Episode Transcript
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0:01
Hello and welcome to another episode of
0:03
All the Hacks, a show about upgrading
0:05
your life, money and travel. I'm your
0:08
host, Chris Hutchins, and if you want
0:10
to create new and improved habits or
0:12
become a super communicator, then stay tuned
0:14
because this episode is amazing for that.
0:17
Now in 2024, I'm sure I'm not alone
0:19
in trying to create some new habits. For
0:21
me, it's mostly been around sleep, diet
0:24
and exercise, which is why I am
0:26
so excited for this episode because I'm
0:28
going to be delving into the intricacies
0:30
of habit formation and learning how to
0:33
effectively create, change and redirect habits with
0:35
one of the most knowledgeable people in
0:37
the world on this topic, Charles Duhigg,
0:39
author of New York time bestselling book,
0:41
The Power of Habit. We're
0:44
going to cover everything from the timeline to
0:46
build a habit, the five cues that form
0:48
a habit, the significance of keystone habits as
0:50
well as your environment and so much more.
0:53
We'll also talk about some of
0:55
his latest research on how to
0:57
use the science of conversation and
0:59
connection to train ourselves to build
1:01
great communication habits that can help
1:03
us become what he calls super
1:05
communicators. There is so much
1:07
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1:09
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Terms and conditions apply. Charles
2:42
welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. Thank
2:44
you for having me on. This is a real treat
2:46
for me. Yeah I'm excited. One of the key principles
2:49
of the power of habit is that habits can be
2:51
changed if we understand how
2:53
they work. In the book you explain how
2:55
they work through the habit loop but I'm
2:58
wondering if you could walk us through the
3:00
elements of a habit loop and how habits
3:02
actually become habits. Absolutely. So there's a part
3:04
of our brain known as the basal ganglia
3:06
that literally every animal on earth has that
3:09
exists almost solely to make habits because
3:11
creating habits is critical to
3:14
evolution and what the basal ganglia
3:16
does is it takes these components of a
3:18
habit and sort of puts them together and
3:20
every habit has three parts. There's a cue
3:22
which is like a spark or the signal
3:24
that's a habit should start. There's a routine
3:26
which is the behavior itself what we usually
3:28
think of as a habit and then finally
3:30
there's a reward. Every habit that
3:32
you have produces a reward whether you're aware of
3:34
it or not. That's how it becomes a habit
3:37
and according to studies about 40 to 45 percent
3:39
of what we do every day is in fact
3:41
a habit. So for instance the first
3:43
time you tried to back your car out of the driveway
3:46
into the street you really had to concentrate on it right.
3:48
You had to like figure out like what's going on the
3:50
rearview mirror and make sure you're not hitting the wall but
3:52
by now you can almost do it automatically on
3:55
autopilot and you can think about other things while
3:57
you're doing it and that's because it's
3:59
become a habit. And if we could see inside
4:01
your brain when you got into the street, there
4:03
would be this little reward sensation that you're not
4:05
even aware of, but that your brain
4:07
notices and says to itself, oh,
4:10
I should make this pattern, this
4:12
Q routine reward into something that
4:14
happens automatically. And that's how
4:16
every animal has learned to evolve because otherwise,
4:18
every time we pass an apple or a
4:20
rock on the ground, we would have to
4:22
try and remember whether it tasted good last
4:24
time. And so in the
4:26
driveway example would be just successfully
4:28
parking be the reward? So
4:30
what happens is, is that your brain
4:33
anticipates a certain outcome and a certain
4:35
reward sensation that's learned to associate with
4:37
that. And when you achieve that
4:39
outcome, you get the reward sensation. Now if
4:41
you don't get the reward sensation, then what
4:43
happens in your brain is the exact same
4:46
thing that happens, its technical name is depression.
4:49
That when you anticipate a reward and
4:51
you don't get that reward, what we
4:53
see is a neurological pattern that's called
4:56
depressive. And so that's why for
4:58
instance, you might not be hungry, but if you walk past
5:00
the break room and you see some donuts in there, suddenly
5:03
you start craving a donut. Even though before
5:05
you weren't even thinking about them, because
5:07
it's triggered this habit inside your head of,
5:10
if I go pick up a donut and I
5:13
eat it, then the reward sensation is I get
5:15
this small like hit of endorphins associated with carbohydrates
5:17
and sugar. And so when
5:19
your brain anticipates that habit and doesn't get
5:21
it, it creates craving. The donut habit is
5:23
one that I both share and think I
5:26
would put in the less desirable
5:28
habit camp. Oh yeah, me too.
5:30
How do we make sure we're forming good
5:33
habits or are there good and bad
5:35
habits? No, to your brain
5:37
they're indistinguishable. Your brain is a machine
5:39
that just looks to make things easier.
5:41
Your brain always wants to work less.
5:44
So if it can find a reliable pattern, oh if I
5:46
see this thing and then I do this thing, I get
5:48
this reward, it will make that into a habit.
5:51
The truth is, whether it's a bad
5:53
habit or a good habit is kind of up to
5:55
you, right? And a difference from person to person. Like,
5:58
if I have a glass of wine, when I get
6:00
home from work, that's a habit that I really enjoy.
6:02
For someone else, that's a disastrous habit, right? That's something
6:04
that impacts them. And I should say I don't actually
6:06
have a glass of wine when I get home from
6:09
work because otherwise I'm too tired the next morning. But
6:11
the point being that there is a such thing as
6:13
a good habit or a bad habit in a state
6:15
of nature. There's just habits and we
6:17
have to decide which of them we want
6:19
to encourage and which of them we want
6:21
to discourage. And I guess the question there
6:23
is, okay, so now I've identified these habits.
6:26
We go two paths, ones that we have that we
6:28
don't want, what's the path there? And ones that
6:30
we want to create, what do we do? So
6:32
maybe pick which direction to start. The
6:34
easiest one to start with is how do we create
6:37
a habit? And there's a number of studies in the
6:39
power of habit, there's a number of stories of people
6:41
who create habits in their lives or their companies or
6:43
their societies. And one of my
6:45
favorite examples of this is that there was
6:47
this German healthcare plan that asked about a
6:49
thousand of its members to come to this
6:52
meeting. And so for about 40 minutes
6:54
at the meeting, they lecture everyone on
6:56
the importance of exercise. And it's a
6:58
good lecture, exercise is important. Then they
7:00
tell about a third of the room,
7:02
okay, we want you to stick around,
7:04
everyone else can leave. So two thirds
7:06
of the room they leave, the
7:08
third of the room that stuck around, they
7:10
get an extra like 10 minute lecture. And
7:12
in this lecture, the scientists say, okay, look,
7:15
what we want you to do is we want you
7:17
to choose a queue for exercise, like decide right now what
7:19
the queue is, like you're going to put your shoes next
7:21
to your bed, or you're going to call your friend and
7:23
meet them at the gym every Wednesday night, something
7:26
that will trigger the exercise habit. And
7:29
then go exercise. And when you're done exercising, we
7:31
want you to give yourself a piece of chocolate
7:33
right away. First of all, they're
7:35
German, so they love chocolate, right? But most of
7:37
us, you know, we'll go and we'll hit the
7:39
gym, and then like an hour later, an hour
7:41
and a half later, we'll have a piece of
7:44
chocolate. And we'll pretend like they're not related to
7:46
each other, right? Like we're not giving ourselves permission
7:48
to eat chocolate. But what they said is, look,
7:50
give yourself that reward right away. Make your brain
7:52
notice the reward you get from exercise. So
7:55
six months later, they tracked down everyone in that room,
7:57
everyone who didn't get that special additional
8:00
10 minute lecture, about anywhere
8:02
from 13 to 18% of them are exercising. That's
8:05
about what you would see in any population. The
8:08
folks who just got this 10 minute additional lecture who
8:10
came up with a habit loop for themselves, they are
8:12
exercising at a rate of 24 to 25%. And
8:15
that's huge. It's almost double. Yeah. It's
8:18
a big, big increase. The reason why this
8:20
is important is because it points to how we can
8:23
create habits. We create habits
8:25
by just deciding on a cue and
8:27
a reward that we can associate with
8:29
them. And then reinforcing that
8:31
cue and reward with the behavior over
8:34
and over and over again until it takes hold. It
8:37
can't be completely random, right? It can't be that
8:39
like the cue for having a great conversation with
8:41
my kid or asking my kid about their day
8:43
is when I go check the mail. Although actually
8:46
that could work. But the
8:48
point is the cue and the reward should be
8:50
somehow related to the behavior itself. But
8:52
most of the time when people think about habits, they focus
8:54
on the behavior. And what we've learned
8:56
is that it's focusing on the cue and the
8:58
reward that can yield the biggest dividends. How long
9:00
does it take for that link to happen? I'm
9:02
sure if it's set your shoes out and get
9:05
a chocolate, is it just the first time you
9:07
do it? Now, boom, set my
9:09
shoes out next time it's easy or? It depends
9:11
from person to person and habit to habit, right?
9:13
If you want to create a habit involving something
9:15
really painful, it's probably going to take a while.
9:18
If you want to create a habit of just eating
9:20
ice cream, like when I get home from work, I
9:22
eat ice cream, then you could probably do that in
9:24
a day, right? It's not going to take a lot
9:27
of... Now exercise is a good example because exercise
9:29
is a little bit painful and
9:31
eating chocolate is a little bit good. And
9:34
so what we find is that there's
9:36
no formula about when that habit will
9:39
pick hold. But we can say that
9:41
every time you do it, the neural
9:43
pathways associated with that loop will become
9:45
slightly thicker. And at some point,
9:47
you'll just start doing the behavior without even hardly
9:49
thinking about it. It could
9:51
be a week or a year or
9:54
a really various person, probably not a
9:56
year. In studies, even the hardest habits
9:58
become habitual in a... least three months
10:01
and oftentimes much, much faster. So like
10:03
30, 90 days for
10:05
something hard, if you're still going
10:07
and it's not working, what do you think the
10:10
most likely thing someone was doing wrong was? Well,
10:12
if they're trying to build this habit, they might
10:14
not be reinforcing it in a stable environment, right?
10:16
So like stability is a huge part of how
10:18
that habit develops. So for instance, one of the
10:21
things that they found is if you want to
10:23
quit smoking, the best time to quit smoking is
10:25
when you're on vacation because all your normal cues
10:27
have been disrupted. And so there's nothing
10:29
to remind you to smoke and so it's easier to quit.
10:32
So if you're someone who's trying to build an
10:35
exercise habit, but you're moving from hotel to hotel
10:37
every three days and you're waking up at different
10:39
times of the day and some
10:41
days there's a gym nearby and some days
10:43
there isn't and the reward you're giving
10:46
yourself is one day you give yourself a reward of
10:48
a smoothie and then the next day the reward is
10:50
a long shower and then the next day the reward
10:52
is a piece of chocolate. You really
10:54
want to get like a lot of stability
10:56
in that pattern because it's the stability in
10:58
the stable pattern that the basal ganglia pays
11:00
attention to and learns from. Okay. And
11:03
going back to the very beginning you talked about, well, we all
11:05
have habits. We know that the rock isn't something that we want
11:07
to eat like an apple might be. I
11:09
have to assume that exercise, there was
11:11
some habit around it already. It wasn't
11:13
that I just created this new exercise
11:16
habit I've exercised before. Am I actually
11:18
changing an old habit or how do
11:20
you compare that? So if you
11:22
had an exercise habit, you might be changing it. Take
11:24
me for instance, I was not an athlete in high
11:27
school and I really wasn't an athlete after high school
11:29
either and then I decided
11:31
that I wanted to run for health
11:34
and I built a habit around training for
11:36
half marathons. In fact, I went for
11:38
a run this morning. I did five vials and I hardly
11:40
even think about it when I do it. So
11:43
that's creating a habit. Now
11:45
it could be that for some people they already have
11:47
existing habits and they want to reinforce them or they
11:49
want to redirect them. Maybe I used
11:51
to run 10Ks and now I want to run longer
11:53
distances for a half marathon. So am I building a
11:55
new habit or am I changing an old habit? It's
11:57
probably a combination of both. But most of
11:59
the time when we talk about... changing a habit, what
12:02
people are really talking about is that they
12:04
want to extinguish a habit, right? I'm a
12:06
smoker and I want to stop smoking. I
12:08
overeat or I procrastinate and
12:11
I want to start procrastinating. That's
12:13
when people begin thinking about changing habits and oftentimes their
12:15
first step is not to say I want to change
12:18
the habit, their first step is to say I want
12:20
to extinguish this habit. The problem is
12:22
once you have a neural pathway associated with
12:24
that habit, that neural pathway is always going
12:26
to be there. Anne Graybiel who's a researcher
12:29
at MIT did a series of
12:31
experiments where she would have rats run through
12:33
mazes for rewards until it became a habit
12:35
and then she would remove the rat from
12:38
the maze for like three years and
12:41
if she dropped the rat in the maze and the cue
12:43
was stable then the rat would be able
12:45
to go through the maze like that. The
12:47
habit would take over. These neural
12:49
pathways once they are created they stick around
12:51
so rather than trying to extinguish a habit,
12:53
rather than trying to break a bad habit,
12:56
the way that we should think about it is that
12:58
we should think about it as I want to change
13:00
this habit and what that means is recognize
13:03
what the cue is, recognize
13:05
what the reward is and
13:07
find a new behavior that corresponds to
13:09
that old cue and that delivers something
13:11
similar to that old reward. Let's
13:13
take an example that I think you just briefly mentioned that
13:15
I know I can relate to and
13:17
probably many people which is we grew up in
13:19
the clean plate cub household and now it's just
13:21
a habit that like I have to finish all
13:23
the food to the point that it like if
13:25
there's crumbs on the table I'm kind of like
13:27
well somebody's got to eat that little crumb and
13:29
it doesn't make any sense. How
13:32
do I redirect that habit to something else?
13:34
Okay so let's diagnose this because this is
13:36
something you feel like you do right now.
13:38
I would say I'm like on the
13:40
road to recovery but by no mechanism
13:42
and I'd rather be farther. Okay so
13:45
let me ask you let's diagnose what the cue is there.
13:48
You're sitting at dinner, you're full,
13:50
you're not hungry anymore and you
13:52
see your kid has that plate of
13:54
like veggie dinosaurs or something like that
13:56
right. What for you is the cue?
13:58
When do you find yourself over? eating? I
14:01
mean, usually it's that I don't know how much I'm
14:03
processing this. It's like I'm done but there's still some
14:05
food on my plate and I'm like, oh, I don't
14:07
want it to go to waste. Like I'm a frugal
14:10
person and the strategy in the past that doesn't work
14:12
in all scenarios to your point about stability is I
14:14
would like, oh, I've got this piece
14:16
of bread. I'll just like rub it on the ground and
14:18
then it's like, you know, I try to
14:20
but like, you know, you're at a nice restaurant. You're
14:22
not going to be doing that. You don't want to
14:24
show your kids like, oh, when I daddy's done with
14:26
food, he pours a glass of milk all over his
14:28
steak. So okay, for you what
14:31
I'm hearing is that the cue oftentimes is
14:33
seeing a piece of food that
14:36
you know will be thrown away if it's not
14:38
consumed and that this triggers for you some sort
14:40
of frugality and things. That's very normal. Most
14:43
people when they talk about this habit, most of what
14:45
they talk about is boredom. For them, the cue is
14:47
boredom. I'm sitting at the table. I'm already
14:49
done eating. I'm waiting for other people to finish.
14:51
I'm kind of bored. The
14:53
novelty of another piece of food appeals
14:55
to me. But whatever it is,
14:58
there is some trigger. There is some cue.
15:00
And then we know what the behavior is. We know what the routine
15:02
is. You pick up the food and you eat it. Now
15:05
the question is, what reward is it delivering to
15:07
you? When you eat that piece
15:09
of food that you know you don't need, how
15:12
do you feel? Like, I shouldn't have eaten it.
15:14
Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's sort
15:16
of a little bit regretful, right? Or at least an hour later, I
15:18
do. In the moment, there might be a reward of like, oh
15:21
good, dang, I didn't waste any food tonight. Or
15:23
sometimes, you know, if I'm diagnosing myself
15:26
here, sometimes it's the food was very good.
15:29
I'm not really eating it. It's like the donut, right?
15:31
Like, I'm not eating the donut because I'm hungry. It
15:33
just tastes good. And so if dinner tastes good, I
15:35
want to finish it. I mean, and you can test
15:38
this, right? Like put some really disgusting food on your
15:40
table and see if you pick at it even after
15:42
you're done eating. And my guess is no. My
15:45
guess is what you're picking up is you're
15:47
picking up like the steak that tastes yummy
15:49
or you know, the sweet fruit or a
15:51
piece of dessert. There's probably
15:53
some type of immediate reward that you're
15:55
getting that's actually taste sensation, some feeling
15:57
of pleasure. So okay, so if
15:59
we know the cue is and the way that
16:01
we figure this out is we run experiments, right? Just
16:03
talking about it oftentimes won't yield what the right cue
16:05
and the right reward are that's actually happening but you
16:08
can run little experiments to figure it out. But
16:10
once we figure that out, once we say, okay, look, for
16:12
Chris, the cue is that when he's sitting at
16:15
the dinner table and he sees a piece of
16:17
food that's not going to get eaten, it triggers
16:19
this need for frugality, this need not to waste.
16:22
And the reward is that actually usually
16:25
the food is pretty tasty. And
16:27
so as a result, this frugality gives
16:29
him a little feeling of satiation because
16:32
you eat something yummy. If
16:34
we figured out that that is in fact the cue
16:36
and the reward, then let's find a new behavior that
16:38
corresponds to that cue and deliver something similar to that
16:40
old reward. So it could be
16:43
that for instance, when you see
16:45
that food on the table, you know that you're
16:47
going to have an instinctive frugality. So
16:49
maybe you have like a Tupperware that you just
16:51
put all the old food into that sits in
16:54
the refrigerator, right? Because that way it's not going
16:56
to get thrown away, at least not immediately. And
16:59
let's say that on that table, we
17:01
also have some healthy but sweet things
17:04
to eat. Instead of eating the dessert,
17:06
you have a slice of apple. Instead
17:08
of having the fattening steak, you have
17:10
a small orange. If
17:12
you put those in your environment so that you
17:15
can deliver that same reward, I want taste sensation,
17:17
I want that satiation, but I can
17:19
get it from this healthier choice rather than the
17:21
unhealthy choice, then you'll eventually latch
17:23
on to that. Because you're not
17:25
trying to deny yourself that reward, you're just
17:27
trying to find a better alternative for it.
17:29
I'm thinking of like, you know, those little
17:32
tiny Andes mints, I don't even like them.
17:34
But I'm just like, you know, some small
17:36
little thing. It could very well be that
17:38
oftentimes when it comes to food, what we're
17:40
looking for is we're literally looking for some
17:42
type of taste. And one bite
17:44
is as good as 10 bites. So
17:46
like a little mint will often do the trick if
17:48
in fact, you like the taste of
17:50
that mint, right? If it feels tasty. Oh, yeah, I
17:52
don't really like Andes. Maybe it's like an M&M or
17:54
something. Yeah, that's probably not gonna work for you. So
17:56
it's about redirecting nine. killing
18:00
because you just can't turn the habit off. It's
18:02
really hard to kill it and the truth of
18:04
the matter is that oftentimes figuring out what that
18:06
Q and reward is, is the hard part. There
18:10
is nothing I love more than learning something
18:12
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notion.com/all the hacks. So
21:12
in the power of habit, I tell the story of this cookie habit
21:14
I had every afternoon when I was working
21:17
in the New York Times, like 330, I'd go up
21:19
to the cafeteria and I'd get a cookie. I actually
21:21
put up signs on my desk that say, do not
21:23
have a cookie or do not eat a cookie. And
21:25
I would somehow just ignore them because it was a habit, right?
21:28
I just would get up and get a cookie without even looking
21:30
at the sign. And so I
21:32
decided to try and figure out like, what is the cue and
21:34
what's the reward here? And oftentimes the
21:36
cues and rewards, they are tricky to figure
21:38
out at first. So the cue
21:40
is actually pretty easy because I found the urge
21:42
to have a cookie always hit me between about
21:44
315 and 345 in the afternoon. It
21:47
was clearly a time of day. And there's
21:50
five general cues that most cues fall into these
21:52
five categories. It's a time of
21:54
day, a particular place, the presence of certain other
21:56
people, a certain emotion or
21:59
a behavior that's become ritualized. So
22:01
for me, it was the time of day and that was pretty easy
22:03
to figure out. But then I have to
22:05
figure out what the reward of the cookie is. And
22:07
at first I thought, the reward is it's a cookie,
22:09
right? A cookie tastes really yummy. And I told researchers
22:12
this and they were like, oh no my friend, you
22:14
do not understand what's going on here. There's thousands
22:17
of possible rewards that you could be acting on.
22:19
So you need to experiment and figure them out.
22:21
Is it in fact that I just want this
22:23
taste sensation? So the next day, when
22:25
I get up to get a cookie, instead I get an
22:27
apple and I eat the sweet apple. And I
22:30
see, does that make my craving for a cookie go away?
22:32
And the answer was no. And
22:34
then the next day I try something else. Like the next
22:36
day I'm like, oh maybe the reward is I just need
22:38
a break from work. So instead of going up to the
22:40
cafeteria, I like walk around the building on the outside and
22:43
kind of stretch my legs. But still the craving is there.
22:46
And eventually what I figured out is, the reason I
22:48
was going to get that cookie was because when I
22:50
got the cookie, inevitably in the cafeteria, I would see
22:52
some of my friends. And I would sit
22:54
there and gossip with them for like 15
22:56
minutes while I was eating the cookie. And that
22:58
was the reward. It was a social reward. Once
23:00
I understood what the cue and the reward was
23:02
through these experiments, I was able to reprogram the
23:04
behavior. And now, 3.30 in the afternoon, I'm not
23:06
at the New York Times anymore, so it's a
23:08
little bit different. But at 3.30 in the afternoon,
23:10
what I would do is I would stand up,
23:13
I would look around the newsroom for someone else
23:15
that I like to talk to. I'd go over
23:17
and I'd gossip with them for 10 or 15
23:19
minutes. And then I'd go back
23:21
to my desk. And the cookie urge was totally
23:23
gone because it turns out
23:26
it wasn't about the cookie. It was a
23:28
vehicle for another reward. Wow. Okay. So in
23:30
that case, the time was there.
23:32
That wasn't the challenge. It was trying to alleviate
23:34
the cookie. What about circumstances
23:36
where there are other kind
23:39
of competing factors? So going back to working out,
23:41
it's like, oh, I want to wake up early
23:43
to work out. It's like, you've got to wake
23:45
up early. Then you've got to actually do the
23:47
workout. And there's multiple actions that need to happen
23:49
in a row. What Happens there?
23:51
Well, I Mean, first of all, we need rewards for
23:53
each because you're talking about multiple habits. You're talking about
23:55
a habit of waking up early. You're talking about a
23:57
habit of getting to the gym. You're talking about a
23:59
habit of. Working hard at the gym and so
24:01
you need to give yourself a reward for each of
24:03
those. But the first thing you need to do is
24:05
figure out. Is this actually a habit of
24:08
surrealistic? for athletic, If you hate wake you up
24:10
in the morning, you should not try an exercise
24:12
in the morning. At least not at first. The
24:14
fact: one of the things that we know about
24:16
exercise habits is the best way to do them
24:19
is to make them as easy as possible. So
24:21
in a lot of the Habit labs when they're
24:23
trying to inculcate an exercise habits, what they'll do
24:25
is I'll tell people what we want you to
24:27
do for the first week as we just want
24:29
you to put on your workout clothes and then
24:32
don't work out even to stay home and watch
24:34
Tv if you want. And then
24:36
in the second week we want you to run half
24:38
a mile. And inevitably what
24:40
happens is that people put on their workout
24:42
clothes for what day one day to by
24:44
day three, they feel pretty stupid putting on
24:46
workout clothes that working out. So they go
24:48
for a half a mile run and they
24:50
do that for a couple more days and
24:52
then there was a half a mile run.
24:54
Isn't actually that hard when I just run
24:56
a mile tomorrow and eventual he they develop
24:58
an exercise how. but that really works. The
25:00
don't have to build the full habit at
25:02
once I know is my lesson here exactly.
25:04
And what's most important is. If.
25:06
In fact that someone who never weeks up
25:09
early and to be thought of exercise in
25:11
the morning seems to quarterly unappealing then also
25:13
on look exercise in the afternoon exercise whenever
25:15
you feel like you would most one exercise
25:18
set that as the time of day when
25:20
you exercise and then eventually we'll see exercise
25:22
becomes a habit. then you can start playing
25:24
with the timing habits right? That's exactly what
25:26
happened with these. I heated exercising the morning
25:29
so I started running after work. And.
25:31
Eventually running after we're kind of became a habit and and
25:33
I was like oh now I can shifted to the morning.
25:36
Because. now i have something new to focus on
25:38
this the extras i started taking care of it's
25:40
the waking up early parts that i need to
25:42
really work on my have i was just bad
25:44
traditional wake up early in the morning and then
25:46
get caught up on all the things before you
25:48
get out a bad and he was literally just
25:51
put the phone on the other half of the
25:53
room and by the time you've gotten up now
25:55
it's like we're now i'm out of bed that's
25:57
exactly right you're basically hacking yourself from zero packing
25:59
your own habits or your own behaviors
26:01
because you recognize that when we're
26:03
in the grip of a habit, and this is why habits are
26:05
so powerful, we actually stop thinking.
26:08
That's what makes habits valuable is that I
26:11
don't have to think about how to walk. I
26:13
don't have to think about the route home. I don't have
26:15
to think about whether I should eat that thing on
26:17
the ground because I just let my habits do it for
26:20
me. So I can use my brain for
26:22
other things. And when the basal
26:24
ganglia takes over, your neural work associated
26:26
with that behavior goes down. So
26:29
you actually are kind of thoughtless when
26:32
you're in the grip of a habit. And by putting your
26:34
phone across the room, you're disturbing
26:36
the stability of that behavior
26:39
and you're forcing yourself to think a
26:41
little bit more rather than just go
26:43
on autopilot. And I would argue based
26:45
on my knowledge of your
26:47
work, just getting up
26:49
early, that habit of I'm now out of
26:51
bed felt like a keystone habit for me
26:53
because now it makes it easy to work
26:55
out. It makes it easy to prepare
26:57
something healthy for breakfast because I have some time.
27:00
Am I correctly using keystone habits
27:02
in that manner? And
27:04
how do they play a role in all of
27:06
this? So some habits seem to set up this
27:08
chain reaction that change a number of other behaviors
27:10
as well. And we refer
27:12
to those as keystone habits because when
27:15
a keystone habit changes, it tends to
27:17
have this magnified effect on other types
27:19
of behaviors. Now
27:21
what's interesting is keystone habits are
27:24
different for different people. A lot of it
27:26
has to do with your self-image. So let me ask
27:28
you a question. You said that for you waking up
27:30
in the morning as a keystone habit and I believe
27:32
that's true because it sounds like your workouts and how
27:34
you eat and how you sort of structure your days
27:36
is set by that. If
27:38
I went back 10 or 15 years,
27:40
were you a morning person? Probably not.
27:42
No. What about in college?
27:44
Think back to college. Like it's a Saturday morning
27:46
in college. How late would you sleep? It's a
27:48
good question. I was never someone who was like
27:50
on either extreme. Okay. You know,
27:52
I was never – I remember I had roommates. I was never like
27:55
the one that they all woke up and they're like, come on, come
27:57
on. We're trying to go do this stuff. But I was probably not
27:59
the one that woke up super early. early. So
28:01
I don't know if I had one extreme there.
28:04
That's totally fine. And my guess is, if
28:06
I described to you someone who wakes
28:08
up early, would you think that that's
28:11
a responsible person? Like, is that a good thing or
28:13
is that a bad thing? It's funny, I was just
28:15
watching a video of another All the Hacks guest, Sahlil
28:17
Bloom, and he gets a lot of flack for saying
28:19
he's like, I don't know anyone that
28:21
wakes up at 5am and doesn't like get a
28:23
lot done in their life. And he's like, I'm
28:25
not saying you can't sleep in. I'm saying the
28:27
people who wake up at 5 seem
28:30
to do a lot of stuff in their life.
28:32
Yeah. And so I guess that leaves me thinking
28:34
waking up at 5 is a good habit to
28:36
have. So there's a stereotype in
28:38
your head about people who wake up early
28:40
are people who get things done. They're like
28:43
doers. Now, by the way, there's very little
28:45
evidence supporting that, but it's a cultural norm
28:47
that a lot of us grab on to.
28:49
So the reason why waking up early for
28:51
you is a keystone habit is because it
28:54
basically helps you change your self image
28:57
when you do it. It's
28:59
something that's hard for you. It's not
29:01
natural. It's something that you associate with
29:03
positive behavior. And so when you do
29:06
that, you start to see yourself a
29:08
little bit differently. And our self image is
29:10
kind of an interesting thing, particularly in
29:12
psychology, there's these things known as revealed
29:14
preferences and stated preferences. And
29:16
so oftentimes, we will state what a preference
29:18
is. I want to wake up early. I
29:20
want to eat healthy. But what
29:23
our brain pays attention to is our revealed
29:25
preferences. If I say I want to wake
29:27
up early, and I wake up at nine
29:29
o'clock every day for four days in a
29:31
row, my brain basically thinks I'm a liar,
29:33
and I don't actually want to wake up
29:35
early. My near conscious self image becomes based
29:37
on my behavior rather than on what
29:39
I say I want. And when you
29:41
wake up early in the morning, the reason is probably a keystone
29:43
habit for you is because it slightly changes
29:46
how you see yourself when you wake up early,
29:48
and you're out of bed. There's part
29:50
of your brain that's saying, you know what,
29:52
I'm the type of person who can get
29:54
out of bed at 530 or six o'clock.
29:56
Like that kind of person, they don't procrastinate.
29:58
That's the kind of person who like gets
30:01
stuff done right away. And it
30:03
sets off this cascade of other behaviors
30:05
that you draw on as
30:07
being something that your self-image
30:09
appreciates. And eventually you do it
30:11
enough and you start waking up early
30:13
automatically because you genuinely think that you are a
30:15
person who wakes up early. It's funny that we're
30:17
talking about this because the habit of waking up
30:20
early is like two days old and
30:24
this morning was like the only successful version of
30:26
it. And the habit of waking up early is
30:28
actually really straightforward for me. It's just go to
30:31
bed early. If I go to bed at nine
30:33
o'clock, waking up at five o'clock is really easy.
30:35
But if I went to bed at 11, it
30:37
would be impossible. But the key here is that
30:39
the habit of going to bed at nine o'clock,
30:42
the reward is not waking up at five
30:44
o'clock because that's not a reward for you.
30:46
You don't associate pleasure with waking up at
30:48
five o'clock. If you want to build
30:50
that habit of going to bed at nine o'clock, you
30:53
need to incorporate some rewards into going to bed at
30:55
nine o'clock, independent of what time you wake up. I
30:58
think I get a lot of stress in the morning when it's like
31:00
I wake up and there's a few things I want to do, but
31:03
then the kids are up and there's stuff to do. So like
31:05
I want to wake up early. Like today I woke up at
31:07
like, I set the alarm for 5.09, don't ask me
31:09
why. And I think I woke up at like 5.05. And
31:12
it felt great. It felt like I could
31:14
wake up at this early hour without
31:17
it feeling like a drag. Tonight,
31:19
I am so excited to go to bed at nine o'clock
31:21
because it means that I can do this thing that I
31:24
want to do without a
31:26
lot of effort. So what's interesting there
31:28
is one of the things that we
31:30
know about rewards is that when we
31:32
decide a reward is rewarding, it becomes
31:34
more rewarding. So think about
31:36
getting grades. Like there's nothing in your
31:38
biology that says getting an A is
31:40
something that you should want. Why would
31:42
a normal human care about what letter
31:45
they get on a report card? Except
31:47
that your parents told you getting A's
31:49
means you're smart and you're good and
31:51
you're going to be successful. So we
31:53
come to associate the reward of an
31:55
A on a report card with a
31:58
positive feeling. But it's the deciding. the
32:00
reward is rewarding that makes it actually even more
32:02
rewarding. And so when you woke up this morning
32:04
at 5.09 and you felt great and you've been
32:06
thinking about it all day and you're like, I
32:08
could do this every day, this is fantastic. The
32:11
act of deciding that you felt great, the act of
32:13
deciding that this is a good thing, it makes it
32:16
more of a reward for you when you go to
32:18
bed at 9 o'clock. So I take back what I
32:20
said before, perhaps for you waking up at 5 a.m.
32:22
and feeling okay about it is in fact the reward.
32:25
Although my guess is also that if this is going to
32:27
become a consistent behavior more than two days, you're
32:29
going to need to give yourself some rewards when you
32:31
go to bed and you fall asleep, which are
32:34
things like you're going to need to like have
32:36
the room set the way that you want it.
32:38
You're going to need to take a couple of
32:40
minutes and congratulate yourself on getting into bed at
32:42
9 o'clock. That's why people use this lavender spray
32:44
because we know that lavender is associated with an
32:47
easy reward sensation and so when they spritz their
32:49
pillow with lavender spray and then they lay down
32:51
on it, the scent gives them a reward sensation.
32:54
My guess is that if you build more of those, it's going to be
32:56
easier and easier to go to bed at 9 o'clock. Which
32:58
by the way, 9 o'clock is pretty early. Like
33:00
I agree. My
33:03
wife goes to bed at 9.15 and I make fun of her
33:05
for it. I mean I would have made fun
33:07
of myself four days ago. But
33:10
I found that the more I think about
33:12
sleep, the things that I do from 9
33:14
to 11 when I go to
33:17
sleep late are not things that are
33:19
promoting good sleep and 75% of the
33:21
time are not ways that
33:23
I would spend two of my 24 hours
33:25
if I were making good decisions.
33:28
And so in a way, some of the reward of
33:30
if I set my phone away from the bed and
33:33
I get in bed at 9 o'clock, some
33:35
of the reward for me is like I know
33:37
better use the two hours than if I stay
33:39
up two hours later and wake up two hours
33:41
later. I think that's really smart and I think
33:43
a huge part of this is learning about yourself,
33:46
right? Paying attention to yourself
33:48
as a science experiment. So for me, it's
33:50
email. If I start trying to return emails
33:52
at 9.30 or 10, it'll take me forever
33:55
and like I'll just be frustrated. But
33:57
if I wake up and I hit the email first thing at 5.30 or so, I'm
33:59
like, I'm going to in the morning, I
34:01
like breeze through them. It's like magic.
34:04
And so part of it is just learning. It's not like
34:06
I'm a morning person. It's not like I like waking up
34:09
at the time. In all things being equal, I probably wouldn't
34:11
choose to do emails because they're kind of boring. But
34:13
if we see ourselves as an ongoing experiment and
34:16
we conduct experiments in our own life, we tend
34:18
to learn a lot about ourselves. I like this.
34:20
Just doing this podcast, I've learned a lot about myself but
34:23
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So please consider supporting those who support
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us. One habit related thing we haven't
37:39
talked about is habit
37:41
stacking, which I've heard a lot
37:43
about and I've heard the best way to build
37:45
new habits is to stack them on top of
37:47
other habits you already have. And what does the
37:50
Data or the science actually say about trying
37:52
to say, oh, I'm not flossing, but I
37:54
can brush my teeth, so do them together.
37:56
This is basically a phrase that's been made
37:58
up. So It's habit style. Lacking is
38:00
not something that there's like scientific evidence
38:02
of. Whether his scientific evidence of is
38:04
that if you create an environment in
38:06
which a habit is easier than you're
38:08
more likely to do it. So take
38:11
the teeth brushing example. If I'm in
38:13
the habit of rushing my teeth and
38:15
I make that a queue for floss
38:17
and. Then. It might make forcing a
38:19
little bit easier because I'm already in the
38:21
bathroom at the Floss right next to the
38:23
toothbrush right now. The true the matter is
38:25
so that just deciding I'm in a staffing
38:27
habits does not mean that fluffing becomes as
38:29
easy as brushing your teeth. And. So
38:32
for many people it doesn't. But in general
38:34
when were thinking about habits, sacking earth in
38:36
your hands, and habits, what we should do
38:38
is we should look for environments that allow
38:40
that habit to occur with the least amount
38:42
of friction. And so that's why
38:44
this idea of stalking becomes popular is
38:46
because once I'm already at the gym,
38:48
I'm already in my workout clothes. I
38:50
have a habit of going in and
38:52
using the machines. The. Treadmills right
38:54
there so building up running habit is a lot
38:57
easier then if I try and do it at
38:59
home where I'd have to change my clothes and
39:01
after you'll find a place to run. So.
39:03
The key is that necessarily the sacking except that
39:06
if the second gives you access to an environment
39:08
where they have, it becomes easier than you're more
39:10
likely to do it and then eventually it'll become
39:12
a habit. And I guess earlier you said most
39:15
people don't think about the queue and the reward.
39:17
Stalking forces you to think of the queue also
39:19
so your cat as max your third of the
39:21
way they're sure. I mean look, I'll be honest
39:24
with you, this stalking idea has come up a
39:26
number of times and like every time we talked
39:28
academics about it they're like to do doesn't make
39:30
any sense, Like it's basically selling a concept of
39:33
habits that. Is not with the science tells
39:35
us but if it helps you figure out
39:37
Susan Rewards of it helps you find environments
39:39
for habits become more likely than it's great.
39:41
I like it as in one other thing
39:43
is is somewhat tangential to habits. By when
39:45
I think about all the things I have
39:47
to do, I feel like you're someone who
39:49
has an opinion at least on how to
39:51
organize your tasks, What you need to do
39:53
been productive, setting goals to do less and
39:55
all that is. So there's a lot of
39:57
research has been done on like how the
39:59
right to do list the right way and
40:01
one of the big insights is that all
40:03
of us have what's known as a cognitive
40:05
need for closure. So. About
40:08
twenty percent of people when they're reading a
40:10
to do list, they will put something on
40:12
that list that they have already completed. Because.
40:15
It makes them feel so good to like.
40:17
Check it off for hates six and if
40:19
you think about it, that's ridiculous. That's like
40:21
the opposite of a to school has had
40:24
to do with is not supposed to be
40:26
things that you've already done just to engage
40:28
in some emotional management. So what we know
40:30
is that if you look at a to
40:32
do list, there's going be this impulse to
40:34
find some of the easiest quit of things
40:36
to do stir. The problem is that might
40:38
not be the most important are the most
40:40
impactful things to do. And so.
40:43
What? We should do is we should kind of have to
40:45
us. one is a memory list. When I think of a
40:47
task that I want to do, I put it on the
40:49
memory list and then I put the memory list to the
40:52
side. Spit it. Let's me. I don't distort my brain. a
40:54
concert on a piece of paper. My. To do
40:56
with. Should. Optimal. We only
40:58
have at most three things on it because
41:00
every night what I should decide is for
41:02
the next day's what's the most important thing
41:04
I can get done and if I happen
41:06
to get that thing done that's number one
41:08
of the list. Then I got the such
41:10
up really important thing to get done tomorrow
41:12
and then maybe this third thing is something
41:14
that I want to think about tomorrow night
41:16
to see if a deserves to be in
41:18
the number one slot the next day to
41:20
see where things you put on your to
41:22
do list given thought to putting the most
41:24
important things on that to do list. The
41:27
more successful you're gonna be. Because. The
41:29
problem is if you have fifteen things on a
41:31
to do list and one of them is go
41:33
wash the car and another one is right. The
41:35
Memo: That's gonna change my company. You're.
41:38
Going to go wash the car first because it's easier
41:40
and more fun and you can get it done within
41:42
minutes whereas writing a memo the to change your company
41:44
that can take a long time so you're going to
41:46
keep putting it off as long as there's other things
41:48
on their to do list that you can distract yourself
41:50
with. And. What about when there are things
41:52
that are small like and a register? Our daughter
41:54
for a preschool next year and it's gonna take.
41:57
Twenty. Minutes to argument aside and add the thing to
41:59
the card and. The need for happen tomorrow,
42:01
but it's not going to take that much
42:03
time. Do. I use one of my
42:05
three slots for tomorrow for a little things know.
42:07
So there's times in my day where I pull
42:10
up the memory list and I'm like look I
42:12
just need a break from work right? My most
42:14
important task to days to get this article done.
42:16
That number one of my to do list but
42:18
I've worked on it for two hours and I
42:20
need half an hour off and that's when I
42:22
bought that memory list and I'm like how can
42:25
I procrastinate in a useful way Oh I can
42:27
go and my daughter's website with Booking Travel For
42:29
some reason I don't know why I love to
42:31
book travel and makes me feel really good to
42:33
like miss my plane tickets and like book my
42:35
car. That's how I procrastinate is I have a
42:38
list of like tickets i need a books the
42:40
and that doesn't want me to do with his
42:42
was certainly are not the most important things are
42:44
done today. it's as for a trip that amount
42:46
of and for three months but when I do
42:48
need a break rather than watching to talk I
42:51
pull up my memory listener just look to see
42:53
as or something easy I can just get done
42:55
right away. The point is I'm telling myself this
42:57
is the most important thing to do today. Don't
42:59
let those other little shores get in the way
43:01
of the most important thing. I wonder if I've
43:03
inadvertently created. This without knowing their. The.
43:06
Way I set up my tasks is
43:08
I have a bunch of columns with
43:10
the most important one dark what I'm
43:12
doing now. What's. Up next and
43:14
like a backlog. Yes, and I don't
43:16
commingle the next three things with the
43:18
backlog. and when the next three things
43:20
are gone, I go hunt through the
43:22
backlog, which maybe it's kind of like
43:24
a memory list and move it over
43:26
so it doesn't have to necessarily be
43:28
completely separate. but the idea is separate
43:31
the next few things from all the
43:33
things. That's exactly right that is accurate
43:35
in the doesn't mean that he shouldn't
43:37
have a memory strikers other Israel for
43:39
get some stuff. Yeah, but it does
43:41
mean the you have to do lists.
43:43
That isn't about everything you want to get
43:45
done is helping you focus on the most
43:47
important things to get done right now or
43:49
and I got now. Before we get started.
43:52
We're time I habits and we're talking about
43:54
communicating a goal of a lot of ours
43:56
as as a crowd anaemic like but to
43:58
spend more time with people, let's get back
44:00
and acted And he made his comment that
44:02
so much of communication is actually habit. Yeah,
44:04
and I imagine that's what led you to
44:07
this new book. And I'm curious how you
44:09
think about communication, a habit tied into each
44:11
other. So that my new book, Super Communicators
44:13
was just came out. it's about the science
44:15
of conversation and connection I can to it.
44:17
Actually in the wake of the power of
44:19
habits, I would get all these emails from
44:21
people when they would say things like the
44:24
ideas in the book really helps me stop
44:26
drinking or helps me stop procrastinating or help
44:28
to start exercising and that's and great. That
44:30
makes unsuccessful. but there's all these other people
44:32
that I interact with the i'm reliant on
44:34
them for my success and they have bad
44:36
habits to tell me how going to force
44:38
them to change their habits and of course
44:40
the answer is you can for them to
44:42
scenes or habits but it turns out that
44:45
most of what we do every day is
44:47
dependent on other people. We work in teams,
44:49
we have families, The. Ability to
44:51
coordinate with other people is really
44:53
important success, and that's not about
44:55
habit formation. That's. About communication.
44:58
Break. His Communications: How we coordinates. Now a
45:00
lot of our conversations and a lot of
45:02
our communications become habitual. We fall into bad
45:04
habits. Effects: This is actually one of the
45:06
things that started me on this book. Super
45:08
Communicators is that Icelanders as bad Habit with
45:10
my wife were like I would come home
45:12
from work and I'd have a tough day
45:14
and I'd complain about my day and see
45:16
very reasonably. Would suggest the solution. Cities of
45:18
the Lights Oh you know, why don't stick
45:20
your boss to lunch meeting? Get to know
45:23
I'm a little bit better. And.
45:25
I instead of being able to hear what
45:27
she was proposing, I wouldn't even get even
45:29
more upset, right? I'd say like, where'd you
45:31
listening to me I'd swansea like support me
45:33
and have my back to be outraged Somebody's
45:35
house. And. This was a habit. This is
45:37
a pattern that we had fallen into. Your
45:39
We've been married twenty years now, so it's not like we're
45:41
new to each other. And so I called
45:43
up all these researchers asking what's going on in
45:45
that would they said oh look what you're missing
45:47
here as you're missing what we've learned the last
45:49
decade and is called a golden age of communication
45:51
that we're living through. which is that we think
45:53
about a discussion as being about one thing. But.
45:56
Insects. Every discussion is made up
45:58
of different kinds of conversations. And
46:00
most of them fall into one of three
46:02
buckets. There's practical conversations I can solve your
46:04
problem with like a plan together. There's.
46:06
Emotional conversations where I tell you how
46:09
I'm feeling and I don't want you
46:11
to solve my feelings. I want you
46:13
to empathize or once you relate. And.
46:16
Then their social conversations but as about how
46:18
we relate to each other and we really
46:20
to society particularly for of social identities that
46:22
are influencing how are speaking in here. And.
46:26
It's own. When you came home, you were having
46:28
an emotional conversations and your wife was having a
46:30
practical conversation. What we know is if you're not
46:32
having the same kind of conversation, say moments. You.
46:34
Can't really hear each other and you can't really
46:37
connect. And. Learning to
46:39
do that is all about building
46:41
the right communication habits With her.
46:43
I habitually notice what kind of
46:46
conversations going on here, whether I
46:48
habitually ask questions, whether I habitually
46:50
to listen closely and show someone
46:52
that I'm listening to them, When
46:54
your to homo sapiens. Are super
46:57
powered is communication. That's what makes
46:59
our species so successful. In.
47:02
Our brains are designed to build Greek
47:04
musician habits if we know the right
47:06
inputs to get it. If
47:08
we know how to train ourselves to have
47:11
the right habits. Then they become instincts.
47:13
So much of what you said resonates in our
47:15
household. Sometimes the roles are reversed and I'm defaulting.
47:17
the practical yes And I would be remiss if
47:19
I didn't mention a video that I'm sure you've
47:22
seen about a nail and if you haven't I
47:24
will send it here by. Dad is bothering with
47:26
a nail in her head and see trying to
47:28
have an emotional conversation and her husband is trying
47:30
to have a very practical conversation is for hitter
47:32
remove the nail. So here's an interesting thing smith
47:35
our relationship. It also happens a lot that that
47:37
I'm the practical one of my wife is having
47:39
in a more emotional com says it's there's been
47:41
a lot of studies. That have looked at
47:43
whether the that actually is true and it
47:46
turns out that there's basically no gender differences.
47:48
It's just that we notice the gender difference
47:50
when if it's the right category in our
47:52
had. Also. That's. Often.
47:55
Times we fall back on a communication
47:57
style that were most comfortable with sorts
47:59
of. Ritual for us, and often
48:01
times for men that's explaining things in
48:03
a practical way. That. Does
48:06
not mean that were necessarily having a practical
48:08
conversation. Like. If I'm talking about money
48:10
with my wife and I'm like we gotta do this,
48:12
We gotta do that. We gotta have a budget. It's
48:14
not actually Fractals conversations, it's it. I'm
48:17
having an emotional conversation, but I don't
48:19
have the vocabulary for those emotions and
48:21
so I fall back on my habits.
48:23
And my habits are very budget oriented,
48:25
A worse planning oriented. But.
48:27
I'm still having an emotional conversations so sometimes
48:29
we have to divorce what's actually happening with
48:31
conversations From what kinds of words are each
48:33
person using and where do we have started?
48:35
Is it more about taking incessant of ourselves?
48:37
Where do we go? So here's the single
48:39
best habits. So there are these people who
48:41
are super communicators And a super communicator looming.
48:44
Sort of the same With that is like
48:46
if I was to ask you this question
48:48
if you had a bad day. And.
48:50
You wanted to call someone who you know would make you feel
48:52
better. Does. The person you would
48:54
call to be Poppins Your Minds problem with
48:56
Yahoo is it probably either my wife's or
48:58
a friend that I've known since high school.
49:00
So for you, your wife and that friends,
49:02
they are super communicators for you. and your
49:05
probably super communicator for that. They probably call
49:07
you because they know that you're going to
49:09
listen to them. They know that you're going
49:11
to us, appreciate and support them. They know
49:13
that you're going to match them. Now.
49:16
There are some people who can do this with
49:18
almost anyone. they can connect with actually almost anyone
49:20
they want to. And what's the most amazing part
49:22
is is hop hard. Anyone can learn to become
49:24
super communicator. What we found a said it's just
49:26
a set of skills as some people learn and
49:29
practice until they become habit. And
49:31
the reason why that's important is because there
49:33
are these characteristics of super communicators that all
49:36
of us can learn from. And
49:38
one of those obvious one is asking questions.
49:40
says. Consistent super communicators. They tend
49:42
to ask ten to twenty times as
49:45
many questions as the average person. And
49:47
some of those questions you don't even registers
49:49
questions as a things like a which is
49:51
it about that are like oh, it's the
49:54
next, like they're inviting us into the conversation.
49:56
But. Then some of the questions they ask or what are
49:58
known as deep questions. And this is the
50:01
single best habits the someone can form. Is
50:03
to ask the questions and what's interesting
50:05
about it is the deep question. Often
50:08
doesn't appear deep, it doesn't appear overly
50:10
interests. That he course he'll be a simple
50:12
same someone like would he do for living So I'm
50:14
a lawyer or really what made you decide go to
50:16
law school. When. You love about pricing, the
50:18
law, What's. The best kiss you
50:20
ever settled. When. I ask
50:23
questions. What I'm doing is I'm asking
50:25
them about their values, their beliefs, or
50:27
their experiences. Instead. Of asking
50:29
about the sax otherwise. I'm. Asking
50:31
them how they feel about your life. And
50:34
what they're going to tell me in response to
50:36
something meaningful. And it's gonna tell me what kind
50:38
of mindset there. And if they're an emotional mindset
50:41
or practical mindset, or a social mindset, And
50:43
I'm going to be able to use that to
50:45
match them and invite them to match me so
50:47
we're having some kind of conversation the same time.
50:50
To the best communication how did you can develop his.
50:53
Get into the habit where you ask the
50:55
questions and it's really easy to do. I
50:57
do it almost automatically were thinking about and
50:59
so when you get that response have you
51:01
know what can a conversation they're having. Oh
51:03
I mean it's pretty obvious vs someone wide you
51:06
decide to go to law school and in fact,
51:08
studies have shown this. There. Was a
51:10
guy who participate in the study who was a
51:12
lawyer and they they ask him why did say
51:14
law school they awesome this multiple times with multiple
51:16
different questioners. And sometimes you would
51:18
answer the question by saying like I really wanted a stable
51:20
job and I knew if I had a law degrees I'd
51:23
be able to provide for my family. That's
51:25
pretty practical right? The guys that are practical frame
51:27
of mind split the same guy. When asked the
51:29
same question a couple days later by the from
51:32
person he said well you know part of it
51:34
as of civility thing but like when I was
51:36
young a saw uncle get arrested and I thought
51:38
it would really unfair. And. So I
51:40
always wanted to fight for the underdog. Guys
51:43
out in practical mindset. Right now he's an
51:45
emotional mindset or perhaps a social mindset, right?
51:47
depending on what he says next Than when
51:50
I asked more questions, how he reveals himself,
51:52
And. All you have to do is listen. And.
51:55
You can figure out. Is this person
51:57
talking to me? about how they feel about things? Are they
51:59
talking to me? About practical facts of things,
52:01
Are they talking to me? About how they
52:03
interact with other people's. It's not hard
52:05
to do. We all have an interior sense
52:08
of which conversations happening. We just have to
52:10
put ourselves in a position where we can
52:12
ask questions that elicit from this other person.
52:15
What's going on have had their head, how
52:17
they see themselves and they to the world
52:19
and then we just have to make a
52:21
point of listening to what they say and
52:23
ask yourself what kind of question is actually
52:25
happening and then is the intent to have
52:27
a deeper better communication conversation with them to
52:29
match their style. The intent is to connect
52:31
with them and often times the way that
52:33
we can act as through matching with in
52:35
psychology this enormous amounts in principle in with
52:37
a matching principles as as. If
52:40
you're not having the same kind of conversation
52:42
at the same moment, you'll fail to connect
52:44
with each other. Now, that doesn't mean I
52:46
have to be a slave to your desires'
52:48
rights simply because you want have an emotional
52:50
conversations. That does that mean I have to
52:52
have an extended emotional conversation? I could invite
52:54
you to get into a popsicle mindset, and
52:56
in fact, that's exactly what happens sick my
52:58
wife and I, for instance. Now we have
53:00
this new habits that when I start complaining
53:02
after work, she oftentimes ask me. To.
53:05
Want me to help you solve this problem for you
53:07
Just need to vent to get this of a purchase.
53:09
And. I really appreciate her asking and I might say
53:12
I just need to vent. And then
53:14
so listen to me that for thirty or
53:16
forty five seconds. So. Match me
53:18
and then she might say it's I told
53:20
him Search your feelings. It's really really hard
53:22
as seems unfair. Would. Be
53:24
okay if we talk about ways to improve
53:27
it. She's. Inviting me to
53:29
match her. and every discussion has all
53:31
three conversations, and that oftentimes we might
53:33
go from emotional to practical to social
53:35
and back to practical and and emotional
53:38
again. But. As long as
53:40
we're moving through those different kinds of conversations
53:42
together, we will sure each other. With.
53:44
Dangerous is when I move into an
53:47
emotional conversation and you move into a
53:49
practical conversation. Then. We're speaking different
53:51
languages, were not really sure each other. Can you
53:53
double quick? a little more on the social side.
53:55
I feel like that's one of the three. Like
53:57
that, I'm like I don't feel like I totally
53:59
grasp. Well. Okay, so here's a good example.
54:01
So where did you grow up? Outside Dc in
54:04
Virginia? Okay, into that shape you like. If you
54:06
had grown up in California, a few had grown
54:08
up in Mississippi. Do you think you'd be a
54:10
fundamentally different personnel? fundamentally the as strong to script
54:12
or would you be a different person? Now they
54:14
have a different yeah for sure. Okay Okay so
54:16
it sounds like growing up and D C that
54:18
seats your identity a little bit. Know a me
54:20
ask you this if you look back on your
54:23
life, when did you change the most? If there
54:25
was one period where from here one to your
54:27
three, or four, you kind of change a lot.
54:29
When would that be. Tight. I think in
54:31
high school? okay and what was your high
54:33
school like was at a competitive place. I
54:35
was a boarding school but I think it
54:37
is so I that elicits a lot of
54:40
thing for a lot of people but I
54:42
think it's pretty high school. I was like
54:44
a skater kid and then in boarding school
54:46
icao like found other people like me I
54:48
became I got a little bit of a
54:50
math and computer nerd and I gave his
54:52
is Chris Kyle like changing and can as
54:55
yeah built a little bit more independence in
54:57
entrepreneurial spirit. Whenever I talk about the history
54:59
of. Being. My God
55:01
life Hacker an entrepreneur it's him to all kind
55:03
of come up around that time and so I
55:05
like to. The asking you about was what was
55:07
it like in high school You suddenly just told
55:09
me so much right? what was it like in
55:12
Haskell the deep questions and you told me all
55:14
the stuff about yourself that like you went through
55:16
transformation that you're sensitive about, the fact that some
55:18
people think the boarding school has issues around it
55:20
that you admire kind of entrepreneurship and the hustler
55:22
mentality. So I've learned a lot about you and
55:24
if this was real conversation when I would do
55:26
is I would tell you about where I grew
55:28
up right? Said tell you about Albuquerque, New Mexico.
55:31
And to Valley High School and how
55:33
that influenced me and the reason why
55:35
this is a social conversations is because
55:37
we're not second up. Plans were nothing
55:39
about emotions were talking about is how
55:41
we see ourselves based on how we
55:43
think society sees us and based on
55:45
how society influenced us. right? The
55:47
fact that you grew up in why should
55:49
he sees the that has meaning for you
55:52
compare to growing up in California means that
55:54
there's something about Ccs that you feel like
55:56
is he reflected or not reflected who you
55:58
are. The. Targets. A boarding school
56:00
in that Like you say, like I went to
56:03
boarding school in. For some people that my race
56:05
misused, that means that like you're very conscious of
56:07
the fact that there's some people who I hear
56:09
boarding school and think oh like privileged yuppie kid
56:12
and the you know that that's not true you
56:14
wanna help people with no I went to boarding
56:16
school in is really meaningful which was really important
56:18
in my development as a good person. That.
56:21
Was her social conversations? because what we're talking
56:24
about his were talking about how we see
56:26
ourselves in the context of society and how
56:28
see others. Not the place
56:30
where this becomes really important is think
56:32
about discussing topics of identity. Like.
56:34
Race or gender Or
56:37
religion Or politics. Often
56:39
we go into that conversations and were
56:41
hyper aware of our own i didn't
56:44
see and others identities. And.
56:46
The problem is that when we are
56:48
hyper aware of those things, when we're
56:50
having a social conversations and we're pretending
56:52
it's not a social conversations, were talking
56:55
about policing and your are Black Biden
56:57
voter and I'm a white Trump voter.
56:59
And. We don't acknowledge these differences. His
57:02
social identity differences. These differences between
57:04
us. Then. We're not really having
57:06
a conversation. Now. I can
57:08
feel dangerous introduces, right? but there's a
57:10
way to do with that. Actually, study
57:12
shows the right way to do it,
57:14
which is. Instead. Of just
57:17
acknowledging one identity. Invite people
57:19
to describe all of their i don't it's is
57:21
asking open ended question about how they grew up
57:23
or or whatever. The question is. Yeah, it could
57:25
be asking open and question about how they grew
57:27
up so they can define themselves for you. They
57:29
can tell you the fact that they're black, whether
57:31
that and influences how they see themselves or or
57:34
doesn't fit. You can also just acknowledge it and
57:36
safety. In fact, I've had this conversation before When
57:38
we're talking about policing is to say to someone.
57:41
As a black man, I imagine you have some really.
57:43
Different. Perspectives on the police in question, but
57:46
I know you're also a lawyer. And
57:48
so you probably think about it from a
57:50
law enforcement perspective and I know that's like
57:52
me. your appearance, And. So you probably
57:54
worry about your kids in different ways and I
57:56
have to worry about my kids is I'm just
57:58
wondering like. You think about policing
58:01
given that you were all these different hats
58:03
think about are different. that conversation isn't saying.
58:05
As a black man, what do you think
58:08
about policing? Yeah, very different because when we
58:10
focus on just one identity, What?
58:12
We do is we oftentimes push
58:14
other people and ourselves into the
58:16
stereotype. that identity. But.
58:18
When we have knowledge which is what is obviously
58:20
true, which is that none of us have just
58:22
one identity all of us have. Dozens,
58:24
hundreds of identity use. When we acknowledge
58:27
those different identities, we escape that trap
58:29
of the stereotype. We give someone the
58:31
space to say to let me explain
58:33
to you how I see myself in
58:36
the context of i know that society
58:38
has all these preconceptions about the color
58:40
of your skin or the works the
58:42
you do or where the went to
58:45
boarding school or not. Let me explain
58:47
to how I see myself. Because.
58:50
Our see myself as probably little bit different
58:52
than how I think society sees me on
58:54
the solitary issue. The make sense neuro makes
58:56
total sense. I'm begging now. Okay, I want
58:59
to be a super communicator. Okay, I've got
59:01
a pass, right? So mit more deeper questions,
59:03
listening, matching and inviting people, other types of
59:05
conversations, Acknowledging identities. Are there
59:07
any other major components? Yeah, so there's
59:09
one of the thing it's missing from
59:11
this and and you mentioned listening. But
59:13
there's a certain kind of listening that's
59:15
really important, particularly when we're in conflict
59:17
with someone or when we're having an
59:20
argument or we just disagree about. like
59:22
anything. And what happens
59:24
is that when we're talking to people,
59:26
Pythagorean are talking to people in conflict.
59:28
There. Is this part of our brain
59:30
the become suspicious and a suspicion? Is
59:33
this? I. Don't think this person's
59:35
listening to me. I think they're waiting
59:37
their turn to speak, were hyper attuned
59:39
to picking up when other people aren't
59:41
actually listening to us. And so what
59:43
we have to do was we to
59:45
prove that we're listening, particularly if there's
59:47
distrust and we think they might be
59:50
suspicious of us. And the way that
59:52
we prove were listening is by what
59:54
we say after they finished speaking. And
59:56
there's this Texas to Harvard, Stanford, all
59:58
of the place called Looping. Understanding with
1:00:00
been shown to be the most powerful way
1:00:02
to do this. and it's pretty simple, right?
1:00:05
Step one is ask someone a question. preferably
1:00:07
deep question. Step. To is less
1:00:09
know what they say and then shrine
1:00:11
repeat back in your own words what
1:00:13
you just heard them say. And.
1:00:16
Then sept three and this is a when people
1:00:18
was forget his ask if you got it right
1:00:20
There's a reason why that's so powerful is twofold.
1:00:22
First. Off I'm proving to that I'm listening to
1:00:24
you. You can't suspect I'm just waiting my turn to
1:00:27
speak. Because. I've shown you that I've listened
1:00:29
to you, have shown you that and processing what you're
1:00:31
saying. But. The second thing is really
1:00:33
beneficial is the benefit for me as was. Which.
1:00:36
Is. Sometimes we get our own way
1:00:38
listening, right? Somebody says something we disagree with and
1:00:40
we start arguing with them and are hadn't. So
1:00:42
now we're not actually listening to them, were just
1:00:44
waiting to make our arguments. But.
1:00:46
If my assignment in a conversation is.
1:00:48
I. Have to pay attention well enough to repeat back to you
1:00:51
what you're saying to me. I'm. Kind
1:00:53
of hacking myself, interesting myself into listening
1:00:55
more closely. Knit really powerful
1:00:57
that's low as missing component of being
1:00:59
a supercomputer. One of the things that
1:01:01
I think to people who I feel
1:01:03
like might be super communicators. I feel
1:01:05
like they do all of these things
1:01:07
well. but they're also just generally like
1:01:09
good conversationalist. It's like even when there's
1:01:11
no agenda, they keep a conversation going.
1:01:13
Is that just asking more questions? What
1:01:15
are the habits you can build? Blimey
1:01:17
A You. You're probably pretty good conversationalist,
1:01:19
right? Yep, conversations have been castle time
1:01:21
when you hit a point when there's
1:01:23
a silence. Would he do so in
1:01:26
a conversation like this? It happens rarely, only
1:01:28
because I've done some research I have about a
1:01:30
topic I want to talk about. I have a
1:01:32
little bit of an agenda and I don't know
1:01:34
the person that well. When it's
1:01:36
a good friend. You. Know
1:01:38
it has happened. Actually three four months ago
1:01:41
we've had au pairs and we called our
1:01:43
obe hair who's in Spain and we talked
1:01:45
to her and we get to this point
1:01:47
where as like. We. Both want to
1:01:49
stay connected but like we've gotten the life update
1:01:51
from each other and we are kind of at
1:01:54
this weird impasse and I like all I could
1:01:56
think about was. I know some
1:01:58
people that no matter the conversation, In it
1:02:00
would always just free flow and feel
1:02:02
like you could talk forever and and
1:02:04
the moment I acknowledge like. Something.
1:02:07
About this conversation is missing that. So.
1:02:10
My guess is that you when you see really like
1:02:12
updates. My guess is that you're asking each other about
1:02:14
the facts of your life. right? You're asking
1:02:16
them like this, oh are you back home like
1:02:19
were you living now with your job But that's
1:02:21
where the deep questions become really powerful because of
1:02:23
your to ask. So like what do you make
1:02:25
of being home with would you feel like you've
1:02:28
learned about it. And Euro pair
1:02:30
answers that question. Is.
1:02:32
Pretty natural for you to kind of build on.
1:02:34
That said like when you are no pair you
1:02:36
learned that like you're a more responsible person than
1:02:38
you thought you were. I remember like when I
1:02:40
was in college I had the same experience that
1:02:42
when on this trip were like I ended up
1:02:44
being much more responsible than are worried I would
1:02:46
be in. That's actually changed everything for me. And.
1:02:49
I'm just wondering like you're going forward, are you
1:02:51
going to use out For how do you think
1:02:53
I've seen a change how you do things when
1:02:55
we as easy questions, when we ask people how
1:02:58
they feel better was that's what these conversations are
1:03:00
doing. And. Most importantly, they're not
1:03:02
only asking you that question. They.
1:03:04
Are answering it themselves So it's the most
1:03:06
natural thing to do is to say like
1:03:08
hey, like tell me how you feel about
1:03:11
high school? like what was it like. And.
1:03:13
They tell you that's a deep question. Then.
1:03:15
The most natural thing to do is the so it's oh
1:03:17
that's interesting. Like my high school was really similar. Like the
1:03:19
way I feel about it was x and y and Z.
1:03:22
That's. When a conversation starts becoming this ping
1:03:24
pong right? The thing that we pass back
1:03:27
and forward because if you're asking about facts
1:03:29
like did you make it home okay, how's
1:03:31
your mom doing? Did you get a job?
1:03:33
What's your job? Does. Are dead
1:03:35
ends? But. When yes someone how they feel
1:03:37
about their license at the facts realize. You're.
1:03:40
Inviting them to open up in it's easy for
1:03:42
you to open up in return. and once you
1:03:44
open up to each other, that's what a great
1:03:46
conversation is. The people whom you love talking to.
1:03:49
You. Love talking to them. says. It
1:03:51
feels authentic and it feels intimate that
1:03:53
feels like you can share things about
1:03:55
yourself and they share things about themselves.
1:03:57
Having evaluate a lot of this study,
1:03:59
this. What are coming to a
1:04:01
magic in the benefits in life that
1:04:03
come from this skill? Oh my gosh,
1:04:06
everything give you. Think about it again.
1:04:08
Communication is our superpowers. the species people
1:04:10
who are really good at communication. They.
1:04:13
Tend to do better than everyone else
1:04:15
and not just like in Successor, not
1:04:17
like just great managers. are there people
1:04:19
who are invited and opportunities as everyone
1:04:21
likes having them around since I see
1:04:23
so they. Are
1:04:26
healthier as they get older. There's a single
1:04:28
the. It's a Harvard study of adult developments,
1:04:30
which is what it's called. Now it's had
1:04:32
not the over the years, but it's the
1:04:34
largest longitudinal study that we have of happiness,
1:04:36
bicycles, And. What they found is that
1:04:38
there's only one thing the term ends. If you'll
1:04:41
be happy and healthy, eat at age sixty five.
1:04:43
And. That is if you have at least
1:04:46
a handful, at least one, preferably two
1:04:48
or three. Strong. Meaningful
1:04:50
relationships with another person. That doesn't mean that
1:04:52
you started them at forty, five, right? That
1:04:54
means you started them way earlier. Connecting
1:04:56
with other people, Is. What
1:04:59
makes us happy? our brains of of
1:05:01
falls to present. In connection
1:05:03
with other people leads to. More
1:05:05
opportunities and leads to the other people
1:05:08
liking us more. Interesting us more. It.
1:05:10
Leads to liking interesting ourselves.
1:05:14
If there's one thing you can work on in
1:05:16
life, The. Things would see the
1:05:18
greatest dividends is learning how to be a
1:05:20
super communicator. Because. Everything else
1:05:22
you wanted to. Depends on
1:05:24
your ability to communicate with other people.
1:05:27
To. Connect with them and to be able to
1:05:29
work together. Awesome! What would
1:05:31
you say that as a loop full
1:05:33
circle? The habit someone listening to gotta
1:05:35
put into action today or tomorrow to
1:05:37
start their journey to become a super
1:05:39
communique. So here's the habit. Let me
1:05:41
explain with the goal isn't Also with
1:05:44
the habit is. The
1:05:46
goal is to get yourself to a
1:05:48
place where you understand instinctual a that
1:05:50
the point of every conversation is not
1:05:52
convince someone or something. It's not even
1:05:54
a silly to find a common ground. The.
1:05:56
Goal of a conversation is to
1:05:58
understand each other. I
1:06:01
want to understand you and I want to
1:06:03
help you understand me. If we've
1:06:05
achieved that understanding than a conversation has
1:06:07
been success. And. So does number
1:06:09
of habits and help us get there. But
1:06:11
the biggest one is simply asking those questions
1:06:14
what you will find in this the did
1:06:16
It is unequivocal, honest. People. Who
1:06:18
are successful? People who are super communicators? People who
1:06:20
are successful than telling a places. If
1:06:23
you count the number of questions they
1:06:25
ask, it's like a power lot different
1:06:27
than the average person. They just ask
1:06:29
a lot of questions because when you
1:06:31
ask questions. It. Feels like you're
1:06:33
getting invited into a discuss if you want
1:06:35
to share something with a purse. And
1:06:38
when they show use of they're listening to
1:06:40
you and they offer something about themselves, engage
1:06:42
in reciprocal vulnerability or reciprocal authenticity. Then.
1:06:45
You feel close to them. Useless. You trust
1:06:47
them. So. There's lots of
1:06:49
different things that the book explains. You can do. But.
1:06:52
If he could only do one thing: It.
1:06:54
Would be that into the habit of asking deep
1:06:56
questions and if someone will say this I'm thinking
1:06:58
guess I want to be the person ask questions.
1:07:01
Like. Did they genuinely want to ask
1:07:03
more questions? And I find that it's
1:07:06
like in the moment it's hard. like
1:07:08
they've got these habits of how they
1:07:10
communicated. They need a break? How would
1:07:12
you apply cause some of the lessons
1:07:15
of habit to the circumstances? For someone
1:07:17
who's trying to change their natural conversational
1:07:19
style, So the first thing as
1:07:21
recognize that a deep question is literally just
1:07:23
asking someone like would you make a bat.
1:07:26
That's an easy question always fall back on.
1:07:28
somebody says oh I just went to the
1:07:30
to see you to at the smear. oh
1:07:33
really what's you make a that like what
1:07:35
was that like that's a habit A fallback
1:07:37
question they when can use but you can
1:07:39
also just practice it on your own even
1:07:41
without of the people. There is a city
1:07:43
that was done by some Harvard Business School
1:07:45
professors were their students were going to have
1:07:47
conversations with strangers and they told them beforehand
1:07:49
right down three topics on an index cards
1:07:51
that you can discuss and they were dumb
1:07:53
topics. A different seven seconds for them to
1:07:55
do. This was like Tv. Show last night in
1:07:57
the game this weekend and we're going on because.
1:08:00
Then. Another. Job there are not
1:08:02
going to the card in your pocket. He just scribbled on.
1:08:04
And go have your conversations. And.
1:08:07
People found that in general they did not
1:08:09
actually talk about the things that they had
1:08:11
written down. But. Almost everyone felt
1:08:13
so much less anxious about the conversations
1:08:15
because they had something fall back on.
1:08:19
And. So part of it is just before you go
1:08:21
into conversations. If you know this is gonna be
1:08:23
tough conversation if you know that you have a habit
1:08:25
where you tend to talk too much and listen not
1:08:27
enough. Just aside some general question
1:08:30
like what do you make of that.
1:08:32
The. You're going to ask whenever you
1:08:34
can. And. Eventually gonna be a
1:08:36
habit and eventually you're gonna do it without even thinking
1:08:39
about it. I like it. I'm gonna make a
1:08:41
list of like three things I keep in a know
1:08:43
the here again a guy my that have them. I
1:08:45
feel the last worried about anything I got that had
1:08:47
to take a look at about before so thank you
1:08:50
for sharing it. It's just come out Where do
1:08:52
you want people to go other than to buy the
1:08:54
book or to learn more are where should we send
1:08:56
them? They can buy the book on Amazon or
1:08:58
Audible or Barnes and Noble anywhere. They buy books Your
1:09:00
local bookstore as I say great place to buy it
1:09:02
and if you want to get in contact with me.
1:09:05
if he just google. Me Charles do his and
1:09:07
the only Charles Do hit on earth are
1:09:09
you can Google The Power of Habit or
1:09:11
Super Communicators and my website will come up
1:09:13
in. I'll mention that actually on my website
1:09:16
I have my email address which is Charles
1:09:18
Charles Do his.com and I read and respond
1:09:20
to every single email I get from a
1:09:22
reader listener. Because. I figure if you
1:09:24
take the time to like put your thoughts
1:09:26
together for me that I should respond to
1:09:28
those and it has like twenty thousand emails
1:09:30
and we've responded to so far as over
1:09:32
the last number of years. But.
1:09:34
I would love to hear from folks about how
1:09:37
they communicate with a sounds to be successful and
1:09:39
I promise you I will read it and will
1:09:41
read back. Judging by the number of people who
1:09:43
reach out I feel confident in his community. Reading
1:09:45
our dear anybody of you know how that the
1:09:47
how did I was a good I want to
1:09:49
hear Tell me if you think I did a
1:09:52
good job communicating and and by the way it's
1:09:54
Chris You are a great communicator. Like you are
1:09:56
super communicator. You do it that really wonderful job
1:09:58
of keeping the conversation going. In a spirit
1:10:00
of continual development, there are moments in my
1:10:02
life when I'm not as prepared as I
1:10:04
am for an interview where I still feel
1:10:06
like I can make progress and so now
1:10:08
I'm still putting some of the things in
1:10:10
a book and action as well. So I
1:10:13
think no matter where we are, even super
1:10:15
communicators can improve. I totally agree. I totally
1:10:17
agree. This is great! Thank you so much
1:10:19
for joining me today! Thank you for having
1:10:21
me on This has been really really fun.
1:10:23
I really appreciate. Wow!
1:10:26
I feel like I learned so much today
1:10:28
and I am excited to start creating. More
1:10:30
positive healthy habits in my life and
1:10:32
become a super communicator And I hope
1:10:34
you feel the same If you do,
1:10:36
please consider one tiny Easy Action that
1:10:38
has such a huge impact on my
1:10:40
life and this podcast and that's just
1:10:42
clicking the follow or subscribe button and
1:10:44
your podcast app if you haven't already.
1:10:46
Also, if you enjoyed this episode, please
1:10:48
share with a friend, colleague, or family
1:10:50
member or really any when you think
1:10:52
might benefit from it. Thank you so
1:10:55
much in advance. That's it for this
1:10:57
week. I will see you next week.
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a little bit more down lately as I've
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credit card offers, they also explain the
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real impact that the latest financial headlines
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could have on your life. So you'll
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get the clarity you need to make
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smart decisions with confidence. Weekly financial check
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ins with Smart Money help you spend
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while it's trusted experts untangle today's web
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