SPEAKERS

Sid Meadows

Intro:

Hey friend and welcome to the Trend Report. I'm Sid Meadows. I'm a business leader, coach, consultant and a longtime student of the office furniture industry, and in this podcast we have powerful conversations with industry leaders, innovators and others making an impact in their business and our industry. My goal is really simple to provide you with valuable insights and information and resources and tools to help you grow and your business grow, and to help you grow and your business grow and to help move our industry forward. So let's dive into today's conversation.

Sid:

So today, let's talk about habits to propel you to the success you want.

Now, as most of you know, I'm a certified professional coach and part of what I do is talk to my clients about habits. We discuss the importance of habits, how to build them and which ones are important for them personally, embracing positive change and developing the right habits to move your life and your career forward. Now, according to best-selling author and founder of the High Performance Institute, Brendan Burchard, quote the right habits have the ability to help you achieve long-term success and vibrant well-being, no matter your age, career strengths or personality. Now, developing good habits takes time and effort. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia indicates within psychology, the term habit itself refers to a process whereby context or circumstances prompt an action automatically through activation of mental contacts, action association learned through prior performance. In fact, there's so much scientific research about this topic that I could literally write a book on the findings of various scholars and experts. I'm afraid that might be a little bit boring, but today I want to focus on four key habits that will propel you to the success that you want and that you need Now. There is no doubt that during our lives, we have developed some habits, both good and bad, and I want to challenge you to truly evaluate your daily habits and work to remove the bad ones, strengthen the good ones and add more positive habits to your everyday routine, because you know, as we move forward, it is important to remember that to build a habit and make it permanent, it requires a lifestyle change. None of us like change.

During my research for this podcast, I discovered something called the 21 slash 90 rule. It takes 21 days to make a habit and 90 days to make it a permanent lifestyle change. If you commit to the goal for 21 days, it will become a habit. Commit to it for 90 days and it'll become part of your lifestyle. So the point here is to give yourself time, and if you do it, this has the ability to change your life. So what are the four habits I'm recommending? So they're not necessarily in any order, but here they are Exercise, read, journal and celebrate. So let's talk about exercise.

As simple as it sounds, most people just don't do it. They make excuses as to why they can't focus on their physical health once each and every day, and I know because I was part of this group for a long time I'm too old, my knees hurt, I don't have the energy, and so on goes the excuses. Well, we've all done it. But as I watched the discipline of my young adult children get up every morning and head to work out at 5 am while I sat in my office working and drinking coffee, I knew something was out of balance. So I had to make the decision that I wanted to change it, and so I wanted to do something with it or about it. I was fed up about not being in shape and being overweight, so I decided to start walking every day. Now my goal is two miles each and every day, but I end up on most days walking between three and four miles a day, and I love it truly. I found a path, or a route, if you will, in our neighborhood that actually works for me and I can choose how far I want to go or how long I want to walk or how less I want to go, based on the path that I'm taking and how I'm feeling at that time. The point is I'm doing it and on days when I can't walk, mostly due to weather I mean, it's been really cold here in North Texas and there was some snow and ice and I missed a week of not walking I got to tell you I really, really miss it I even make sure to get up early and walk while I'm traveling.

 Again, when I'm out on the road, I look for a path that's going to work for me, believe it or not, that's one of the first things I do when I get to the hotel, especially if it's still daylight. When I get there is look for where I can go walk in the morning. Daylight. When I get there is look for where I can go walk in the morning. I prefer to walk outside because there's just something about being outside the fresh air, the sunlight that just helps to fuel your body. But I try to find a path, and so when I'm traveling, it's the first thing I do. I get up early and get dressed and I go out and I walk two to four miles, depending on the path that I've found and what it's like, where I am right, and most of the time, while I'm walking, I'm actually listening to a podcast and I'm learning something along the way. So for me it's a double whammy, if you will. I'm fueling my mind and my body.

 Now my recommendation is just start small. Make the commitment to yourself to improve your physical health with some form of exercise and then turn that into a habit. For me it was walking right. Some people it's going to the gym, some people it might be running, whatever it could be walking on a treadmill, it could be doing yoga, it could be doing Pilates, whatever it is. Just find something and start, start small and then turn it into a habit. When you master it, add to it and it'll keep going. You will thank yourself later for implementing these types of lifestyle changes. All right.

 Now the second one is read. This is one of my favorite ones, right, and I've often talked about the power of reading in multiple episodes. I've also written about it in my column for Viewpoint Magazine and on my online blog. Now, if you're a loyal listener, you're likely tired of me sharing my thoughts on this subject as such, I'll try to keep this part brief. But just like your body needs fuel to make it through the day exercise, food, water so does your mind. But your mind needs more than social media posts and Netflix. It needs to be fueled with information and ideas that challenge us to grow, and reading is a great way to do that. Now, if you read for just 10 minutes a day, you'll be amazed at the growth that will happen both in your personal life and your professional life. So start today by committing to 10 minutes of reading.

 And hey, for those of you that don't really like to read, listening to a book also counts. In fact, I'm in the process of reading a couple of books and listening to a book, and occasionally, on my walks that I just mentioned, listening to a book, and occasionally on my walks that I just mentioned, I'll alternate between listening to a podcast and listening to a book. Now, it takes an average of eight hours to read a book that is between 200 and 300 pages. So if you commit to 10 minutes a day, every day, you will complete, on average, eight books per year. Think about the power in that and how much information you have gained in just 10 minutes a day. If you take that information and you implement it, not only did you learn, but you're growing. So read or listen to a book, and if you need any recommendations, I got plenty, so hit me up and I'll be happy to share some with you.

 All right, the next one journal. Now, listen, I know this sounds simple, but most people just don't do it. Again, I know because I was one of them. I had all the excuses as to why not to embrace this habit, and I'm sure most of you are thinking the exact same thoughts. I was right now. But there are so many benefits of journaling every day. In fact, according to an article published on the Positive Psychology website, there are 83 benefits of journaling, including stress reduction, improved mental health, as well as reduced anxiety. But there are even more benefits for your mind, body, soul and spirit.

 Now, I'm not a fan of writing out every detail of my day, but I am a proponent of capturing my thoughts on certain situations, conversations, events and circumstances, and especially, new ideas that are constantly coming into my thoughts, as it seems, my entrepreneur brain never sleeps. However, I make sure to start every day with a journal entry about what I am grateful for today. There is so much power in gratitude, and I keep a journal on my desk. It's a special journal, it's got a special pen with it. That's my ADHD brain, if you will, and I write in it throughout the day. I start out with the things that I'm grateful for, then, as things happen, I write in it, but I keep it on my desk so I can write in it throughout the time when I travel. It's in my backpack and it stays with me, and I've just found there's so much power in writing down your thoughts and even more power in going back to them and reading through them.

All right, so the fourth one celebrate. Now. All these tips that I've given to you can be really beneficial to you, but to me, celebrating you and all of your accomplishments each and every day is the most important. Now, as we go through our day in life, and life and work can throw us some curveballs. We all know that and as humans, we tend to dwell on these more than all of the success that we've had each and every day. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Right, your boss yelled at you because you came in 20 minutes late, because you got stuck in traffic, and that stays with you for a while. Right, but it's not only important, but it's also really powerful to acknowledge and celebrate your wins throughout the day. And these wins can be really really small Like I got up 10 minutes early and went to work out or they can be something really big. Yes, we celebrate when we convert a prospect to a customer or we win a big job. Right, that's important to us, it's part of our daily life. But did you celebrate the fact that you learned something new today? Did you celebrate the fact that maybe you met someone new today? You know what about that shortcut that you learned in your software program that saved you 30 minutes on a project? Did you celebrate that? If not, you need to start.

Acknowledging all the wins we have each day creates a mindset shift. It changes how we view things, how we show up, how we act towards a colleague or a client. There's so much power in gratitude, but most of us just don't practice it because we don't see the value in it. Again, start today, start small. Just, you know, write down your wins in a simple little paragraph and just see how it works for you. Sometimes I'll write them on sticky notes and stick them in my journal, right? But celebrating your wins does not mean that you have to go out and buy a nice bottle of wine or champagne or treat yourself to a fancy dinner. It simply means that you're acknowledging and even maybe journaling the win that you had and, if you feel like it, share it with someone. A simple high five or a pat on the back with a good job goes a long way for how we're feeling and our attitude towards ourself. It just really fuels us.

 Now it took me a long time to realize the power of wins because I associated celebrating with buying something. I had a coach once that every time he'd ask me for my wins I'm like I don't want to talk about my wins because I'm not going to go out and buy something, and literally it took me a long time to realize that it just was the simple fact of acknowledging that. My journey as an entrepreneur has taught me the value of acknowledging the small things and the big things. So I share them both, big and small. I share them with my wife, sometimes with my children. Sometimes I put them on social media. Sometimes I'll share them with family and friends, depending on what it is, but I don't always have to share the win. Acknowledging it is equally as important. So just remember, success does not come easy. You have to work at it every day and I'm willing to bet you that at some point in the last several years you've once hoped to be sitting in the circumstances you are in today. Acknowledging the wins it took you to get to where you are today, in your career and in your life, are super important.

Now the last thing I'm going to say is accountability, and I figured out a way this year to give myself some accountability and I created in my Google Drive what I call a performance tracker Super easy. Across the top, I have. What the things are that I want to do, and I'll just tell you for me. The first one is morning water. How many miles did I walk? So the morning water is drinking eight ounces of room temperature water when I first wake up. Then, how many miles I walked? How many steps did I walk that day? Did I read, did I listen to a podcast? Did I drink my daily water, which is 100 ounces of water is my goal, and then journal and then I also track my weight because I'm on a weight loss journey, and then I track my sleep.

Now those are things that I do and as performance tracker, I list a date, have all those things across the top, and I have little checkboxes in the cases of things I can check off, and I look at it every day. This thing stays open on my computer all day long and I check things off. I type in the miles that I walked at the end of the day or the next morning. Next morning I check on my Apple Fitness to see how many steps I made and I just track it and it's a really, really great visual to see how I'm progressing with my habits, how I'm progressing with my health, my mental and physical journey right with my habits, how I'm progressing with my health, my mental and physical journey, right.

 But here's the thing I said to myself it's super easy to click the box, even if you didn't do something, because it's just me in that spreadsheet. Nobody else sees that, nobody else knows. So I said I'm going to give myself the grace to say that it is okay if I don't check a box, if I missed journaling today. It's okay. Something happened, something came up. It's okay to miss things, so my spreadsheet's not full. There are gaps in it where I miss things because I'm giving myself the grace, but this works for me.

You got to do whatever works for you and you've got to work to create your own success over time and hopefully, embracing these few tips will help you continue to move forward and craft your journey to the success that you need and want.

Outro:

Hey, thanks for joining me today. If you found today's podcast of value, please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a rating or review. I would love it to see that come in. It really helps our show get discovered. So thanks again for joining me. Go out there and make today great and I'll see you again soon. Take care everyone.