Ep. 67 How to Implement New Habits [Jumpstart Your Year: Day 7]

Happy New Year!

Welcome to the 2024 Jumpstart Your Year series, where we're coming to you every day this January with mini episodes to help you get reflecting on what's working and what's not in your parenting and productivity journey.

Our goal with the series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can go into the new year with clarity and intention.

On Day 7, Kimberlyn reflects on the question:

How do you implement new habits?
https://christinaslaback.com/2024/01/07/unveiling-the-art-of-habit-implementation/

To follow along with our Jumpstart Your Year series and join our online meetups in The Village this month, we invite you to get on our email list HERE.

Want to share your reflections with us? We'd love to hear from you!! Reach out to us on Instagram or by email at the links below.

Join us at The Village Meetups: https://calendly.com/villagecowork/networking-event?back=1&month=2024-01

If this episode resonated, there may be deeper hidden patterns shaping the way you operate, respond to pressure, and move through burnout, overthinking, or self-sabotage.

✨ Take the Hidden Patterns Quiz

✨ Book a Reveal Session

✨ Explore Coaching Through CS Coaching & Consulting

Connect with Christina
www.christinaslaback.com
Email: hello@christinaslaback.com
Instagram: @christinaslaback

If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow, rate, and share the podcast with someone who may need it too.

Transcript

Kimberlyn: To jumpstart your year, we are coming to you every day this month with mini bite sized episodes that are going to help you get reflecting on what's working and what's not in your parenting and productivity journey. Our goal with the series is to create momentum and spark creativity so you can go into the new year with clarity and intention.

Hey guys, I am Kimberlyn and I'm coming to you with day seven of our jumpstart your year series. Today we're going to be talking about How I implement new habits, and I really love this conversation, honestly, like I've read so many books about habits. And, you know, I think everyone has their, their kind of way which makes it really fun to kind of reflect on my way of implementing habits.

So, I want to, I want to say there are a few things I have to consider when I start implementing a new habit. I generally try to, okay, I try, full disclosure. There have been times where I will try to implement a gazillion habits at once. I'll have like a list of 10 things and be like, okay, go. But I found that it's not really sustainable.

So what I do though, Is I actually I like to implement, like, 2 habits at a time because I can kind of link them together. I found that when I create. Habit or when I'm starting to implement a habit, it's really important for those habits to kind of go hand in hand with something else that I'm already doing.

So there's the 1 thing where I will, you know, use like an anchor point during my day. So it could be in the morning could be in the. Evening before, like, it's like you tie it to waking up in the morning, or you tie it to before you go to bed, or you tie it to, like, after you eat lunch, or if you have any other kind of, like, milestone during the day that happens every single day.

I will tie that habit to that thing. So, for example, during the year. Sophia has. Has gymnastics from like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and it's an hour and a half. And so my habit for a while there was going for a walk, right? So I would drop her off at gymnastics.

I would park nearby and I would just like go and walk. And it was an hour and a half class. And so I would usually try to get in like an hour walk, use the other time to like emails or something else like. Something small that, you know, I needed to do, whether that was go to, you know, go to the grocery store or whatever.

I would do that and that kind of like remain remainder time. And so my habit was tied to the fact that she was going to gymnastics 3 days a week. Right. So I do it during that time, but I also realized especially as the year kind of started, you know, coming to a close, she was tired. She didn't want to go.

And that kind of screwed up my, like my mojo, if you will, because I was going. I was associating that time where she goes to gymnastics. That's the time that I go and walk and I could not for the life of me. You even be like, okay, well, I have this time. She can stay here. I'll just go for a walk during that time.

Anyway, even if she doesn't go to gymnastics, I'm like, right now, it's a summer. She's not even going to gymnastics. So. It was really hard for me. It was so associated with, like, the actual act of, like, going in the car to this neighborhood where it's super walkable very flat versus, like, here by my house.

Like, I've got, you know, woods and I've got hills and, and it's just a different type of walk. And so so I think it's really. Important to tie the habit, like, whatever it is that I am going to implement to something that is going to be pretty solid, right? Something that is not going to necessarily move something that is not necessarily, like, in this case, tied to somebody else's activities, because if they don't do that, then I'm kind of, I have to have like a whole bunch of willpower to overcome that obstacle of doing the thing, even though it's not associated.

With the other thing. So, so, yeah, so basically kind of like a roundabout of when I implement a habit, I need to make sure that it is tied to something. So I think the best habits for me are either like, when I get up or after I have breakfast or after lunch or after dinner or before dinner. Like Habit, for example, before dinner where I that's my time for like washing dishes.

I used to wash it after like lunch, but now I get I've gotten lazy and I will generally, like, leave everything. And so I have this thing where, okay, if I'm going to cook dinner, I need the kitchen clean. And so that's. It's a habit that I have tied to before cooking dinner, like I just naturally gravitate to want to have a clean kitchen so like I'll wash the dishes and all that.

I have another habit, for example, in the morning where I will do my laundry, I'll put in a load of laundry. As I get up and go downstairs to get Sophia's lunch ready or snacks ready or, you know, even not during the school year. It's like, I wake up. I already have, like, the basket loaded with the stuff.

And so it's just simply, like, as I go downstairs. To the kitchen, I take that load of laundry. So as you can see, like, it's really important for me to have those associated with these kind of anchor points. I think another thing that comes in handy when we are starting new habit is to have really clear, idea. Some habits are like simple, right? It's like, it's a one part thing, right? It doesn't need anything else. But then there are others like, you know, like I'm going to go for a walk. Well, okay, yes, I'm going to go for a walk. But what constitutes a walk? Is a walk like 10 minutes? Is a walk 20 minutes?

Does a walk have to be an hour? And I remember reading somewhere, I believe it was called Elastic Habits. It's a book. Yeah. And I, they talk about having kind of like a three part. So I have like the super easy one where it's like, I don't feel like it today. I don't want to do it. But if I go and I do, you know, like if it's a walk, for example, it could be like a 10 minute walk around my yard.

Right. That constitutes like I checked the box. I did the thing. A regular one would be like a 30 minute walk. And then, like, you know, if I'm feeling super, like, into it, then maybe, like, a 45 minute walk or an hour long walk would be like, a constitute, like, the, the higher level. So it's you're still getting the thing done.

It just you can adapt the actual habit. Based on how you feel during the day. So that's another thing I like to keep in mind, especially when the habit is not so complicated, or it's more complicated than just like a simple, you know, check the box. Okay. And then finally. I think and I think I've talked about this before and it's not really finally it's it's more of like the 1st thing like when I want to when I see something that I'm like, oh, I want to do that. I think it's really important to like, know the why like, why am I doing this? The important thing is. To know that it's a habit that is aligned with you and your goals, right? So and I think sometimes this is even just what it got feeling like, I will gravitate towards something because, like, as you know, generator, I'm responding to a particular impulse or something I saw which is.

It can get sticky because sometimes we can see ads right on like Instagram or whatever. And we're like, oh, I should be doing wall Pilates or I should be doing like, you know, I keep seeing these things about, like, the 20 to 8 day, like, somatic exercise. And it's like, I should do that. And it's, it's, but it's not like a gut reaction.

And I have to really get clear, and this is like knowing yourself, and I think being aware of when is it something that is external, and when is it something that like, you see the external stimulus, and it, it generates something in you where you're like, yes. I want that not just like a kind of superficial, like, oh, other people are doing that, that I should do that too.

Or, you know, oh, over here. Everyone's talking about breathwork. I should probably do that because I keep hearing about it. There's a really fine line and it has to. Do with, like, knowing yourself and knowing if it's something that is aligned with your pathway or if it's just kind of a distraction.

And so I mean, and sometimes, honestly, like, I have to do start doing the thing to realize, you know, this was totally not something that was aligned. This is something that is me trying to do what other people are with. been telling me I should do.

Okay. So I think those, that's kind of it in terms of like how I implement habits. I do like, I think I said at the beginning, I do like to do like two habits at the same time. I remember one of my like most awesome experiences with habits. I was doing, it was a challenge for a month. And I remember taking one habit that had to do with like money and like looking at my expenses.

And which was basically like open up Excel record anything you've spent look at money opening up your bank accounts. It was really like a 510 minute habit each day of kind of looking at my finances and then I paired it with a walk. So I wanted to do. I wanted to walk every day and it actually worked out really nicely because I would go on the walk and I would be on this high of like.

I got the walk done and then I would come in onto my computer and like, look at my expenses. And because I'd gone on the walk, I, you know, handled my anxiety. It was so much easier for me to just open it up. And like, cause I was also on that high, that momentum of, you know, I got this done and so I can get something else done.

And so that's. Kind of why I like to do habit like pairs, because I think that they, there's so much like synergy and like momentum that you can gain from doing the 2 things, but not like a gazillion. So, yeah, I think that's kind of covers the basis in terms of new habits. And if you enjoyed this topic, if you are liking these episodes, we think that you might also like to check out the village.

That is our co work and community space. We have opportunities for connection, accountability, intention setting. You can. Check out the link in the show notes to learn about our upcoming meetups. We have one coming up on January 11th, also on January 25th. We would love to see you there. So make sure you hit the link in our show notes.

You'll get on the email list. You will get information about those meetups. You'll also be able to follow along with our daily prompts for this monthly series. See you guys next week.