? No, you know, it’s, there’s an element of fun to it. But you know, over time, it becomes boring, what I enjoy is sharing my knowledge with you. So if I hadn’t got caught up in the theory on how to edit, I would have lost interest.

What I do is like, sharing my knowledge with you. And this is what I did by starting the podcast. So I really broke the task into really bite sized pieces, I subscribe to that hosting platform Buzzsprout I paid a monthly subscription. So I was committed. And I had, I think three hours of recording to do each month in order to to get my money’s worth. So I had to do three, I didn’t have to, but I wanted to do three hours of recording to get my return on investment. So that’s, you know, a way in which you can mass make tasks simple.

The other way to make them easy is to as I mentioned before those two minute increments, breaking down tasks to a two minute activity. And my two minute activity could have been start searching on the web for hosting platforms or start asking people that are currently doing a podcast who do they use and then You know, just that one conversation.

My habit towards my goal or outcome was I make one phone call. And then from that next day, my next step is to maybe Google that thing, and then compare it to other podcast hosting platforms. And then you know, do my own assessment. But yeah, that was essentially I made it, I really broke it down into bite sized pieces. And the reward was for me to upload my first podcast and to share it with you. And it was great than getting feedback from that podcast.

Then, over time, just creating more and more content and always looking to improve it, but not worrying about stressing too much about, you know, having it perfect. It was all always about reviewing the previous podcast, how can I make it better in terms of not saying too many arms or not repeating the same word over and over again, I often say, you know, anyway, so I’m aware of these things that you’ve probably picked up in previous podcasts. And I’m seeking to change that. And that’s my, again, that’s this will improve in time.

However, what you hear is authentic, and it’s raw. And it really is who I am. I’m very much what you see is what you Get. And I don’t put any façade or any mask over who I am. What you see what you hear. What you hear in the recording is exactly as I recorded, there’s no airbrushing, so to speak, of the podcast anyway, in saying that it’s going to improve in time.

The other important aspects around creating habits is not only making them rewarding, so actually rewarding yourself for doing the habit. So you know, that reward can come from you having a tracker, for example, says what James Claire brings up so having a monthly tracker saying this state, yes, I did my habits, I did my two minute dance on the first of December 2 of December.

And it said, you know how you feel when you’re cross off that task in the to do list. That’s the same as you know, with a habit tracker, you feel good that you have achieved it. And one of the key points that James makes in order to create these habits lasting is that we just need to keep showing up, we may not feel our best at all times. And it’s the same as athletes. They’re not at their optimal peak performance, every training session or every competition.

However, they show up, they perform, they review, they fine tune. And so this is the important thing about you doing that maybe that morning meditation upon waking, after applying that one minute for consecutive days, and maybe over two weeks, you start to feel the benefit of doing it, you say I’m feeling much calmer during the day, I really start the morning in a much clearer mindset. I don’t feel like you know, I’ve got all this overwhelm happening, even though there might be a lot of overwhelmed.

The meditation is calming my mind helping me think clearer. And because you start getting this feedback, same as I started getting the feedback with the podcasting is it then drives you to want to do more. So you get this positive reinforcement that I’m feeling clearer during the day, making better decisions, my emotions are fantastic, then you want to do more meditation, and so it compounds so you’ll wake up the next morning, think I can do two minutes now I’m really enjoying this and eventually you’ll do it, you know, morning afternoon.

You could do it before a presentation, you could do it at the end of the day before you go to bed. In the end, you’ll start and then this will compound a compound eventually you’ll find doing 10 minutes very easy. And then you know you could be doing an hour a day or anyway doing a lot more than what you started out. So it’s important that you just start so James clear refers to it as standard standardisation above optimization. Often, you know we can get driven or turned away by this wanting to be perfect, you know, wanting to optimise everything so that you know that first podcast episode is the best. And there is always room for improvement.

Regardless of how good I deliver a podcast, I can always find room for improvement. So perfectionism is something we aspire to. It’s a journey and it’s not a destination. It’s the same as happiness. It’s the same as love, you know, we always work towards being more loving. To give more. It’s not something we just arrived at overnight.

You know, it’s not like you look at a relationship, unless you’re always putting into that relationship, always giving and contributing to that relationship, that relationship won’t grow, it won’t be enhanced, or won’t be as rewarding. If you’re not putting in. So it’s the same with anything. It’s all about showing up constantly applying, applying it each day, refining getting better.

And as I said, you know, marking it off, as you know, you feel like you’ve accomplished something. So there’s something about, you know, marking off that to do list item. So today, I can mark off, I’ve done this podcast, and I’m going to feel great, at the end of the day, I’ve done it, I made a start, you know, might not have been the perfect day to do it. However, I’ve decided to do it, run it, and I’m actually enjoying it.

The other endpoint that James clear makes out in terms of a principle for success, you know, he calls on laws I’m paraphrasing, is this accountability. So it’s, he refers to, you know, making a contract with yourself and someone else. So initially in that, you know, creating a habit, you know, creating that initial habit is, he talks about that accountability contract with yourself.

So, I will, at this time, at this location, perform this habit, for example, when I’m in bed, so that’s the location at just as I wake up, that’s the time I will perform this one minute meditation to same as the dancing before the Netflix episode of the Crown. So it’s, you know, that’s making a contract with yourself. And then I guess, in order to take that to the next level, so that you’re more accountable, it’s actually sharing it with someone else. So it could be sharing it with your partner, or a loved one, a family member, or your coach, or your mentor.

And, you know, to share a contract with them to say, I’m going to do these activities, which are going to take me towards this goal that I’m seeking to achieve. And you know, you’re going to be made aware of it. And if I don’t do this, then the consequences, so we want to move away from pain towards pleasure. So the pleasure is the goal that you want to achieve, which could be to lose 20 kilos. The pain point is that if you don’t fulfil that contract or getting up in the morning, and exercising, is that you will have to give your coach an extra $10 on top of their fee.

Oh, yeah, it’s something like that. It could be anything or you shout, the shirt, you shout, your coach a, a drink, or whatever. But it’s that thing of taking your way, what’s got to be, you know, it’s a bit like, how we enforce the law, you know, you get fined, you get punished if you break the law. And if you comply, you get that feeling that you’re fitting in with society, and that you’re helping move society forward for for better for the better, for example.

Accountability can be great. So you know, it can be just talking to your partner. This is my goal for the new year, this is my habit, my two minute habit. Remember, make it simple, make it attractive, you can pair it to some want, and have your need come before the want.

So therefore, before I watched the crown, I will do two minutes of dancing has hoping you’re getting the idea you sharing that with your partner, if you break that contract, then there’s a consequence that you will do the washing up for a week, or something like that, you’re probably hearing me. And then at the end of it, it’s that constant refinement.

You’re living these principles, making the new habit attractive, you know, pairing it, you know, there’s needs and once finding your tribe where their habits done as a norm, you making the habit simple, rewarding, you have an accountability element to that habit. And then as I mentioned, as with my podcasts, I constantly review them, listen to other podcast producers and take the best aspects of what they’re doing and implemented in mine.

So you know, I’ve recently been all about improving the sound quality for you. So that makes it easier and you want to listen to it as opposed to I do I really have to put up with that, that terrible sound. You’re not going to listen to the episode. So you know moved into improving the sound.

Next I’ll move into editing and maybe making a better introduction. So it’s more exciting to enter the podcast and then a better outro so to speak. So there’s you know, these elements that I want to improve in my podcast But it’s incremental improvement at that, as I do incremental improvement, you know, I’m forming the habit of doing or delivering at least three hours of content for you per month. And that’s my commitment to you. So you can hold me accountable.

Even over the summer, I’ll be delivering this, and I’ve got a plan to deliver this content over summer. And I’m going to ask you for help. And that’s going to be what would you like me to talk about over this summer, so that I can keep producing content, I may not be able to get my guests in, where they can talk about their area of expertise, because they’re on holidays.

However, I’m committed to doing three hours per month, so that you get further empowered on your health journey. So you can help me by putting forward your questions to me, send me an email. So send it to Anthony at me and my wellness.com.au Anthony, at me and my wellness, all one word.com.au. And ask a question about nutrition. Is there anything confusing you about nutrition?

Is there anything you want to improve around habits around lifestyle? Or you know, you want some more information about sleep, or you want some more information about stress management? Whatever it is, put the question forward to me. If I can’t answer it, I’ll get an expert to answer it. If I can answer it, you’ll hear it from me directly on us, the nutritionist, this series, which is series, two of me and my health up, and series, three of May, and my health app is ask your wealth, the urge and the wealth yours series is going to be all about lifestyle improvements, or ways in which we can live a better, healthier lifestyle.

That’s me in terms of my incremental improvements. You’re holding me accountable, you helping me, me providing content for you over summer. So I want you now to think, as we end this episode, conclude this episode, is that what is it that you want to change? So what’s your goal for next year, work that goal back into an action, but that action remember is going to be just two minutes. So we make it really easy. And then we talked about attract attraction strategies make it attractive.

So part of those attraction strategies are doing something that you love, or a variation of what you want to do is something you like so I mentioned, you know, that person that wants to do more exercise, but doesn’t like doing high intensity training all the time. I said, you know, it’s just movement. So focus on what movement do you like doing dance, okay, do dance, increase your activity or dance per week, your base level of activity will increase, then you can add some variation in with mixing it up with other forms of movement exercise.

So this whole thing of, you know, making it more attractive, doing something you like doing so, you know, with meals that can be pairing, so I like this, I like to have some carbohydrates with my meal, I want to reduce my carbohydrates overall, for example. So what you could do is make sure there’s a good portion of protein, a good portion of good fats on the plate, and you’re going to have what you like in carbohydrates wherever they are, at but however, you’re you put your, your need ahead of your wants, okay, so you eat the protein first, you eat the good fats first, and then you eat what you want, essentially, by eating the proteins and fats will add will give you some satiety.

Therefore, what you want, what you want, you’ll enjoy, but eat less off because you’ve got a level of satiety. And so the tip is, I tell, you know, often informed my clients is to do that strategy. And to do it slow, say, to eat the protein, slow to chew, chew, chew, chew, chew until it’s liquid. Same with the fats.

And by slowing down what we eat, we get the satiety signals to our brain that are saying, you’re pretty full. You don’t need that much more by that it is, the slower you eat the protein and fat, by the time you get to your want, a little bit will satisfy you and then you can put the rest of the want for the next meal.

That’s overall reducing the carbohydrates that you know if that’s your goal, that you can consume. So you can apply that thinking to all aspects, you know, in terms of pairing those wants to the needs. And then, you know, we talked about finding your tribe finding you A group that you have something in common that also your need is the norm of that group.

And I mentioned running group that the norm is that they eat well. And hence you start doing the running because you enjoy it with them, and you start hanging out with them more. And you generally when you eat out, you’re going to be eating healthier meals, which makes it easier for you to go towards your goal. I also mentioned, making sure there’s the reward element.

I guess in some way that’s like matching the wants and needs, but also rewarding from the point of view that you’ve got some measure of how you progressing like. So it’s important that we understand how we’re going to measure our progress. And initially, it might be difficult to measure. T

hat’s why it’s important to have that tracker where you’re just marking off when you’re doing that activity. So that gives you a sense of accomplishment, because you’re marking off when you’ve done that activity. And at the same time you feel like you’re moving in the right, you know, you’re making progress in the right direction.

Split like with my podcast, I was releasing podcasts long before I was getting any feedback on the podcast. So I didn’t really know how they were going other than the amount of downloads, but then I didn’t know, you know what, you know, what should I measure myself against.

And I guess the hosting platform did help me in terms of understanding what some benchmarks are. So I did get an understanding over time, however, I didn’t really know whether listeners were getting value, because that’s the most important thing for me that that’s not the number of downloads, it’s more that the people that are downloading the episode are getting value. So please share your feedback, if you’re getting value out of my podcast, because that is rewarding for me.

That’s going to further drive me and you know, to make more better episodes, and I’m constantly refining, so they’re only going to get better. And it just keeps me motivated. Because, you know, with podcasting, or some do it and they make money, but you really got to make the top echelon of podcasters, you know, for me, as a novice, it’s just a way in which I can share something I’m passionate about that I know a lot about with you, to empower you.

Please give me that recognition in the form of a review. You know, just writing a review would be fantastic, leaving a rating with, you know, five stars would be even fantastic, because then that helps with getting that episode in front of more people so that more people can download it, and I can share my knowledge and passion with more and more people.

And that helps me towards my end goal. So that’s pretty much the rapid, you know, so the, you know, wrapping up this principles of success around creating good habits is, you know, doing that review and improve. So that constant reiteration constantly looking at your craft, how you can improve your craft, and make it better, and, you know, implementing those small improvements over time.

So that’s really it around this, you know, taking the best from 2020 to build a successful 2021. As I said, if you want more on this topic, please let me know because I can incorporate a part three. Certainly let me know if you want more more information about a specific way or specific strategy I spoke about or you want me to focus on applying this to specific health goals, I can do that. So I can do that in the next part of this series.

But if there’s nothing more on this topic that you’d like to know about, then certainly feel free to share feedback as to what you’d like me to answer in, ask your nutritionist or ask your wealthy urge.

I’m happy to answer any questions confusion, talk about any diets, the pros and cons, the evidence behind it. You know, whether it gets results or doesn’t, you know, I’ll apply my scientific understanding I’ll you know, look for the research and also what I see in clinic and gives you the best evidence based knowledge and make it practical, in terms of my education to you back to you.

So that’s it for this episode. Thanks for listening. Please, like share with as many people as you feel appropriate, please review my podcasts so I can get in front of more people and implement so I want you to have a successful 21.

Take this knowledge and implement. If we don’t implement knowledge, it’s only a nanny. It has potential knowledge when we employ moment we put it in motion we take action and we get the outcome we desire all the best for 2021 and look forward to sharing more insightful episodes on me&my uhealth up.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai