Instant Habits How to Change your Habits with ONE Decision EP#80

Allow your marvelous minds to travel to a magical place, where with one decision, you transform. Every time you go to this place, you enter one way, and you leave changed for the better. This magical transformative place is the car wash. Today I'm going to tell you how to make one decision that can guarantee change in your life.

How to act now and transform for good. But first, let me tell you a car wash story you'll never forget. I used to drive a Mini Cooper Sock Top Convertible. It was the funnest car to drive and it was so cute. One day, I took this cute little car to the car wash. I drove it in, I rolled up the windows and pulled it onto the automated track.

With that one personal decision, I guaranteed the result I wanted. I would come out the other side with a cleaner car. The automated high power rinse begins, but here's the thing. In this little old soft top, there's a gap between where the roof connects with the rest of the car. Imagine you're sitting in the driver's seat, and there's a waterfall on three sides of you.

Ah! The water's pouring in from all directions, landing in my lap. I'm completely overwhelmed, and I have no idea what to do. When suddenly something magical happens. The car rolls forward on its own and moves me out of reach of the sprayers. I was saved by a decision I had previously made to get onto that truck.

But just then, the high power soak starts and here we go again. Same thing, the soak comes blasting in, but this time it's bubbles. So now there's a bowl party happening on the inside of my car. Again, the car magically rolls forward and we make it through to the third and final rinse. As that begins, I just take it all in.

But then, never fear. I've got a system in place that rolls me forward, that keeps me moving toward my goals beyond the breach of any of the obstacles in my way. Of all of the crazy, overwhelming, stressful experience that had just occurred, Do you want to know what the craziest part of this whole story is?

I got the result I wanted. I wanted a clean car, and inside and out, that baby was squeaky. Today you're going to learn how to make one decision that will help you to stay the course and achieve the goals, no matter what tries to get in your way. Often in life, we want a different result from what we currently have.

We're in a dirty car that we want to come out clean. So we set goals. We make cleanups. There was a few days of consistent change, and then, length happens. Unexpected, overwhelming, crazy happens, and we expect ourselves to be able to make decisions, much less the right decisions during those times. We're setting ourselves up to fail.

Most often, when

we're in those stressful situations, the decision we make is to fall back into old habits. And those dreams and goals and ambitions of better health, better lives, and better relationships are lost. Given up on. Did for not. I believe this to be one of the greatest tragedies of our time. Why? If what we want is so worthwhile, why is it so hard to make it happen?

As a personal trainer and habits coach, the past 13 years, I've worked with hundreds of people to do the things they need to do in order to get the results they want. Over and over, these clients and hundreds of hours of research have proven the most efficient and effective way to transform your health or any other aspect of your life is to change your habits.

The science of habits proves that it takes two months of consistent action to create change that lasts. And that two months is killing us. But there's good news. You're about to learn how to skip that whole process. How to enable yourself, with one decision, to achieve the goals you want, and much like that car wash, keep rolling forward beyond the obstacles.

And it's not going to take you two months. It's not even going to take you two hours. You're going to learn how to change your habits with one decision right now. Introducing instant habit coupling. Coupling is the act of turning two things into one. In a marriage, two people become one united couple. Our two things are what we want, but what we actually do.

It's time to couple those two things up instantly and permanently. Are you ready to make one decision and form your first instant habit? It's time to act. A C T. The first step of instacomic coupling is, A, act every day. Think about something you want to improve in your life. Maybe you want to lose weight, grow a business, or improve a relationship.

What do you want? You probably just formed a whole long list in your mind, so now I want you to narrow it and focus on one of those beautiful ambitions to work on first. Don't panic about picking the perfect one or the right one. We'll add more as we go, but choose one that you can work on to begin with.

Got your one? Now make it actionable. Choose something you can do each day that moves you toward that goal. For instance, if your goal is physical health, you want to improve your physical health, your daily action could be drinking 100 ounces of water.

Let's say you want to improve your mental well being. Your daily action could be journaling, meditating, or practicing affirmations. What if you want to go professionally? You can start time blogging, getting market feedback, or implementing a new strategy in your field daily. Come up with something you can do daily that moves you toward your goal.

Step one done. You can now act every day. Step two is C. Couple your habits. There are three ways to couple your habits. Priority coupling, rewards coupling, and time coupling. For priority coupling, this is for you if you struggle to prioritize your own goals with everything else you have going on, because you generally put other people's needs first.

Here's what you're gonna do. Take something that you will do on an average day, and take your action from step one. And couple those two things together. For example, you will change your clothes every day. At least you should. You want to improve your physical health. Before you change your clothes, you need to do 20 push ups.

In other words, you will leave your house to go to work, or drive the kids, or go somewhere else. You want to improve your marriage. Before you leave the house, kiss and compliment your spouse. Priority coupling makes it so that you and your goals are the first priority on your own to do list. The second method of coupling is rewards coupling.

This enables you to have a positive relationship with the things that need to get done, that you don't necessarily love. We're going to pair something you want to do with something you need to do in order to build a rewards system into your life. Words it, I want to watch TV, but I need to get in better shape.

If I do my workouts, then I can watch TV. Do the work, get the reward. This also works really well for breaking bad habits. Let's say you want to eat sugar, but you need to eat veggies. You don't eat your veggies, then you don't eat the sugar either. Don't do the work, don't get the reward. Rewards coupling makes it so that you can look forward to progress.

Do what needs to get done and enjoy yourself at the same time. The third method is time coupling. This is for you if you are, you're so busy that there's no way you could fit one more thing in your schedule. We're going to couple your habits during time you already spent. Take sitting for example. A lot of us sit at work or sit at the dinner table, sit on the couch.

All of you are sitting in this room right now. Everyone here can do this. Let's come up with a habit we can do anytime we sit.

Go ahead and you're going to tap your toes up and down. In a moment, you'll start to feel the muscles on the front of your shins warming up. This simple action, done for just 60 seconds a day, prevents shin splints, improves blood flow, and increases lower body fitness. You can keep going if you want.

Another example, a lot of us spend a lot of time driving in the car when we're running kids around or we're commuting to work. What if we could come up with a habit that we can do while we drive? Next time you drive, I want you to take your head and press it back against your headrest. This increases your upper back muscle engagement, which improves your posture and decreases tension headaches.

I call this one the double chin and drive. Time traveling makes it so that you and your goals This can actually happen on a busy schedule. You do have time and you can do this. A C T. We can act every day, we've coupled our habits, and now T. It's time to transform what you want into what you do with one decision.

Decide right here, right now, in this room, that every time you do the one, you also do the other. Every time you drive, you improve your posture. Every time you change your clothes, you increase your physical strength. And every time you leave home, you improve your marriage. Instant habit coupling is a simple, simple thing, but what it enables you to do is free yourself from having to make decisions when you're stressed out and overwhelmed.

Once the decision is made, it will save you over and over and over again. Get on the track, stay on the track, and succeed. A lot of you are probably wondering if this actually works. I stand before you as living proof that it absolutely does. This is my instant habit coupling story. After my fourth baby was born, I really struggled.

I had a great relationship with my child, but I had lost the connection with myself. I was angry. I was unmotivated. And the things that used to make me happy just didn't anymore. It was an incredibly frustrating time in my life. I could get up and do the things I needed to do for my kids or my family, but anything for me or my benefit was out of the question.

So my goals, my dreams, and my ambitions were lost. Came in up on and forgot.

Maybe you felt that way. Maybe you're feeling that way at Great Town.

You're not alone. And there is hope. After 18 months of dealing with this, I finally sought professional help. They diagnosed me with postpartum depression and asked me to make my mental health my number one priority. I got a baby and three other kids. How am I supposed to make that my number one priority?

So, with some fantastic encouragement and support from my amazing husband, I decided to start very small and very simple with three instant paddocks. For priority coupling, I told myself before I can leave my bedroom, I had to make my bed. Before I could go check on the kids or even go to the bathroom, the bed had to be made.

Priority coupling got me out of bed and kept me out of bed. If you've struggled with depression before, you know that on its own is a big deal. And it started every day with a win. Which was a huge motivation and momentum shift, almost from the moment I opened my eyes. For rewards coupling, all I wanted to do at this point in my life was watch TV again.

I told myself, before I could watch TV, I'm gonna do 10 positive affirmations in a year. I gotta reconnect before I can disconnect. And for time coupling, while I ran around crazy busy doing mundane mama jobs like dishes and laundry and diapers, I listened to upbeat, fun music that brought me joy and spoke to my soul.

Within just a couple of weeks, I came to absolutely love and depend on my habits. And in that incredible process, I came to love and depend on myself again. For the first time in a year and a half. My love of habits came to life because it brought me back to life. I went from the darkest, hardest year to the happiest, most fulfilled year, and the only difference was my habits.

The same is true for you. Nothing about your circumstances or your schedule has to change in order for everything to be able to transform. You just have to decide. Whether you're feeling fired up and motivated or fearful and frustrated. Instant Habit Coupling makes it so that your dreams and ambitions are not only possible, but inevitable.

Act every day with a simple action you can do that will move you forward in the right direction. Couple your habits so you can be instantly consistent and transform your life. I know this works because five years later, I still make my bed. I still jam out doing my jobs. We still love the person I see when I look in the mirror.

There's a huge problem holding you back, holding all of us back from living our beautiful goals and dreams every moment of every day. And the problem isn't knowing what you want or even why you want it. We've all made lists of goals and resolutions based on deep internal desires for something better in our lives.

And the problem certainly isn't knowing how to make it happen. Watch TED Talks, listen to podcasts, read books, or web search anything, and within seconds you'll have hundreds of ways to do that exact thing in the palm of your hand. So if knowing what isn't the problem, knowing why isn't the problem, and even knowing how isn't the problem, what is the problem?

The problem isn't knowing. The problem is doing. Make doing easier with instant habit coupling. Act every day. Couple your habits and transform your life so much like that car wash will have a system in place that keeps you rolling forward beyond any obstacle towards your goals. Please don't listen to what you learned today from me and these other speakers.

Act on what you've learned today. Because the solution isn't knowing. The solution is doing. And now that you know how to change your habits with one decision, how will you decide to act? And the next time you see a soft top convertible headed into a car wash, get out your camera, wait for it by the end.

It'll be worth your time. Thank you.