0:03

Whenever I find myself stuck,

0:06

I know that I need two things, a

0:09

wake up call and a whole new set

0:11

of habits to guarantee long term success. Recently

0:15

I found myself stuck between

0:17

projects, stuck in my health

0:19

goals and stuck in my overall mood

0:21

about getting things done in general. The

0:24

way forward was a lifestyle shift that

0:27

is based on what I choose to

0:29

do and choose not to do every

0:31

day. This is the

0:33

5am Miracle, episode number 412. Five

0:37

bad habits that I eliminated and

0:39

five healthy ones that replaced them. Good

0:42

morning, I am Jeff Sanders and this

0:44

is the podcast dedicated to dominating your

0:47

day before breakfast. I

0:58

get stuck every few months, usually

1:01

between projects when I'm deciding what

1:03

the next direction of my life

1:05

and business should be or I get

1:08

stuck when a big problem appears in my

1:10

life and I just don't know what to

1:12

do about it. So on the

1:14

show this week, we're going to

1:16

tackle getting stuck from the effective

1:18

direction, the one that actually makes

1:20

the difference, which is daily habits.

1:24

What you do every day will have a

1:26

greater impact on your life than anything else.

1:29

So let's just start there and see if

1:31

you can get yourself unstuck if you happen

1:33

to be stuck or at

1:36

least to move forward with a bit

1:38

more pep in your step and a

1:40

bit more of the habits that truly

1:42

make the difference in terms of forward

1:44

progress, momentum building and a

1:46

life worth living because you're doing the

1:48

things that actually matter. So

1:51

here are five bad habits that I was

1:53

able to cut from my life or at

1:55

least to minimize and five healthy

1:57

ones that replace them. Number

2:00

One This is a topic that I

2:02

have discussed in this podcast almost since

2:04

the very beginning. This is years in

2:07

the making of This is An Accent

2:09

A rant The same fear nine years

2:11

ago about how mad I was about

2:13

certain areas of life that tend to

2:16

gets. Not. Just under my skin but

2:18

to get into my brain. So.

2:20

The bad habit that I was able to

2:22

remove from my life. Was. Essentially

2:25

and overconsumption of news.

2:29

Now in the pass on this show

2:31

I had this very specific perspective that

2:33

I was ah I cheated the news

2:36

that I was actively just. Very.

2:38

Angry about it actually. And what a

2:40

fine whatever ways I could to fill

2:42

my brain with personal developments and healthy

2:45

books and podcast and audio books and

2:47

roots trying to find ways to make

2:49

sure that news in the way that

2:51

is presented today was not part of

2:53

my everyday flow. Well

2:55

as the years progress since I had that initial

2:58

rant on the spot gas probably a years ago.

3:00

Or. News has been kind of here

3:03

in their I I had an app

3:05

on my phone. For a long time

3:07

I would watch the nightly national news

3:09

as some times I would sex neil

3:11

headlines on social media. Site. Was

3:13

informed and have been for a long time.

3:16

But. It got to the point in

3:18

the last few years, everything with

3:20

the political environment and United States

3:22

to the global pandemic to just

3:24

you know, life been complicated. One.

3:27

Of the ways that I was you're trying to

3:29

stay on top of the world was just to

3:31

be in the know what was happening. So.

3:33

I had the app on my phone. they're

3:35

referred to multiple times a day. I.

3:38

Would watch the nightly news every single

3:40

nights. I. Would soon and on to

3:42

headlines on the computer as I was working in

3:44

throughout the day. The. One of the

3:46

things I would do to distract myself

3:49

from work was his check random news

3:51

headlines. And. Initially this was

3:53

probably a good thing. I was more informed.

3:55

I felt like I understood he of the

3:57

global environments in my local news and I

4:00

was. I felt like I was a have

4:02

possibly been a better citizen. Let's say. But.

4:05

As time progressed, he became very

4:07

clear to me that news was

4:09

just an addiction. It was just

4:11

entertainment. It was just me finding

4:14

a way to not do the

4:16

things that matter most to myself,

4:18

my business, my family, and my

4:20

community. I was not

4:22

helping myself or anyone else

4:24

around me by need Overconsuming

4:26

news. Been a news

4:29

junkie is a profession or it it's

4:31

a journalist. Deal with the people on

4:33

television do because their job is to

4:35

report the current events. It's

4:37

not my job as a consumer

4:39

to consume all of that information.

4:43

And so what I did a couple of months

4:45

ago was I went cold turkey. Or.

4:47

Cold viewed in Turkey if you wanna go at

4:49

the direction of Vociferous. I ended up doing was

4:51

removing the app for my phone. Stop.

4:54

Watching the nightly news, And.

4:57

Find other ways for me to engage on

4:59

my computer when I was working in the

5:01

did not involve me checking random headlines and

5:03

one thing I did right away when I

5:05

removed the news out for my phone was

5:07

replaced it with the Call Mouth or the

5:09

Meditation app and the same exact location on

5:12

my phone or the news app used to

5:14

be. So. What that did

5:16

initially right away and day one was when

5:18

I had a tendency to plug my phone

5:20

and and click on that app Will Now

5:22

I'm clicking on the call mouth. Now.

5:24

Of a sudden I'm not setting headlines because

5:27

that's not fair. It's just

5:29

a nice call. meditation. And.

5:31

This was a really funny way to just

5:33

check my phone and and remind myself right

5:35

away. Wait a minute, I'm not here for

5:38

news. It's not the point of this random

5:40

phone to act which is it's an addiction

5:42

all by itself. This. Is

5:44

me just simply remind myself to take

5:46

a breath? The. Not

5:48

be the news junkie that I have

5:51

been in the past. addition

5:53

to that mean you can use of blockers

5:56

on your computer to say no the freedom

5:58

app is a good one that will block

6:00

websites or entire apps all together. I

6:03

didn't go that far because I didn't really

6:05

need that for myself. I was able to

6:07

find other means to do

6:09

better work throughout the workday. But if you need

6:11

that additional set of reminders

6:13

to be in place, check out Freedom. That

6:15

is a great app to use. So

6:18

you can block websites, block apps from you

6:20

if you need to stay focused on your

6:22

work. And if you know that you are

6:24

pulled away to certain websites, social media, shopping,

6:27

news, whatever the case is, find

6:29

a way to block those. It's incredibly effective.

6:33

And so, actually I did this a few weeks ago.

6:36

I've been blocking the news for about three months and

6:38

I reinstalled the news app on my

6:40

phone for one hour. And

6:43

I wanted to see if I was missing

6:45

something. If this truly was a bad habit

6:47

of mine or if I was better off

6:49

going back to having access to the news.

6:52

And the really remarkable and probably

6:55

not that shocking thing actually was

6:57

that the news headlines are

6:59

awful. I mean

7:01

they are just depressing on a level

7:03

that I had forgotten about honestly. I

7:06

had forgotten how negative the news was because

7:08

I hadn't been a part of my life

7:10

for a few months. I just did not

7:13

consume it. I was just totally

7:15

uninformed. And when I

7:17

went back to quote unquote being informed, I

7:19

was horrified. It wasn't

7:22

positive, it wasn't uplifting, it wasn't helpful,

7:24

it wasn't allowing to progress forward in

7:26

my life or business. It was just

7:28

making me feel terrible. I

7:31

don't see now looking back at it

7:34

how being a news junkie for me

7:36

in my life is beneficial. The

7:40

bottom line is that it's just not. And

7:42

I don't want to be the kind of

7:45

person who consumes news in that

7:47

addictive way or in that kind

7:49

of very generic broad swipe of

7:51

good citizens consume the news. Good

7:54

people know what's going on in their community. There

7:57

is some truth to that. I won't discredit it

7:59

completely. And in times of crisis,

8:01

news outlets can be very, very

8:04

helpful. And I think that there are

8:06

definitely roles for journalists. There's roles for news outlets. I'm

8:08

not saying they're all bad, but

8:11

I can definitely say with

8:13

total certainty that an overconsumption

8:15

of news is damaging,

8:18

way more damaging than you could possibly imagine.

8:21

And so one thing that I've done going forward is

8:23

just not only to eliminate the news, but then to

8:25

ask myself the question, you know, what's really going to

8:27

replace that in my life? And

8:30

the call map could be one thing on your phone as a trick

8:32

maybe. But more

8:34

specifically, the question then becomes, what

8:37

am I doing with my time? Both

8:40

in a proactive sense of what are my projects,

8:42

what are my goals I'm after, but also

8:44

from that reactive sense of when I'm looking

8:46

for a distraction, where do I turn? When

8:48

I'm looking for something to

8:50

read, what is that thing going

8:52

to be? And I think the

8:54

venue of opportunity to actually consume,

8:57

let's say, a different form of

8:59

news or a different form of

9:01

educational entertainment, which could

9:03

come from very well-selected magazines

9:06

to very well-selected articles you're going

9:08

to read or curated forms of

9:10

information where you get an in-depth

9:12

look at something that's not just

9:14

the really oversensationalized headlines, but actually

9:16

a deep dive into a topic

9:19

that you might find interesting. This

9:22

could also come from books and audiobooks and podcasts. This

9:24

could come from other

9:26

means besides the

9:29

attention-grabbing nonsense that

9:31

is the news. So I

9:33

would challenge you to ask that question, what

9:35

role does news play in my life? Am

9:38

I a news junkie? Should I be walking away

9:40

from all of that completely? Or

9:43

minimize it? Or find a new, healthier

9:46

way to interact with that information? Because

9:49

for the most part, news is

9:51

just entertainment, is just noise in

9:54

your brain. So I Would challenge

9:56

you to ask the question, is there something that

9:58

is maybe just as good as it is? Noise

10:00

even a lot healthier Sony the fit

10:02

into my head east. The

10:14

fi they have miracle audio book

10:16

is available now on Audible, Amazon,

10:19

and Apple Books. It's full of

10:21

specific how to advice and action

10:23

steps to help you wake up

10:25

early, dominate your day in achieve

10:27

your life grand his goals. It's

10:29

four hours of energy packed audio

10:31

that's read by me and the

10:34

audiobook walks you step by step

10:36

through the five Am blueprints which

10:38

is my seven step productivity framework.

10:40

You'll learn how to set your

10:42

green. The schools pratt clear boundaries.

10:44

Around your work, optimize your idea

10:46

week and discover what the pros

10:49

do to get the most that

10:51

of their day. Just visit by

10:53

the A book.com to get your

10:55

copy of the Fi The A

10:57

Miracle audio books today. Once again

10:59

that's Five Am books.com. Bad

11:11

Habit number two that I was able to

11:13

thoughts and this is what I discussed on

11:16

his podcast actually just earlier this year. And.

11:18

One that I actually feel more confident about

11:21

now that I have felt in a very

11:23

long time. Which. Is that

11:25

I was able to. Knock. On

11:27

wood. I. Was able to remove

11:29

alcohol from my life yet again.

11:32

Not that I was ever a quote unquote,

11:35

alcoholic, or ever kind of diagnosed they kind

11:37

of an addiction know nothing like that. However,

11:40

Of as I explain the podcast earlier

11:42

this year alcohol became a habit. He

11:45

became a thing that I was as

11:47

part of my life everyday. Kind of

11:49

like the news was utterly question it.

11:51

There. Was ever caught in a serious

11:54

damage? least not in the extreme

11:56

sense. But. In the every

11:58

day consumption sense. Yeah, I.

12:01

Had a glass of wine or

12:03

two or three. Literally.

12:05

Every evening. Cena. Got

12:07

to the point in my life where I

12:09

just realized this is not serving me. This.

12:12

Is Not the Just Sanders I want to be?

12:15

This. Is Not a path forward that leads

12:17

to better health, not a path forward

12:19

the leads to me be more productive.

12:22

It's. Not a path for the leads to

12:24

me been the best version of myself

12:26

and what happened with as about three

12:28

months ago. I decided to

12:31

give up alcohol completely. But

12:33

my wife and I actually had a tour

12:35

of the Jack Daniels Distillery in says see

12:38

or the we had already pre schedule saw

12:40

a goal was to go down I and

12:42

and toward this amazing place that here it's

12:44

really cool to or to go on. I

12:47

recommend doing that regardless what you drink or

12:49

not it's really interesting to work. Anyway,

12:52

as com a tangent. What? Happened was

12:54

that we went said this tour of this

12:56

distillery and I've of course got a free

12:58

sample of whiskey. I decide to give that

13:00

a try. There is that was already there.

13:02

Who cares right? Well, I

13:04

came home from that experience and

13:06

immediately regretted it. I

13:08

came home as had this thought in my head that

13:10

was. Wait, A minute. Just. What?

13:13

Are you doing here? This. Is not the

13:15

you you promise to be. It

13:17

might be an interesting tour. in my be

13:19

a fun historical trip. There might be some

13:21

heritage there might something that's you know along

13:23

the lines of that. I could be a

13:25

good thing. Culturally. Speaking. But.

13:28

Personally, This. Doesn't fit.

13:32

So. That was August seventh. Of two

13:34

thousand, Twenty One. And I

13:36

have not drank since then and honestly

13:38

I have no plans of doing that

13:40

going forward. And it's not

13:42

that alcohol once again was never a

13:44

serious issue for me, but it fell

13:47

into that category of this Is Not

13:49

Serving Me. Miss that nice

13:51

plan. Their know this is not serving me

13:53

in the way that I want to be

13:55

served. This is not producing the L put

13:57

that I once. I. can read it

13:59

I can redefine my life, I can

14:02

redefine my habits, I can become

14:04

someone newer, better, stronger, smarter, healthier.

14:08

Without that as part of my daily existence

14:11

and possibly not part of my life ever again.

14:14

Now, I don't know my story going forward with alcohol.

14:16

You might hear me in six months say that I

14:18

went back to it again for some other reason, but

14:21

I kind of doubt it. And

14:24

I say that because I know from this

14:26

kind of back and forth experience I've had

14:28

of these last six months or so that

14:31

the message that I'm hearing loud

14:33

and clear is that this is

14:36

no longer part of my future. That

14:38

may not be the case for you and

14:41

I'm not arguing that everyone needs to ditch

14:43

alcohol and walk away completely, but what I

14:45

am arguing and this is I think a

14:47

really healthy practice to have with all of

14:50

your habits is just a reevaluation. What

14:53

role does this thing play in my life?

14:55

Does it belong? Does it not? Could

14:58

it be minimized, cut completely,

15:00

restructured, reframed? Is

15:02

this thing serving me or not? And

15:05

if the answer is no, it's time for a

15:07

change. And in the

15:09

case of alcohol for most people, especially

15:12

if you're a regular consumer of it,

15:14

that's probably time to reevaluate fairly often

15:16

because it's the kind of habit that can

15:18

get away from you. The

15:20

kind that can just sneakily take over

15:22

your life and then you wake

15:25

up one day a year has gone by and you're like,

15:27

what have I been doing here? I

15:30

don't want to be that guy. I want to be

15:32

more intentional. I want to be more proactive. I want to

15:35

be more of the

15:37

better version of me in a very broad

15:39

sense. And so this is another example of something

15:41

that I have let go of. Now

15:43

as far as replacing it, this has always come to the

15:45

big question with habits. If you

15:48

let go of a bad habit, something

15:50

has to take its place, right? Some

15:52

other healthier, better, stronger, faster, smarter thing

15:54

needs to be there. Well, I

15:57

think with alcohol for me, I didn't

15:59

actually a direct replacement. Although

16:02

this is interesting, one thing I noticed

16:04

about me drinking at night, especially with

16:06

red wine, which was my go-to, was

16:08

that I was essentially using red wine as

16:10

a de-stressor. It was, I

16:13

thought of this as something that ends my

16:15

day, it's a nightcap, it's the kind of

16:18

alcohol I would drink to say that the work

16:20

day is over, I'm just going to chill and

16:22

watch some baseball and TV and then I'll go

16:24

to sleep. What I

16:27

began doing, this is kind of as COVID

16:29

began to die down a little bit here

16:31

in Tennessee, although it's since resurged, but when

16:33

it would die down, I returned to the

16:36

gym. This was about four months ago and

16:38

when I returned to the gym, I decided to

16:40

make a daily workout, a big

16:42

part of my life, and

16:45

one thing I tacked onto my workouts was

16:47

going to the sauna. And the sauna

16:49

has a really powerful calming effect.

16:51

It's a really great thing to

16:53

do to just de-stress in a

16:55

very healthy way. And

16:57

so what I found was the combination

16:59

of a daily workout with the sauna

17:02

and not drinking allowed

17:04

me to feel really relaxed and calm at

17:07

the end of the day and I could

17:09

fall asleep more naturally without the booze. So

17:12

this is important when it comes to habits

17:14

is to recognize why exactly

17:16

that habit is in place. What value

17:19

do you think you're getting from it

17:21

and can you simply replace that with a

17:23

healthier alternative? And so if my

17:26

only real goal of alcohol was to de-stress

17:28

and fall asleep, well I can

17:30

do that with other means. There's other

17:32

healthier options that exist and all

17:34

I really had to do was make that part of

17:36

my routine and then all of a sudden I can

17:38

go to bed when I want to feeling nice and

17:40

healthy and alcohol-free. So that's

17:44

your challenge. What is the role that

17:46

it plays in your life? How can

17:48

you replace it with something that fits

17:51

you better and that is sustainable long-term?

17:54

Ask that question and answer it

17:56

with as much honesty as you possibly can,

17:58

which is the real challenge here. That

18:01

habit number three and

18:04

this is one that relates to exactly

18:06

what I just mentioned about going to

18:08

the gym although this kind of plays

18:11

into I think the the COVID lifestyle

18:13

the pandemic world of lockdowns and isolation

18:16

and the challenges that we all face as

18:18

a global community in the last couple of

18:20

years and are still facing in many ways

18:23

there was a tendency for me when

18:26

the COVID kicked in to put a

18:28

lot more energy into work because

18:30

I was stuck at home every day I

18:32

had access to my computer 24-7 well that

18:34

means I could work a lot and so

18:37

I did and I worked

18:39

oh I came and expressed you how

18:41

much time I spent working on all

18:43

kinds of stuff website projects and podcast

18:45

studio things and you know plans for

18:47

the future and just I dug into

18:49

all kinds of details and I worked

18:51

and worked and worked primarily

18:53

because I couldn't leave the house

18:55

I had you know significantly fewer

18:58

things to do and work filled

19:00

that void and initially it was

19:02

wonderful it really allowed me

19:04

to push forward in ways I otherwise would never

19:06

have had time for but

19:08

as most things do over time began

19:11

to backfire and that work

19:13

became not an addiction but that work

19:15

became something that was just part of

19:17

my routine where I wasn't even questioning

19:20

should I leave the house and go do something that's

19:22

a better use of my time

19:25

and so I wasn't going to the gym for a

19:28

long time out of fear of the pandemic and I

19:30

was making some choices there in terms of isolation and

19:33

so it was a challenge a unique

19:35

challenge that we all faced but

19:37

I think that as you know time progresses and

19:39

we have different ways of engaging in the world

19:41

some that are much more social and healthy we

19:44

can make different choices and so

19:46

for me the bad habit of working

19:49

too much was initially replaced by spending

19:51

some time at the gym some

19:53

time outside some time just engaging with other

19:56

friends and family I didn't see in a

19:58

long time but it was an A acknowledgement

20:00

that I don't have to put in

20:02

that many hours. I don't have to

20:04

have my lifestyle be crafted in that

20:06

specific way In large

20:08

part because it is like actively killing

20:10

me. My stress was going up. My

20:13

health was declining I didn't

20:15

feel good about it anymore You know the

20:17

initial push to work harder when COVID hit

20:20

was good. I got a lot of value

20:22

from that time But as time

20:24

progressed it backfired and it was no longer serving

20:26

me. So I had to change course I had

20:28

to pivot once I realized this

20:31

was not the path forward And

20:33

so the habit that I formed was going to

20:35

the gym five days a week So I pick

20:37

up my daughter Maisie from daycare and I

20:39

take her to the gym They have daycare for

20:41

her there so she gets another form of activity

20:44

and I get to go work out and That

20:47

habit of Monday through Friday the two of us going

20:49

to the gym together Has

20:51

really helped like in a phenomenal

20:53

way in terms of my stress

20:55

my physical fitness My

20:57

ability to just end the day with

21:00

a nice clean boundary This is

21:02

what is a whole different topic We could

21:04

do a whole podcast on which is that

21:06

very firm boundary of when your day begins?

21:08

But most importantly when your day ends and

21:10

how you're able to wrap up your work

21:12

and move on to your evening routine In

21:14

a way that's as healthy and

21:16

as effective as possible And for me

21:19

this new shift of being able to end the day

21:21

going to the gym. It's changed

21:23

my entire work life It's changed my entire

21:25

life overall Look at the guarantee

21:27

is physical fitness time and

21:29

it guarantees my work has an end boundary at the end

21:31

of the day So I can

21:34

have guaranteed work time and then guaranteed exercise

21:36

time and then the end of the day

21:38

is just the end of the day I

21:40

relax I eat dinner. I go to bed It's

21:43

simple and the clean

21:46

aspect of that right the simplicity of

21:48

that structure is One

21:50

that I didn't really have before

21:52

because there weren't any boundaries Right.

21:54

I just allowed myself to do what I wanted

21:56

whenever I felt like it, which

21:59

if you're a workaholic That just means you work a

22:01

lot. If you're a high achiever, it

22:03

means you just double down or triple down on

22:05

whatever your next project is. Like

22:08

I've said a million times now, that's

22:10

not the best path forward. Find

22:13

the healthier way for you to set

22:15

those boundaries. To acknowledge if your bad

22:18

habit is to work too much or

22:20

to not have those clean end and

22:22

beginning times that you're then able to

22:24

move forward with boundaries in place that

22:27

restrict your ability to actually work on

22:29

things in a healthy way that's more

22:31

sustainable and actually allows you to get

22:33

more done because it's prioritized time, which

22:36

is the root of it.

22:46

If you're loving this podcast and would

22:48

love to get exclusive bonus episodes of

22:50

The 5 AM Miracle as

22:52

well as every episode 100% ad

22:55

free, you're going to love 5 AM

22:58

Miracle Premium. By joining 5

23:00

AM Miracle Premium, you will get access

23:02

to exclusive bonus episodes of this show,

23:04

100% ad free

23:06

content, early access to

23:08

the latest episodes, exclusive access to

23:11

the entire back catalog with over

23:13

400 episodes as well as any

23:15

other features that launch in the

23:17

future. Now, in addition to

23:20

all of that, you are supporting me

23:22

and this podcast, which allows me to

23:24

keep this show alive and making podcasts

23:26

you love. To learn

23:28

more and join today, simply

23:30

go to 5ammiraclepremium.com. Once

23:33

again, that's 5ammiraclepremium.com. Bad

23:43

habit number four, this

23:45

also plays into the pandemic. This is basically

23:48

becoming a post COVID Jeff Sanders talk. But

23:50

essentially what happened for me, and this is

23:52

actually very true, is that when COVID hit,

23:55

a lot of my good habits disappeared. And

23:57

one of the very bad habits that I gained

24:00

when COVID hit was just poor

24:02

eating, right? Eating without restriction. This

24:04

is my life story though. This is if you

24:06

go back to the beginning of my podcast and

24:08

you know, eight plus years ago, I have this

24:11

a lot of episodes that are about me going

24:13

vegan and a better,

24:15

healthier plant-based diet. But one

24:17

of the keys to that entire transition for

24:19

me was to, yes, I eliminated some animal

24:22

products from my diet but I

24:24

still didn't hold myself back. I

24:26

still ate a ton. And

24:28

that's still who I am today. I'm the kind

24:31

of guy who just eats

24:33

because there's food available, right?

24:35

And I kind of have that addictive personality, at

24:38

least on that, you know, from that perspective that

24:40

I like to eat. It's just a fun thing

24:42

for me to do. But I

24:44

also know that there are limitations to what

24:46

you can do there. So when I found

24:49

myself gaining weight during COVID, when

24:51

I found myself not working out

24:53

as much, not caring for my

24:55

body, drinking too much alcohol, and

24:58

not sleeping well, these habits all

25:00

kind of come together. I'm

25:03

the kind of guy that I'm either very

25:05

aware of my health and I'm taking care

25:07

of all of these areas or I'm doing

25:09

the exact opposite and none of those things

25:11

really apply. I'm really an

25:13

on or off kind of guy when it

25:15

comes to really great healthy habits, which is

25:17

why I have to podcast like this and

25:19

talk about these topics because I

25:22

need to remind myself to go back to the

25:24

things that work, right? In addition to

25:26

possibly you getting benefit from listening to my story,

25:28

I need to benefit from my own story by

25:31

telling it more often to remind myself to make

25:33

sure that I'm doing what works. So

25:36

right now, thankfully, I'm in a very healthy

25:38

season and I have a lot more awareness

25:40

about what I was doing back

25:42

then and versus what

25:44

I'm doing today. And they're two

25:46

different worlds, two different experiences because

25:48

the focus for me on health

25:50

now is all encompassing. It's every

25:53

area. It's stress, it's sleep, it's

25:55

diet, it's fitness, right?

25:57

It's just personal hygiene. I mean, all of these

25:59

things. things play into it. And

26:02

so the bad habit of eating

26:04

without restriction was overcome by

26:07

my willingness to then move forward saying, I'm

26:09

going to make some different choices. I'm

26:12

going to go to the store and buy

26:14

the healthy food and not bring home the

26:16

unhealthy food. If it's not in my kitchen,

26:18

I'm not going to eat it. This is

26:20

a key thing for anyone who works from home, like

26:22

I have for the last seven years. Or

26:25

even if you work at the office, oftentimes you

26:27

have the choice about the kinds of food that

26:29

you bring into the office and

26:31

therefore to find the kinds of foods that are available

26:33

for you to eat. I know

26:35

me personally that if the food is not in

26:38

my kitchen, I can't eat it and I won't.

26:40

So if I only bring home the healthiest food,

26:42

that's what I eat. I

26:45

just had an episode of the podcast just

26:47

last week with Melissa Vogel.

26:49

And one of the things that we talked about was

26:51

that you cannot outrun a

26:53

bad diet. You cannot go

26:55

to the gym and lift so many weights

26:57

that you burn all your body's fat. If

27:00

your goal here is weight loss, if your goal is

27:03

fat loss, if your goal is a healthier version of

27:05

you in the mirror, 80, 90%

27:08

of that is going to come from your diet. And

27:11

so if you're able to reframe what

27:13

that looks like, to buy food that

27:16

you have determined to be healthy, bring

27:18

that home and you eat that, that's

27:20

a huge step forward. Again,

27:22

the specifics of which diet to choose and why,

27:25

most of us fully understand that we eat

27:28

foods we shouldn't, foods that we

27:30

know are not healthy and we know foods

27:32

we avoid that are healthier. So just make

27:34

that swap. I just simply reduce the

27:36

bad foods, increase the good ones and

27:38

see where that takes you. That's what I've been

27:41

doing recently. It's already working. This is

27:43

not actually rocket science. It's not actually

27:45

that complicated. We know the

27:47

information. We know ourselves. We know

27:49

our tendencies. We just have

27:51

to act upon those and boundaries are

27:54

helpful here. Boundaries

27:56

around what you buy and what you don't. Boundaries

27:58

around your daily. habits, what you choose

28:00

to engage in and what you choose to avoid.

28:04

This is all in your control. It's in

28:06

your sphere of influence. You have the ability

28:08

to choose what goes in your mouth every

28:10

day. And I

28:12

know for myself, I need boundaries. If

28:14

I don't have boundaries, I will

28:16

probably make the wrong choice more often than I

28:18

should. So one of the things

28:20

that I've done to help in this

28:22

regard is I have two specific daily

28:24

habits that I want to engage in

28:27

and one weekly habit. So the

28:29

daily habits is that the first thing I want to consume

28:31

every day are bananas. It's the food

28:33

that I love and I've loved for years. And

28:35

so the first thing in my mouth every day

28:37

are usually about five or six bananas.

28:39

That's kind of how my day starts. I've

28:42

begun the day with healthy food that works

28:44

and serves my body. And

28:46

I like to end the day with

28:48

a large serving of leafy greens. So

28:50

generally every day having a salad. If

28:53

that's all that I do, then that's a

28:56

really good day. And if I go beyond

28:58

that, have even more healthy food, that's amazing.

29:00

But for me, that's what it's all about. It's

29:02

defining a couple of things I want to have in

29:04

my day to start the day off right and

29:07

the day well with my diet. And

29:09

then the weekly habit is of course just to

29:12

go buy more healthy food. So schedule it in

29:14

your calendar when you will go to the store

29:16

to buy the healthy food you need. It

29:19

needs to be part of the weekly review process

29:21

when you're scheduling your focus blocks of time when

29:23

you're scheduling your big projects. When you're

29:26

looking at your calendar, you should definitely

29:28

have time on there for when you buy

29:30

your healthy food. And if

29:32

that's not a part of your calendar, that

29:34

could be the game changer that you

29:36

need to get yourself moving in the

29:39

right direction because almost everything in regards

29:41

to goals and success and projects being

29:43

completed, almost all of it

29:45

has to do with time management of

29:47

how your calendar and task manager combine

29:50

to form the results you get every

29:52

day. So put it on paper, write

29:55

it down and then do it. That's

29:59

It. Finally, a bad habit number

30:01

five. I have

30:03

been letting junk pile up

30:06

in my life physical john

30:08

stuff for far too long.

30:10

Now. One of things I did during coburn

30:13

was to double down on working, but

30:15

I didn't do as much or didn't

30:17

put much energy into. Cleaning up

30:19

the messes, I did so digitally. in

30:21

terms of my website, my online file

30:24

storage, and I did a lot of

30:26

good work. in terms of them, the

30:28

digital world, but a lot of what

30:31

I ignored was the physical stuff. So

30:33

in my house, my garage is the

30:35

dumping ground for random things and so

30:38

it got really unorganized, really sloppy, and

30:40

so I went through a process. sorry

30:42

about six months ago. Where.

30:44

I was gonna clean out my life

30:47

and a piece by piece room by

30:49

room closet, my closet and figure out

30:51

how to get my stuff together. right?

30:53

Because the bad habit here over time

30:56

is that if you let things play

30:58

a love, the stuff runs your life.

31:00

I've interviewed Minimalist on the show multiple

31:02

times and I view myself as a

31:04

wanna be minimalist. I love the idea

31:07

of owning less, but I also like

31:09

the value I get from the things

31:11

I purchase. But over time things become

31:13

less valuable to you and you have

31:16

to reevaluating. Gets things out of your

31:18

life. Physically remove them, donate them, throw

31:20

them away, recycle them right, find another

31:22

use for them. Re purpose that you

31:24

can. And. I built a

31:26

new bookshelf recently and I got rid of

31:29

a lot of things that I found ways

31:31

to really organize my life in part part

31:33

because my wife and I are pregnant with

31:35

our second baby coming and just a few

31:37

months. And. So this is me become

31:40

a plane house like him trying to

31:42

figure out where does all this stuff

31:44

go? What is the optimal system? As

31:46

my house becomes a little more crowded

31:48

with a few more people and a

31:50

a little smaller are these years systematic

31:52

ill prophecies we have to go through

31:54

even if your house if isn't going

31:56

to be adding more people to it's

31:58

in the near future. there It's always

32:00

an opportunity to clean and organize and

32:02

have the physical space you live and

32:05

work in be a lot more efficient.

32:08

And I just I love the idea of being able

32:10

to go through an area of my life on a

32:12

recurring basis. So one thing

32:14

I've done is my new habit here is

32:16

to reevaluate one new area of my life

32:19

about once a week. I want

32:22

to periodically go through a new

32:24

area, gut it, rebuild it, redo

32:26

it, reshape it so that it's

32:28

more clean and more organized. And

32:31

I can tell you that as a guy who works

32:33

from home, my physical house is

32:35

so much more welcoming now. I want

32:38

to spend more time here in a

32:40

sense because it's so well put together

32:42

compared to where it was before. And

32:45

so the bad habit I had before of just

32:47

letting stuff pile up has been replaced with I

32:50

don't want that to be the case. Let

32:52

me find a way to eliminate the junk

32:54

before it piles up. Let me keep this

32:56

the space looking beautiful for as long as

32:58

I can. And that

33:00

just a willingness to accept that as

33:03

a lifestyle is a big shift

33:05

if you're the kind of person who tends to

33:07

just ignore what's around you. So

33:10

really the question for you then is like what

33:12

is the ideal here? What

33:14

does a clean organized space look like? And

33:16

can you get to that place? And

33:18

then when you do, is that the

33:20

way you want to live? I know for me it is.

33:23

I know that when I walk into my home office,

33:25

for example, where I'm recording this podcast right now, I

33:29

want this space to be beautiful and

33:31

clean and well put together. You

33:33

know, one of the things I've done since COVID

33:36

kicked in was to rebuild my podcast

33:38

studio and my entire home office. And

33:40

I love the reinvention that I have.

33:43

It's so much more capable. And

33:46

I want that to be the case for all the major areas of

33:48

my life. My garage has also

33:50

been redone because that was the

33:52

most challenging area for my house. Well,

33:55

it's a lot better off than it was. And

33:58

so now it's a place of joy for me. If

34:00

you want to pull that Sparking Joy

34:02

mantra, that's what the garage now does.

34:05

And so that's what you're looking for here. Where

34:08

are the areas of weakness? Where are the areas

34:10

of junk? And can you clean

34:12

that up to get a better end

34:14

result that sparks joy? And

34:25

for that action step this week. Who

34:28

is one bad habit and its replacement?

34:31

The best place to begin is with

34:33

something simple but that makes a big

34:35

impact. You could wake up

34:37

early, clean up your diet, hit the

34:39

gym, reduce the news, the choice is

34:41

up to you, but pick something today.

34:44

And then in a few weeks, pick a

34:47

new habit and begin to stack up those

34:49

changes and this will turn you into a

34:51

whole new person very soon. jeffsanders.com/412

34:56

is the place to go to get the episode notes. Also

34:59

go to 5ammiracle.com to join the

35:01

5am club and get free email

35:03

updates about the show. That's

35:06

all I've got for you here on the

35:08

5am miracle podcast this week. Until next time,

35:10

you have the power to change your life

35:12

and the fun begins bright and

35:14

early. Hey

35:19

it's Jeff Sanders and I'm here to

35:21

tell you about Greg McEwen and his

35:23

amazing show The Greg McEwen Podcast, part

35:26

of the Yap Media Network. Want

35:28

to achieve more by doing less, all

35:31

while avoiding burnout? You can

35:33

design a life that really matters

35:35

with Greg McEwen, author of New

35:37

York Times Best Sellers, Effortless and

35:39

Essentialism. His mission is to

35:41

help you advocate and negotiate your way

35:44

to remarkable results. Every

35:46

Tuesday, Greg discusses one key topic

35:48

he finds interesting and valuable through

35:50

the lens of the essentialist. Every

35:53

Thursday, he invites thought leaders,

35:55

entrepreneurs, celebrities and people like

35:57

you for Inspired Weekly Conversations.

36:00

Focused on learning how to do what

36:02

matters first and do less but better.

36:05

Is current. It will still your sauce

36:07

and spark inspiration and action. And.

36:10

His British accents? Well, that's just

36:12

the cherry on top. Subscribed to

36:14

the Greg Mckeown Podcast today on

36:17

Apple, podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite

36:19

podcast platform.