10 Everyday Habits for Lasting Success in Life & Business

Yo, yo, yo. This episode's gonna be a solo one and I'm gonna break down some really important habits I've been instilling in my days for the last about two months or so. And I would say this far in now, I feel like a lot, a lot of these, not all of them are habits now that I can kind of do unconsciously and I'm seeing a ton of benefits. So I wanted to share this with you about how these daily microhabits and I'm going to go through the exact ones that I've been doing, it's bringing so many benefits to my days in and out of business, with life in general, with myself, with my family relationships. I'm just feeling better. Hey, I'm Joe Fear and welcome to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast. This is where we talk all about building businesses so they give you the freedom and fuel for your life. I'm not here to help you build a billion dollar business, but I am here to help you a business with systems that work for you so you can make more money than you need just by working part time. You know, I was a chronic hustle mode kind of guy and I want to share my experiences and mentors I've met along the way to help you reframe things to be the most effective as an entrepreneur. I wish I had this guidance and insight when I was younger. So that's what I'm doing here for you. Please share and enjoy. Over the last three years or so have been probably the most chaotic, stressful, anxiety inducing years of my life. And you know, my, my wife Heather and close friends like Matt Wolf, previous co host and business partner, could probably tell you that. Yeah, that's, that's true. And there are a lot of aspects of me that have changed over these years, these last few years and in this episode, I want to line out these micro actions I've been doing every single day and how I feel like I have brought myself back from the last three years to this version of myself, this version of Joe that's a lot more fun. Again, less strict in clinging onto too much in business and controlling things in my days, in my life with family and also just how the outcome of things can be and I'm making more money like everything is. There's a sense of wealth across the board, I'll say, you know, all the way from physical health, monetary health, our wealth, family relationships, all of this stuff. Mental, it's, it's just a lot better now. So when it comes to micro Actions I want to dive into what they are. But the reason micro is exactly that. It's micro. So like a lot of us will try to, and I've been guilty of this for so long is to put a lot on my plate, but almost put these, I don't know, it was like so much more of a wait. And right now, so these micro actions I'm doing, there's a series of 10 of them every single day I'll go through and maybe if you combine the time that's required for all of them, it's about an hour per day. Now when I reflect on my life and I see what I'm doing now, like where I was before, where I felt really tense and I felt kind of panicky or more so anxiety, tight chested. I don't know if any of you can relate to this. I think there's a lot of us out there that are kind of driven by this anxiety, driven by this feeling that we should be doing more these shoulds and these comparisons or these expectations. And I think for, for me and maybe a lot of entrepreneurs here is that we have this drive that we want to improve a situation and that goes to. Improving ourself is one of those things. But sometimes it's improving other things externally. So it could be business focused, improving, you know, the, the funnel conversion optimization, making more revenue out of whatever campaign or it could show up in your personal life when it comes to your spouse, your partner, expecting them to be better in ways that you see for them and maybe you've tried forcing things a little bit over the years or whatever could be your kids, friends, family, we see what's possible and for a lot of us that's put on ourself, it's put on ourself as like I should be doing better. And that's, it's, it's true that, you know, like a lot of us, I don't think that ever goes away. But at the same time there's a way that we should be managing that so we can be our best and feel our best. Because if we're feeling great, we're not feeling like we're threatened and kind of zipping around or need to be everywhere at once. We're going to perform better, we're going to feel better, the folks around us are going to want to actually spend time with us and feel comfortable and you know, safe with us as well and we'll be focused. And for me it's, it's turned into all of that and more and generally Feeling healthier and happier and making more money in the process. I mean, it's a great combo. So this micro action approach is more breaking out these certain elements that have been fulfilling every aspect of my days every day. And I wake up excited to do these again and know that the rest of my days, it's kind of integrated within all of this. And then another thing I want to add here before getting into the actual actions, because these are things that you can swipe and deploy for yourself. And I want to give you some of the resources to dive in deeper and maybe select different micro actions that relate to where you're at in your life. Because I feel like there's some foundational ones, but then there's some other ones that you can really get into. So I want to shout out the guys who have introduced this to me first. And one of the guys, Trevor Turnbull, has already been on the podcast, so go check out his episode. And I have another episode coming up with his partner, Mike Prince. And these guys have a group, it's a men's group, but these microhabits, they work for everybody. So women, these are for you as well. But their group is a men's group. It's over@extremely conscious.com and this has been a group where a group of us, 10 of us, are checking in every single day and we're all following these micro actions. And they developed a spreadsheet. It helps track all this stuff. It's really cool. And you know, there's apps for this and all these things, but this is really powerful because there is a group of us who are keeping ourselves accountable. And at the same time, it's spreadsheet. And this thing allows us to track and see how we're doing each day. The point's not to beat ourselves up, but it's to actually see progress and understand maybe some of these that fall off or the things that we feel like we're rushing through. So I want to give a shout out to those guys for putting this together and a shout out to their retreat. I'm shouting this out now because their retreat in Costa Rica is at the end of April. I'm going to be there. You should go check out the details. They have some spots available to 5 Day Retreat for men, so this one is catered to men. They are planning future retreats and events. So if you're a woman, definitely pay attention. Or, or maybe tell your man if you have one go, go tell him to check this out if it resonates. But it's@extremely conscious.com experience to get those details. Okay, so my micro actions, I want to get into this and talk about each one and how I think some of these you could just swipe and deploy for yourself. But if you want to swipe any of these and try these out, I want to try to do too many. Unless this is something that you've kind of already integrated into your day. These. It can be a lot at first and it helps to have a group. That's why I wanted to shout out Mike and Trevor because their group has helped me keep my momentum up and almost like accountability. But I think a lot of us can do this alone if you are true to yourself and maybe select a handful of these things. So I'm just going to go down my list of like 10 or so. I think there's a little bit more. But some of these, you know, I'll just kind of go quickly over the first one which is one that I've been doing for a while. But I mean this is like a non negotiable is some type of breathwork or meditation and those are basically one in the same. And this is a connection to ourself. And this is 10 minutes is, is what I shoot for. This is also what the group typically shoots for collectively is like you want to hit 10 minutes per day of breath work. And you know, this is in the episode I do with Mike that's coming out pretty soon. He talks a lot about breath work and actually facilitates a session. And for me where I find my breath work, how I do mine a lot of times is Wim Hof. I love his Wim Hof method and that's usually like 30, 35 breaths in through the mouth.

Kind of like that pace about 35 times. And then at the end of that 35 session or breaths you breathe out all your air and hold and that's a retention piece. And what I've held, I've actually held now up to almost like what about 2 minutes and 20 seconds I think is my highest at least recently. Some days I can only hold a minute, which is wild. But that just, it shows something that's going on in my body. So I do that for three rounds and that comes out to almost 10 minutes right around there. And I do that almost every single morning as like an activation and it just recenters me, it just focuses everything. Like today I woke up with a slight headache and I did that, that breath work and it was gone. And it could be that just clears out the cobwebs so that's something, it's a non negotiable for me. I definitely recommend you trying some kind of breath work. There's so many techniques. One that is very common and simple is the box method, box breathing. And that's about four seconds in, four seconds hold, four seconds out, four seconds hold. And you can visualize a box as you're doing that. And there's a bunch of apps that can help you with this. So breathwork, absolutely phenomenal. That's the first one of my micro actions list here, now the next one. And this doesn't mean it always goes in order but you know, it's, you know I'm going to jump down from my list because typically what I do after breath, that's in the morning, I'm going to do some pushups, I'm going to, I'm going to get something physical going. I just want to get the blood going in my body because that clears out the cobwebs as well. And there's a lot of science behind all this. So one of the micro actions I have here in the list is to do 100, 100 pushups or sit ups every single day. I typically do the pushups, I mean sit ups as well, I'll throw in there. But pushups, I do a hundred of these per day. I usually break em up about 25 per thing and I kind of scatter them out through the day. But right after my breath I'll bust out 25 of those. Interestingly enough, when you do breath and you then do some pushups afterwards, you can usually do a lot more pushups. So you should, you should play around with that and test it out. And you know, you could do these on your knees, you could just do standard pushups, you could do sit ups, you could do squats, whatever it is. But the whole thing is to get some repetitions and get that blood moving. And this is the fitness, this is some kind of physical element because we're, you know, our bodies are made up of all sorts of different elements. So the first one breath is physical but I feel like a lot of that is clears out a lot of the mentals as well. Emotional and physical obviously does that as well. And these push ups really support that. So that usually I do those hand in hand, those two and then after that. And this is kind of my morning routine. But it's also just something that's just integrated throughout the day are these things. The third micro action I typically go to at this point is I take a shower and then at the very end, I turn on the cold for 90 seconds and sometimes up to two minutes. I didn't start that quick. I started around like 20, 30 seconds and then worked my way up. But that, that 90 seconds, it's. It's a true test of, of your mental, you know, capacity in, like, your tolerance to really be calm under pressure. And this is a test where you can. You also do your breathing because cold water naturally will just have us constrict. We're not going to breathe as deeply. It's kind of like if we're anxious, doing, you know, a speech in front of a bunch of people or just nervous anxious, our breath usually gets shallower. And the cold trains us to not do that. And it's a very active process. So I know a lot of folks are scared of trying out the cold and there's nothing to be scared of. But it's definitely not a comfortable experience at first. But once you get out of it then and dry yourself off and warm up, you'll start to notice. Oh, man, my. You're just clearer in the mind. There's a lot of clarity in your mind. And physically, like, I've felt my muscles relax. It's gotten up all sorts of interesting, you know, like if you feel like you're gunked up in your sinuses or if you have some phlegm or whatever, it kind of gets that out as well. It's. It's a nice refresh. And yeah, so that. That micro action is, is the one that's actually become the easiest for me. Cause now I can't take a shower without doing that unless it's at, like, night. Cause I don't want to get my mind going too much. So this is a great way to really get going for the day is to breath work, little pushups and then cold of some sort. Cold shower. You can do a cold plunge if you're hardcore too. I just don't have one yet. So one day. So a couple other things on this list I'm going to go through a little quicker on some of these. Journaling is another micro action that I take every day. And I aim to get three pages done, at least three pages written every single day. Sometimes I do a voice. It kind of just comes out differently. But journaling, I mean, this is where it's been so freeing for my mind. But it also just activates different parts of my mind and gets ideas out. And, you know, I won't go through the benefits of journaling because there's all Sorts of episodes. Even Gabby Bernstein, we've had her on this podcast. Years ago, she called it rage on the page. When she was like pissed off or whatever, she would take to her notebook with a pen and paper and start raging. But like just get, get it out of your head and that's the big thing. So sometimes it's paper, sometimes it's audio, voice, whatever works. I feel like those are different modalities for two different reasons. But journaling is a great daily habit to instill and some of the best little ideas, I mean there's podcast ideas, business ideas, reaching out to people, ideas like all of these things will flow and they're typically the things that are kind of like under the, the layers of our mental, you know, our thinking every day. It's something that we've probably been putting off that we're like, oh, okay, that's something I should probably do or focus on a little more. Journaling has been great for that. So that's kind of the reflection phase is what I would call journaling. So the next thing on the list is reading. And I do this typically towards the end of the day. So this isn't totally in order, but this is more, you know, obviously it's expanding our minds, it's to going, getting us to think a little bigger. And reading 10 pages minimum per day is just, it's actually easier than I ever thought. But now I find myself crushing books like Left and Right. Like I just read the Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. There's a new one or not a new one, but another book I'm reading right now is called Driven. And there's just so many insights that come from just consistent reading. And then, then you pair it up with journaling and all these other reflections, you really start to integrate what you're consuming and what I'm consuming. That's how I feel. So, you know, integrating the reading on a consistent practice like that, it's been game changing as well. A lot of benefits there. Another micro action is to get outside into nature and 10 minutes minimum and this is pretty easy for me. So I might stretch myself on this further. I might, you know, increase the time. But it's very simple, very easy for us to just stay behind the computer, stay in the house, get through our routine and unconsciously, like just not think about going outside and doing something for ourselves, even if it's just sitting in the sun. You can even double some of these up and meditate or breathe in the sun, journal in the sun or outside could be cold too. But whatever it is that. That stimulates our. Our senses differently. And. And honestly, some of my best ideas come out when I'm outside away from a screen. So definitely take some time away from the norm and the routines that you have, especially when it comes to work. Next habit that I do every single day that I'm almost 100% on but not perfect is to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night. This is something that has actually been the most difficult one for me because I tend to stay up later. My brain kind of wakes up later in the evening for some reason. I don't know why, but I'm getting better at turning that down. Usually by reading, it will turn it down. But minimum of seven hours, I just feel like I'm a different person. You know, if it's below 7, there's just grogginess happening. And I would love to get more on the eight side of things, but that's just me going to bed earlier. But that thing that's. I feel like you've heard it before. It's the foundation of everything. Sleep. So sleep is one of those microhabits that it's got to be on your list. Another one is drinking water. A minimum of four liters that's like, you know, basically for those big hydro flasks or whatever you use to drink water. I don't like the little cups because you have to keep getting up from your desk and go refilling. But, like, if you have just a big jug that's sitting on your desk, I mean, every time you look at it, I think, I've had Alex Charfen on. He was on the podcast, but he talked about water. At least he does outside of that. That episode. And he actually has a water challenge. And he always says, like, hey, if you're looking at water, that means take a sip of water. Like, that's just your brain consciously thinking about water. Well, fulfill that and give yourself water that's gonna do so much to be hydrated. It obviously helps your mind, it helps your body. You just feel better, you're more energized. You're ready for more workouts. I mean, there's obviously benefits to hydration. So I'm gonna pause and take a sip now. All this water talk had me thirsty. All right, so a few more here, and. And then we'll. Well, put a bow around this episode, one that I put on my list. And this is. This is one that I kind of created myself. And I'll pause for a second, and if you want A list of micro actions that are outside of what I've been giving you here. Go check out Mike. Mike Prince's and Trevor's group on Facebook. It's totally free. It's called the Better Man Community. And in there they have a document that has something like, I don't know if it's 50 or 100 different micro actions. It's basically a free doc that you can go to and go down the list and just look at all these different actions that are out there and things that you can kind of integrate through your day. So go try those out. And like I was saying, don't try to do 10 or 20 all at once in one day. Pick a handful, pick maybe one. Something that you can do to completion and then feel good about it and then know you can build upon that from that point on. So a couple. Couple others on my list that I'll go through and then. Then we'll wrap this up is to notice my intuition and celebrate it. So that one is one that's more catered to me, where it gets me out of just the doing in unconsciously acting on things, but actually slowing down and being like, what is my gut saying? Or what's whatever my mind or my journal saying that I might not be totally noticing. So I catch myself, and this is where I catch myself every day through this action. And I celebrate it. And that's the big thing, is celebrate it and lock it in. That the intuition is typically the guiding thing. That, that helps me out might not be the answer, but at least it gets me back on the path of thinking, oh, hold on, I should do that. It might be calling someone. Could be actually, you know, reaching out to someone in business, you know, to. To collaborate on. Could just be doing something you've been putting off. But whatever that is, it's noticing and then celebrating it. Because that celebration, it's kind of like tiny habits. I had BJ Fogg on the podcast who talked about tiny habits. Very simple and similar to what I'm talking about here. He always says, celebrate it. When you notice what you're doing, something, or if you complete one of your microhabits, celebrate it because it locks it into your mind. So that one's great. That's been. It's kind of like a nuanced one, but it's been very, very good. And I notice I'm noticing my intuition all the time. So the last one on my list is to reach out to a family member or friend every single day through at least text or email. At minimum. And that's just something I notice when I show up for others, something positive happens. And we always have time for, you know, a quick text or a call or whatever, it might be an email, and actually showing up for others. And for me, I know that that connection means a lot. I think it means a lot to other people as well. And usually something cool comes from it. And I'm not expecting that. But there's something more that can happen. And, you know, a lot of this, it can be in business too, because I have a lot of friends here that, you know, I might not always be thinking about reaching out, but this gets me to think on that level and to constantly show up. And the beautiful thing with this and also any of these micro actions is that it doesn't just stay contained in yourself and going through these and check in boxes, it actually permeates into all of the aspects of life. Like, so the more of this momentum that's happening, at least this is my experience with these actions, the more that extends to everywhere. So it extends to business, health, wealth, family, relationships. Everything just elevates and it feels like it's effortless after a while, not always at the very beginning. So I urge you to try out some of these and track yourself somehow. Maybe it's a spreadsheet. There's some of these apps that you can download to, you know, keep your consistent things going. I don't know any names because I haven't used any, but go check it out or just create something simple for yourself. It could even be a note card on your desk or something. But go try out a handful of these micro habits or actions and check out Mike and Trevor's group on Facebook, the Betterment community. I'll link it up in the show notes and, and get their doc. If you want to get a different, you know, a bunch of ideas on what to try, I think you would really enjoy it and indulge in this and then integrate that into what you do every day. And I'd love to hear what you think about it. That's my. Those are my two cents. And what has been helping me turn from, you know, kind of this ball of anxiousness, stress and gripping onto things and trying to control stuff, whereas. But you can't control the flow. And we all want to get enough flow. So can't push flow, can't control flow. And this has been a great tool for me to get out of that mode, out of the control mode, into more the flow mode. So go, go indulge in that and I keep keep a lookout. Go look for Trevor's episode if you haven't listened to him. And also Mike's, that's coming up pretty soon here and appreciate you for listening. See you next time. All right. All right. That's what I got for you today. And remember, it's not all about living to work. It's all about working to live if you need to do the work. But you know, work can be fun and it should be fueling for your life. So if you enjoyed what you just heard, if you got some nuggets of wisdom that you want to share or you're just noodling on right now, please go tell others. The way that people find this show and how you can help others get their aha moments is through word of mouth. So if it is telling your friend, telling your family, send an email to your list writing a review or whatever it might be, everything helps. So thank you so much for listening to the Hustle and Flowchart podcast and I will see you next time.