In this solo coaching episode, Rob Anderson (host of Stan Sher Coaching) emphasizes that lasting personal growth stems from tiny, consistent daily habits rather than dramatic, infrequent changes. He frames growth as occurring in the "quiet" moments—small actions like waking up ten minutes early to journal, taking brief walks, or doing a few push‑ups. Anderson outlines a five‑step framework: (1) Awareness – tracking how you spend time and using brief intentional reflection to build self‑awareness; (2) Move Your Body – incorporating micro‑movement (stretches, kettlebell curls, walks) to generate physical and mental momentum; (3) Guard Your Mind – replacing doom‑scrolling with purposeful media or audio content; (4) Speak Life – cultivating positive internal dialogue to shape self‑fulfilling outcomes; and (5) Make the Goal Small – breaking larger objectives into embarrassingly tiny actions (e.g., a glass of water, five push‑ups) to ensure consistency. He shares client anecdotes illustrating each step and stresses that checking off these micro‑habits builds a sense of progress and identity. The episode concludes with a concrete listener challenge: pick one simple habit you cannot fail, perform it daily, and build momentum toward larger change. Anderson ends with a call to like, share, and subscribe.
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Hey, welcome to Stan Sher Coaching. This is Rob Anderson, host of Stan Sher Coaching. I've been a coach since 1999, and my mission in life is just to help people continue to grow and live life fully alive. Today I want to talk to you about something that I think often gets overlooked, and that is when we talk about personal growth, the power of small daily habits. I've got a couple of clients that I'm working with right now that we're just making subtle changes in the things that they do, whether it's in life, whether it's in business. A lot of you know that I use diving as a way to reach veterans. And so it might even be just small incremental changes that we are making in their scuba routine or taking things that they learn out of scuba diving and transferring them back into life. But let me kick off with this thought: growth doesn't happen in the loud moments, it's built in the quiet ones. You see, it's not big dramatic transformations that create lasting change, it's the tiny consistent steps we It's walking up just 10 minutes earlier to center yourself, to write a journal, to stretch, to breathe, to remember who you are and what you're working toward. There's nothing wrong that before you go into a meeting or before you go into something, may even be a little confrontational, to take 10 minutes to center yourself. And just breathe and, and reset. I know there are times when I come home from work and it's been an incredibly stressful day that I'll just sit in my Jeep for about 10 minutes and let all that shed away because I don't want to take that kind of toxicity into the house. You know, the people in the house You know, my family inside the house, they don't know what's going on. They don't know why I'm walking in full of rage and anger and angst. So just taking those few moments, and that's been a habit that I have developed over time. When you show up consistently in those small moments, you're essentially casting a vote every single day For the kind of person you want to become. And here's the thing, you don't need to win the whole game today. For those of you who watch football, you'll hear that, you know, it's, it's a game about inches and not yards. It's just those small incremental changes. The thing is, you just need to keep moving forward. You keep going one step, one habit, and one decision at a time. So let's break that down and see what it looks like. Well, the first of all, you know, first of all, where we want to begin is we want to start with awareness. Too many people want to change their lives, but they're not tracking what they're actually doing with their time. And what I found is something like Just 10 minutes of intentional reflection each day, beginning to write a journal, or just thinking while you're sipping on morning coffee, intentionally thinking while you're sipping on that morning coffee, that can really change your trajectory. It builds self-awareness, and that's what you're after in that very first stage, is just becoming aware of what's going on. Without self-awareness, there is no self-improvement. All right, number 2, move your body. I don't care if it's a full workout or walk around the block. One of the things I found most useful is just getting up from my workspace and, and taking a stroll. And if I'm crunched between meetings or something like that, or between appointments, I'll set a timer to it. But the biggest thing is just to get up and move. I've had times where I will set a kettlebell next to my desk, and I have an alarm that goes off that every hour, I will do X number of maybe curls or, or some other type of exercise with that kettlebell. It's getting your body to move. Movement creates momentum, and it's not just physically, but mentally and emotionally too. By the way, if you can't get out and walk, that is one of them— from, from a mental standpoint, that's one of the best self-coping mechanisms because you're getting large muscle movement going, and it helps you to actually process, uh, think, you know, things that are going on in your head. When you move your body, your mind starts to shift, and you think clearer, you make better choices, and for other people, you show up stronger. All right, moving on. Number 3, guard your mind. What are you feeding your brain? Are you doom scrolling? Or just mindlessly looking through some of the other social media apps? Hopefully, maybe you found me through one of those social media apps. But, you know, are you doom scrolling? And I catch myself in this habit a lot, and I really have to go back to step 1 of that self-awareness and try to replace that habit. But what, you know, what are you putting in your brain? It's garbage in, garbage out. So you have to, you know, you have to look at it. Are you doom scrolling or are you diving into something that's going to actually challenge you to grow? And a habit that I've replaced doom scrolling with is I will throw on a set of headphones, I'll put on a book, and I'll just go do for— I'll go for a 10-minute walk. And if I'm not in the mood for a book, I'll throw some music on. 10-minute walk. But I find that, you know, if you listen to a podcast that stretches your thinking, it replaces that passive scrolling with something that's very intentional. And again, if it's 10 minutes, even if it's 5 minutes. All right, number 4, speak life. We are always in conversation with ourselves. We talk to ourselves internally all the time. And whether you realize it or not, we're narrating our lives through inner dialogue. So make that dialogue one of truth. Make it one of strength. Make it one of grace. Say things like, hey, you know what? I'm, I'm not there yet, but I'm making progress. Listen to podcasts like this one that provides you with some tools for that inner dialogue. That one shift in language can change your energy for the day. I know a lot of people who they will do a lot of self, a lot of self-defeating dialogue. And it's a horrible habit. I've got a couple of clients right now that I'm specifically working on that with them, on that inner dialogue. Because what happens is when you speak it, and especially when you speak it to yourself, you start to fulfill, you know, it starts becoming self-fulfilling prophecy. Fifth, make the goal small. I've got a client right now that We're working through a lot of areas. We're working through a lot of different things. But one of the things that they're really trying to break is just a small habit of chewing on their fingernails. So I've got them doing other things. When they start to think about chewing their fingernails, I actually have another habit that they do. You see, what happens is big goals sound really exciting, but they can become overwhelming. So instead, make your goals small, almost to the point of embarrassment. And by the way, you don't have to always share those out with people because they're not going to understand the battle that you're going through or what you, you know, the mountain that you're trying to climb in the end. It could be something— so I've got a client right now, all I'm trying to get them to do Is when they wake up in the morning, the very first thing that they do is drink a full glass of water. I have another client who's trying to get in shape. And by the way, I am not a fitness coach. I try to stay fit. I can guide people towards different resources. But here's, here's all that they're doing. They're doing 5 push-ups a day. And for them, It's a, you know, or for everyone else that might seem like a small goal, but for them, that's big. Just getting down on the ground to a point where they're going to do the push-ups, that was their first biggest challenge, just setting the time up to do that. I've got another client that's doing something very similar where they're doing 15 push-ups every hour on the hour. But drink a glass of water, do 5 push-ups, read a paragraph. It's not about the size of the action. It's about the consistency of doing it. So, by the way, with one of my clients, is actually a younger gentleman that his mom has me working with him. And she said, it just seems so mechanical. It's like he's doing it just to check it off the box. Yes, that is absolutely correct. That's what you want to be doing. You want to be checking things off the box. You want to let those little habits be your training ground. Starting small, starting now, and stop waiting for some wave of motivation to hit. Instead, begin by building the momentum. Let those little habits be that training ground because it's not about the perfection. It's about the direction that you're moving in. All right. So here's your challenge today. Pick one habit. Just pick one small habit, something so simple That you can't fail. And then do it. And then show up again tomorrow. And do it the next day. And then do it the next day. And just keep continuing forward. Build that momentum. Use your small habits to turn into much bigger habits. That's all I've got for this episode. Thank you so much for being a part of this podcast. Please help me grow this. Please like it, share it out to someone. Subscribe to it. And I look forward to seeing you in the next episode.
