#1554 - One Simple Way To Know If A Habit Is Working

One simple way to know if a habit is worth doing . The reason I was laughing , alan , is because I'll tell you , but also Tell those who are just listening .

Alan , at the beginning of every episode , takes a big sip of his water or whatever beverage he is consuming , and I had a moment where I was like I might just sabotage the entire episode to see if I can get you to spit up your water . Nice , and then I was very close to doing it and then I decided against it because of time constraints .

Thank you for sure . Would you have appreciated if I did make you laugh to the point where you spit up ? Of course , always . I will do it in the future , for sure . All right , one simple way to know if a habit is worth doing .

We were talking about this recently on an episode where Somebody had asked me in a podcast Habits take so long To come to fruition . How do you know if the thing you're doing is actually worth it , especially if it's if you're a dream chaser and you're doing something that you've never done before ? Maybe it's for business or Learning something new .

Whatever it is , and I didn't really have a good answer , because , the truth of the matter , is you good ?

really want to do , but you know you should ?

Now , can you go too far into that ? Yes , you could easily say I'm going to invest all of my money into my future and I'm gonna struggle for the next 20 years , but when I'm 60 years old , I'll have an amazing life . Maybe that's not the way you wanna do it , but think of most of the habits that we do that are good for us .

Eventually they really suck day to day usually . Yeah , so we were Alan and I were talking behind the scenes of what are some good , relatable habits that our community practices that we could use this for . One is exercising consistently . You don't wanna do it . You might not wanna do it on the day of .

Usually , you get a pretty quick hit after you do it , though , so it doesn't take years to feel good , which is beneficial . Reading when you read a book , there's a lot

of potential . There's a lot of potential knowledge and potential energy and future opportunity that you're downloading into yourself . But the day after you read a book , nothing really happens . It doesn't really work that way . The day after a coaching call , nothing really happens , depending on the coach and the coaching call .

When you are trying to track your finances and focus on saving money , that really sucks in the short run . When you're counting every dollar and you're counting every penny and saying , yeah , this still sucks for me . I dislike this and I understand again . I'm blessed to have this opportunity and this privilege to even have this conversation with myself .

But well , we have food in the fridge that we just bought . We have chicken we could cook . We have ground turkey . We could cook Kev . The last thing you should do is get takeout . I want takeout , though I want it more than I want to cook the food .

But we already spent the money on the food and if I do those small intelligent behaviors long enough , then maybe we won't have to cook food . We'll be able to order pre-made food and that'll be what we do and it'll be like I'm having takeout every night . This is an example . So that's really what we're gonna go in this episode . I think there's two things .

One does it serve long-term me more than it serves short-term me ? Is a question up for debate , slash up for practicing with yourself . And here's the second thing In how many ways does this serve ? That's the answer I would give if somebody asked me on a podcast how do you know if a habit is worth keeping or if it's helping you ?

It might not be helping you in the direct way you want it to , but there are other things that it's helping you accomplish that you didn't expect it would help you accomplish that would be my answer .

We're going to go to the gym tonight , emilia and I , and we're going to be doing legs , legs . That is for the future self . We were joking last time we went and got sushi Because we passed this Chinese place .

I do not mess around with the fish ones for some reason , but I love fish . It's not raw fish .

to get that and the reason we stopped is because Himmelia did not feel well the next day . But here's the thing it was bomb the China pea .

I don't think we can keep doing this , which made me very sad . Now we only did it like once a month or so . I think we had a month that we did it a couple of times . But that would be an example of short term win for long-term loss . Good habits are short-term loss for long-term win , and you can't really change that . That's life .

You know , if you exercise is a good example . No one really wants to exercise every day . I understand that there are times in their life where they will say that and I've been there too oh , I love working out . Okay , I'm in a phase in my life where I love working out right now .

But those very people who said I love working out , there was a time in their life where they hated it . And so exercise is one of those things where , while it's a habit , you love it and you convince yourself you love it , and then you tell your friends , you love it . And then you end up a month or two off and go , you know what .

Maybe I don't really love this as much as I thought that I did , and so I think it's empowering to just say you know what ? I don't necessarily love exercise , but I know I should do it . I do .

I'm at that place in my life where I was talking to one of my clients earlier and I said he did two interviews yesterday , he interviews and recruits and he's a leader . And he was like , yeah , man , I was .

It was like four o'clock in the afternoon and I had my last cup of coffee and I swear to God I could have fallen asleep in an instant if I wanted to . And he's like the last thing I wanted to do was get on this goddamn interview . And he's like I did end up being an awesome interview and this guy's gonna be amazing .

I said that's what we need in 2024 . You know how many times I feel that way , kev ? How many times do you feel that way before a coaching call ? And we love our clients and we love coaching . I love coaching . I think you kind of like it . The point is you're not gonna wanna do it . You're not gonna always wanna do it . Sometimes you're gonna want to .

I love podcasting , but I also sometimes hate it . Sometimes I just hate it . I don't wanna do it . I don't wanna be here . It's that's okay . That's called the human condition . But most of the time

I do enjoy this thoroughly . Okay and , most importantly , it's worth it . So back to habits . Whether it's podcasting consistently or exercising consistently or not , eating China pee , whatever Chinese food , whatever . It is the first question I like , because it's about the future self .

The second question , I think , is fire , because when you break down habits that way , you realize the really powerful ones . So , for example , learning every day . What are the benefits ? The benefits of learning every day are crazy . There's so many . Okay , you're gonna be growing more consistently . You're gonna feel more fulfilled because you're growing more consistently .

Now you're gonna be able to contribute more . You're also gonna be able to talk to other people and recommend books to people . You're gonna be seen as more of a leader . You're going to be more consistent , more disciplined . You're going to become more . You're going to know more . You're going to learn things you didn't even know you needed to know .

They just stack these benefits , just stack , stack , stack . I have this sneaky goal , excuse me . I have this sneaky goal in life where I want to find the best , most optimal habits .

And to our last episode , I know I'll never perform them optimally . Okay , that's why I only do 30 minutes of exercise a day . I know an hour and a half there's no way . But I do have this sneaky goal where I want to . I want to find the habits that long-term will matter the most .

I want to find the habits that are so beneficial that long-term the benefits are so wild . And I do that with every client and it depends on the goal , the core values , that kind of thing . But I'll give you one more example and then I'll shut up . I promise I do a gratitude game , kev , before bed with .

So Kevin's wife , taryn and him do a gratitude game before bed . I think you guys do one right , one thing you're grateful for . All right , we do three . That's not a one-up thing , it's actually , it's actually a two-up thing . A two-up thing ? Yes , we used to do limited , unlimited .

We did seven and eight and eventually it went off the rails and we stopped altogether . So don't do that . But we do three a night and sometimes we'll do a bonus like a fourth , but we'd never go past that and I'm just more grateful for her .

That one habit , simple , so simple to do , has transformed my relationship and here's how I know I stopped doing it for a while . Emilia and I had like a four or five month period where we weren't doing it and I got a humble pie and I was like , am I not that grateful ?

And I came to Emilia and I said , sweetheart , we have got to get the gratitude game back . I feel like I'm taking you for granted and you know we got to get the gratitude game back . And she's like I know .

So these habits , they're simple , but if you choose the right ones and you do them consistently , they get easier and easier because they become habits , they become ingrained and you really can change your whole future with this stuff .

I don't like the process of the uncertainty of who's going to be there and what if I look stupid . I don't like that process . I hate it . I thoroughly hate it . I love the actual activity of doing it . I don't hate that at all . I love that .

If I could just do that , if I could just transport there and be on the mat and know who's going to be there every time , it'd be the easiest habit in the world . But that's not how it works . There's still no , there's still lessons for me in that . I think one of the reasons I like it so much is because I'm not good at it .

I'm pretty good at lifting weights . I've been doing that for so long . I'm not good at Jiu Jitsu compared to the people I'm with . It's very beneficial . It's serving me in so many ways . It serves me in exercise , but it serves me in discipline and respect and self-trust and fulfillment . I think that's a really good question .

Does it serve you and in how many ways does it serve you ? I know the future self thing was something for a long time that I don't know . It sounded too woo-woo for me Do something your future self would thank you for . That always sounded very woo-woo to me . Now it lands at a deeper level . What's your next level , nugget , sir ? Sir .

If I work on my body , my relationship , my business team , my craft , myself , every single day , tomorrow will be brighter than today . I mean not guaranteed , because it fluctuates , but the trend line over time will be up and then eventually you wake up and it's like holy crap , you ever have those moments ?

be because I remember days in the past that were just awful , just terrible . So invest today to make tomorrow a little brighter . That's my next level , nugget .

If you are trying to make a habit of surrounding yourself with more like-minded people , please join our private Facebook group , next Level Nation . That is what it's all about . I tell this to clients all the time because they always say why should I have a Facebook group ?

And I always say you should probably have a Facebook group because there's a lot of people who listen to your podcast that don't know other people who are listening to your podcast , and it's your job to create the community of positivity or whatever it is that you're talking about in your podcast .

There's a lot of people out there that would find value in meeting other people who listen to the same podcast . So that is one of the reasons we are so active . Amy and the team is very active , and Alan and I try to be as much as humanly possible as well

, but the ultimate goal is to have a community of like-minded people , and I think that's what we're all longing for anyway . So if you want to be part of it , the link will be in the show notes . We would love to have you there .

You can participate as much or as little as you want to read next level books with next level people , and you're going to get some really cool , unique perspectives . We do polls , we ask questions . The chat is on fire . It's been absolutely awesome . Shout out to Brandon for running that so well and we hope to see you there .

The link to register will be in the show notes . We do it every Saturday , 12.30 pm , eastern Standard Time .