#223: Mini Habits and Habit Stacking (Overcomer Series)

Welcome to Kingdom Writers where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome to the Overcomer series. My name is Shelli Hitz and in this series my husband CJ and I will walk you through some steps to help you overcome in your writing, publishing and marketing of your books. This series was originally recorded as live videos inside Christian Book Academy and so if you would like to join us and be able to stay spend time with us live, then join us@christianbookacademy.com we wanted this series to also be able to encourage you. So I hope that you enjoy it and leave us a review and let us know how this podcast is encouraging your writing. We would love to hear from you. Enjoy this episode. Today's topic is Mini Habits and Habit Stacking. So we're kind of continuing on with that theme that we started the last couple weeks with the Compound Effect and the Consuming versus Creating Challenge. And so first of all, I just want to check in with you. How did the Consuming versus Creating challenge go for you? Those of you that are here live or watching the replay? Share share with us. How did it go? I'd love to hear how it went for you. I know for me personally it has really helped me to jump start a habit again of doing creativity in the evenings and having some time to either paint or letter or do some sketching. You know, something that is creative and that just fills me. And so it's been a really, really great thing for me. And I wanted to share this quote by John Maxwell. He says, you will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. Now CJ and I are both people that we like variety, right? I mean we like to be able to travel and we like variety and all of those things. But there is power and we have both seen it in our own lives, the power that comes from creating routines. How many of you have found that to be true? And I've read before, people are like, well, if you get into these routines, isn't it just going to be like robotic and you know, you're just kind of like, you know, going through the motions and actually it's going to give you even more joy and more energy because then you're creating these habits just like brushing your teeth you don't forget to brush your teeth. Right. Because you've created a habit. And then, you know, as you create these habits with, when it's writing or you know, whatever it is, then you're really able to have even more joy in your life.

Yeah, I think, you know, it's, it's one thing to have a healthy routine, it's another thing to have an unhealthy rut. So there's a difference between a routine and a rut. And you know, many of us have found ourselves sort of struggling in a rut that we know deep down probably isn't the healthiest thing for us. But yeah, you know, we're talking more about healthy routine, that doing it daily leads to long term benefits.

Yeah. And so we're gonna start off just talking about mini habits. These are so small that it's impossible to fail. And I recently read a book called Mini Habits by Stephen Geiss and the link to that book will be in the description for you. But that book, you know, he talks about creating habits so small that it's impossible to fail. And for him, he started his fitness journey just, you know, committing to himself. He was going to do one push up every day. That was it. If he had no time to do anything else, he would just drop, do one push up. And then he's like, I succeeded for the day. And he's also a writer. And so he said in his writing he would get to the place where he set this goal of writing 50 words a day. Very small goal. Right. And so then it was so small it was impossible to fail. But what he's found is that when you set these mini habits, then you end up doing more than what you intended in the beginning. You know, this is even smaller than committing to write 15 minutes a day. It's even smaller. And I was doing this the other day and I just took out my phone and I dictated and I was like, okay, I'm just going to do 50 words. And it turned into 350 words very quickly. But, you know, can you commit to at least setting a mini habit of writing 50 words a day? You know, or like one of the other ones he mentioned was reading two pages and a book. Can you at least commit to doing something like that? And so I've provided a resource for you and it's a link that gives you a bunch of ideas of mini habits that he gives on his website. And how many of you agree that doing something small is better than doing nothing at all?

Yeah. And you know, when we do something small, even if it feels insignificant, it's still progress. You know, it's kind of like my, my dad. My dad is setting a goal of losing weight. He has to lose a certain amount of weight before the doctor will do a hernia surgery on him. And so he's been sort of being accountable, you know, with me. And he'll send me, like, the number of steps he does each day through his health app.

And what's cool is my dad sometimes will say, you know, he'll send me the, the thing. It'll say one and a half miles. And he'll say, nothing to write home about. But what I'll respond is, hey, I'll say, hey, that's one and a half miles toward progress. Yeah, you know, you're making progress toward that weight loss goal. And by the way, he is making progress. He's losing weight, he's implementing healthy habits. Nutritionally, he feels better. I told him, I said, you know, you're going to be turning 70 in April, and you're going to feel better at 70 than you did at 60. And I think he's beginning to believe that. And so it's just little. Making little steps.

And before you go on, I just wanted to share an app that I was using when I was doing the 50 words. It's just WC free is what it's what it's called. And basically I just can dictate right into the app and it will show me at the bottom the exact amount of words as I'm dictating or as you're typing in there. So as I was dictating, I could see, okay, I'm at 20 words. 50. You know, it's just like, you know, you can automatically see, did I get my 50 words? And then I copied and pasted it into. You can do it either Google Docs or my notes app or whatever. But I just wanted to share that, that app with you because it's really helpful. But also, in Google Docs or other apps, you can just go into the tools and check your word count, and that's an easy way to see it. But can you commit to writing at least 50 words a day, whether that's for your book, whether that's for your marketing, whatever that's for. Can you commit to a small, small goal that you cannot fail on, but that will make progress, progress towards where you want to be?

Yeah. And give you some more examples just from my own life of.

Things that I do, even geared toward my running, you know, a small routine that I do in the shower. Every single time I shower is I'll scrunch my toes together, I'll squeeze, you know, like 15 times each foot. It doesn't seem like much, But I figure 15 reps on each foot over the course of 365 at least showers.

Yeah.

Per year. And Shelly's grateful for the showers, by the way.

Yes.

But it adds up. And what that's doing is it's strengthening the bottom of my plantar fascia. Now, I have not experienced any plantar fasciitis in years where, you know, some of you might be familiar with that. You know, the fascia gets sore underneath there, gets tender. A lot of runners deal with it. I've just done this little routine in the shower. It doesn't take me more than 30 seconds, 40 seconds and it's done. And yet it's a small thing that can add up to big results. Another thing, and Shelly's doing this as well, is that we have a little nightly 10 minute routine where we do a number of stretches. We do some little strengthening exercises. Doesn't require any free weights, anything like that. These are all just body movements for me.

It's like the core strengthening that I really need.

We'll foam roll our legs with our foam roller. And this takes 10 minutes a night. We do this before we go to bed. But I'm telling you, I call it like an injury shield. It's like adding a small injury shield that adds up. It's this compound effect over time, these mini habits again. And then finally just the habit of spending time daily. And I say daily in God's word. This is all of us endeavoring to write Christian books. Endeavoring to write things that glorify the Lord. We're kingdom writers, after all. We're in Christian Book Academy. We're going to get our main inspiration and fill up, so to speak, from the Word. Now, you don't have to read more than a chapter. Maybe it's not even a chapter a day. But what I'm saying is over time, this is also a compound effect. We see it in changes in our character. We see it in response to circumstances or trials that come our way. We see joy and peace and love sprouting up in our hearts, all because we're inputting. We're planting seeds of scripture in us. At the time. We just think, oh, you know, it's kind of insignificant. I mean, I'm just reading a chapter, it's not a big deal. But again, over the course of a year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years? What does it add up to be? We're filling our minds with things that God will then use and have the opportunity to share with others. So little things do add up.

Yeah. And, you know, it's powerful. You know, one of the reasons I started doing the exercise in the evening is because I've been having some little injuries here and there. And so it's like, if I want to keep running, I know I'm going to have to take care of my body. And it's like, you know, I told C.J. i haven't, like, done all the habits at once. You know, I started with one habit, and then that became a routine and almost second nature. Then I added another habit. We're not saying, like, to do 20 habits all in one time. You know, start with one. So you're here in Christian Book Academy because you want to write a book, right. Or you want to sell more books. You want to get your message and impact the world with your books. And so what if you just started with that one habit of writing at least 50 words a day? That's very doable. And if you get in a flow and you can do more, praise God.

But like CJ Said, when we put this stuff in our mind, the Scriptures, you know, that's why I created the Illuminate Prayer Journal. It is all of the little habits that I wanted to put into my life and in one place. And so it makes it intentional. I start with five minutes of silent meditation. I have time of gratitude. I have a time of confession. I have a time of scripture reading. I have a time of prayer, you know, and so I have all of these things built in. And now it's such a habit that it's just amazing. And when you're reading the Scriptures, then you have things when you're out and about to talk or, you know, a scripture might come to mind. Yeah. To share with somebody. And so it's just really incredible.

There's another quote, too, that I wanted to slip in here. It's by a guy named R. Collier. And the quote is, success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out. Again, success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.

Yeah. And I think a lot of times when we think about writing and publishing a book, when we think about selling a book, we're thinking about these big, you know, things like. But it takes those just small efforts day in and day out to really see success. That's what's happened with C.J. and I, you know, I quit my job in physical therapy. It was just a little over eight years ago. I was just thinking about this this week because, you know, it was the end of August, beginning of September. That was like the eight year anniversary of me quitting my job. And, you know, it's just been a little by little by little, you, over these years of building a business, of writing books, of selling books, and it's really, you know, it's starting to get to that momentum in the book, the compound effect. He calls it, I think he calls it the big mo mentum. Like, then you start to build some momentum and you start to see some things happen. And now we earn thousands of dollars every month with our books. We're getting testimonies from people all over the world that, that God's using our books to touch their lives. God's doing it, not us. But we're putting in those daily, daily effort, right? And so the author of the book, Mini Habits, Stephen Guy, he says, to change your habits, you need to stop fighting against your brain. So instead of saying that, I'm going to do this big thing, I'm going to write this book, I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to sell thousands of copies of my book. What if you just said, going to write 50 words a day, you know, and he says, you know, it stops fighting against your brain because your brain's like, oh, I can do that, I can do that. And so, you know, setting these smaller goals really help you to succeed and to feel like a success. So when I started doing these exercises in the evening, it's only been maybe a month. I don't know. It hasn't been that long for me. CJ's been doing it for years, but I just decided, okay, if I at least do five reps of one of these exercises, it's a success. You know, if I don't do all of them, it's okay. But then, you know what ends up happening? I start doing a few reps of one exercise, it turns into another, another, and then I end up doing the whole routine.

Well, and with that, this applies to anything in life that maybe we have that brief moment of dread.

Yeah.

You know, maybe you're just not quite in the flow or in the mood, you know, to sit down and write words. In this case, with our exercise routine in the evenings, again, it only takes 10 minutes. And yet there's many nights where I have this brief moment, like, do. I could probably skip tonight.

Yeah.

And yet I just decide to Go ahead and take. Do that first exercise, and what happens is I then get into the flow of being able to finish it out. And it's the same way with writing. If we'll just break through that initial.

Resistance, just write those first few words.

First step. Just that first step. It's almost like, you know, I've had those moments where I might have dreaded a workout that I knew was going to be tough. And I drive maybe to a certain hill that has a vicious climb, and I just know there's going to be pain involved. But when I get all my stuff together, I pack my stuff, I make the drive over, and I take that first step out of the car, that is the most momentous step in the whole process, because once I step foot on that dirt, it's on, baby, you know? And essentially, you have broken through to the point where you can then start and gain momentum. It's the same way when we sit down and write those first words again, like Shelly said, 50 words could turn into 350, 350 could turn into a thousand. And many of you can knock that out in an hour or less. Sometimes some of us are thinking over the course of four hours for, you know, a few words.

Some of us are slower, some of us are faster. We're all different phases in terms of what we can do. But again, we're all making progress toward that goal. That's huge. When you take that first step, or.

If you need to just say, I'll write one sentence. It doesn't even have to be 50 words. I'll just write one sentence, or I'll write one paragraph, whatever it needs to be for you, but develop a routine. So whether it's like, you know, dictating into your phone, it's writing in your notebook, it's on your computer. You know, it's like, okay, this is where I'm gonna go. Have it set up, have it ready. And make sure you get that in, even if it's at the end of the day, even if you end up having to delete every single word you wrote. And you know why? Because when you create the habit day after day after day, it just becomes automatic. If you start skipping days, then it's easier to skip, and then it's easier to skip more, then it's easier to skip more. So even if you just do one sentence every day, you know, you're just building that habit, that muscle, that routine. The other day, I dictated about 350 words, and I'm thinking I may have to delete most of these words and start over. But I did it, you know, and I got the concept down on paper and I can rework it later, I can self edit later, but there's progress in just getting it on to paper. And so those are mini habits. But then there's also a book called habit stacking by S.J. scott, and that's also linked in the description for you. And habit stacking is when you actually group several mini habits together. So that's what I do in the mornings with my Illuminate Prayer journal. You know, I have the time of meditation, I have the time of gratitude, I have the time of confession, I have the time scripture reading, the time of prayer. Those are all little mini habits that I group together in a row. And then what happens is when you're grouping them together and he says not to make it more than maybe like 30 minutes. So these are small habits. But then you develop this routine and you get a lot of things done.

Together. And so one of the things that you could do, you could have a little habit like spend five minutes looking over your outline or looking over the last part that you wrote. If you're a panster and you fly by the seat of your pants. So you spend a few minutes looking over what you recently wrote, your outline. Maybe you do five minutes of just research or preparing, and then maybe you write a paragraph. So that would be like three little mini habits that you could group together and do them together. And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Says the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge. And so I just encourage you, you know, you are going to face challenge when you're writing your book, but the more habits you put in place, the more it just becomes like second nature. Like John in Christian Book Academy, he said he's just been writing 15 minutes every day on his lunch break, and it's just become a habit. And he actually finished his first draft. He's been talking about how now he's self editing. Congratulations, John. But it was just. It became a habit. And so I just encourage you to keep going, no matter where you're at with your book, to take that next step. Create a little, little, little mini habit that it's so small you cannot fail, that you will be a success every day no matter what.

Yeah. And, you know, we many times will start these videos off with an encouraging scripture. That's sort of the theme this time. We're going to kind of end the encouragement Time with the scripture. And, and we're in John chapter six, and I'm just going to read verses eight and nine. But to give you just the picture here, this is when Jesus feeds the 5,000. And Jesus already knows what he's going to do according to what we read in Scripture. But he asked Philip, he's sort of testing Philip to see what Philip might say, you know, like, let's go ahead and feed these people. And Philip's just incredulous, you know, like, it would take a year's worth of wages and still we wouldn't be able to feed all these people. It says that there were 5,000 men. Not counting everyone else. There could have been as many as 15,000 people in this. This hungry horde, as I like to.

Call them. But I'm going to pick up where Andrew chimes in. This is Peter's brother. And he says in verse eight of John chapter six, then Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother, spoke up. There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd, you know, just sort of dismissing and almost probably chuckling to himself. And yet here's this young boy. I want you just to picture this. A young boy in a crowd of perhaps 15,000 people.

And he's got five loaves of bread and two fish. Talk about something that looks insignificant on the outside. A meager little supply by a feeble little young boy standing there in the midst of this hungry horror hoard. And yet, guess what? These small things added up to big results in the hands of Jesus. What I want to say to each one of us is don't underestimate those 50 words. Don't underestimate the little meager supply that you bring to the table on a daily basis. Because in the hands of Jesus, those words add up to big impact over time. They're adding to the body of work that you're creating for God's glory. Your story for God's glory. And what I want to say is this, and this is a little math lesson for all of us, that when Jesus is added to the equation.

Anything could happen.

Amen.

And this is just a lesson for each of us to say that we may bring something really small and insignificant looking, and we bring it and we say, but what good is this? As Andrew said, you know, but what good is this? This meager supply that's in my hands? What good am I really going to do in this world with what I have? You know, I feel like a nobody or I feel like this or that. But what I'm here to tell you is that us plus Jesus equals big results every time. It's a winning formula. And some of us need to continue to refresh our memories by going back to the Gospels and reading these stories of Jesus and how he made all the difference in.

Life after life, after life. And this was one example. 15,000 people walked away that day satisfied. 15,000 people, all from a young boy's five loaves and two fish. And you and I have something incredible that we can do in offering our meager supply at the feet of Jesus and saying, okay, Jesus, whatever you want to do with this, have your way. And if we'll bring that attitude, not only will words be written and sentences be completed and paragraphs and chapters and ultimately books be completed one day at a time, but many, many people are going to be satisfied by what's produced through each and every one of us. With Jesus added to that equation, that's.

What I call Kingdom Math.

You know, we look at our meager supply or what, you know, our abilities or the time we have or whatever it is, you know, he can make us productive. He can give us supernatural productivity. He can bring connections, you know, once your book is published, God's economy, his math, Kingdom math. He can do things that we cannot do. And so will you. Give him your small amount, your fish and your loaves, and be willing to make a mini habit of writing every day right now? Cj, why don't you close us in prayer just for everyone and all of the writers that will listen even beyond this live video.

So, Father, we just thank you once again for. For this time that we can have with our Christian Book Academy members. I thank you for each one. I thank you for all the testimonies that we have heard, even in the last couple weeks of people finishing their first drafts. I've even heard, and I'll name him right now. Hope he doesn't mind, but Craig Anderson, who not only completed his book, he actually was able to hit the publish button with Kindle.

In the last week and a half, I believe it was. And I just thank you so much for what you're doing through each and every one of these Kingdom writers. And I just want to ask that you continue to inspire each one, give each one creativity, help us to build momentum so that one sentence becomes a paragraph, a paragraph becomes a chapter, chapter, a chapter becomes a book. And I ask, Lord, that you would give us the very words that would feed hungry hordes waiting for each one of our books, I ask that you would help help us break through any limiting mindset that says, oh, you know, I don't really have much to offer, but with Jesus, we have everything that we need at our disposal and he has the power to multiply what we offer. And so, Father, would you just do incredible things in this next week? Through our Christian Book Academy members, I pray that there would just be victories that we can celebrate even as we meet next week and be able to even just celebrate little victories along the way of progress that each one of us is making toward the books that we endeavor to write. And so we thank you and we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen. All right, so we are cheering you on. Wherever you're at, whatever you're doing, we are here for you. We love you. Thank you for being here with us tonight and we will see you next week.

Love you guys.

Bye bye. Thank you so much for spending time with us in this episode. It truly means the world to us. We also have a free gift for you. It's a new PDF that CJ and I recently wrote called 8 surprisingly Simple Writing Tips. Say that 10 times real fast in a row, right? But it's a PDF you can get instant access. Just go to trainingauthors.com for.

We'd love to send that PDF to you right now. And again, it's called 8 surprisingly Simple Writing Tips. Enjoy.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you, as a Christian writer, have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy, where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community of Kingdom writers.