CA099: Habits willpower and motivation

Brilliant Living HQ present. Yeah. And now your hosts Catherine Bryant and Julian L.

Hello there and welcome to episode 99 of the Changeability Podcast, brought to you today from brilliantlivinghq.com, mind management for your best life and business. And it is hello from me, Catherine. And a warm welcome for me, Julian. By an increase in the number of repeated actions. Habits are also weakened or broken, and contrary habits are formed by the representation.

Yeah, I suppose that is really what is at the heart of everything we're talking about when it comes to habits. A repetition of something, isn't it? It is. Anyway, we are here at episode ninety-nine and it is great to have you join us. And one of the things that did happen last weekend is we went to the New Media Europe conference. And which was great. In London. In London we met loads of great people. There was lots of talks on podcasting, blogging, all sorts of stuff like that.

Big shout out to all those who are listening who actually have been following us on the Changeability Podcast. We welcome you as always. Yeah. And and part of that was an award ceremony and you may or may not know that we were finalists for the Audience Appreciation Award. And we didn't win it, unfortunately. Just about to get up. No. Well if you listen last week you can say we we did not expect to win it because we knew there were some really massive shows.

In the category with us, but it was so great to be there as a finalist and be at the event. And it was so fun, and there were some brilliant podcasters. We did have a big cheer when our podcast was no announced and I thought, Oh, that's very helpful. Yeah, that was lovely. Thank you, all of those people who voted. We know that on occasions that was a lengthy process, but we really, really do appreciate all that you did to help us in that, get to that final. Exactly.

So anyway, today we are thinking about habits and what it takes to change them from Three different sorts of angles or three aspects that come into play, all things that have a role to play when we want to change a habit and develop new habits. So we'll be thinking about willpower and motivation and looking at the composition of habits to see if we can use it to give us a technique to help us change them. Yeah. And surprise, surprise, we can do that, can't we?

It was just as well, otherwise we wouldn't have much of an episode. You've been listening to the Changeability Podcast. Thank you very much, and we'll see you next week. That's it. Anyway, but first of all, in the in last week's episode, which was episode ninety eight. Living HQ dot com forward slash episode ninety eight. We started uh exploration of habits, uh what they are and why they matter or do they matter.

And we said that yes, they do matter because otherwise we won't be talking about them. And we'll come back to that a bit more in a minute. But first of all, we gave you some mind work. Homework for the brain. Just wanted to know if you've done it basically. Have you been thinking about your habits this past week? Have you been trying to notice what it is that you habitually do And how it helps you function as a human better or not, as it may be. So have you been looking at your habits?

Well, like I say, it's been a funny week. It's been up and down. We've been very busy. We've had somebody, Karen staying with us this week, uh a friend of ours. And so in some ways we've got a little bit out of some of the routines that we do normally, not least because I stayed up all night for the referendum results. I had twenty minutes' sleep yesterday. But um Even so, there have been some things that I've noticed and I I mentioned one of these things sort of in passing last week.

Come on, dish the dirt, spill the beans. I actually notice I actually sort of really tried to notice myself doing it this week. Lot of gesticulation here, isn't it?

And that was this idea of when I start working in the morning Or any time actually. It could be any time. Right. I sit down, I get my laptop out, turn it on, and I do this thing where I sort of kid myself that I'm doing my work. Right. But actually when I think about it, I'm not really doing my work. or not not the most productive work because what I'm doing is I got in this little routine or this habit of turning my computer on, checking our stats, our statistics for our podcast downloads.

Book sales. Sometimes book sales, sometimes social media Well, mostly I then go to my emails and I've c I've got like four different email accounts. You get sucked into the email void. So I think I'm doing what? Because I'm checking my four. Being productive. Yeah, aren't you? Always seem like you're being productive. But perhaps you're not being as productive as you could be.

Exactly. So I'm checking my four email accounts and then what happens is you can like you say, you get sucked into oh, I'll just answer that one quickly. Oh, this email's got a link to this thing that I really need to see. And before you know it, like an hour's gone. Yes. It's so easy, isn't it? Yeah. So that I think is uh and then of course social media is a whole new thing that an another level we can take it to by

getting distracted, especially if you go on Facebook or Twitter and you follow any you know, you f start following something and that's it, you know, easily one or two hours gone. So that is, I've decided uh an unhelpful habit to me. This idea of actually just going through this little routine of checking all these things first.

My habit is almost similar actually. Uh the one I noticed this week is that perhaps as an entrepreneur you have more time to do things which you want and Because you're working for yourself. Working for yourself. Yeah. So the time is your own to use exactly one of the great attractions of being an entrepreneur. But it can also come with some costs. And one of the things I have noticed is that I'm not structuring my day enough. Bye.

And that tends to lead to a lot of time wasting. I think I need to be more structured in how I plan my day out. Okay. Which I think I'm going to have to look at. So the the bad habit is being unfocused in a sense. Yes, because a little bit like you are, you become a little bit more reactive rather than proactive, I think. Okay, so the the habit is being reactive and the new habit you want to cultivate is being proactive. Structure. Excellent. Structured, yeah. Okay, so

Yeah, what were yours? We'd love to know your bad habits. Actually it needn't actually have even been bad habits, it could have been things that you do that actually help you. It was just about noticing what those habits are because You know, what are habits? Well habits are these behaviours and actions and ways of thinking that we repeat so often, they become automatic. Yeah, they're really an intrinsic part of who we are and how we function, and they're fundamental to how we think and behave.

Which means to how we live our lives and make our decisions. Yeah. And and the thing is any sort of change and obviously on the changeability podcast we're about change, but that could just be like change about just being happier, being more fulfilled. It doesn't need to mean, you know, a massive change in your life circumstance necessarily. But whatever change it is you want

achieving our goals and and success are really more the product of these daily habits than they are of any sort of one event that happens or one situation or one action. So They are really key to what we do, habits. Achieving lasting change really rather than temporary change. Yeah.

So habits are a key part of mind management. Basically because our mind uses habits, they use them if you like as some sort of shortcut. They're almost like um a sort of power saving mode in i in electrical products. It's a power saving mechanism, a brain power saving mechanism. You can go into this little routine, this habit Which you do without realising basically. Yeah, and your brain loves that because it means it doesn't have to think about it so much and then you can use

the rest of your brain power to do other things. So that's that's why habits are really important. But also the other reason why they're a key part of mind management is because If you can manage your mind in a helpful way, then you can utilize this power that habits have over us. So that rather than seeing them as a negative thing, you know, seeing habits in a negative light as something we need to control and overcome, they actually become something empowering to enhance our lives.

And and to help us make the changes that we want to make and to be happier in ourselves. Good habits, in other words, really is what we're talking about. Yeah. So it's about using habits to our advantage. Excellent. But to do this we need to know which habits are good for us and we want to carry on with, but also critically which habits are not good for us or not helpful in supporting the goals we have and the changes we want to make.

Yeah, because these are obviously the ones that we want to change. If we want to change something in our thinking or in our behaving or in which really means the actions that we take. And so this is where we can use our minds to actually use them to our advantage. If we're aware of our habits because we can work on managing our minds to change our habits.

Excellent. So how can we take the way our mind uses habits and use it to change our habits, to get habits that support us in gaining our goals? Yeah. So like we said, if you listen to last week's episode ninety eight on what habits are and why you need them, if you haven't done so, that's really one of the things you can do to start. Um and because it lays the foundation. But basically

The first step is to identify a habit that you want to change for a different one. And that's what we tried to get you to think about last week. So so identify the habit you want to change. Or it might be that you want a new to cultivate a new habit. It might you know it might not be so much about changing one, it might be about getting a new one. And by different we mean a helpful habit, an empowering habit, or a positive one, a healthy or even a wealthy habit. Yeah, healthy and wealthy.

we have that concept of a wealthy habit. Yeah, because that's about the way that you think and what you do. So thinking about the habits and um that you want to change is actually in itself an important step because The funny thing about habits, a bit like limiting thoughts, is that we're not always aware of them as we do them. Yes. And if you think about it, that's because, you know, your brain doesn't necessarily want you to be aware of it. So we we often have to take a a deliberate

step back to actually identify the the actual habit or to acknowledge that the thing that we keep doing that we really would like to change is actually indeed a habit. Yes. And it's become a an habitual way of behaving in response to a situational action. So the first thing as you said is we become aware of the habit we want to change or

the the habit we want to create, the new habit we want to create, then what? How do we actually go about starting to change or develop this new, empowering good habit, this wealth habit, this health habit, this positive habit? What if I asked you to think about just off the top of your head actually you can do this, Julian, just think about off the top of your head, what do you need to change?

What is it you need to do to change a habit or develop a new habit? What would you probably talk about? What what other what would you think about?

I'd probably initially think about something like your your own willpower. Yeah. Yes. Um which you exercise to try and overcome this thing. I I'm gonna get through this, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this health and fitness thing or whatever. And then motivation. Yeah. How would I keep motivated to do Yeah. And I think that's a great answer because I think willpower and motivation are both a feature of any sort of change. Okay.

Isn't it? So I th I think it's really worth us thinking about those for a few moments here. And the thing about willpower is it definitely has a role to play. What would we say how would we give a definition of willpower then? I'd say willpower is In its most basic form is the power to exercise your will. Okay, so can we just expand that a little bit? Okay, so um your will is what you do, isn't it? Or what you want to do. Yeah. So it's really about

Having it's about having some control over what we do. Okay. It's almost like There's a sort of echoes of this idea of self destruction. I'm not gonna get the giggles. Self discipline. We're not going down the fifty shades line here, are we? No, we're not inflicting discipline on anyone. Why d why don't we you know, why can't we just decide we want to do it and with through with willpower just power on through? You know, we've got lots of willpower, haven't we?

Wow. I think the thing about willpower is it it's actually hard to rely on it alone because we've only got so much of it. Right. And when it runs out. because of situations we find ourselves in, then it's hard to rely on it. So for example, if we're tired, if we're hungry, if we're upset or sad, then these are all things that sort of drain our willpower out of us and we're not gonna have such a such a supply. Those first two you highlighted, tired and hungry.

are absolute defeaters of me. If I'm tired, I haven't really Can you hear actually you may have just heard my stomach rumbling there. You probably didn't hear that, but my stomach literally on cue. I do find it very difficult. Exercise willpower. Um if I'm tired or hungry actually. 'Cause they really they're the things that really motivate you in life, aren't they?

I don't know. I mean I I I you know, we la we laugh at it, but it is interesting to think what's actually going on in your body'cause I suspect there is a blood sugar level drop and I would think that there may be some sort of primitive instinct which kicks in that you've got a I'm sure that's a good idea.

Get out there and do something about it, haven't you? And it sort of keys you up to doing it. But it doesn't always lead to sensible decisions at that stage. I just I've just gotta have something to eat, you know, I don't care almost. And the thing is that Well obviously, you know, being being hungry in particular i is a d big driver, isn't it? Because that's what g you know, our bodies are telling us we need food to keep us alive.

But it is in those situations that our willpower just can disintegrate. Yeah. I mean I think this is why often when you wake up in the morning You know, you wake up with good intentions and you've got lots of willpower and you're gonna do this today, you're gonna do that today, you're gonna go out exercising, you're going to eat the right things, you're gonna get all this work done.

And then as the day goes on and it gets nearer to the evening it's it gets harder and harder to exercise our will our will. It's a fascinating subject, Will Power, actually. is. And I think it is it's an important subject and it's one that you know, for another day really,'cause it's a n a good subject to discuss in its own right. But I think for now, in relation to habits, it's enough to think Well to just bear this in mind that willpower does have a role in the world.

So it's got some part to play in it, but not necessarily the only part, is what we're saying, isn't it? And and the and the other thing is it does have a role because the one of the really interesting things about willpower is that you can get better at exercising willpower. Yes. So you can actually build willpower. Yeah. Um But it's hard to rely on it really, we're saying on its own. Yeah. Because other things can can come in and sabotage it. Yeah. And uh yeah.

And I suppose there's also not least because our brain likes our habits, so is wanting us to keep them in some ways, isn't it? It loves the fact that habits free up your brain power to do other things. Yes, it does. So that that makes it even harder just to rely on willpower to overcome existing habits and to change them.

What about motivation then? Sh we should should we have a little definition of that? Well, I think motivation is similar in a way because our motivation is always key to to what what we do in life, isn't it? Especially when we want to change something. So I think motivation is really important.

But is it enough to rely on? That's the question again. So let's think about motivation for a moment because we often hear people talking a lot about it on sort of in well, in self help, personal development circles, but we don't often necessarily think about motivation. Now you've got quite a nice way of thinking about motivation, which you have explained to me in the past, your own sort of model, if you like. I like that. This is the Catherine model of motivation. Well...

But you might never know because you know what it's like. You might have I might have read something ages ago and it might have been lodged in the library in my brain. Um if you want to know more about that. What episode? We talked about that. It's about episode three, I think. Right. Okay. It was very early on, wasn't it? Might even have been episode two. Well we'll put a link in anyway in the show notes. Actually you might as well tell us now where the show notes are.

Brilliant living hq.com forward slash episode ninety nine. Yeah. Yeah. If you want to know anything about about I bet you there's people all over the world thinking, What's an ice cream called ninety nine for? That's bizarre. What is it called ninety nine for Ice a ninety nine ice cream is like soft ice cream in a cornet. Whipped Whipped. Whipped ice cream, which has and this is why it's so good. Like It has a chocolate flake in it. Yeah.

Double ninety nine, which would be a hundred and ninety eight, wouldn't it? I've just thought of that. Anyway, how do you think of motivation? Okay, so I think of motivation as having different levels. Right. and each level has a different strength. So okay, so another way to think of motivation is like and the way people talk about it often is really to think of it as the purpose or the why behind what you do.

I think I need a bit of an analogy. Can you give us can you sort of Well it's the purp it's the purpose behind what you're doing, you know. Yeah, but can you give me something which sort of I don't know, an example which seems to represent it in some way?

Okay. So this is what I tried to do in my model because motivation has different layers to it. Right. Okay. So if we think motivation is the purpose behind what we do or the why behind what you do, what I'm saying is That's fine, but it's not as straightforward as that because actually I like to think of motivation as having different layers. Right, okay. So explain that. That's what I was trying to get at.

Okay, right. And each layer has this different strength. So if you think of it, or one way to think of it is a cocentric circles. Concentric. Concentric concentric circles. So that's circles within a circle within a circle. Right. So a bit like an onion. Yep. So or a tree trunk, you know, if you cut through a tree trunk you've got your circles in a circle. Yes. And onion's a more obvious example, maybe.

Yeah, but it wouldn't obviously it hasn't got as many layers as that'cause that's got hundreds of layers. This has only got a few layers. But you get the picture. So you've got your big circle and inside you've got a l slightly smaller one and a slightly Cut an onion in half. So the outer layer, the bit that goes you know, the big bit which's gonna be the biggest bit that runs round the whole circle. is your big why. Give me an example. Right, let's take health and fitness.

Say that you you're thinking about your health and fitness and and I use that as an example'cause that's an an area that many of us, if not all of us, would like to do something about or they or would like to develop some better habits around. Yes. So the outside layer, the big motivation The big purpose and the why is to be healthier and fitter because because that's how you get your why do you want this? Because that's how you get your purpose.

And it might be because it makes me feel better, it gives me more energy if I'm, you know, healthy and fit. It helps me get the most out of my life. It might be I think I look better, which makes me feel better, and that makes me a better, happier person in myself and my relationships, maybe even including my marriage. You know what I mean? Because all these things have an impact, don't they? So that's your outer layer? of your onion ring. And it is your big why. Yeah.

Okay. And and you know, this idea of it having an impact on all these different areas of your life. Of aspects of your life. So like I because I do actually think that if we feel happier in ourselves we can feel happier in our relationships with other people. Yes. And that feeling healthy and fit is one of the components to that. So that's the big outer ring, the big purpose. So in short really the the the outer layer is why I want to develop healthy habits. Yeah.

Because being fit and healthy feels good and makes me a happier person. That's my motivation, that's my why. Now that's all very well and good. But it's actually hard to always keep that at the forefront of our mind in everything that we do. Yes. And we know We go with that as one of the limitations of the mind, don't we? Yeah, exactly. And we also know because we just talked about it is that will power willpower will only take us so far. And motivation presumably too.

Yep. Especially as we then move on to the next layer. Ah, the next layer in our onion room. Yeah, so we come in a layer now. Yep. And so the next ring inside this um well it'll depend, but what what I normally like to think of it as something to do with your situation. Okay. So th so the next one is your situation. So for example, you have a busy life. You've got your house to look after, maybe? Yeah, you've got a house in the car. Family commitments.

Yeah, maybe you've got a family or maybe you've got a very busy social life or com like you say different Well like many people you might be sort of rushing from one thing to the next with a a never ending to do list. Exactly. So that's your your that's your situation layer, if you like, about the life that you're living at the moment. And then you come in a layer. Okay. So the next layer may be something like Your career.

Okay. It it's it's your job, your career, it's something that's demanding a lot from you in terms of your energy and time. So you can see we've got like these three different layers coming in. And then I mean you could have more layers, but I'm just giving you an example.

And then in the m we get to the final layer, which is the final ring, which is the bit in the middle, a bit like, you know, the bullseye on a darts board. And there's a circle there in the middle, which is you. Okay. So imagine The core of the It helps like if you imagine it with the word you written in it. I've can see it Or it could be me actually. You can see a circle with the word you written in the middle and then the next circle has my work commitments. The next circle has my life.

Situations and then I'm trying to get to this outer ring which is my health and my happiness and my fitness. It's a great analogy. That's exact exactly the sort of thing. And the you in the middle, or it might even be better to say me, I don't know. Semantics. This is you at this very moment. Okay. Or the present moment whenever you're thinking about it. So that's the model which I hope you as a listener can s sort of see in your mind.

But but the thing about it is that it's not static that model. Okay. So why is it not static? Because the thickness of the of these layers of each ring ro going round m um can change over the day and over the week. So if you think about it, you know, they they may look different to you on a Monday morning than they do at a weekend.

Yes, because your career or job layer or circle or ring or whatever it is would hopefully be narrower at the weekend. You may not have to worry about it quite so much. Yeah, exactly. That's really good. So Yeah, and also at different times of the day even. You know, like if you're really rushing around with your family or whatever it is, you know, that bit's gonna be thicker. Because the point is that your motivation, which starts off with the best of intentions, can get

hijacked or watered down as you move through these layers. Right. So the first thing in the morning you might start off with your good intentions about changing your habits But then you get busy, say for example, getting the breakfast done, getting to work, your energy starts to dip and then like as you get into the middle circle, your energy's dipping. Do you see do you see what I mean?

So So at that precise moment, because of all those external factors, you're not so worried about the bigger picture of I don't know, health and h health and because the needs of the moment are nearer to you than the big circle on the outside. Exactly. So it's about the things that are between you and achieving what you want. my needs, as I've already mentioned, of of that particular moment of that I'm hungry, I'm busy and I need something quick to boost my energy.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But actually it's not even just about you need something quick to boost your energy because that would be like the good way of looking at it. Actually what tends to happen is more importantly in that moment all you're interested about is overcoming the hunger and to do it quickly and easily in a satisfying way. I'll just grab a roll which is coming round from the trolley or whatever.

Takeaway is. And and that's when you don't want to be just relying on your willpower and motivation because as we've seen that there's other things getting in the way of that. Okay. Yeah. So let's think about what that could be the other things getting in the way of it. Well, this is now where we need to think about what can help us stop these other things getting in the way of it. Do you see what I mean? Yeah. Okay. And to do this we need to

Quickly go back to the idea of what a habit is. Okay, so we did talk about what habits are last week in like technical terms. We said that habits have a cycle that they go through. These are the elements or phases a habit exhibits is exhibits or has to be classed as a habit. Yeah. And we talked about the constituent parts of a habit, if you remember, in episode ninety eight. Just in case you haven't heard it yet, or to remind you, if you have, a habit is made up of a cue or a trigger.

That's the first part of a habit that Starts off this process, isn't it? And then that leads to the routine or the action or the behaviour. Yep. Which is like the actual habit, what it is you're doing. So I'm going into the bathroom, that's my cue. I know that I've it's first thing in the morning, I know that I have to go and clean my teeth. That's the cue or the trigger. The routine or the action is I'm cleaning my teeth.

Yeah. And the reward, which is the final stage, or what we get out of it, the benefit is lovely, clean teeth. Yeah. And a happy teach Yeah, okay. So yeah, so there's these three parts, the cue, the action and the reward or the benefit. Yep. Th the reason why we we're talking about this is because this is where these things actually become really important in themselves and why it's worth having a bit of a think about your habits like like we talked about last week.

Because this whole habit process or framework is sometimes referred to as a habit loop. Yes. And it's a really crucial concept to change to changing your habit. So it's really good to get this if you see what I mean. Okay. So we keep on with these bad habits, if they are bad habits, or good habits hopefully as well, uh until such time as we break them in some.

Right. And the reason why it's good to think of it as a loop, because a loop is something that you do over and over again, is because now comes the sort of clever bit really, the clever part. The idea is that you take this habit loop. Yes. and you use it to your advantage in order to reduce your reliance on willpower or motivation. Hmm. So you essentially use your mind and actions to help you form new empowering habits to support your goals. But how do you do this?

And so you do this by disrupting this existing habit loop. Clever. So you the idea is you're going in, you're disrupting it, and you're tying the new habit that you want to cultivate to an existing one. That is smart. And in that way the existing habit or activity becomes the cue or trigger for the new one that you want to do. Love it. Clever. Let's have an example, should we?

Okay. So for example, you do something, take a habit that you do every day. I mean, you just mentioned cleaning your teeth and that's a good one, or having a shower, because these are things we do all the time. Yes. And you disrupt it, or maybe instead of I mean No, people use the word disrupt, but what they mean is you it's more like you interrupt it. Okay. Okay, because you're not necessarily completely changing the habit. That's a good habit, isn't it?

Yeah. I was gonna say that is it just you decide I'll I'll forget the Yeah, you're not doing something uh different necessarily in this case. Are you adding to it? You're sort of adding to it, okay. It's it's almost like you're adding in a new bit of the loop. You're adding in a new habit to the loop. So you're sort of effectively hijacking, aren't you, an existing habit? Oh, that's brilliant. Yeah, I like to think of it as piggybacking'cause I think that sounds a bit friendlier than hijacking.

I don't know why I said that.

Anyway, um and and actually it can work really well. I mean I've actually been trying to do this. Have you? I've actually been trying to do this. Tell me. I haven't Did you get very far? Tell me more. Tell me more. I haven't just been trying to do it. I have been doing this. All right. So So how have you been interrupting a routine? Well, we're not going to be able to Yeah.

We talked about cleaning your teeth, we talked about having showers. Well, I've actually been using that exact ha those exact habits to do it. So what I've been do started to do is um I wanted to get in the habit of doing a little bit of exercise in the morning.

Um and in particular I wanted to do some push ups. I'm not I'm not particularly marvellous at them but and I don't mean push ups on the floor, but when I had to go for some physio last year, this was something they suggested I did. So I do push ups against the wall or the door. Yes. And

And then I follow those by doing some stretching, a few stretches and stuff like this. But the interesting thing is You know, I used to do them on and off every now and again when I remembered it, but which meant that most days I didn't do it, frankly, or I'd think I'd do it later and then I'd never I'd get busy and then then it never happened. So what I thought, right, I'm gonna try and use this habit loop thing.

And so what I do is I've inserted that in between my cleaning my teeth and having my shower. So and and I have to say it actually works and I've done it pretty much every day this year. I started doing it on January the first. Yeah.

And I've done it every day this year, apart from occasionally if I'm in like when I've been away or something, I do still try to do it. But if you know, this is the interesting thing, you see, because it's part of another habit, if you change your your situation sometimes it doesn't happen. But on the whole, I've done it pretty much every day of the year this year so far. I wondered what that creaking noise coming from the bathroom was.

The f I'll tell you what, the first day I did it, because I'm doing it against the w door in the bathroom and it slightly goes in and out. The first day I did it, dude started barking. He came he was on the other side. He came running up the stairs barking because I think he wondered what this little noise. Anyway, yeah, so basically I do it in between I clean my teeth, do my exercises, get in the shower and it really works. And and I think part of that's because

It just doesn't feel right not to do it now because it's intrinsically tied into my morning routine and specifically before I get in the shower. So somehow it just wouldn't feel right if I just got in the shower if I hadn't done it. I'd have this feeling that I'd miss Mm doing it. Part of your habit was missing, wasn't it? And I but I also think that now I feel I need to keep it up on a daily basis as I think, you know, if I drop it for a day or two then that might be it. Yeah, exactly.

So The good thing I think about doing this is that after a while of doing this, and this might be quicker than than you think actually sometimes, you don't really need to think about doing it.

It's just so like I don't get'em and say, All right, now when today shall I think? When can I fit in doing my exercises? Shall I do it oh I dunno, I could do it now, I could do it like I mean, you just don't think about it because it's becoming this habit. I just know that I do this before having my shower. I suppose I've sort of somewhat similarly, maybe not quite as Disrupting the loop. Done a a similar thing in the morning. I come downstairs, go into the bathroom, do my ablutions.

Okay, let's say no more. Uh at that stage you often go into the bathroom before me, don't you? I'm sure for everyone's I know. Sunny routines, morning bathroom routine. And at that stage I then come out and I then go into a different room. Um and I do my meditation. I do my uh bouncing, my rebounding, Yeah. Uh and that's on a little mini trim plan So that's sort of my more Trampolet, didn't I? Trumplet. Do you know what? Trampolette is a better word than trampet, isn't it?

No,'cause it's a trampoline, isn't it? It's not a mini trampoline. Anyway. So yeah, that is a similar sort of thing. You've got into a routine. And actually, you know, exercise is a really good habit to do this with because even if you're doing a little bit like like I've been talking about, because exercise is a special type of habit. to cultivate. Well it's great to cultivate it, which is called a keystone habit. Ah Keystone habit that's a good one.

It does, but we're not gonna go into that today'cause more on that another time.

So that's just like a little teaser. That's a good idea. More techniques to help you change your habits. So because really we've just scraped the surface today. But I think, you know, that is enough for today because the t the time's moving on and we need to we need to leave you now, unfortunately. We could stand there and talk for hours, it has to be said. But We know you've probably got things to do.

Um, so yeah, really that's that that's it for today. You know, we've been thinking about the role of motivation, the role of willpower, and this idea of the habit loop and how disrupting it, finding ways to disrupt it is a great way to start ch changing your habits. And and we will come back to this very soon in in some future episodes and look at look at some other ways'cause it is a fascinating subject, or I think it is anyway,'cause it's so intrinsic to everything we do.

And yeah, so but for now let's just hear some of the words of wisdom from Charles Duhig, who wrote this brilliant book called The Power of Habit, Why We Do It, What We Do. Habits aren't destiny. Habits can be ignored, changed, or replaced. But the reason the discovery of the habit loop is so important is that it reveals a basic truth. When a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard or diverts focus to other tasks.

So unless you deliberately fight a habit, unless you find new routines, the pattern will unfold automatically. Wise words indeed. And so yeah, that is it, isn't it? And we will be back next week with episode one hundred. That is incredible. That is fantastic. Hope we'll be back next year. What a fantastic achievement that is. Yeah. Well let's leave that till next week. Okay. Patting ourselves on the back. But anyway, it's been great to have you with us today and

Yeah, have a great week and we'll talk to you soon. So thank you for listening from me, Catherine. And for me, Julian, and never ever forget that of course you are dead. Brilliant.