Change Your Habits for Good, the Easy Way

Hi everyone, I'm Christine Franklyn, host of the Reclaim Your A-Game podcast. My goal as a wellness expert and coach is to help you the entrepreneur or leader, who is running ragged, to refuel and gear up for what can be the best chapter of your life if you manage your energy, your time and your habits as well.

And speaking of habits, it has come to my attention that so many people desperately want to improve their lives by building better businesses or ensuring that your work life doesn’t suck. Or they want to improve their health by losing weight, getting fit, eating healthier or getting better quality sleep and being less stressed.

And then there are our relationships, whether these are romantic relationships, parent-child relationships or the relationships we want to build with stakeholders in our business or those in our network.

Well today I'm going to share with you the most practical way to have everything you want in any of those areas - your business or career as a leader, your health and fitness, and your relationships.

It all comes down to optimizing our habits because what we do on a daily basis is totally up to us. And of course it makes sense to do our best with whatever is in our control.

When I work with our clients, I always recommend crowding out as the easiest strategy for changing policies. I am the one coach you’ll meet who will not tell you to stop doing this or stop doing that. In fact, it's all about saying yes to yourself.

I'll share a few examples so you can understand exactly what I mean by the term crowding out. Let's look at the three areas I mentioned earlier, where we usually want to change our habits. Starting your business or career. Let's look at what you can crowd out and how to go about this.

Typically people tell me they would love to stop overworking or working into all hours of the night and into the weekend too. This is always easier said than done but we know it's important because burning the candle at both ends is a recipe for disaster. We end up dragging ourselves through the day and we don't have the time or energy to take our business or career further or make wonderful memories with our friends and family. In a nutshell, we aren’t really living. We’re surviving rather than thriving.

Now let me be clear, there is no magic formula to change your situation overnight but there is something you can do about it. It’s always important to start where you are. What are the appointments that you always keep? Meetings with others or maybe a doctor's appointment. right?

Some people will tell you if you want to get something done, put it on your calendar. Well, that's a brilliant idea but it doesn't work with some driven people like me. You see, I tried putting self-care slots on my schedule and what do you think happened? I skipped over those slots, and continued working like nobody’s business.

I’ve found we need accountability. Research has proven that we are ninety percent more likely to achieve our goals if we have someone keeping us accountable, and this helps so much along the way.

So here’s how you can apply the principles that are inherent in the meetings you actually keep. Create a new habit with a buddy to crowd out your old habits. As the friend to give you a call at the time you want to shut off from working. Put that call on your calendar so you wrap up your work in time for the call. Have the friend ask you to confirm that you have packed up and shut down your computer. Of course, for this to work, you have to be honest with your friend and know that you really do deserve to have a life. Soon ending work at that specific time will become your new habit and the old habit of overworking will fall away. Doesn't that sound good?

When you finish listening to this episode, reach out to a friend who will be happy to support you this week. Don't go do it yet because you won't want to miss what I'm going to help you with next. Don’t worry, I’ll recap everything at the end so you remember what you need to do.

The question remains, how do we apply this principle to improving our health. I know many people want to lose weight and keep it off yet they find it hard to stick to the advice they are given or the cookie-cutter plans and programs that may be well intentioned, but simply don't work because most people simply put the weight back on or sometimes even pack on more pounds than they had before!

Crowding out is a much better way to go than one-size-fits-all plans. Ask yourself, what is one little step you can take that can at least get you on the path to manage your weight better? With most people, the answer lies in a combination of changing the way they are eating, having regular physical activity, sleeping better, and being less stressed. Whew! That feels like a lot, I know but it's worth it to stop and think through what can be done because obesity or being overweight puts you at a higher risk of developing a serious illness or chronic disease and it surely zaps your energy.

So let’s start with eating habits. What is the one healthier food that you'd like to use to replace something you normally eat, or drink for that matter? Try that one food or maybe drinking more water this week, then try using it again next week - this could be something like dark chocolate - and so continue until you've used it for four straight weeks. Did it make you feel lighter or more energetic when you use a healthier option? Do you find yourself using less of the junkier option? For example, you’ve eaten less milk chocolate bars because you're now eating dark chocolate.

The same thing goes for incorporating more physical activity. What do you normally do at a certain time in the day when it would be nice for you to go for a brisk walk or jog. What do you usually do when you’d be better off heading to bed to get adequate sleep? And to reduce stress, what is one thing to you could do to lighten your load? Here's another instance when it would help to buddy up with someone to go for that walk with you or jog, or to call and ensure you're doing things you said you would do.

These steps help you focus on trying something new rather than stopping an activity you would normally do, which will bring up the usual resistance to change. You will in fact need to replace one habit with the other to see any improvement but where you place your focus makes all the difference.

And then there are relationships. How can we make it easier to relate to others? It all starts with being crystal clear with others about our expectations. In so many instances, misunderstandings occur because of unspoken expectations. Ask any marriage counsellor.

One of the easiest steps to take is to commit to responding with clarity about what works for you rather than reacting off the cuff when difficult situations arise, as they undoubtedly will. When you open your mouth to speak and you feel any tension in your body, pause and take a deep breath to calm your nervous system before you say a word. It really is that simple. Your approach will be calmer and more levelheaded as a result. You would have crowded out a knee jerk reaction with a calm, thoughtful response.

Now we've covered a lot today. And the beauty of a podcast is that you can download an episode and replay as many times as you want, but since I like to make life easier for others, I'll give you a quick recap of your actual steps, coming out fo today’s episode:

To stop overworking and feeling stretched and stressed out all the time because you're running yourself ragged, enlist the help of a friend who will call you every work day at an appointed time to keep you accountable to shutting off at a reasonable hour. Reach out to that friend today to set this in motion.

For those who want to lose weight or have a healthier lifestyle, you can decide whether you want a buddy to help you in this area as well. But either way, your best bet is to think of one thing you want to start doing and implement it every week. It can be one healthy food or more water you want to start using or going for a brisk walk or a jog or getting to bed at a certain time. Or maybe even outsourcing or delegating to lighten your load.

Start with just one new thing per month so you don't wear yourself out trying to change too many things at once. That's a common mistake.

Were these tips helpful? I'd love to hear how they worked for you after you’ve tried them out. Check out my social platforms in the show notes and send me a direct message or better yet, go to iamhealthywealthy.com/podcast to join the Reclaim you’re A-Game community for free.

I so enjoyed sharing this information with you today.

Until next time, I'm Christine Franklyn, saying have an energetic week!