Learn how to better understand your habits in this episode.
Full Transcript
Hi Everyone, welcome to the You’re Daily Cup of Joe Podcast, with your host Joe Bautista where my goal is to give you quick lessons on how to grow yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so you can have better careers, better relationships, and better personal finances.
I’m also the author of the book “More You Know, More You Grow: How to Get Better Every Day”. In this book, I wrote down over 30 tips to help you grow in those four cornerstones.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the power of If This, Then This statements. I got this term from the book Never Split The Difference by Chris Voss but this also reminds me of the Cue, Routine, Reward sequence from the book The power of habit by Charles Duhgih. I’ve been following this for a long time to help me with my good habits but all of us do this without really knowing it.
An If This, Then This statement is basically a sequence you follow when certain criteria are meant. For me, if I brush my teeth, then I floss my teeth. I think I just told myself that I’m going to start flossing after time I brush after my dentist started to comment on my flossing and I just had to pay an $800 dentist bill.
I have a lot of these statements for various parts of my life. I tell myself, if I workout, I get to enjoy one my chocolate, almond butter protein shakes with greek yogurt, powdered greens. hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, collagen powder, cinnamon, and almond milk. I really love this shake and it motivates me to go to the gym. I also tell myself, if the clock hits 11 am, I’m going to work. This changes since I like to workout in the afternoon but I’m still using the If This, Then This Statement. See I have the cue, the sequence, and the reward.
I started writing down my If This, Then That sequence and it helps me with my behaviors. I believe if you have to think about doing something, you’re going to follow the path of least resistance, but by having a process I can remove the friction from my life. There are somethings that can prevent my good habits like when I was watching the game of thrones and if you ever watched an episode of Game of Thrones, they always end on a cliff hanger. I had to catch-up on all seven seasons before the 8 seasons came out and I spent a lot of nights, going just one more episode. I actually like that there is only one episode a week because it helps me with my self-control.
When it came to game of thrones, my initial if this then this statement was, it’s 11 pm, I’m just going to watch one more episode but I have a good and bad habit that if I start something, I don’t want to stop until I finish something. So there was an over rid If then this statement that if the cliff hanger was really good, I would watch the next episode. I usually ended my at 1 or 2 am in the morning going 15 minutes into the next episode and falling asleep at a slow part of the show. If you’re self-aware of your if this, then this statements, that can be pretty powerful. You can start rewiring your brain for healthier habits.
To adopt a new behavior, I’ve heard that it can take anywhere from 21 days to over 100 days to adopt a new behavior so it can take sometime before you adopt that next behavior. You also have to be of your environment when it comes to behaviors. I was in Chicago last week, house-sitting for my sister and I thought I was going to have so much time to record my videos and do more episodes of my podcasts, but my sister just brought this new house and it is under construction. So I couldn’t record videos because the contractors were making noise and I also had to watch her pets so I just couldn’t go away all day. I was able to do other things like writing and go exercise but I really needed to do some recording. So your environment can throw you off no matter how strong your if then this statement is.
Will power is a diminishing resource. because every time you have to exercise it, you reduce your brain glucose. Your brain consumes over 30% of your energy for the day but only makes up 5%, so the more decision you have to make when it comes to your will power, the faster you’re going to deplete. I know a lot of people, and me included say, once I get home this evening, I’m going to go workout. but then we get home and we end up resting. Usually, people who identify as some who work out will persevere through this but if it’s not your identify yet, then the path of least resistance is going to take over. You will probably hear folks like Jocko say that will power is always there, but I would like to argue that he trained himself to wake up at 4 am every day and go through intense workouts. I would recommend that you just focus on getting one percent better every day as James Altucher preaches. I’m trying to get back into running, and now a mile is hard, but I know if I work out long enough, that mile will get easier with time and I can get faster. That’s because my muscles and lungs are getting more efficient at that task. If we don’t use it, we lose it. This is why it is so important for me to write and record these podcasts because I’m learning.
I love knowing why I do certain things because it gives me more power on how to change it if I need to and self-awareness is key. Do you know why you’re doing certain things? Is it because of cultural reasons, is it because of some tradition that happened in the past? I heard on a podcast that it is common to cut off the ends of meatloaf because people think it is not good for them but the real reason why they were cut off was because the pan that it was cooked in was too small and it burnt the ends and that’s why they were cut off. Cooking technology has changed but some people’s habits haven’t. So you should always be second your if this, then that statements. It can cause you to make big mistakes like if I go to a good school and take out $100k in student loans to get a degree in history, I’m going to get a job. This is something that happens and it is sad to see. I like to remind people, you should always know the deal, before you accept the deal. By accepting the student loan money, you get your education but you’re also agreeing to pay back that money with interest over a 10 year period. The terms of the payments can change, but the key is that you should know the deal.
To recap, write down your if this, then this statements so you can have more self-awareness of your habits and you should review your if this, then this statements to see if they are still valid.
Thanks for listening to today’s episode.
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