0:00:00.180,0:00:06.900
Hello and welcome to The Overflow Podcast. My name
is Craig Booker. The title of this episode is The
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Art of the Start. A lot of the material for this
week’s episode was inspired by Craig Groechel’s
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book The Power to Change – Mastering the Habits
That Matter Most. Note: I will talk a lot about
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mental health, but please note this is not a
substitute for therapy or mental health care
0:00:25.260,0:00:30.960
I am not a counselor or a physician. If you need
help with mental health challenges, please find a
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qualified mental health professional this week we
are talking about the title is of this episode is
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the art of the start we are talk again talking
about habits and starting habits the first quote
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is a small change in what you see can lead to a
big shift in what you do in this section of the
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book we are talking about habits and how to start
habits make your habits obvious James Clear says
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you don’t have to be you don’t have to be the
victim of your environment you can also be the
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architect of it so exam the first example is Craig
Rochelle prioritizes taking his daily supplements
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or his vitamins he takes them first thing in the
morning he believes that supplements provide him
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with a mental Edge and to ensure he takes them
first thing he puts them on the counter where he
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cannot miss them this is a part of him making it
obvious behavioral scientists and Great Britain
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did a study involving a couple hundred people
who wanted to start exercising and the people
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were divided into three groups and the first
group they just committed to exercising the
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second group Committed to exercising and reading
lots of material on the benefits of exercising and
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the third group Committed to exercising and they
chose the day time and place they were to exercise
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so looking at the results of this study who
kept their commitment it says that groups one
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and two only 36 percent of the first two group
the first two groups kept their commitment
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so that’s 36 percent of group one and two
in group 3 91 percent kept their commitment
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and it says barely a third of the people in
the first two groups succeeded but more than
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nine out of ten who committed to a time and
place met their goals so this makes us ask
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why and it says they made their goals
obvious by preloading their decisions
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and similarly you know Craig Rochelle makes
his goal of taking his supplements obvious by
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it’s all laid out ready to go he doesn’t have
to pull it out of the you know the package or
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the the bottles it’s probably already in the
plan or ready to go and so it’s obvious all
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right it says you can make it even more obvious by
tying your new habit into something you already do
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uh the example is I will blank after I blank
right so if there’s something that you already
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do say it’s brushing your teeth right you already
brush your teeth and you have a routine for that
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and so if you wanted to stack a similar habit with
that you could say I will uh rinse my mouth with
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mouthwash after I brush my teeth those two habits
logically go together because it’s hygiene you
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know for your teeth but if you were trying to add
a new habit of rinsing with mouthwash you know to
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get healthier gums or teeth then stacking it with
something you already do like brush your teeth
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makes it a whole lot easier for your brain to
process so it says habitologists call connecting
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a new habit to a current habit habit stacking and
this is how our brains work it says your brain
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built up connections between neurons that are
used frequently your brain removes connections
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between neurons that are not used that process
that process is sometimes called synaptic pruning
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those removed or pruned connections are why
it’s so difficult to remember something your
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rare something you rarely do and so challenging to
start doing it so something that we rarely do this
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is why it’s really difficult to kind of get into
the pattern of doing that new habit by stacking
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our habits with something we already do it’s kind
of like we’re um I don’t want to say cheating
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but we’re like using the power of the Habit we
already have to gain momentum with your new habit
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so maybe it’s you know you’re not uh rinsing with
mouse wash maybe you want to start exercising and
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so after you brush your teeth you do you know two
push-ups two push-ups or two sit-ups or something
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that’s real simple to stack with that habit you
already have maybe in the morning when you get
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up you know you you do two minutes of something
whether it’s an exercise or stretches or something
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like that uh with your morning routine you could
stack it when you get out of bed and you go to
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brush your teeth in the morning you could stack
the maybe you do you know two push-ups after you
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brush your teeth whatever it is that works
for you but that the idea here is to kind
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of borrow the momentum of the other habit that
you already have existing that you remember to
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do and add that new habit and over time it will
get harder and harder to not do that new habit
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uh so the example here that was in the
book was talking about morning routines
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and Pastor Craig goes into detail
about his particular morning routine
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we may come back to that a little bit I want
to make sure and be able to get through all the
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material because there’s so much this week it is
there in the notes um on the website if you don’t
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have it in the email uh the details of his morning
routine the first one was make your habit obvious
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the second is make your habit attractive the
reason you do most of what you do is because it
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feels good the behavior makes your brain release
dopamine which they call the feel good hormone
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you’re more likely to do at your habit if you
don’t hate doing your habit and I believe in
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this section he says if you hate running and
you’re trying to exercise don’t make running the
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thing that you try to start choose another form
of exercise you know whether it’s going to play
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you know some kind of game or um working out in
some other way find something that you don’t hate
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uh so the example it says if you want to establish
a daily habit of praying and reading the Bible
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you will make it obvious set a visual action
trigger so maybe you set if you have a physical
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Bible you use maybe you set that out wherever you
have breakfast right maybe you set it out on your
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nightstand next to your bed um we’re gonna decide
when we’re gonna do that new habit if we’re trying
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to to start the habit of praying reading the
Bible maybe that’s in the morning or maybe that if
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you’re an evening person and like to do it before
you go to bed you’re going to decide on the time
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of day that you’re going to do that habit so we
said make it obvious set a visual action trigger
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we’re gonna decide when we’re going to stack the
new habit with an established habit for praying
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and reading the Bible if in your morning routine
you typically either make yourself breakfast or
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coffee or something like that you may stack this
new habit with that habit you have of making your
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breakfast or coffee or whatever applies to you all
right so we’re going to decide where you’re going
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to pray and read so we’ve established when we have
a visual cue we’re going to decide where we’re
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going to go if you have kids around your house
or distraction you may not want to do it at the
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kitchen table because they may be coming in and
out distracting you and you’re just going to get
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frustrated so maybe you go to your porch maybe you
find a place outside that’s quiet whatever works
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for you we’re going to decide where we’re going
to do the praying and reading the Bible uh we’re
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gonna make your habit attractive third we want to
make your habit easy so you’re starting something
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new and that’s already difficult and so it says
as we have discussed in previous episodes our
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brains are wired to conserve energy and this is a
reason for habits if the brain perceives something
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will be overly difficult it might choose to avoid
it it says this is often referred to as the path
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of least resistance or when discussing Behavior
it is frequently called The Law of least effort
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habits expert James Clear says that when starting
a habit make your habit take less than two minutes
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you hear that less than two minutes that’s not
very long right this also comes from another
0:09:52.380,0:10:01.080
productivity expert on David Allen who is famous
for getting things done it’s it’s a a system of
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prioritizing tasks to help you get more done in
your day and that’s over simplifying it but that’s
0:10:07.140,0:10:13.680
what David Allen is famous for why does this
matter one minute of daily reading is better than
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no daily reading if you’re not a person that reads
and you’re trying to become a person that reads
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it’s a lot better to do one or two minutes than to
do nothing at all a single push-up a day outweighs
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never exercising uh passage of scripture here
is Zechariah 4 10 in the New Living Translation
0:10:33.600,0:10:40.680
says do not despise these Small Beginnings for
the Lord rejoices to see the work begin fourth
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we’re going to make your habit communal so don’t
go at your Hab your new habit alone find a group
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of people who already do what you want to do the
example they give here is a addiction recovery or
0:10:53.880,0:11:00.660
12-step programs essentially these steps are
habits that they’re the 12 steps are habits
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and by joining a 12-step program a person is
surrounding themselves with people who have the
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same goal quote from Craig Rochelle living the
right life is almost impossible if you have the
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wrong friends so we’re going to surround ourselves
with people that are trying to accomplish the same
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goal it’s very similar to what we’re doing in
this group we all want to make improvements to
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our mental health or we’re trying to support other
people to do the same and so even though our goals
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for our individual things we want to improve with
our mental health are different we’re all kind of
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moving in the same direction and by doing that uh
we we can all kind of speak the same language we
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all have similar motivation so we can check on one
another we care about you know what each feather
0:12:02.084,0:12:07.064
what each other’s goals are where we’re headed
there’s just so much momentum that we can make
0:12:07.064,0:12:12.044
together because we’re all trying to make some
positive changes kind of in the similar area
0:12:12.044,0:12:20.504
fifth we’re making uh make your habit repetitious
sounds like a big word but here in this section
0:12:20.504,0:12:25.964
this is a lot of stuff I applied to my life to
make it more applicable than just reading from
0:12:25.964,0:12:33.164
the book because this is something I can speak
to so I’ve learned one of the best ways I learn
0:12:33.164,0:12:38.444
just about anything is through repetition
doing it over and over and over again right
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that’s one of the best it’s not the only way I
learned but it’s one of the best ways I learn so
0:12:43.724,0:12:50.564
I took the example of every week right when
I’m trying to get stuff ready I go through
0:12:50.564,0:12:54.524
a process that’s very similar every
week at first it was really difficult
0:12:55.124,0:13:02.624
it took me a long time to prepare in those initial
first meetings the content was a struggle because
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I didn’t have a process that I could repeat each
week I was it was kind of like I was starting new
0:13:08.024,0:13:15.104
each week as time went on I started learning a
process for preparing each week for our group
0:13:15.104,0:13:21.344
meetings and so first what I would do is I would
listen to a chapter or section of the audiobook
0:13:21.344,0:13:26.804
that we are covering during the upcoming week
so I’ve listened to that first that would be my
0:13:26.804,0:13:32.084
first step to get through that second I would pick
out the highlights or outline the sections of the
0:13:32.084,0:13:37.964
book and what worked out really well is a lot of
people wanted that outline for what I was going to
0:13:37.964,0:13:45.224
talk about each week so I you know my second step
would be to outline that section of the book post
0:13:45.224,0:13:50.984
it online for people to follow along so that was
a second step third I will re-read the section
0:13:50.984,0:13:58.304
of the book using the actual physical book A lot
of times I don’t actually buy both the physical
0:13:58.304,0:14:04.364
book and the audiobook but because I’m you know
teaching this and leading a discussion on this
0:14:04.364,0:14:09.524
I really had to dig in and so I went a little
bit further and I typically would and I bought
0:14:09.524,0:14:16.544
both the physical book and the audiobook and so in
this third step I’m re-reading the material using
0:14:16.544,0:14:24.644
a physical book and doing that repetition to learn
the material and then fourth I will listen to the
0:14:24.644,0:14:31.004
same section of the audiobook to reinforce what
I’ve already learned so these are four steps that
0:14:31.004,0:14:38.144
I generally go through every week to prepare the
material for our group meeting and by doing this
0:14:38.684,0:14:45.764
this repetition I’m able to learn the material
I don’t have to follow a script as much because
0:14:45.764,0:14:52.844
a lot of it’s just sunk in like it’s in my brain
so when I start a new habit what I’ve learned is
0:14:52.844,0:14:59.084
I’m simply trying to get the basics down so we
we talked about how I go through my routine of
0:14:59.084,0:15:04.724
preparing for group each week but when I start a
new habit what I’ve learned is I’m just trying to
0:15:04.724,0:15:12.404
really do the very basics of that habit so I’m not
looking to be fancy I I suggest the basics so I’m
0:15:12.404,0:15:18.344
content with doing that habit poorly as long as
I’m doing it like for me just doing the Habit is
0:15:18.344,0:15:25.604
hard enough whatever it is that’s new so I’m not
going to be overly picky or obsessive about how
0:15:25.604,0:15:31.664
well I’m doing it I’m just trying to get into that
routine of doing that habit no matter how poorly
0:15:31.664,0:15:38.564
I do it as long as I keep doing it I’m good right
the longer I do this new habit the easier it tends
0:15:38.564,0:15:45.524
to to get whatever that is right so preparing
each week the longer I you know every week the
0:15:45.524,0:15:52.124
more weeks that I prepare the easier the process
gets for me it takes up less of my time at first
0:15:52.124,0:15:58.244
it took up a lot of my time and that’s because
I wasn’t used to the new routine but as I do it
0:15:58.244,0:16:07.184
more and more I’m able to do that same process in
less time so likewise with the new habit the more
0:16:07.184,0:16:14.144
that I do it the easier that it tends to get for
Me So eventually what I’ll start doing after I get
0:16:14.144,0:16:20.204
real comfortable with the new habit is I’ll start
trying to improve upon that habit by making very
0:16:20.204,0:16:28.004
small changes because the key here for me and what
I’ve learned is uh momentum will build over time
0:16:28.004,0:16:35.144
and you don’t have to change the world in your
habit like all at once the more that I do it the
0:16:35.144,0:16:41.204
harder it is for me to stop doing it right so it’s
easier for me to keep doing it than stop doing it
0:16:41.204,0:16:48.284
and so I get momentum on my side by doing it time
and time again and then eventually I want to do it
0:16:48.284,0:16:56.144
a little bit better so if I’m doing something for
two minutes and I’ve been doing that habit over
0:16:56.144,0:17:02.504
several weeks for two minutes maybe I do three
and that’s a really simple example but I just
0:17:02.504,0:17:08.684
looked for small ways that I can improve upon it
just a little bit but whatever I do it has to be
0:17:08.684,0:17:14.684
sustainable if I can’t do this a year from now I
don’t add it why do I take this approach instead
0:17:14.684,0:17:19.964
I know that the more I do something the easier it
is for me to do eventually I’ll get bored with the
0:17:19.964,0:17:25.844
Habit like it just becomes a part of my routine
and so I said I don’t go overboard I just make
0:17:25.844,0:17:31.004
the small improvements that are sustainable and
will I when I feel comfortable doing the improved
0:17:31.004,0:17:39.164
habit I look for ways to make more improvements
hebbs rule that’s h e b b apostrophe s hebbs Rule
0:17:39.164,0:17:46.124
and it it’s the concepts that neurons in our brain
that fire together wire together make your habit
0:17:46.124,0:17:55.364
obvious attractive easy communal and repetitious
Greg grossel says with repetition that new habit
0:17:55.364,0:18:03.464
will go from being hard from being hard to start
to hard to stop and this is what I said earlier it
0:18:03.464,0:18:10.484
you know after you do that habit for so long it is
really hard to stop like it feels just completely
0:18:10.484,0:18:18.704
wrong or off to not do it so the key in this last
section is the get momentum on your side what
0:18:18.704,0:18:23.564
you’re trying to do that new thing you’re trying
to do is hard enough all right so we have exercise
0:18:23.564,0:18:30.344
for this week and the question is what is one
habit you need to start and then it says for any
0:18:30.344,0:18:38.684
change you desire to make any habit you want to
form any win you want to achieve personalize the
0:18:38.684,0:18:45.524
five guides it says to help me make my habit more
obvious I will blank after I blank this is habit
0:18:45.524,0:18:51.884
stacking so whether you know you’re trying to fit
in a little bit of a workout and you stack it with
0:18:51.884,0:18:56.804
another habit remember we’re supposed to when
we start a new habit it’s supposed to be for two
0:18:56.804,0:19:02.444
minutes when you’re you’re first getting started
says to make my habit attractive I can blank to
0:19:02.444,0:19:09.164
make my habit easy I Can Begin by doing blank for
two minutes to make my habit communal I can invite
0:19:09.164,0:19:15.164
involve or join blank so you can invite someone
else along if you know someone else is trying to
0:19:15.164,0:19:22.364
establish maybe a similar Habit to make my habit
repetition I can repetitious I can blank principle
0:19:22.364,0:19:32.084
here is make your habit obvious attractive easy
communal and repetitious scripture for this
0:19:32.084,0:19:37.544
section is Zechariah 4 10 New Living Translation
it says do not despise these Small Beginnings
0:19:37.544,0:19:43.964
for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin that’s
all for this episode thank you for watching if you
0:19:43.964,0:19:48.464
like the video give us a thumbs up and be sure to
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