The 4-Step Framework to Make Habits Stick

The reps matter more than the intensity. This is where I got really thrown off early in my career because I was trying to get really into fitness and make every single workout better and stronger and faster and harder. And I just had never been more like disempowered in my life trying to do that. And I could not figure out why. It's because I didn't still have the habit locked in and the identity of the person who's going to show up every single day no matter what, even if it was hard, even if my life was stressful. Keep the reps no matter what the intensity is. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. It's time for another quickie because there's.

Always time to fit in. Inspiration.

And maybe you can tell by the slight difference in audio quality that I am recording on my phone because I am still in Miami. I came down here a few days ago to speak at some point Salon Con, which is an amazing event put on by Rachel and Drew Thomas to help stylists to network, to skyrocket their income, to really learn how to grow not only a profitable business, but really a beautiful, foundational, lasting business in that industry. And they truly are some of the most go to people for anyone who's in the salon industry business. And I had a great time talking to their incredible audience. The venue was amazing. Literally felt like I got treated like gold the entire time. Like there's no better speaking experience than when you just feel like they're so excited to have you there. And it was over the top needs being met. Let me tell you, their team is absolutely incredible. Like, that was totally first class and I'm so grateful for the experience. And I also love coming to Miami because I love the weather, I love the food, all of the things, and I have a lot of friends down here as well. But with that said, when I went to catch my flight out because of all of these crazy storms, which my heart is going out to everybody in these storms with this cold and just the challenges right now. And hopefully by the time you hear this, it's starting to clear up a little bit. But what ended up happening is I went for my flight and it got delayed and I had already been there for about four or five hours and then they ultimately ended up canceling it. And so I looked for a nonstop because all of the layovers were in the cities with the problems that were grounding all of the flights. So our plane was actually there, but the crew was not able to get there because the everything obviously in the country is a little chaotic right now, especially for flying. So wish me luck today I'm going to be headed out in literally 30 minutes from right now to go and catch my flight, which just say a little prayer that I am home by the time that you hear this, because this podcast goes out tomorrow that I have a nonstop from Miami to California. So there were a lot of things that happened in the interim. Obviously, you know, when you are delayed for hours at the airport, it can be pretty frustrating. And then your flight to ultimately get canceled, to not even be able to find a flight for the next two days can be a really frustrating thing. So there's a few things that I want to talk with you about today and that is really about practicing becoming the person that you want and understanding that that practice is a habit. And that habit is going to get thrown off by a lot of chaos. So this morning while I was getting ready, I was listening to a podcast and it was with Emma Greed and James Clear. And James Clear is the author of Atomic Habits and he talks about how the actions you repeat daily are going to be what decide who you become. So it's interesting to think about it as we're always practicing being someone and those practices are our habits. So we're practicing even in those small moments. So what we practice today is gonna predict the ending of who we are and how our life is gonna be. So something that he broke down was to really stop focusing on the whole week or the month or the year. And it's really focusing on what you are doing today, all of those little habits that you're practicing. So if you look at them as actions that you're practicing even rather than a habit that is gonna show you who you're going to become. So, so James Clear has a framework in Atomic Habits, which if you haven't read it yet, you really need to listen to the audiobook or pick up the book because I think it's important to remember how things actually work because we can get so caught up in our day to day life that we forget that we are practicing who we're becoming every single day. So framework is number one, is to make it obvious. It's to set up cues that remind you who you want to be. So in your environment, maybe putting your gym shoes out all of the time, maybe keeping things, you know, books about health on your coffee table, clearing out your cabinets and putting healthy stuff in there first and really letting yourself know, like, I am a healthy person, your environment is going to reflect back who you Are so a journal by the bed, you know, keeping everything possible that's easier, like in your way, so that you don't have all of these different things around you that are gonna disrupt you and distract you. So maybe you hide your remote control, maybe you put it in another room. Maybe you get one of these bricks that my brand coordinator got that you put your phone in. Or not that you put your phone in, but puts your phone on lock so that at night you stop scrolling or in the morning you stop scrolling and you remind yourself to pick up that book that's next to you instead of your phone. Because it's. If it's out of sight, it's out of habit. So B is to make it attractive, you need to stack it with something you enjoy so you really have to think about your morning walk. Maybe you love listening to your favorite music and you create a playlist, or you love calling your friends and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna go take a walk and just call all of my friends and drop in and get to know them better. I'm going to spend some time with them. I'm gonna ask them exactly what they need and how I can help them. Or you have an amazing podcast that you love. You really need to start stacking your habits. And this exactly what I do. Because if I'm already going to go on a walk, how can I stack it with something else that I can do that's really positive? That also creates something that makes me feel more fulfilled. And for me, lately I've been calling a lot of my friends on my walks or listening to a great podcast. So number three is you need to make it easy. You need to reduce the friction. So that is like shrinking the habit to something you can't fail at. Instead of going on a three mile walk, maybe you take a five minute walk. Instead of going to the gym for a full hour, maybe you go there for a 20 minute fast routine that you can accomplish and you feel so great about getting there. It's more about the practice of the thing and making sure that you create that routine than it is actually how long and how strong the thing that you're doing is. So I think of this with meditation. Like this morning, I'm like, okay, I'm going to meditate, I'm going to set my alarm for five minutes and if I want to do more than that afterward, I can do more. But that's all I'm going to expect for myself to do because the reps matter more than the intensity of the thing. I want you to think about that the reps matter more than the intensity. This is where I got really thrown off early in my career, because I was trying to get really into fitness and make every single workout better and stronger and faster and harder. And I have. I just had never been more, like, disempowered in my life trying to do that. And I could not figure out why. It's because I didn't still have just, like, the habit locked in and the identity of the person who's gonna show up every single day no matter what, even if it was hard, even if my life was stressful. What happens in those situations is the second your life gets stressful, you're gonna quit the thing because you think the thing has to be an hour long, and it has to be super hard. And let me tell you, when you get stressed, when. When life gets busy, your motivation and your willpower goes down. And then that creates the all or nothing mentality. And this is really where I would like. This is where I failed, like, completely failed royally. It was all or nothing. And if I couldn't get that hardcore hour in, then nothing was worth it. And I've now learned in my life to get out there and just keep the habit, keep the reps, no matter what the intensity is. So the fourth one is to make it satisfying. It really is like an immediate reward really does matter. You need to celebrate the small win, so your brain wants to repeat that behavior. You just don't want to break the chain. And so something I did that I didn't even realize I was doing, that really helped me is I had a physical calendar, and I would track it every day. And what I started to notice is that when that calendar would get full of me going to the gym or doing something active, I wanted a little checkbox in every single day, whether it was even a walk on the weekends. I wanted to be moving my body. I wanted to be someone who woke up and moved, who instead of going to the kitchen or going out drinking or going out partying, became somebody who dealt with their stress and who became the person who moved their body and would work out instead of doing the other things. So you have to make it satisfying. You need to be able to see it. I remember there was a time when I was like, okay, if every checkbox is full, I get to go buy a sports bra at the end of the week. And it wasn't an expensive sports bra. It was, like, from Dick's Sporting Good. It was like $25.

And at the end of every week.

I'm like, okay, instead of buying all these little coffees and snacks throughout the week, at the end of the week, I'm going to take myself to a store or online, whatever, and I'm going to buy a sports bra at the end of the week. Because that was a huge reward for me. I was like, I get to go wear something else cute to the gym. So whatever that is, that you can do a small little reward for yourself at the end of the week. And so you need to follow the habit that you're doing the most till the end. And I had this horrible realization today, like, oh, my gosh, I have been scrolling way too much. And even though it's for saving reels, et cetera, et cetera, come on, you get stuck in the vortex. And I was like, who is the person? What is this habit? Because scrolling is a habit. Scrolling is a habit. Scrolling has become a habit that is an identity for most all of us in the world. And if I can go down the rabbit hole of who I am going to become in a year or two years, if I continue with the scrolling habit, is probably someone pretty negative. Because I am getting bombarded with just all of these things that I don't want to see on social media, like very negative things or, you know, even though my algorithm is pretty good, I don't want to become the person who believes that what is going on in the world is my social media feed, especially with the algorithms. I want to go live life. So I don't want to have the identity where when I relax or when I sit down or when I go on a vacation or when I have a weekend that I am scrolling. I want to be the person who is out engaging with actual life and actual humans more consistently than I am on my phone. So checking the hours on my phone and going, did I live life? Did I go engage with life? Or as with as many hours as I did on my phone, or am I more on my phone than engaging with life?

I talk about the importance of sleep and reaching your goals all the time on this podcast. But I also know that you're probably wound pretty tight like I am, and you might have trouble transitioning from your daytime to your nighttime. So I added something that I absolutely love because, you know, skincare is a big thing for me in 2026, and I love Osea's Dream Collection. It's really helped change that for me. Osea's Dream Night Serum and Dream Night Cream are clinically tested formulas powered by bioretinol and designed to reduce the visible effects of stress on your skin while you sleep. You guys know that I am all about making the things you're already doing work for you. So why not make this work for you in your sleep? So I love this because it really helps me wind down. Not only because of this beautiful scent and how it feels on my skin, but but I'm really loving that it's something that supports my nighttime ritual while I sleep and it helps me settle in for the night because my skin feels so good. And again, it's got that nice lavender scent that I always associate to nighttime sleep. Because skincare truly is self care, you guys. So OCA's newest product in the dream collection is the Dream Bio Retinol Body Serum. And let me tell you, skin care for me this year is not just about my face, it's about my whole whole body. So you should make this a key part of your personal body care routine.

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So you know, the way that I. I want to bring this back also to how I've used this Miami trip to really practice who I want to become. And I had the realization that I can really take this one of two ways. I can be really pissed off that I had to cancel a ton of appointments and a big event that I was going to for gloce back in California because I got delayed here. Or I can go, okay, if I really believe that everything is happening for me and everything is out for me, that means I have to believe everything is happening for me and everything is working out for me. Even with all of these absolute, like, the way that the things have gone down have not gone down the way that I want them to. Right? That's totally out of my expectation of what I wanted to happen. Inconveniences, right? So I have to go. How could this inconvenience actually be happening for me in a convenience for me? How can I use this to practice patience? How can I use this to see possibility instead of problems? And so I was like, if I had to stay here for two days, how could I make this the best two days and learn from this and make this a possibility instead of a problem? And so I booked a hotel and I was like, I'm gonna use this to really think on some things that I have to make big decisions on. I'm gonna use this to meditate. I'm gonna use this to catch up. I'm gonna use this to take Myself out on a few dinner dates by myself. And I know that I have a bunch of friends here, but I really have a lot of thinking to do. I have a lot of things that I need to get done right now. And I use this for some solo time, some think time, some prayer time, some meditation time. And it was absolutely amazing. I got a lot of great answers. I got a lot of time to just really sit and think about what I want for myself, for my business, for the direction that I'm headed in life. And, you know, when I'm caught up in work mode and when I'm back in my normal routine, I don't get to do that. So this might have been an absolute gift and blessing for me right now. So I want you to look at what's coming your way and see if you can start thinking of how this could actually be a gift for you, how this could be a possibility instead of a problem. And maybe look at those habits and routines that you are also doing and think about who you're becoming right now. Who are they turning you into when you really look at what you are doing every single day of your life and how you're thinking? So, you guys, thank you so much for jumping into my quick Miami before I go to the airport quickie. And I hope that this episode helped you just really get clear on what you're practicing every day. What habit is enforcing and reinforcing who you're becoming. So I'm sending you guys so much love. And if you don't know, we have upped the coupon code for glossi, which is so exciting. We want people to try GLOSI in the worst way. Because what we found from all of our data now that we've been out almost two years, is that if people try it, they continue on it. Our retention rate is so far above the average retention rate for subscription that that tells us that once you get this in your body and you start seeing the results and feeling the results, that you stay on it. So, you guys, we have upped that coupon to 40% off for first time buyers. You can use the code happy for 40% off your first time subscription. Go check it out. Subscriptions are totally flexible. And until next time, earn your happy. Bye, everyone. Sam.