Ep 3 | How Improving One Habit, Improves Another Habit
Nov 24, 2023Season 2Episode 3
Meritt Brown
“Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (p 27 “Atomic Habits” James Clear).
A lot times we go through life on autopilot. We think the same thoughts, behave in the same manner, and have the same results. When you want to change a result in your life like: make more money, lose 20 pounds and keep it off, buy a house, or find a partner, people often try to change everything at once.
Instead, what we need to do is breakdown our goal, and start improving one habit. If you want to lose weight and keep it off because you are tired of yo-yo dieting, you may want to improve your exercise routine. So you start walking one mile a day, three days a week. After a few weeks of walking, you may feel better because your mood has improved, you are getting more tired from walking at night so you tend to fall asleep faster, which means you are getting more sleep, which means you have more energy the next day, which means you get more things done. When you get more sleep, you have less cravings. When you have less cravings, you can create a healthier diet. Catch my drift?
This is known as creating a snowball effect with habits. You can look at the Health Trio: Exercise | Diet | Sleep. When you improve your exercise habits, you will start to improve your sleep habits, then you start to improve your diet habits. In this episode I go over the Health Trio, as well as the Routine Trio.
Admiral William H McRaven talks about if you want to change the world, make your bed in the morning. This creates a small win in your brain, and if you do it in the mornings, before checking your phone especially, then your brain is going to crave another small win. And another small win. Remember how I said the more you do something, the more you do something? That’s partly due to Hebb’s law, “What fires together, wires together.” Which basically means you are creating neural pathways when you are doing more of something.
“Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems” (p 27 “Atomic Habits” James Clear).
A lot times we go through life on autopilot. We think the same thoughts, behave in the same manner, and have the same results. When you want to change a result in your life like: make more money, lose 20 pounds and keep it off, buy a house, or find a partner, people often try to change everything at once.
Instead, what we need to do is breakdown our goal, and start improving one habit. If you want to lose weight and keep it off because you are tired of yo-yo dieting, you may want to improve your exercise routine. So you start walking one mile a day, three days a week. After a few weeks of walking, you may feel better because your mood has improved, you are getting more tired from walking at night so you tend to fall asleep faster, which means you are getting more sleep, which means you have more energy the next day, which means you get more things done. When you get more sleep, you have less cravings. When you have less cravings, you can create a healthier diet. Catch my drift?
This is known as creating a snowball effect with habits. You can look at the Health Trio: Exercise | Diet | Sleep. When you improve your exercise habits, you will start to improve your sleep habits, then you start to improve your diet habits. In this episode I go over the Health Trio, as well as the Routine Trio.
Admiral William H McRaven talks about if you want to change the world, make your bed in the morning. This creates a small win in your brain, and if you do it in the mornings, before checking your phone especially, then your brain is going to crave another small win. And another small win. Remember how I said the more you do something, the more you do something? That’s partly due to Hebb’s law, “What fires together, wires together.” Which basically means you are creating neural pathways when you are doing more of something.
Hey cuties, I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. We actually had a relaxing one. Saturday, all three kids had a basketball jamboree and it was the first basketball game for our girls and my husband is coaching both the girls team and Our son's team. So he was, he was stressing out a little bit, but he did a great job of coaching them and they all had a blast with the, with the basketball jamboree. Um, and then we ended up going to The new Hunger Games movie, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which was fantastic. So, I, if you like Hunger Games, go and watch that movie. And then, On Sunday, our youngest kid got sick, so we just kind of laid around and we rested. it's kind of nice though, having a day where you aren't really doing much. Because during the week, we are busy. especially in this season when we have basketball and gymnastics and wrestling. So we're kind of running from one thing to another. It's nice to just kind of sit back and relax for the day All right, so in today's episode I wanted to Or I want to talk about something that I recently came across and it was a video that Explained the health trio I actually think it's called something else. I don't know. I'll see if I can find that video and link it in the show notes below. Um, it was on YouTube though. Anyways, it was a simple way of looking at how changing one habit can create the snowball effect in the best ways possible. Which is funny because people actually sent me things recently after I posted a video of me holding, uh, the workbook for my class that I'm about to launch called Cue the New You. anD if you don't know, I... I teach people how to rethink their habits with simple strategies. And I love when people send me things like this, because they think I will enjoy them, or they know I'm working on something, so they send me a passage in a book or a video that resonated with them. And I love it, and I'm so appreciative of that. But I think it's funny that, um, I got sent a A few things about habits, and then I, Because I've started really talking more about habits, and, how to change them, and then I watched this video about the Healthy Trio. So, it's funny how things just come together sometimes, but, okay, so the Healthy Trio consists of exercise, diet, and sleep. So, for example, if you want to make a change in your life and get a different result, like starting to exercise more instead of sitting at home drinking wine and not really doing anything even though you want to change, you decide one day that you are going to start walking after work. So you are essentially changing your routine up. You start off walking three days a week. And after a couple of weeks walking three days a week, you start to feel better about yourself overall. Your mood has improved. You have more energy because you are falling asleep faster. Which means that you're getting more sleep. Maybe better sleep and you realize that walking actually helps alleviate your stress instead of drinking wine. So your wine consumption lowers. Meaning you are saving money because you aren't buying as much wine. Also meaning you may lose a little bit of weight because again, you aren't consuming as much alcohol or sugar. Also meaning you aren't consuming as many grocery items per week. Meaning this awareness and new habit you are forming of not consuming as much will start to spill over into other areas of your life. Maybe you start consuming less junk food or snacks, meaning your pantry has less stuff in it and it becomes more organized. And because you start feeling better about yourself in your environment, you start walking more. You start micro cleaning because you enjoy having a clean environment. And over time, you aren't over consuming materialistic things, meaning you aren't possessing as many things as you once had. With having less things, the less you have to organize, the less you have to clean, the more freedom you have to do the things you actually want to do. The less stress you create for yourself, the more productive you become, the more you are managing your time. The more you start taking care of yourself and of your belongings. And because you now have the time to enjoy longer walks or more frequent walks, you may even start habit stacking on your walks, which means you are then forming new habits. Over the weekend, I posted a video that is kind of cringe because I'm a terrible dancer, but I don't mind it being cringey. the video was of me shaking my booty because I realized I needed to go up a size or two in the club shorts I was wearing because I just got back from a run, um, and on the run I was like, man, these aren't fitting me the way that they once had, and it's because of the booty and leg muscles that I've gained, and I was like laughing as I was running because It didn't bother me that I needed a bigger size. IT used to freak me out if I had to go up a size in any clothing item, especially in high school, because just how I... Because I, I, I didn't necessarily learn how to manage my emotions that well, um... When I was younger and so I looked at like what celebrities were doing and what people on TV were doing and how You know they looked and so I looked up to All of these celebrities like Misha Barton and Alexis Bledel, Kate Bosworth, Sophia Bush, and They had one thing in common, which was that they well, they had two things in common One they were all skinny and two they were Successful in my eyes and then I also loved fashion. And so like just seeing all the beautiful models who were gorgeous and skinny and successful That ended up me equating my success with me being skinny. So if I, if I wanted to be successful, I had to be skinny. I just developed really low self esteem and terrible eating habits because I was trying to be skinny so I could feel successful. My mood was always swinging because I wasn't taking care of my body and my mind like I should have, and I would like shove things down and keep my emotions bottled up until one day something trivial would happen, and then I felt like everything was falling apart around me, or I just felt like the biggest failure, and then I would comfort myself with food or with punishment from food and it just became addictive roller coaster of yo yo dieting and looking skinny but still unhappy and then gaining weight and lo and behold I was still unhappy. I know I've said this before, but it wasn't until learning about mindset and me going through this journey now for six years that I've really started to feel a difference with how my mind works. And the video I was talking about was me coming back from That run, and realizing I needed to size up in my club shorts, and for those of you who don't know, this is going to be a little side tangent, um, but I play an Irish sport called hurling, and yes, I say hurling, because I play with all men on my team, anyways, so, I realized I needed the bigger size shorts. I was happy with this realization. Because, my old self would have been devastated. And what I've starved myself until I lost enough weight to fit into those shorts. for me now, like, I love getting dressed. Because, and my husband always jokes around, he's like, I'm not going to buy you more pants if they're smaller. I will, however, buy you more pants if they're bigger. Because... Bigger pants means getting a bigger booty, which she likes. So I bought myself a couple new pair of pants, two, that are bigger. Like, I bought two pairs of Levi pants that I love. I really love wearing those pants because they fit me so well. And I'm not trying to squeeze into something that doesn't fit me. Because my body has changed. Because I started taking care of it. I started really working out with a trainer. My trainer is fabulous. Hey Merina! Because I had a goal to play for the Southeast Camogie Worlds team this year. Which happened in July. Um. Which, by the way, we fuckin won that! So, hey to all my fellow Southeast Camogs. Uh, like, what a trip that was. Um, but I wanted to be the best version of myself at Worlds., I gotta tell you though, playing at Worlds took a toll on my mental state because... I was elected captain along with another teammate. It was so nice having Danielle there as, um, as the other captain because she's so much better at talking to people than, than I am sometimes, most of the time. So, um, anyways, but it was also because I felt like I had to play perfectly and prove to people that I was good enough to be on that team and to be playing on that field. because if I Didn't play well, then I looked at that as me failing and me disappointing my teammates and and just everybody in general And I had Not a well, I don't know you could say like a little mental breakdown the night before our finals game But it ended up being a Really beautiful moment with, my teammates because wE all came together as a team. That was, that was also due to me, Trying to be the best version of myself and I know physically I was in okay shape physically and I say okay because Merina definitely worked me, got me stronger, got me faster. My agility was a lot better, um, but my body like ended up just being so tight and knotted up. So, my friend had to really, really work on like massaging a lot of things out. Because I was trying to be the best version of myself, that also meant my emotional state. I was trying to be the You know, a calm and confident person and captain and, that stemmed from me shifting my mindset around working out and just what I needed to do just to be a better athlete. And I'm actually reading a book now called The Inner Game of Tennis and it talks about the inner workings of the mind of an athlete and the outer workings and how you need both in order to be the best athlete. For worlds, like I learned about setting goals and I learned about habits. Like I've known how to set goals. I just never really care that much about achieving them. Um, which is a whole nother thing. But anyways, I, I really started to learn how to build healthy habits this past year. And I implemented what I learned from the previous five years of learning about thought work and showing up for myself and being who I wanted to become and applying all of that mindset work into the goal of Getting stronger and faster for worlds I loved making posters and like drawing things out and so I drew on a poster board that had four calendars on it, April, May, June, and July, and it was, it wasn't only a countdown to the Ireland trip, which again, like, holy hell, like what, what a trip that was, that, oh my gosh. I don't even know. I haven't even processed like the fullness of that trip. Or the epicness of that trip. Anyways, but it was also a place where, on the poster board, where I wrote down my goals. And I wish I still had that poster board. I threw it out afterwards because I was like, well I'm probably never going to play in something this big again, and international again, so I don't need it. Um. But I do have pictures of that poster board that I reference in my, in my class. On the days I wrote out what I was going to do to reach my goal of being better, being faster, being stronger, and practicing on my hitting. Every day I touch the sliotar, which is the ball we use, on the field, a hundred times. I should say almost every day I touch the sliotar a hundred times. I would practice hand passing to myself against the wall. I would practice catching and looking up and moving my head, On the run, I practice hitting against the wall on both my right and my left side, and I really, really try to focus on improving my left hit. thEn I practice my free hits. I did improve. My striking especially improved. My agility improved. I wanted a trainer who could get me in shape and make me stronger because I play with and against guys most of the time. Which, I know it's confusing because I went to play camogie in Ireland, which, camogie is the female version of Hurling, but since my club doesn't have a camogie team, the Southeast decided to hold tryouts for whoever was interested, we had tryouts and practices down in Atlanta, so I traveled a lot this year for that. But for regular seasons, because Worlds happens once every three years, um, I play with the boys. And we go to tournaments and play against other hurling teams. which are predominantly male teams. So, I wanted to be fast enough to be able to keep up with them and strong enough to not get pushed around. Especially since, you know, every year you get older. And so, I'm going to be 34 this upcoming season. So I want to keep up the stamina and the strength. So I hired my teammate's wife, to be my trainer. And at this time I was also doing jujitsu still and just running on my own. but changing my exercise routine started a habit snowball effect, which I think is fun to dissect. And. Again, the initial goal was just for me to improve my hurling skills. So I practiced almost every day for four months. Oh yeah, I should add, so my husband also went to Ireland, and he played on one of the boys Southeast teams, known as the All Stars, because the hurling team, Southeast hurling team, actually took two teams over, which is awesome. And he, worked his ass off, too, to make the cut for the boys team. He was, in my opinion, one of the best defenders at the World's Games. So my husband, Rob, also known as Hearth Rob, on our team, along with our friend OJ. And I would have an extra practice each week. So I was getting repetition after repetition for hitting and, passing skills. And then Heartthrob also led hill sprints once a week. So OJ would come over for that and, um, another teammate Ty would also come and run with us. So I was getting workout after workout with Jiu Jitsu and working out with Merina. And then I started to feel pretty good about myself. And that made me want to take better care of my body. So I started eating healthy again. Cutting back on alcohol. And I was trying to eat more protein so I could have more energy throughout the day. Which made me want to practice longer. Which meant I had to improve my night time routine because I wanted my body to recover. And wanted enough sleep, which meant I had to change what I did during the day to be intentional about how I spent my time because I wanted to get things done early enough that I wasn't staying up late and catching up on housework and what not because I wanted to get into bed. Because I wasn't consuming as much alcohol, I was drinking more water, which meant I was more hydrated, which also meant... My skin was clear and my body was functioning properly most of the time. There were some tournaments where I legit about passed out because it was so fucking hot. And no matter, like, no amount of water and electrolytes or anything for my body was helpful. Um, so, I still need to work on that. But, for the most part, I was good. But, because I was working out more, I started eating more protein, which meant I... was eating more meals, which also meant my blood sugar wasn't dropping as much as it did the previous year because I was regulating it by eating more frequently and And I haven't felt this good about myself in a long time like When I say I love my body, I mean I love my body I mean, I am human and there are days when I feel, you know, kind of fat and like bloated and just ill, but those are way less than what it was previously. And when I feel that way, like I may make a comment. I made a comment to Rob the other day, I was like, uh, I feel fat, but there's a reason why I feel like this and I'm not like mean to myself about it and I don't punish myself. about feeling this way. It's usually because like, yeah, it's about to be my time of the month or I'm like, yeah, I did down that hibachi last night at Tesla's birthday and that had so much sodium in it. And that's why I feel so bloated today. Or it's probably because I drank all that beer yesterday. So I say, I say something like that and then I just move on with my day. I don't sit there and dwell in self hatred anymore or hate my body for an extended period of time and I, and I'm not punishing my body by starving it or overeating when I'm feeling down about it. So setting one vague goal, and I say vague because you really measure like getting stronger by the amount of weight you're lifting because you want to be increasing your weight kind of each time you go to the gym or each week you go to the gym, but Merina and I never like log my workouts, which is. Um, I'm better at her telling me, okay, bitch, just lift this, shut up and lift this because you can. And, and she tells me to get out of my head about the weight because I do get in my head cause I'm either like, no, I can't lift this like right off the bat if, if I know it's going to be heavy or I just say, okay, fine, let me try it. And just the other day, I did a PR in leg press, which was 600 pounds, like 600 pounds. And I should have been so thrilled with that because, you know, it was a PR, so I'd never done that much weight before. But part of me was thinking... Great. Now, every time we get on this machine, I'm going to have to increase that weight, which means it's going to be so much harder to push that weight. Like, duh, you idiot. you're the one who asked someone to make you stronger. You think getting stronger is easy? No, it is not. It's consistent hard work, whether you feel like doing it or not. So I know the next time, the next time we get on leg press. I know she's going to be like, we're bumping you up, which is fine, because I don't know if I can't lift that unless I try and if I can't lift it one day, then that's fine. We'll just keep doing the weight that I can lift until I can lift heavier. But that's what I love about having a trainer, because she's consistent, which means I'm consistent. I give her money. She gives me time and instruction to get stronger. And we joke around a lot in the gym, but we do take our time seriously together because she, I was laughing because of the joke that I made the other way the other week and We stood there laughing for like two minutes. Anyways, but um, but she wants me to succeed and I want myself to succeed, but I also want her to succeed in her career as a trainer. Um, so, you know, I want to be a respectful client but being happy about going up. And pant sizes started with a goal and I've ended up changing a lot of habits along the way and the more habits I've changed the more habits I can change because Hebb's law is Quote what fires together wires together end quote So the more new neural pathways I make the more new neural pathways I make the more my thinking Changes about myself, my career, my parenting style, my athleticism, the more my feelings change because my beliefs about myself change, the way I process emotions have changed, the way I shift my perspective on most things have changed, my mindset about change has changed. So when you start changing a habit or routine of just one of these areas, a snowball effect happens. And this can be the same with what I'm calling the routine trio. So the routine trio has morning, night, and cleaning. When you want to improve one routine, whether it be morning, night, or cleaning, then the other two will follow suit. The better night's sleep you get, the more energy you have, the more things you're going to do, the more things you're going to do, the more productive you're going to feel, the more motivated you become to do. Keep that feeling of productivity. When you start putting yourself together in the mornings, the better you start to feel about yourself. The more your mood improves, the more productive you become because you feel good about yourself, the more you start to be intentional with what is in your environment because you want to keep this quote unquote feel good feeling. So you may organize more or clean more until you develop a cleaning routine that works for you. The more things you do throughout the day, the faster you fall asleep, the better sleep you get. And that trickles over into the health trio. So, you want to change exercise, diet, or your sleep habits. You start to improve one area, the other two are going to follow suit. But let's define what a routine is and how to set one. So, a routine is a set of actions or activities that are regularly followed in a particular order or pattern. It is a habitual way of doing things that helps to establish structure and consistency in daily life. Routines can be personal, such as a morning routine or bedtime routine, or they can be organizational, such as a work routine or school routine. Routines can help to reduce stress, increase productivity, and promote a sense of stability and control. Jan Stanley, who is a writer, coach, and strategist on routines and habits and how creating them helps with decision fatigue, and she teaches us how to use our time intentionally, By sharing about habits, practices, and rituals and helps us break free from our workday in order to be able to be present human beings So we can actually live life and enjoy our life. She has a fantastic TED talk called Routines the Unexpected Power of Habits, Practices, and Rituals. So I will link that in the show notes below because that's a really really good and short video, but she states quote, a routine, a routine is a bridge between strategy and action. Routines constrain choices, enable action, Offer coherence, offer stability, and End quote. Creating a routine involves identifying the activities or habits that you want to include in your routine, determining the order in which you will perform them, and establishing a consistent schedule for following the routine. I Duhigg and James Clear, because they have taught me how to bridge the gap of thought work and processing emotions. with changing my actions, behavior, and routines and Charles Tuhig is the author of The Power of Habits and if you haven't read this book and you are wanting to learn all about habits and how to change them, go read this book. Same with Atomic Habits by James Clear. remember how I'm always saying a habit is formed based on the habit loop. You have the cue, routine, and reward. In order to change a habit, you have to use the quote unquote golden rule and change the routine. And I talk about this in episode 2 of Can Decluttering Improve Your Mental Health? So Duhigg says, quote, If you want to start a new habit, like running each morning, it's essential that you choose a simple cue, like always lacing up your sneakers before breakfast or leaving your running clothes next to your bed, in a clear reward. Such as a mid day treat, a sense of accomplishment from recording your meals, or the endorphin rush you get from a jog. But countless studies have shown that a cue and a reward on their own aren't enough for a new habit to last. Only when your brain starts expecting the reward, craving the endorphins, or sense of accomplishment, will it become automatic to lace up your jogging shoes each morning. The cue, in addition to triggering a routine, must also trigger a craving for the reward to come. End quote. If you're wanting to develop a better morning routine, then I want you to ask yourself these questions. And this could go and insert cleaning routine or nighttime routine. Insert your exercise routine. your eating habits with these questions. So what is your current morning routine? What reward will you receive when establishing a morning routine? Write down what you do in the mornings currently. And also write down what you think of first thing in the mornings. Are you excited about waking up? Are you thinking about snoozing your alarm clock rather than working out? Pay attention to what you think when you wake up because that is very important and that can make or break your day. Some of the best coaching I received was to visualize what you are going to do the next day when you are falling asleep. Usually I think of crazy shit or I worry and think about things outside of my control. And when I started intentionally visualizing what I was going to do the next day, I felt like getting up was easier. Even if it was waking up at 4. 30am, just so I could get some work done before waking the kids up for school. Because at the time, I was working part time at my husband's business, and it was hard for me squeezing in time to learn and develop concepts. And, um, I was also coaching clients at the time and doing my podcast on top of all the things that I get to do as a mom. So I would wake up at 4. 30 a. m. to work on myself at the time, I was in a coaching program that really helped my mindset and helped give me confidence to start a business. And even though some mornings I woke up tired, Overall, I was excited that I was working on myself because when I'm showing up for myself and improving me, everything else around me improves. The relationship I have with myself can be reflected on how my kids act and how my husband feels. If I'm not quote unquote good mentally, then my family senses it and our dynamic shifts, which life ebbs and flows. So. We go through seasons of greatness, we go through seasons of not so greatness, which is okay, it's just, we are aware of our seasons of, uh, not greatness, and we, you know, give ourselves some grace, and we know it's not long term. So we, we can, we can see what's going on and we can start improving what needs to improve. But taking care of myself is a big priority for me because I take care and connect with others on a deeper level when I like myself, basically. Establishing a solid morning routine wouldn't have happened without establishing a nighttime routine. Another piece of advice I received was actually from my mom a long time ago before I even had kids. But I remember us walking into church one day and we saw a mom with her kids. And she told me how another mom who had five kids, I believe, was always put together and didn't seem like she was stressed out. buT that mom told my mom that she woke up before anyone in her house. So she created a morning routine where she took the time to take care of herself. She got herself ready before her kids woke up. But I mean, what else she did during that time, I'm not sure, like if she had quiet time or she worked out or whatever. I just know that her, her thing was getting ready before her family woke up. And just having that sense of calmness and peace before the chaos of the day started was something that she cherished and she stood by and that helped me as well. Getting myself ready for the day. As soon as I wake up on most occasions, I like having just a little bit of time to myself in the quiet before things start happening for the day. If I, because I know when I sleep in or hit snooze, especially on a school day, then I've already lost my morning. I end up rushing, and then I'm trying to get the kids to hurry and get ready because they woke up late, and then I don't have breakfast made or veggies cut up for school lunches, and then I'm yelling at the kids to come on so that they aren't late, and it just feels very rushed and panicked, but I usually sleep in late because I'm going to bed later. So if my nighttime routine is off, then my morning routine is off. So, you catch that drift. So, if you want to change something, or for like New Years that's coming up shortly, and you want to make a resolution, try making a routine instead. Like, I love creating small goals within a category in order to build a habit on top of another habit, instead of trying to change everything at once. So, start with creating your ideal morning routine. What would work for you and your lifestyle? Is waking up earlier easy? No. Would it be worth it for you in the long run? Maybe. Is waking up early to go work out fun? Maybe not, but is it worth you feeling great about yourself and not feeling guilty when you come home from a long day of work or being a stay at home mom and you don't feel like working out or you don't have the time because you have to cook, clean, and be with your family? Maybe. It would be worth it. Would going to bed earlier mean you may not be able to watch as much Netflix? Sure. Would it mean you may miss out on group chats about The Bachelor because you missed the episode because you wanted to get in bed? Perhaps. But is your quality of sleep important to you? When you start changing things within one category, it will create a ripple effect and the ripples will start then spilling over into the other categories. You aren't doing anything extravagant. You aren't making all of these sudden changes at once. Routines can be simple, but the goal with routine is consistency. I believe it's David Goggins who always talks about, if you want to change the world, make your bed in the morning. And this creates a small win in your brain. And if you do it in the mornings, before checking your phone especially, then your brain is going to crave another small win. And then another small win. And remember how I said the more you do something, the more you do something? That's partly due to Hebb's Law. What fires together, wires together. Which basically means you're creating new neural pathways when you are doing more of something. This could be for a good habit or a bad habit. But our brains aren't what establish what a good habit is or what a bad habit is. Our brain likes the rewards associated with a... So if you have a habit of smoking or drinking alcohol, that's your routine because your cue is stress, then your brain's activity isn't sitting there thinking, is this good or is this bad? It's the meaning you're attaching to that routine that then becomes a, this is good for me, or this is bad for me. And James Clear says, quote, bad habits are autocatalytic. The process feeds itself. They foster the feelings they try to numb. You feel bad, so you eat junk food. Because you eat junk food, you feel bad. Watching television makes you feel sluggish, so you watch more television, because you don't have the energy to do anything else. Worrying about your health makes you feel anxious, which causes you to smoke to ease your anxiety, which makes your health even worse, and soon you're feeling more anxious. It's a downward spiral, a runaway train of bad habits. Researchers refer to this phenomenon as Q induced wanting. An external trigger causes a compulsive craving to repeat a bad habit. Once you notice something, you begin to want it. You can break a habit, but you're unlikely to forget it. Bad habits repeat themselves again and again. Not because you don't want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems end quote Again, so go back and listen to episode 2 where I talk about the why behind decluttering and organizing Because I talk about having systems for your habits So I feel like I went on a few tangents in this podcast which is probably going to be the norm because I Love talking about this stuff And I have a lot of stories that hopefully relate to these topics that you enjoy listening to. So, anyways, this was about the Healthy Trio. So that was exercise, diet, and sleep. And how changing one of those, or improving one of those categories. We'll improve the other two categories and that trickled into the routine trio. So if you want to improve your morning routine, your cleaning routine, nighttime routine, follow suit, um, and this is a great way to kind of look at your habits and break down your habits and. See which areas you want to improve and start with small changes within one area and then Change will happen in the other areas of your life that you want to change Okay, I think I've talked enough. So I'm gonna jump off here And I hope everybody has a great weekend, and I'll talk to you next time. Okay, bye!