Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 94 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
The Habit of Forming Habits (1)
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 94 of our Trek. Yesterday we completed looking at the trails that would help us to hike with a limp. Anything in our life that is restricting us from moving forward is considered our limp. These restrictions or barriers many times come from bad habits that we have allowed to creep into our lives over time. In order to rid ourselves of bad habits, we must replace them with good habits. Today and tomorrow we will hike the trails of life that will allow us to start forming the good habits that we want to control our lives.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. Our lighter work days of last week resulted in an extra heavy backpack of client work this week. This was expected, and we were prepared for the busy trail that we encountered. Life’s trek is much easier to manage when we can prepare in advance.
I actually work better with a set schedule based on the routines and habits that I have established over the years. I enjoy rising early and having my exercise and devotional/meditation time before breakfast, as it sets the tone for the entire day of productivity. Habits are part of everyone’s life. We just need to make sure that they are positive and productive habits.
It is now time to break camp and study the trails of the habit of habit formation. This could be a very rough trail to hike today because we feel that habit formation is very difficult. Fortunately, we have a detailed map for our habit hike. There is a comprehensive path for setting habits in our lives, and if followed, we can form good habits, as we get rid of those that are bad.
We recently had the opportunity to attend a trial where the defendant had shackles on his ankles, and it was very evident that it was difficult, very slow, and painful for him to walk. In the same way, if we have shackles of bad habits impacting our lives, it will hold us back, and we will never be able to fulfill our God-given potential until we are freed from these bad habits.
It is very important to realize that if we desire to rid ourselves of bad habits in any area of our lives that we must at the same time form new, positive habits, or we will just fall back into the same routine and never be free of the shackles that restrict us. Remember that one key law of life is that when we say “no” to one choice, we are automatically saying “yes” to another. This applies to habits also.
This reminds me of the story that Jesus told when the religious leaders of his day accused him of casting out demons by the power of Satan. As I read this passage from Luke 11:24-26, where Jesus speaks of evicting demons from people, let’s use the comparison of the demons being bad habits in our lives. Many times we do refer to our bad habits as our demons. Consider the passage, “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, searching for rest. But when it finds none, it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds that its former home is all swept and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before.”
The same principles apply to our habits as to the literal demons that Jesus cast out during His early ministry.
On our trails today and tomorrow, we will explore some research from habit creation specialist Leo Barbauta as we hike the trails of “The Four Habits that Form Habits”.
One of the biggest obstructions that we encounter on our trail to good habit formation is that we visualize what the destination should be and we become overwhelmed to the point of paralysis, so we don’t make the changes needed.
When we do get motivated to change, at first we think that we can take large steps and make great strides. The trail is rather smooth and flat, and we want to rush ahead. That is until we reach the steep slope and we have already expended our energy. Then we have nothing else to give when it becomes difficult, so we stop and the old habits come rushing back into our lives.
As we explore the fundamentals of habits, we will cover four key trails to form habits. If you can learn these four habits, you’ll have the foundation to form pretty much any habit.
Habit Trail #1: Start Exceedingly Small
Let us look at a couple of practical examples.
Let’s say you want to work out more, but you have a hard time forming the habit. Most people have this issue. From having to get dressed in order to go to the gym to actually going to the gym to the thought of a hard workout, your minds tend to put off the habit.
The solution is exceedingly simple. The first day just do 3 pushups in the privacy of your home or walk/jog for just one minute. Make it so easy you can’t say no. You may think, “Now, Guthrie, that is just plain ridiculous. Anyone can walk for a minute or do three pushups.” You will think that’s too easy, and tell yourself that you have to do more than that.
Unfortunately, it’s this mindset that causes people to fail at habits. We think we can do more, despite past evidence to the contrary, and so we aspire to greatness. We try to climb Everest before we’ve learned to walk.
Learn the fundamentals of habits before you try to do the advanced skills. If I could convince people of that, I could get millions to change their habits, be healthier, simplify, procrastinate less, and start creating amazing things.
Another common habit that too few people actually do is flossing their teeth daily. So, my advice is just floss one tooth the first night. Of course, that seems so ridiculous you may laugh. But I’m totally serious. If you start out exceedingly small, you won’t say no. You’ll feel crazy if you don’t do it. So, you’ll actually do it!
That’s the point.
If you want to exercise, it’s more important that you actually do the exercise on a regular basis rather than doing enough to get a benefit right away. Sure, maybe you need 30 minutes of exercise to see some fitness improvements, but try doing 30 minutes a day for two weeks without missing. See how far you get, if you haven’t been exercising regularly. Then, if you don’t succeed, try 1-2 minutes a day. See how far you get there.
If you can do two weeks of 1-2 minutes of exercise, you have a strong foundation for a habit. Add another week or two, and the habit is almost ingrained. Once the habit is strong, you can gradually add a few minutes each week. Soon you’ll be doing 30 minutes on a regular basis even though you started out really small.
I am a regular runner now and usually walk/jog for an hour every morning, in addition to pull-ups, push-ups and crunches…but I did not start with an hour of intense running, I worked up to it gradually. I also gradually added getting up a few minutes earlier to compensate for the extra time needed to run and exercise. One important factor in ensuring success is to prepare ahead of time. For instance, I lay out all of my exercise clothes the night before, so that I am ready to get dressed in them in the morning.
Try the flossing habit. Try to floss every tooth every night, and see how far you get. You might succeed, but if you fail, try just one tooth per night and see how far you get. Your extent will vary, but on average most people get farther with a habit when they start small.
One glass of water a day. One extra vegetable. Three pushups. One sentence of writing a day. Two minutes of meditation. This is how you start a habit that lasts. Start small and gradually build from there. Remember that life is a marathon not a sprint.
As we implement the “Four Habits that Form Habits“ in our lives, we are learning that habit formation is not that difficult, but how we approach it makes it difficult. So, come along on our hike tomorrow for another day on our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy, and we will discover the final three habits needed to form habits.
Well, that will finish our podcast for today. If you missed any of our previous podcasts, please check out Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, YouTube, or Wisdom-Trek.com.
If you enjoy our daily doses of wisdom, I encourage you to take the time to invest yourself.
- Invest in improving Wisdom-Trek by leaving your name, email address, and a comment on our website, so we can provide you with wisdom and insights that best fit your needs.
- Invest in yourself by listening to our 7 minutes of wisdom each day.
- Invest in the lives of others by encouraging your family and friends to journey with us on our Wisdom-Trek.
Thank you!
The journal from this podcast can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com, where we also have pictures, tweetable quotes, wisdom nuggets, and free resources.
Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor and most of all your friend as I serve you in through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy the Journey, and Create a Great Day! See you tomorrow!