Latest / The Diva Details / Discipline Into Character — The Daily Choices That Build a High‑Value Life
Transcript
- 0:01Welcome to the Diva Detail. Welcome to the Diva
- 0:05Detail, where bold, confident women embrace life unapologetically.
- 0:10From love and sex to wellness and reinvention,
- 0:14we keep it raw, real, and powerful. No filters,
- 0:19no limits, just fearless conversations to help you
- 0:22thrive. Let's dive in with Diva Mia.
- 0:30Well, hello, this is Diva Mia. And today we're going
- 0:34to talk about voting, but not voting in a political sense,
- 0:37voting for you, for the person either you are or
- 0:41the person you want to become. Every day you're casting votes for the person you
- 0:45are becoming. You cast them whether you want, what you
- 0:48want to eat, what you will tolerate, what you will postpone,
- 0:52how you speak to your children, how you treat your body.
- 0:55How you show up at work, and what you do when no one is watching.
- 0:59That's a vote. You can either vote to be the same way you are and
- 1:02stay stagnant, or you can vote to be something
- 1:05different. Most people think transformation begins with one big decision.
- 1:10They imagine a dramatic Monday morning when they finally become disciplined,
- 1:14organized, healthy, successful, emotionally mature, and completely
- 1:18unbothered by nonsense. That is very productive Monday.
- 1:22But that's not reality. Real transformations rarely
- 1:25happen. That way. It happens through ordinary decisions
- 1:29repeated long enough that they become evidence of
- 1:33who you are. Daily habits, basically. One workout
- 1:36will not transform your body into a bodybuilder, but it is a vote for becoming
- 1:40someone who takes care of their health. One honest conversation
- 1:44will not repair every relationship, but it's a vote for
- 1:48becoming someone who communicates with courage. One focused
- 1:52hour will not build an entire career, but it is a
- 1:55vote for becoming someone who follows through. So you
- 1:59see, every single step that we take, no matter how big, in the right direction
- 2:03is moving you to the person you want to become. The opposite's also true
- 2:08because every time you make an excuse, ignore a boundary, avoid a responsibility,
- 2:12or repeatedly choose comfort over growth, you are voting
- 2:16too. You do not get to abstain from the election of your future.
- 2:19Your repeated choices are always producing a result.
- 2:24Today we're talking about how discipline becomes character,
- 2:27how habits determine the direction of your growth, and why you
- 2:31must build habits around the person you want to become, not merely accommodate
- 2:36the person you are today. And that's the problem. I think people have habits
- 2:40around who they are today. They brush their teeth, they take a shower,
- 2:44they get up and have a cup of coffee, they have breakfast,
- 2:48and then they go to work. But is that what you want to become?
- 2:51Or do you need to create a habit of waking up in the morning,
- 2:54Brushing your teeth, going for a jog or a walk, getting some natural
- 2:57sunlight, maybe getting a workout in before you go to work.
- 3:00That's a habit of someone you want to become. We're gonna apply this
- 3:04to health, relationships, family, and career because your habits
- 3:08do not live in separate little boxes. They form a system of who
- 3:11you are. This system is either building your life or
- 3:14quietly dismantling it. The idea fits directly into
- 3:19who we are and what we wanna become. You want a better life with your
- 3:23whole heart and still maintain habits that reproduce the life you
- 3:27already have, it's not going to work. Desire tells you what
- 3:30you like, but habits will reveal what you are building. And you need
- 3:34to look at the habits of other people sometimes because people
- 3:38leave clues with what they do on a daily basis. If you want to get
- 3:42in shape, but you're eating like a normal American or have
- 3:46a Western diet, there's a bad habit there. If you want
- 3:50to get in shape, why don't you go see what leaves clues? Go look at
- 3:54people that are in shape. What are they eating? They tend to eat the same
- 3:57thing every single day. They eat at the same times every single day.
- 4:01They have a structured schedule. The person you are today is not
- 4:04the blueprint you should be following. One of the biggest mistakes people make is designing
- 4:08their habits around their current identity. We say, I am not
- 4:12a morning person. I'm just disorganized, or I've never been consistent, or I'm
- 4:16bad with money. I always choose the wrong relationship. We take our
- 4:20current pattern, which is where we currently exist, and turn it into a permanent
- 4:24identity. That's not who you are. Do not organize
- 4:27your life around protecting your current identity or protecting
- 4:31your ego. You get to choose who you become.
- 4:34Who you are today is not necessarily who you are meant to remain. You get
- 4:38to choose. Your current self is the result of previous
- 4:42beliefs, choices, environments, and habits. Some of those choices were deliberate.
- 4:47Some of them you fell into. Others developed while you were in survival
- 4:51mode, raising children, working, healing, or simply doing the best
- 4:54you could with what you knew at the time. But now you may know better,
- 4:58so choose a different habit. You do not need to hate your
- 5:01present self or to outgrow her. You can respect what
- 5:05you've survived and still admit that some of your habits cannot take
- 5:09you where you want to go. The better question is, what would the woman I
- 5:13want to become do consistently? How would I have
- 5:16to change on a daily basis to be that final
- 5:20person? If you want to become healthy, what does a healthy woman do on an
- 5:24ordinary Tuesday? Does she sleep in and then get up and do some laundry and
- 5:28then go back for a nap and then go and eat out at McDonald's?
- 5:31No, you got to do what a normal, healthy person would do. If you want
- 5:35a peaceful relationship, what does an emotionally healthy partner tolerate? Do you tolerate
- 5:39cheating? Do you tolerate lying? Do you tolerate a lack of communication
- 5:44or do you refuse it? If you want a close family, how does
- 5:48a present parent behave when she's tired? Does she snap
- 5:52at her children? Does she yell at them just because she's having a bad day?
- 5:55No. If you want a stronger career, what does a capable professional
- 6:00do before motivation arrives? They get to work. They do the stuff that
- 6:03needs to get done on a daily basis. You create the future version of yourself
- 6:07by practicing your behaviors before they feel fully natural.
- 6:11You gotta step outta your box. This is not pretending. This is training
- 6:15for the person you want to become. If discipline is often treated like punishment,
- 6:19people hear the word and picture deprivation. Rigid schedules
- 6:24or forcing themselves through a miserable life. That is not how
- 6:27I define it. Discipline is the ability to keep a commitment after the
- 6:31emotion that created it has long passed. It is self-respect
- 6:36expressed through behavior. Learn to respect and love
- 6:39yourself because that's what you need in this life. No one else is going to
- 6:43do it as much as you can and for the right reasons. Character is
- 6:46who you are consistently, especially when your choices are inconvenient
- 6:51and no one is applauding, when no one is watching. Character because repeated
- 6:55choices eventually stop being isolated actions.
- 6:58They become your normal response. At first, you have to remind yourself. You have
- 7:03to say, self, to tell the truth when the truth is uncomfortable,
- 7:06I don't feel comfortable doing this. Eventually, honesty becomes part
- 7:10of your character. At first, you have to force yourself to finish what you start.
- 7:13You have to. You may not like going to the gym. And this is what
- 7:17happens on January 1st every year. People start, they go to the gym, And after
- 7:21a week or two, they're still sore and they get sick of it and they
- 7:24quit, but they're just quitting a little bit too soon because by week 3,
- 7:27they would have been fine. Eventually reliability becomes part of your character.
- 7:31At first, you have to practice walking away from people who repeatedly violate
- 7:35your boundaries. You may have to walk away from things in order to say yes
- 7:40to things that you need to. Again, remember I said a few
- 7:43weeks ago that this is my month of no. I think I'm going to make
- 7:46the rest of the year though. If it doesn't serve me, my answer is going
- 7:49to be no. I'm not allowing anything into my life. This is a new boundary
- 7:53I have that violates me in any way. Eventually,
- 7:55self-respect becomes part of your character because you have great
- 7:59boundaries. This is why small habits matter more than
- 8:03they appear to matter. You're not only completing
- 8:06a task, you're creating proof and evidence for yourself
- 8:10that you can do something. These small habits lead to bigger accomplishments.
- 8:15Every complete promise tells your mind, I can trust myself. I respect myself.
- 8:19And when you trust yourself, every abandoned promise teach— teaches you
- 8:23the opposite. And we don't need to abandon ourselves. We need to love ourselves
- 8:28and trust ourselves. That does not mean missing one workout or having one bad day
- 8:31destroys your complete identity that you've now created as your new purpose. Perfection is
- 8:35not the goal. The danger comes when the exception becomes the pattern
- 8:39and the pattern becomes the excuse. Then all you have is excuses
- 8:42and victimhood and a bad mindset. Strong character is not built
- 8:46by never failing. It is built by correcting quickly when you fall down. You notice
- 8:50the drift, take accountability, and return to the standard without turning
- 8:54one mistake into a 6-month vacation from your goals,
- 8:58cuz you're not gonna hit 'em. Growth is built into your, your routine, and growth
- 9:02is not an abstract idea. You can read books about growth, listen to podcasts,
- 9:06buy a beautiful planner for growth, and still remain exactly where
- 9:10you are. Growth requires repeated behavior that stretches your capabilities and
- 9:13pushes you outta your comfort zone. All you people out there stuck in your comfort
- 9:17zone and enjoying it and happy, fat and happy in whatever you're doing. You've got
- 9:21to come out of your comfort zone to grow. A useful habit should at least
- 9:24be one of 4 things. You either protect what matters, you remove what
- 9:27weakens you, you develop a needed ability, or you move towards a meaningful
- 9:32result. If you're not doing one of those 4 things, you don't have a useful
- 9:35habit. Some habits protect your health, peace, mind, time, money,
- 9:39relationships. Some remove distractions.
- 9:42Sometimes relationships are distractions. Sometimes people are destructive.
- 9:47Or you have excess spending or poor food choices or unnecessary
- 9:51chaos, or you're not going to bed at time. A lot of people say they
- 9:54don't sleep well, but they go to bed at midnight and then they wonder why
- 9:56they're not getting enough sleep when they have to get up at 6 o'clock in
- 9:59the morning for work. That's a distraction. Some things develop strength,
- 10:03patience, competence, but you know, we need to develop more emotional
- 10:07control. Others move us to a specific goal, such as completing a degree.
- 10:11But these are all things that are habits. If your routine does none of these
- 10:15things, it's keeping you busy without helping you grow. If your routine is
- 10:18not getting you to where you need to be, you're just going through the busywork.
- 10:22You're just doing what you've always done, expecting a different result. And that's
- 10:25the definition of insanity, as they say. Growth requires periodic
- 10:29discomfort. It's just going to, you're going to have to change your habits, learn to
- 10:32enjoy change and learn to enjoy discomfort.
- 10:36And you will see your life get so much better in such a short
- 10:40period of time because you enjoy change and you enjoyed growth and you're Loving
- 10:45the discomfort. A habit that once challenged you may eventually become
- 10:48maintenance. Walking 1 mile may represent enormous progress at first.
- 10:52I mean, especially for me, I had surgery, so I can't walk at all right
- 10:55now, but I'll be back to walking a mile next week. Having 1
- 10:58difficult conversation may be a major breakthrough. A later growth may
- 11:02require you to stop repeating the same boundaries and finally enforce it
- 11:06and end a relationship. Your habits should evolve as you evolve.
- 11:10The standard is not endless suffering. The standard is honest progression.
- 11:14Constant and never-ending improvement. Again, enjoy the growth.
- 11:18Let's begin with the health because without your health, you have nothing. Your body
- 11:21is your vehicle carrying you through every part of your life. Many people
- 11:25create health habits around the body they have today. They're okay. They're comfortable
- 11:29in their body. They may have a little bit of belly fat. They eat based
- 11:32on current cravings. You know, they move based on current energy.
- 11:36They sleep when they need to and they get up and then they take a
- 11:38bath so they don't smell or shower. Then they wonder why they're future
- 11:42body never arrives. They're like, crap, I've been working out every day doing the
- 11:46exact same thing I did yesterday and the day before, and nothing's changing.
- 11:49If you want to become healthier, stronger, and more capable, your schedule must contain
- 11:53evidence of that intention. You can't keep doing what
- 11:57you did before expecting a different result. You might include planning meals
- 12:01before hunger actually happens. Keep your medical appointments. Take your prescriptions
- 12:05if you have any on time. Strength train. Ladies, you're going to have to lift
- 12:09some weights with progressive overload. That's how you get stronger and more muscular.
- 12:13Increase your step count. If you're only walking 10,000
- 12:17steps a day, maybe go to 12,000. See what that helps. Protect your sleep.
- 12:20Sleep is so important. It's the foundation for everything related to health. Water as
- 12:24well. There's people that are going through life chronically dehydrated and they're wondering why they're
- 12:28not losing weight, but you're chronically dehydrated. If you're constantly stressed,
- 12:32increasing your cortisol, that's also going to prevent you from losing weight and allow—
- 12:36you've got to allow recovery for your body as well. Health discipline also means refusing
- 12:40the all-or-nothing mentality. People often believe that if they cannot complete their perfect workout,
- 12:45cook the perfect meal, or follow the plan perfectly, there's no
- 12:49point in doing it. You gotta get over that. If you can't make it to
- 12:53the gym for 2 hours today, and you usually go for 2 hours, but you
- 12:55made it for 30 minutes, good on ya. That is how perfectionism disguises itself as
- 12:59an excuse. Don't let it. Take the little wins when you can. A 20-minute
- 13:02walk still casts a vote towards your, where you're going. Going to
- 13:06bed 30 minutes earlier still casts a vote. Maybe you need to go to bed
- 13:083 hours earlier, but you're getting there. Do 30 minutes a day. 30 minutes
- 13:12a day earlier. Choose the better meal when the perfect meal is unavailable. When you
- 13:15go to a restaurant, don't say, oh man, I just— I deserve this,
- 13:19I'm gonna eat whatever I want. No, find something that is improving upon
- 13:23what you used to eat. Resting appropriately after an injury is also a
- 13:27vote, like I'm doing right now, because it's not reckless to rest.
- 13:31Although I'm still getting around and still getting about 8,000
- 13:35steps in a day, even though I have an ankle that just had surgery.
- 13:39Sometimes the discipline choice is pushing forward and sometimes it's also allowing
- 13:43the body to heal. Instead of doing 8,000 steps in a row,
- 13:46I'm doing little sections of steps. I get up every hour and I move.
- 13:49The question is not whether every health decision is impressive.
- 13:53The question is whether you, your usual decisions support the body and life you
- 13:56really want. What health outcomes are you trying to pursue? You need
- 14:01to determine that. What would a person who achieves that outcome do every
- 14:04single day? It's not like we can't find the information today. The information
- 14:09Inspiration is everywhere. Figure out what you wanna do and then go out and look
- 14:11at your favorite person on Instagram and find out what their habits are. Which one
- 14:15of these actions can become automatic in your life? Do not create 12
- 14:19new health habits overnight. It, it's, it will overwhelm
- 14:22you and you won't be able to keep up. That usually produces 12 abandoned habits
- 14:26by next Thursday. Choose the habit with this greatest leverage that you
- 14:30can utilize and incorporate right away so you can see more results.
- 14:33Man, it might be just getting to bed on time. Or daily walking, or get
- 14:37that food out of the house that's triggering you. Sometimes if
- 14:41you just change your grocery shop and to only incorporate foods that aren't
- 14:45processed, that makes a huge benefit to you. But you've got to build proof
- 14:49and evidence and then expand on, on it. When it comes to relationships,
- 14:52relationships are governed by habits as well. We don't even realize it. We usually
- 14:57think of relationships in terms of feelings, chemistry, and major events, but the quality of
- 15:01a relationship is built through repeated interactions. Healthy relationship
- 15:05habits include telling the truth, asking direct questions, listening without preparing
- 15:09a defense in advance. If you're lying to your partner,
- 15:12that's a habit that's wrong and it's going to end up destroying
- 15:15a relationship. Sometimes you need positive— you need to express
- 15:19appreciation for your partner, honor the agreements you have with your partner,
- 15:22observe their patterns as well, repair conflict and enforce boundaries
- 15:26when it needs to. Sometimes we make excuses for dishonesty
- 15:31because we're comfortable, but you can't ignore what behavior is showing
- 15:34you. Trying to rescue people from consequence and staying silent for
- 15:38temporary peace and giving unlimited access to someone who has
- 15:42not demonstrated integrity. You can have a strong desire for a
- 15:46loyal relationship while maintaining the habit of overlooking disloyal behavior.
- 15:50That's not good. You can say you want emotional safety
- 15:53while repeatedly choosing people who create confusion or
- 15:56are disloyal. You can claim that communication matters while
- 16:00expecting another person to read your mind. Your standards do
- 16:04not exist because you wrote them on a list. They exist when you choose to
- 16:08enforce them. That applies to how you treat other people too.
- 16:11If you want a mature relationship, you must practice being a mature partner.
- 16:15That means communicating clearly instead of testing someone or trying to manipulate
- 16:20them. You need to keep your word and take accountability when you are wrong
- 16:24and refuse to use affection as a substitute for honesty.
- 16:29A powerful relationship habit is the weekly truth check. Ask yourself,
- 16:32what did this person's behavior consistently communicate
- 16:36this week? Were they loving? Did they come across as being
- 16:39deceptive? Did they, did my behavior communicate? Did I speak when something
- 16:43mattered? Did I talk up? Did I ask questions? Did I accept something
- 16:47that contradicts my values? Am I attached to the person in front
- 16:51of me and that's why I'm allowing things to go by that I don't
- 16:54like? Or the potential I keep assigning to them or him or
- 16:58her. That check prevents isolated romantic moments from erasing
- 17:02a pattern. You need to journal this stuff when it comes to health and chemistry
- 17:07and relationships, because chemistry can be exciting, but consistency
- 17:11is true evidence. Family habits are the repeated behaviors as well that
- 17:14create the emotional culture of a home. Children learn far
- 17:18more from what we normalize than from what we lecture.
- 17:22They're watching you. So the way you react with the people in your relationships
- 17:27has a huge impact on your children as well. If you tell your children that
- 17:31health matters, but never take care of yourself, they notice.
- 17:34If you tell them that education matters, but treat learning as a
- 17:38punishment, they notice that too. And respect, you got
- 17:42to respect yourself for them to respect themselves. Well, because while watching you
- 17:46tolerate disrespect, they notice that. And if you're in a relationship where you're constantly disrespected,
- 17:51that's teaching them how to react and how to be with their next partner when
- 17:55they become an adult. And it can create long-lasting traumatic
- 17:59events for children. This is not being about being a perfect partner.
- 18:03Perfect partners do not exist, but children would probably
- 18:06find them exhausting if they did. It's about creating consistency
- 18:11and evidence around the values you want your family to carry and
- 18:14how they will react when they become adults and have their own partners.
- 18:18Family habits might include eating out together without phones,
- 18:21checking in individually with each child, maintaining predictable routines.
- 18:25Just when you pick them up from school, just say, hey, how was your day?
- 18:29And talk to them. Don't just say fine and accept that. And then maybe discuss
- 18:33mistakes without humiliating them. That's a good thing to do. There's no
- 18:37need to humiliate a child to make a point. Assign age-appropriate
- 18:42responsibilities as well. Kids should be doing chores. It actually helps them
- 18:46learn and develop as a better human being. Show up for important events that
- 18:50are important to them and apologize when you do something wrong.
- 18:53Accountability really does belong here because loving your children does not
- 18:57mean protecting them from every consequence. They need to be held
- 19:00accountable. It means preparing them to function in a world that will eventually
- 19:05hold them responsible for the things they do and their actions. When you require them
- 19:09to tell the truth, complete responsibility, respect for other people,
- 19:13and repair the damage they cause, you are helping them build
- 19:17character. You are also accountable for, as an adult, for repeatedly allowing your
- 19:21family's environment to be unstable. Friends or partners and
- 19:25relatives influence the standards your children observe. So bring people
- 19:29into your children's life that are positive. Do not be having people in your children's
- 19:33life that are bad influences on you or them. You cannot control every
- 19:37person, but you can control who receives consistent access to your home
- 19:41and your family life. If you are married or divorced or
- 19:45in a relationship or not, it doesn't matter. Friends impact this
- 19:49as well. One practical family habit is a short weekly meeting. You can ask them
- 19:53what went well, if there's anything that needs attention. It's just kind
- 19:56of a check-in to see if there's anything you can fix in the family.
- 19:59Keep it simple. You do it in your business, why not do it with your
- 20:02family? And 10 intentional minutes can prevent an entire week of avoidable conversations,
- 20:07and it lets the children feel valued. Family closeness is not built only
- 20:12through vacations, holidays, and photographs. It's built in daily ordinary moments
- 20:16when people feel seen, guided, safe, and responsible.
- 20:19And then let's talk career. Career growth is where people often overestimate
- 20:23the power of ambition and underestimate the power of routine. They that a
- 20:28successful career does not create value unless you'd have a groundbreaking moment,
- 20:31but skill, reliability, judgment,
- 20:34relationships, and useful output create the value in careers long-term.
- 20:39Those are developed through habits. That's why when you can
- 20:42have a career habit include starting important work before checking every
- 20:47notification on your phone, continuing your education,
- 20:50follow up, document commitments, meet your deadlines.
- 20:54Get a certification if you need to, and ask people for feedback,
- 20:57what they think of you, not just what you think of them. Improve your
- 21:01weak skills and maintain professional relationships.
- 21:04These all things make measuring results instead of confusing activities
- 21:08with progress, because you can get into a job, do stuff for
- 21:12an entire year that doesn't move the needle, and then wonder why
- 21:16you're not getting promoted. You need to constantly reevaluate.
- 21:20And look at what you're doing. There's a difference between having a busy day and
- 21:24producing something that matters. You can get in and check email all day long
- 21:27and you didn't produce anything. You can answer messages for 8
- 21:31hours and avoid the one task that would have moved your business forward.
- 21:34Maybe you need to do something with your accounting. Maybe you need to do something
- 21:38with your marketing and you're avoiding it. But why? You can attend meetings all
- 21:42day long, redesign your logo 15 different ways, and reorganize your desk.
- 21:45While never making that sales call that needed to happen or writing that
- 21:49chapter or submitting the proposal or finishing the product or project
- 21:54that you needed to complete. This is productive procrastination. That's really what it
- 21:58is. You're procrastinating all day long. It looks responsible because you're at
- 22:02your job, you're working, you're protecting yourself from criticism while keeping
- 22:05you safely away from the work that can be judged.
- 22:08But the future version of you does not merely work harder.
- 22:12You need to learn to work smarter. You need to work with greater intention.
- 22:16You need to know which actions create results and give those actions protected
- 22:21time because our time is so limited on this planet. Don't give it
- 22:25away to projects or things that don't move you forward.
- 22:29Don't waste your time on inadequate things. Choose one career
- 22:32habit that directly produces value. It may be
- 22:361 hour of uninterrupted writing, maybe 5 meaningful
- 22:40client contacts every day, 30 minutes of skill development,
- 22:431 recruiting conversation, every day and create
- 22:47a habit around it and make those most important things happen before noon,
- 22:50because then you can track it. Track your output, not just your effort.
- 22:54Effort matters, but the marketplace responds to value
- 22:57created. So if you're not creating any value, you're not going to
- 23:01get rewarded because you're not creating anything. If your career is not progressing, do not
- 23:05immediately assume you're undervalued. Examine whether your habits are producing evidence
- 23:10at the level you expect to be rewarded. When your habits conflict,
- 23:13one reason changes difficult is that our habits often compete
- 23:17with each other. You may have a habit of working late that
- 23:21conflicts with your health goals. You may have a habit of avoiding
- 23:25conflict that undermines your relationship goals. You may say family
- 23:29is priority while giving your phone the best of your attention all the time and
- 23:33ignoring your family when you're sitting right next to them. You may want career growth
- 23:36while surrounding yourself with people who treat ambition like a character flaw and
- 23:40constantly complain about money. When goals conflict, Your calendar
- 23:44reveals the winner. Your consistency reveals the winner, and your habits
- 23:48are their truth tellers. This is where you need a hierarchy of values. You cannot
- 23:52give every goal maximum attention every single day.
- 23:56You have to prioritize. You have to decide what must remain protected.
- 24:00During one session, you can require extra hours in one
- 24:04area if it's a priority. During another, maybe your health is more
- 24:07important or your family. Every season is different. A temporary imbalance can
- 24:11be intentional. Permanent neglect is something else. Which habit is helping
- 24:15one goal while damaging another? Perhaps you do not need to
- 24:19stop working hard. You need a firm stopping time. Perhaps you
- 24:23do not need to give up social time. You just need friends who support your
- 24:27standards. Maybe it's time to change your friend group. Perhaps you do not need
- 24:31a perfect morning routine. You need to prepare the night before. Better habits often
- 24:35come from better design, not stronger willpower. Your environment
- 24:39matters too. Your environment either makes a habit easier or forces you
- 24:44to negotiate your with yourself over time. If you can't find something,
- 24:47you're spending all your time looking for something that's going to really have a detrimental
- 24:51impact on your time use. If you want to eat differently, arrange your kitchen so
- 24:56the better choice is visible and available, or just don't buy the groceries that
- 25:00are bad for you. If you want to read, place the book where you normally
- 25:03reach for your phone. If you want focused work, turn off notifications
- 25:07during the day and create a protected block of calendar, or put your
- 25:11phone in the drawer and turn it off. If you want healthier relationships, stop giving
- 25:14immediate access to people who repeatedly disturb your peace. Add friction
- 25:19to habits you want to reduce and make it easier for the habits you want
- 25:22to increase. Remove the app. Stop buying that food. Move the
- 25:26television out of the bedroom, for Pete's sakes. Unsubscribe from the distractions. You don't
- 25:31have to be on every social media app. If it's not leading you to
- 25:34a better place in your life, maybe it's time to get rid of some of
- 25:38them or create distances from the person who keeps inviting
- 25:41you back into the same destructive cycle. You know who they are.
- 25:45Reduce friction for your habits as well. If you have habits
- 25:49you want to increase, find ways to make it easier. Prepare your clothes the night
- 25:53before so you can get up and go to the gym. Schedule your appointments in
- 25:56advance and automate payments for your bills. That way you don't spend so
- 26:00much time paying them. Put your workout on your calendar so you get
- 26:04there every day and put a reminder in. Decide tomorrow's priority before today's
- 26:07end. Every night you should be deciding. You should still develop
- 26:11willpower, but there's no prize for making every good decision unnecessarily
- 26:16difficult. Use your environment intelligently. Don't let your environment
- 26:20negatively impact you. Maybe you need to organize your house,
- 26:23get rid of some stuff. I'm purging right now. That can help
- 26:27with your habits. So today, if you can, take out a piece of paper.
- 26:30If you're not, if you're driving, don't do this. Under each section,
- 26:34answer 5 questions. Who do I want to become in
- 26:37this area? Whether it's your health, maybe your finances, your career,
- 26:42your family, your relationships. And do not write only in outcomes.
- 26:45Don't say, I just want to lose weight. You need to be specific. I want
- 26:48to become, I want to weigh a specific amount by a certain
- 26:51date. I want a promotion by a certain date. And then secondly,
- 26:55which habit supports your identity? Give yourself credit for
- 26:59what is already working, but also growth is easier when you build from evidence.
- 27:03Instead of acting as if you have never done anything right.
- 27:06So figure out what habits will help you improve your identity.
- 27:10Which current habits contradicts this identity? So be honest,
- 27:13because this is the time to answer no and take things out of
- 27:17your life that obviously are not working for you. Are you skipping workouts because
- 27:21you have to drive all the way across town to get to your gym when
- 27:24there's a gym 2 minutes from your house you could walk to?
- 27:27It may be subtle, like staying up late scrolling because nighttime
- 27:32is the only time you feel no one needs you. But maybe you put a
- 27:35timer on your phone. I've recently done that. I put timers on my phones for
- 27:38social media. So I only have 30 minutes a day for social media. That was
- 27:42a huge help. The goal is not to shame yourself. The goal is to identify
- 27:47what is actually happening. And sometimes we have to put boundaries around ourselves.
- 27:51Fourth, next question. What is the smallest repeatable action
- 27:54that would cast a better vote for you? Choose something specific.
- 27:58Maybe you need to be healthier. Maybe you need to wait. For an hour before
- 28:01you have breakfast. Maybe you need to work on improving your relationships or
- 28:05have a phone-free check-in every day with your children or family.
- 28:09And then if it's growing your career, maybe growing your career is not a habit,
- 28:12but if it is, maybe you need to spend 60 minutes on education a
- 28:15day in your career field, not 3 hours doing email.
- 28:19Fifth, when and where will you do it? You gotta make a decision.
- 28:23Life is fleeting and passes us by. A habit without a time and place remains
- 28:27just a wish. It's a Attach it to something that already
- 28:31is happening or put it together so you can make little tiny incremental
- 28:35improvements on a daily basis. Maybe you're going to walk after coffee. Maybe you'll
- 28:39review your daily priorities every night before you go to bed after dinner. Maybe you
- 28:43take a family walk. That's what my children and I do now. We take a
- 28:46family walk every night before bed. Before I agree to a request,
- 28:50you're going to have to check your calendar and time block things. Every Friday,
- 28:54you can review what your work actually produced. And then you can also
- 28:58review. You need to track things. Data collection is all about
- 29:01tracking. Then run this experiment for 30 days. Just every single
- 29:05day, do the 5 or 6 habits. Every 30 days, implement a new 5
- 29:09or 6 habits and see how much you grow. If you miss something, you get
- 29:12sick, you have to travel, you have surgery, your schedule changes,
- 29:15or the goal is not to— it's not to build a life so rigid that
- 29:18one interruption breaks it. It's when you miss it, do 3 things.
- 29:22First, tell the truth about why you missed it. Do not create drama
- 29:26around it or an excuse. Tell the truth to yourself. Second, identify where
- 29:30the failure came from in the habit itself or the way
- 29:34you designed it. Sometimes the failure is the habit itself.
- 29:37Sometimes it's just because we made it too complicated or too much.
- 29:41Maybe you want to go from walking 5,000 steps to walking
- 29:4430,000 steps a day. That's, that's tough. Maybe you need to increase
- 29:49it over time. So that may be in the habit itself. And then third,
- 29:52return at the next reasonable opportunity. You might have
- 29:56to modify the habit, but do not wait for next Monday. If you can get
- 29:58back to walking tomorrow, do that. Here's your challenge for the week. Choose one identity
- 30:03statement as well. I am becoming a woman who does what? Complete the sentence in
- 30:07the way you want to. Make your habit around it. I want you to have
- 30:09habits in every single area, not just one. Keep it small enough though
- 30:14to repeat it meaningfully and then check it off every day that you've done it.
- 30:16That's one vote in your column. At the end of the week, do not ask
- 30:20whether you became a completely different person. Ask whether you became better
- 30:24than you were the day before or the week before. This is how confidence will
- 30:28grow for you as well. Not from telling yourself that you are capable while repeatedly
- 30:32breaking your own commitments, but by giving yourself reason to trust
- 30:36yourself again and to trust what you say. Your future is not created
- 30:40only in the moments that feel important. It is created through the choices
- 30:44that seem too small to matter. The daily consistent habits,
- 30:48the meal, the bedtime, the boundary, the apology, All those
- 30:51things help. The phone call to the person you really wanna talk to. Maybe you
- 30:55wrote a page in your— in a book. Maybe you made a promise and you
- 30:58kept it. Those decisions begin to help you trust yourself again.
- 31:02Your habits are always voting. They are voting for your health or against
- 31:06it. They are voting for your stronger relationships or recurring confessions and
- 31:09confusions. They are voting for a connected family or distracted
- 31:14household. They are voting for professional growth or continual frustration.
- 31:17You get to choose. You don't have to become your future self overnight or
- 31:21today. You do need to stop asking your current habits to produce a future
- 31:25though. They were never designed to create. Build your habits off the person
- 31:30you wanna become. Repeat them until discipline becomes character. Then let
- 31:34the character shape the life you once thought required a miracle.
- 31:38That's how you build a life, a high-value life. If this episode
- 31:42made you think about the votes you're casting, share it with someone. Who is
- 31:45ready to make a change in their life and embrace that change. Follow The Diva
- 31:50Details wherever you listen and leave a review so other people can find the show.
- 31:54And again, feel free to reach out if you have an idea or you want
- 31:57me to talk about something, feel free. Until the next time, pay attention, stay strong,
- 32:01and love your life you choose.
- 32:11Visit thedivadetails.com to connect.
- 32:15See you next week for more.
- 32:20Diva Details podcast and website are intended solely for informational and entertainment purposes. The content
- 32:24provided does not constitute professional medical, financial, or legal advice. We are not licensed medical
- 32:27practitioners, financial advisors, or legal professionals. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider for medical
- 32:31advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Any financial topics discussed are based on personal opinions and experience
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- 32:40or damages arising from the use of our content. The opinions expressed in the podcast
- 32:42are solely those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of any
- 32:44affiliated organizations, sponsors, or partners. All facts discussed in the podcast are researched and accurate
- 32:47to the best of our knowledge at the time of recording. Information may change over
- 32:49time. No guarantees are made regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any statements or
- 32:52opinions presented. It is the responsibility of the listener to verify any and all facts
- 32:54that may influence their decision. This podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only and
- 32:57should not be considered professional advice.