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TAKE YOUR HABITS FOR A TEST DRIVE · The Karen Kenney Show

0:01
Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show, and wicked
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excited to be here with you today. And today just happens to
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be, first of all, this is the first time I've recorded a show
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at night in like, a gazillion years. You can tell, like, the
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quality and the light in this room and stuff is a little
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different, because it's like nighttime, and it's getting dark
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at like, 430 now, like, whatever, like, whatever, like,
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I just a little happy. No, okay, and we're back. But today
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happens to also be December 1, and I love it. I just love it. I
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know I'm not alone, because my friend Emma line, she loves it
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too. When a new month begins on a Monday, it just like, gives
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me, like, sweet satisfaction. It's like, I'm just such a
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weirdo, like, to me the week starts. I know technically,
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like, my sweetie is the week stats on Sunday. I'm like, no to
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me, the week stats on Monday. So when a new month, new new month
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begins on a Monday, it makes me super duper happy. But I was
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thinking about December, because a lot of people roll through
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this month in like, really different ways. There are people
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that are just like, hey, I'm in holiday mode. I'm slowing
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everything down. I don't want to do too much. Don't put don't ask
1:14
me to put too much on my calendar, and I'm not going to
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book too much. I'm not interested in hustling and blah,
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blah, blah, blah. There are other people that are, like,
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last month of the year, last month of q4 Let's go. We got a
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hustle. We got to do sales and make money, and capitalism,
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colonialism, right? Like, let's just all the people make all the
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money, like, everything, right? And I kind of look at December,
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and especially this year, and I'm going to tell you why I kind
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of look at December as, like, prep for January. And what I
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mean by that is this is a month when I really start to, like, go
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a little quiet, go within, start to have a more internal
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experience, and start to think about, like, what do I want to
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create in 2026 Who do I want to be? What am I envisioning or
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dreaming or visualizing, if I'm going to be doing a
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collaboration, who do I want to do it with? What's it going to
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look like? What's the vibe and the energy and the feel of the
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year? Now, I know life has its own plans, right? There's that
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old saying, you want to make a God laugh, like, tell them your
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plans, but I do believe in making plans. I just don't
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believe in making them by myself, and what I mean by that,
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and of course, in miracles, we say this, this thing is like a
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healed mind does not plan. It doesn't mean you don't make a
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plan. It just means you don't make it all on your own, from
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your ego, from this place of scarcity and fear and hustle and
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competition and weirdness, right? No, like you tap into the
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inner teacher, you tap into the divine intelligence, and you
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kind of see, like, what do I want to create? And if you saw
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the title of this episode, take your habits for a test drive.
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December is a fantastic month to do this. So let's kind of dive
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into this a little bit, and then I'll give you a couple of
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examples and stories, right? So a lot of times, you know,
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January, like, people are like, starting to think about, like,
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oh, New Year's is coming. It's going to be new year, new you.
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New year, new me. I'm going to like, come out of this, like,
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balls to the wall. I'm going to like, come out of this, shoot,
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like, boom. Like, like, like a rocket, right? Like, I'm gonna
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go into January. And I just always stop laughing, because
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what, what ends up happening is, I kind of call January, like,
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jazzed up January.
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God jazzed up January, because everybody's got, like, ants in
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their pants, and they're all jazzed up, and they're going to
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start going to the gym, and they're going to start eating
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right, and they're going to stop drinking alcohol, they're going
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to stop whatever, whatever it is. They're all going to do it
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right. But you know what happens? Jazzed up January very
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quickly, turns it into fuck it February, because they realized
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that all these plans, all these things they were going to do,
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look at, look, look, look, I used to work at Planet Fitness
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like way back in the day when I first moved from California to
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New Hampshire, right? I was a personal trainer, and so I
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worked at the Planet Fitness in Rochester, in Dover and New
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Hampshire. And you would just see, like, the first three
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weeks, the first three to like, I would even say, I would even
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give people, like, the first three to four to five weeks.
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People were like, yeah, the gym would be so busy. And I used to
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open the gym so, like, I would be there, like, four, 430 in the
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morning. We have gym opened at five, and you would just see
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everybody all gung ho, but by like, February, it was, like,
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back to normal numbers and crickets. Because people didn't
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have any momentum. They didn't build anything, right? They just
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tried to, like, throw themselves, like, you know, head
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first, like, into January, thinking that they were somehow
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going to be different, right? That these. Patterns and habits
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that they had created the whole year before that. It wasn't
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going to continue in January. They were trying to just do it
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by willpower alone, right? Like, yeah, I'm just going to stop
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smoking, stop drinking, stop doing this, not doing that,
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whatever. Okay, so people get all amped up about January, but
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then there's like, this slow fizzle out, you know, and 2026
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can be different. And this is why I'm so glad that I'm doing
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this episode the first week of December, because this is a
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chance for you to practice who you want to be, how you want to
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be, how you want the year to look in 2026 I freaking love and
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I might do a whole episode in a few weeks about this, but I
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really love having a new year and a new slate to kind of like,
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wipe the slate clean and like, start fresh. But here's one of
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the things. Okay, so story time, buckle up. Buckle up for safety.
5:55
So if you know who Sean t is, right, just double A man hands,
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if you know who Shan t is, right? Like, I love Shaun T, I'm
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going to tell you a little bit about who he is, but Sean t is,
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like, I don't know. I just think of him as a worldwide
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phenomenon. He's a he's a fitness instructor, right? He's
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like, famous online, like, whatever, and way back in the
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day, right? I started following him on a program called
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Beachbody. Beachbody is no longer Beachbody. It's now just
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called Body. Body with, like, a little I like body, right? But
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Shaun T is one of like, like, Tony Horton, p9 dx, right?
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There's like, so many programs, Insanity, Insanity, Max 30, dig
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deeper, like, there's all these different programs, right? So
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Sean T is leads these workouts, and I belong to the gym. Like, I
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belong to the gym, like, a gazillion years. And sometimes
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I'm just like, Yeah, I don't want to go to the gym. I don't
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like, I wanted, like, especially in the winter, I'm like, I'm
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going to try and, like, do some new stuff at home. Like, I have
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different goals and stuff, and I have weights and stuff in my
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basement, and I'm like, I just want to change it up. I was
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feeling like I wanted to do something new. And really
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thinking about, like, okay, 2026 is coming, and Sean t just
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released like a new workout program called dig in. And it's
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like a combination of strength training, like with weights, and
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also a program of his called insanity, which is all about,
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like, you know, using your own body strength, cardio fitness,
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which I'm trying to prep for the warmer months when I like to run
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outside. My sweetie runs all year round outside. I'm like,
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yeah, no, I only like to run when it's like, you know,
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relatively like, decent weather and really hot, like, I love
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running in the summer. And I'm like, I want to come out of the
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shoot a little little stronger cardiovascular hit workouts,
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whatever. So Sean is, like, combine this in this new
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workout. Now it's pretty intense, right? You got to,
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like, you got to commit to this thing and like, you to do it for
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this number of days. Is this many phases? And I'm like, Okay,
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I want to hit the ground running in January. So I'm going to use
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December as my trial run. And I can, you can apply this to so
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many things, but let me explain what I mean. When you're all
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like, in your brain, like, oh yeah, jazz Dev, January, I'm
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going to like, I'm going to come out and I'm just going to do
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this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this, I'm going to
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put it on my schedule, I'm going to make it happen. And then you
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realize, no, I'm not. Then you realize, Oh no, my there's my
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squirrely little brain getting in my way again. There's my
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like, I don't feel like it, right? That inner critic, right?
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Like, who are you to think that you can do this? Or you hear all
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those excuses, I'm too tired, I'm too lazy, or whatever. One
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of the great things that December is good for. It's the
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perfect month for practicing taking these habits that you
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want to create, taking these sucker for like a trial run, and
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this way it's going to help you figure out, first of all, how
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you're going to respond and how you're going to react when
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things get tough. So let's say that there's a setback. Let's
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just say that there's a screw up with your schedule. Let's just
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say that something beyond your control happens. Like, who are
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you going to be? Like, how are you going to show up for that?
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And rather than going into January with these big ideas and
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these big plans and these big hopes and these big visions, and
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then you find yourself, like, slipping up, screwing up, not
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keeping your word to yourself. And then by February, you've,
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like, blown it, and you're like, fuck it. I'm not gonna do it.
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And here we are again. And then you stop beating yourself up,
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whatever, however you negatively talk to yourself. You're lazy,
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you're stupid, you never keep your word you blah, blah, blah,
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blah, blah. December is the perfect time to work out those
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kinks, right, to really get to figure out. Like, okay, so this
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is my plan. You can treat December like early January,
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and, yeah, I already know like December, Christmas, Hanukkah,
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like, all the quant, all these holidays are like, built in. So
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there's gonna be, like. Let's just say fitness was your thing,
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right? So there's going to be like, I'm busy, or I can't get
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to the gym today, or I can't do that, or I can't do this, and
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you get to practice how you're going to show up and how you're
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going to respond and what you can do instead. So rather than
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just like, throwing your hands up and saying, I already blew
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it, I might as well just eat the whole cake, or I didn't go to
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the gym today. There's different ways of like, you know, like
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setting things up, and this is a chance for you to practice and
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to take your new habits, these new habits you want to cultivate
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and create right to take them for a test drive. So working out
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is just like one of them. Let's just say your thing is like
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writing. So for me, one of the things that I'm doing is I'm
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doing a little sample day of, like, three days of writing
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where, like, just hear me out right? Like three days of
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writing where you try to write 500 words a day. Because there's
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a thing that I'm going to be doing in January where I might
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be possibly, I might just do it on my own, I don't know, but
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there's a group that I might be joining. It's kind of like I
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would just be like a silent person in the group, but meaning
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where they're setting it up, where you try to write 500 words
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a day for January. So that's like 250
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words is about a page. So you'd be trying to write about 60
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pages right in January for whatever you're working on, a
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novel, a book, a memoir, a self help, whatever you're working
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on, right. And so now in December, we get to have a
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little test run, right, a little trial run, to see how it feels
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over these three days, to see, like, Okay, how does it feel to,
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like, sit my ass down and, like, do this, like consecutively, and
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make a commitment to myself and like, whatever. So I'm just
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throwing out examples that you know, if you're not if working
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out isn't your thing, or you already have that habit locked
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in, right? Maybe it's something else, something creative. Maybe
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you're somebody who wants to draw every day or paint every
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day, or practice your guitar or play music or whatever, write
12:00
poetry like whatever your bag is, right? Maybe now in
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December, you can start to get creating a habit, so that by the
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time January comes around, you're already in the flow of
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it, man. You already have a little momentum. You already
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have a little you know, you've built some momentum, and you've
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set the tempo, you've set the pace, and you're starting to
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build that habitual muscle. You're starting to build it and
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stack it and add on to it, so that when the new year comes,
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you go into it, you've worked out the kinks, you've worked out
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the flaws, you've worked out your own kooky thinking, how you
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get in your own way, and you self sabotage, right? Let me
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give you another example. These books just happen to be sitting
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on my desk, so I have, I have a few books here, right? And
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they're part of my daily spiritual reading. So I read.
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First of all, I read every night before bed. I've been doing
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that, I don't know how long, right, but I always read. I get
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in bed and I read, and that's usually how I fall asleep right
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as I start to fall asleep. So I read every single day, a lot,
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but I also start my day with my DSP, my daily spiritual
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practice, but part of that is daily spiritual reading. So I
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have several books. Of course. I got A Course in Miracles, and,
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like a few others, a daily stoic, etc, and I normally was
13:21
reading them downstairs. These books, I brought them upstairs
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because I already know in January I want to do things
13:28
differently. I want to get my workout in. I want to get my
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stuff done. I want to come up. I want to do my daily reading. And
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then I want to, like, write, okay, so I'm just like, starting
13:37
to figure this out. And I'm like, Alright, I'm going to
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bring these books upstairs instead of downstairs. I brought
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him upstairs, I put him on my desk, and now I've missed NOT A
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Course in Miracles. That's that always gets done, but I've
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missed doing my daily spiritual reading of it's I'm only gonna
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end up missing one day because I'm gonna do it. As soon as I'm
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done with this podcast, I'm gonna read my two days and catch
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up. But the reason why I'm telling you this is because I'm
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out of the habit. I broke my momentum. I hadn't missed a day,
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and I don't know how long, because I had a routine, I had a
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rhythm, right? But now that I brought them upstairs, I broke
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the flow. And so I'm not in the habit yet, of like, oh yeah, I
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read these upstairs now. So now they're on my desk, and now I
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saw them, and I'm like, okay, as soon as I'm done this, I'm going
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to do it, but I'm going to tell you this. By the time, probably
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in a few more days, I will have built that muscle back up. It's
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just geographically different, right? The habit muscle is
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already built. I just have to get out of that little glitch
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that I had because I was like, Oh yeah, I usually have them
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downstairs first thing in the morning I see them, but now
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they're upstairs. So these are the things I'm talking about,
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where we can use December to work out, like, a few kinks and
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start to plan so don't wait until, like, like, I do a New
14:55
Year's Eve ritual. I've talked about this before on the
14:58
podcast, um. Um, and, you know? And that's when I really like
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map out. It's like a treasure map, right? It's kind of like
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having a playground with a lot of different, like, fun, like a
15:08
slide and some swings. And I'm like, Ooh, what do I want to do
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in 2026, or whatever, whatever the new year is, right? But this
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is, like, the, this is like laying the foundation for the
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new year. This is when you're starting to get the plot of soil
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ready. This is when you're starting to pick the flowers and
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the veggies and what you want to plant. This is when we start to
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think about, like, long term, like, what do I want to have?
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It's like, what do I what do I want the bounty of this to be?
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Right? And this is when we get to use this as a testing ground
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so that we can use this month, December, right, instead of
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jazzed up January, right? Like, you can truly roll into jazzed
15:47
up January, and you won't experience fuck it February,
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because you're gonna do discover December. Like, we're gonna use
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December to discover Right. Like, okay, this when I'm tired.
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This is what I tend to do. This is my plan. This is what I'm
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thinking. I'm going to start to play with these things. I'm
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going to start to lay that foundation like I said, get a
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little momentum, start to set the pace and set the tempo.
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Because why not go into the New Year feeling really grounded,
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feeling really like, you know, determined. I always say the 5d
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of a DSP of a daily spiritual practice is daily dedication,
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determination, discipline and devotion. So we move into the
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new year with these things already in place. And like I
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said, you get to you get to fuck up. Now you get to, like, make
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mistakes. Now you get to find your groove. Now, so that when
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January hits, you're like, I've got this I've already built some
16:45
momentum. I already have a little bit of mojo behind me.
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I'm already moving in that direction, right? So, like I
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said, whether it's physical work, whether it's mental work,
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whether it's emotional work, whether it's spiritual work, or
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goals or whatever, right now is when you get to give it a go,
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you know, and practice it a little bit. And so here's like
17:07
the action steps, right? The regular action steps always
17:10
stand, which is if you ever want to work together, right, if you
17:14
ever want to find out what I'm up to, if you want to get on my
17:16
email list, all that is at Karen kenney.com that is a no that is
17:20
like a standing action step for you to take. Right to go deeper
17:24
into this work, if you want to do one to one mentoring, if you
17:27
want to join the nest, my spiritual community and group,
17:31
all that you can find Karen kenney.com but some action steps
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for this podcast, in particular, this episode is, I just want you
17:39
to pick one new habit, one thing that you've been starting about
17:43
thinking about dreaming about wanting to write, like begin,
17:47
whether it's something you want to change or transform, or stat
17:51
or stop, or whatever the thing is, it could be like, I want to
17:54
stop drinking. I want to start, you know, walking every day,
17:57
whatever it is. I want to get better at, like, writing thank
18:00
you cards. I want to get better at having gratitude, looking
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for, as we say in A Course in Miracles, the good, the
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beautiful and the holy, right? So you're just going to pick a
18:08
new habit, and then you're going to start to practice it, and
18:14
then you're going to start to notice the kinks. You're going
18:16
to notice the places where you get in your own way, or where
18:19
you kind of like make mistakes or mess it up. And I want this,
18:23
like, I say in yoga so often, right? Like falling out of the
18:27
pose, you know, let's say you're trying to balance, and you're
18:29
trying to do something like tree posture, right? As an the asana,
18:33
the pose, the posture, trying to stand on one leg, and you fall
18:36
out. And I see people sometimes get so frustrated, and I can
18:39
already, like, if they had, like, a thought bubble above
18:42
their head, I could, like, just see the words where they're
18:44
beating themselves up. And I always have to remind people,
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hey, look, falling out of the pose is part of the practice.
18:51
This isn't a perfect. We don't call this a perfect. We call it
18:54
a practice. We're practicing way more than the postures, of
18:57
course. But I can see how frustrated people get, they say,
19:01
Hey, this is part of the practice. So in December, like,
19:05
you screwing up or forgetting, because it's just, like, with
19:07
the books, right? Like, it's not a habit, yet, it's like, okay,
19:10
this is something I want to keep an eye on, and you don't have to
19:13
beat yourself up, and you don't have to be mean to yourself. And
19:16
you just get to, like, you get to figure some stuff out before
19:20
you roll into, right? 2026, or whatever, new whenever you're
19:24
listening to this, whatever, whatever, New Year. And this is
19:27
the time when, like I said, we're laying the groundwork for
19:30
it. This is when we get to do all the weird stuff and bump up
19:34
against our bullshit and realize that, oh, I'm a little bit
19:37
lazier than I thought I was, or whatever the thing is, right?
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And I use those words, like, that's one of the things, is
19:43
that I have a certain amount of irreverence to me, meaning, I do
19:51
have things that are very like, sacred and whatever, but I also,
19:55
like, can laugh at myself, like when I say, like, oh, I guess
19:58
you're a little lazy. That's not me being. Mean to myself. That's
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me being fucking honest with myself. I'm not particularly
20:04
lazy person, but I'm just saying, right, there are times
20:07
when we're just like whiny, like, I don't feel like it
20:11
doesn't matter. I often will say to myself, it doesn't matter
20:13
that you don't feel like it you made a commitment, whether it's
20:17
to myself or to somebody else or to an animal or a person or a
20:21
cause, but like, you made a commitment, your word matters to
20:24
you, right? So we got to keep an eye on ourselves, because the
20:27
ego mind can be incredibly sneaky, but what a perfect
20:31
opportunity, right? So, like, don't wait until the end of the
20:34
month to think about, like, Oh yeah, I'm going to start January
20:38
one.
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Will you though, will you? Will you? Maybe you will. But then
20:44
it's so easy when you self sabotage, you'll to the brain
20:49
does this thing where it's like, Ah, fuck it. I already blew it.
20:52
Forget about it. It's like, no, let's do that. Now in December,
20:57
when the spirit is high, for a lot of people, I know it's also
21:00
the holidays are always difficult, especially if you're
21:04
grieving, especially if your family is a little, you know,
21:07
dysfunctional, or a lot dysfunctional, or whatever. I
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know that December can be a tough month for some people, and
21:14
I also want to say like that, that's perfect training ground.
21:19
I'm not being mean when I say this, but it's so easy to come
21:23
up with 1000 excuses in December for why you can't do something,
21:27
whether it's the holidays or you're busy or you're feeling
21:30
blue or you don't want to do it, or you just don't it's cold
21:33
outside, blah blah, right? So this is a chance to kind of
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like, set your intention, start to visualize, right? So that's
21:41
part of it, the action steps. Let's do this. That's a
21:43
visualize who and how you really want to be in 2026 not who you
21:48
are now, like, I want you to really see yourself. Like, sit
21:51
down, find a quiet place, close your eyes, deepen your breath,
21:55
run a movie in your mind, see how and who you want to be. What
21:59
are you saying? What are you doing, how are you feeling, what
22:02
are you thinking? What are you creating? See it as if it is
22:05
already done, right? And then you think, Okay, well, what are
22:09
the kind of things that I would need to do to have that be true,
22:12
to have that come true, right? You pick your habits, you pick
22:15
your your thought systems, love or fear. And then you're like,
22:19
Okay, I'm going to pick just one. Just start with one. You
22:22
can have it stack later, but just pick one new habit. Start
22:26
to practice it in December. Notice the kinks. Notice where
22:29
you get in your own way, all that stuff. Start to build some
22:32
momentum, build that muscle, that new habitual muscle, right?
22:36
And then set the tempo, set the pace. Lay the groundwork. Lay
22:40
the foundation for a jazz dev January, right? And if you pick
22:44
something in particular that you're a little like, you know,
22:48
sometimes we want to tell one other person we want to have
22:50
accountability. So if you just want to shoot me a little
22:53
message or a little email and say, Hey, this is what I'm
22:56
discovering in December, this is what I'm going to practice in
22:59
December. So I'm ready for jazz up January. You know what I
23:01
mean? And I would just be so honored if you decided to share
23:05
with me what you're up to. I got a few things that, and I already
23:09
have a lot of habits in place, so I can have it stacked pretty
23:12
easily. And I have things I've been doing for 30 years. So
23:16
those are just like a part of my identity. They're just what I
23:18
do. It's not like I don't even have to think about those things
23:21
anymore. They just happen. But sometimes there's new things.
23:24
When you're like, Okay, I have some goals, I have some dreams.
23:28
There's some things I want to accomplish. And right now, I can
23:31
tell you right now that there's like, three new things that I'm
23:34
practicing. And not not new, new, but new ways of doing them.
23:40
That's a better way of saying it, right? So I would love to
23:43
hear what yours are, and just thank you so much for tuning in.
23:46
I super duper appreciate you as always. What do I always say,
23:51
wherever you go, wherever you go in December and beyond, right?
23:56
May you leave the animals, the people, the place, the
24:00
environment and yourself better than how you found it wherever
24:04
you go, may you and your energy and your presence and your love
24:09
be a blessing. Bye.