Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
On the podcast today we are talking about habits, a topic that is very close to my heart. Something that I have done is numerous podcasts numerous radio shows numerous seminars and workshops. And in fact, yesterday in a social setup in a social gathering with a bunch of my friends, the topic of success came up. And I said, Listen, if I have to credit, one thing for everything that I have, it’s habits. If I have to blame one thing, for things that I do not have its habits. This is a topic that needs a lot of time, effort, and a lot of focus. And I don’t think I’m doing enough on this podcast. So you’re listening to this podcast, it means you are, again, serious about your success, you want to take control of your actions. And I think I should be doing more talking about more on habits than anything else because this is the single biggest thing that we as humans have challenges with. So I was thinking, How do I approach today’s podcast, what kind of an angle what kind of a frame I should take to take all the parts that I have in my mind and present them in a way that makes sense. So here is how I structured this, there are some habits that impact us. And there are some habits that impact others. So two high-level categories. When you start putting things into each of these two categories, the list will be endless, there are so many things that go into this on both sides.
For example, if you are disorganized, it impacts you, your productivity, your performance, you do negative self-talk, impacts you with yourself and talking to yourself. You do drinking excessive drinking impacts you you sleep a lot or you don’t sleep at all impacts you, you eat a lot or you do not eat a lot or you do not eat at all impacts you. Your smoke impacts you. If you do not smoke that may also impact somebody said, if I don’t smoke, then I’m not my friend and I miss out on crucial conversations. Yeah, you know, but listen, your smoke impacts you, okay? Yes, you may not be a part of crucial conversations, but then you are having a life, bigger life than them hopefully, or a better life for sure. Posture impacts you, you sit and work, you stand and work, you don’t move and work or you’re always on the move. All this impacts you knew nobody else you then there are habits that impact others. For example, if you drive too fast on the freeway, do not necessarily you are getting into an accident or any of that. But then, because you drive fast, it could bother other people, you drive slow, which will also bother people. So that’s impacting others, you’re too competitive in your business at work to competitive competition is necessary. It’s expected that you stay competitive, but then sometimes too much of that creates trouble for others, nail-biting knuckling all these things, they bother others, they impact others. So we have two different categories here. Now let’s talk about this. As I said, there are so many things that can be put into these categories. And the list is endless.
Now the question becomes is this? How do you identify which one to let go of? Which one to overcome? Which habit to keep? It’s hard. So long time ago, and I’m such a big fan of this book, The Power of Less by Leo Babauta. Incredible book and I talked about this book numerous times on this podcast. In this book, Leo about a talk talks about a simple six-step plan on how to overcome a habit, this is probably the best. I’ve read many books and numerous books on habits. And each one of those books, each of those books. Every book is incredible. And I suggest that every time you walk into a bookstore or you open up your Amazon app, whatever, wherever, or wherever you consume your books. Focus on habits first, like check out the books that are the latest ones that are coming out within the habits, you know, category and you’ll see even the new thinkers, new writers new authors are coming in and the writing books the ideas are incredible. So there is so much in the space and the space is evolving, we are just starting to understand how the brain works just now like yesterday, we figured this out, and we started understanding starting yesterday. In this book, Leo Babauta talks about six principles.
The first one, he says, only focuses on one habit and does exactly what I did. only focus on one habit, and always choose an easy goal. Don’t be hard on yourself, people set this big goal, and hard to accomplish, then he says, make sure that whatever you’re setting for yourself, you can measure. And then once those three steps are done, try to be consistent, do whatever you’re trying to do it for a long amount of time. But then, also keep on checking daily. Yeah, you can check on them, you know, once every three days or five days, but usually it’s better, and you have a better response, if something goes wrong or something is not up to the mark, then you have a better way to respond, and, and all that if you check in daily. So daily accountability is what he’s talking about. And he says that while you’re doing all of the above, make sure that you stay positive, big one positive.
Now, these are the things you have to do if you want to do it on your own. I don’t know where else I read this. But I also have one more three-step formula. Also, I think this is from a different book, I do not know which one, there is another formula on how you can approach this. And this has to do with an external intervention. So step number one is you got to find an area that you want improve, whatever that one area is held, well get it out of business, relationships, whatever that one area is, try to find one area. And when you start focusing on one area, you will see many habits that are incorrect in that area. Now, once you identify, go find a mentor. And that are mentors in every space and takes the help of the mentor to put a plan.
Every time I get a call on every time I get on a consultation call. The first thing I do is what I call putting a soft plan on the call for the caller, whoever that is a soft plan. I tell them listen, you got to do these 3, 4, 5 things. And that’s the plan. And I get an agreement from them. Yes, I want to do this yes, this makes sense. They call in expecting there’s a magic formula, but there isn’t a magic formula. This is an approach, habits, a plan, a goal, measurable consistency, daily accountability, and a positive attitude. If you want to do it yourself, follow the first six steps if you want to do it with somebody else with some external help. Well, the three steps. And again, all the six steps do come in in the three steps. It’s amazing. It’s interesting. Okay, I’m gonna stop here. And hopefully, today’s podcast is helpful. It’s to the point, hopefully, short and you’re watching this on YouTube. This shouldn’t be a place for you to subscribe, and write a comment. Obviously, you’re listening to this on a podcast app. And by all means, please do rate and review this podcast. That’s all for now. Wherever you are, be safe and I will talk to you soon. Stay tuned.