Do ONE Thing Different and Change Your Life
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Fairface Podcast transcript / show notes
Hello my friends! Welcome back to an other episode of the Fairface Podcast! I hope you've been having a wonderful summer!
Just a quick note, I hope none of the outside noises get in the way of this episode today. We have a big construction project going on down the street and sometimes it sounds a lot closer than it actually is. It's going to be going on for like a year. So it drives me nuts, but hopefully the sounds of the trucks won't come through.
It's been a while. I unintentionally took July off from podcasting. After I posted the Sensitive Skin Traveling Tips, that I thought would be the most helpful for summer, we went to visit family, had family in town, and then suddenly it was August. So it kind of went by fast.
We are still in limbo as far as our living arrangements go. We were supposed to move from our current rental house (they are sadly going to tear this down and create a new development on this property) but we got an extension so we're still here, but we're living among boxes, and are still a little in limbo about when exactly we have to leave, and where we are going, so it's been a weird summer as far as that is concerned...and the saga continues, so I'm trying to live life as normally as I possibly can and enjoy this extended time we have in this lovely little house and property, and to enjoy the rest of the summer. Right now it's August 11th and for us here in Seattle the weather is still beautiful and hopefully will be for the rest of this month.
How ONE Decision can Change your Day
Today's post was actually sparked this morning by ONE decision I made.
Today I went for a morning walk.
It's not something I did yesterday, or the day before, or for a very long time for that matter.
On most mornings during this same time, I am usually sitting in the front room with the early morning light streaming in the windows, while I scroll thru Instagram, waiting to have breakfast with my husband.
But this morning, I decided to follow my new mantra, which is to:
Do 1 Thing Different Each Day and see how it affects the trajectory of my day and of my life.
We've heard the saying a million times, something like,
"If you keep doing the things you've always done, you'll just keep living the life you've always lived."
Which leaves room for contentment, but not much for growth.
And if things currently are not working for you, then you want to figure out how to change that.
I like a quote by Jane Hamill, a business coach, who said, in reference to small business,
"What would it look like if it was working for you?"
And you can apply that to life too. What would your daily life look like, if it was working for you? How would your decisions be different or your schedule look different or your habits be different if it was working for you?
So how are things going for you?
- Some of you have kids that have just gone back to school. Other's are anticipating their first day back.
- Others are watching children leave home to head off to college or other pursuits.
- Some of you have babies at home you are taking care of.
- Others are maybe starting new businesses or juggling work and family.
There are so many different scenarios.
Play the What-if Game
Do you feel like you are happy and content?
Or are you feeling like I do right now, where you're "just fine", but also feel like it wouldn't hurt to make some changes, or to shake things up a little to create different results?
I've played a game in my head many times but haven't ever done it. What if I asked one of my sisters to create a schedule for me that I had to follow for one week? What would that look like and could I do it?
It's kind of like what they do on those swap shows, where they trade places with another family and have to follow the other family's routine and rules, which are often very unfamiliar and unlike their own.
Honestly, I would be afraid my sister would make me wake up really early, run a mile or do push-ups or something, or make dinner every night. I've never asked any of my sisters to to that, but do you think you would be up for a challenge like that?
It would definitely jump start change and get us out of our own heads and habits, and maybe even a stir up a little resentment to whoever created the new schedule.
But it certainly would shake things up and change your perspective and routine.
Walk in Someone Else's Shoes
Or I've also thought, what if I came at if from another perspective, such as
What would it look like if I was a person who was super active and motivated in the morning? (like I'm guessing someone like Brendon Burchard or another business or life coach) probably would be.
What would it look like to walk in their shoes for a day?
It would probably be both exhilarating and exhausting.
- Or, what might my life look like if I was a person who always ate healthy meals?
- Or who always took a walk after dinner?
- Or a person who only watched tv for an hour a day?
- Or what if I was the kind of person who actually made my bed every morning? That's always a controversial question.
Would any of these small decisions and changes in my normal routine, change the trajectory of my day and even collectively over time, the trajectory of my life?
So my challenge to myself and to you, if you're up for it, is to:
- Look at the week ahead (but you can start today if you want to like I did) and choose to do ONE thing different than you would normally do, every day for a week and just see what happens.
So if you observe what your normal patterns are every day, just do one thing differently than you normally would, to shake things up.
How to Decide what to Change
In order to decide what it is you might want to shake up, you could start by observing how you feel after you do certain things throughout your day.
Like maybe you're exhausted, like I am at the end of the day, when it's time to make dinner. That's the last thing I have energy for or interest in doing and I wish it could magically just appear on the table in front of me.
So, what if, instead of waiting to make dinner at night when you're tired, maybe you try putting it in the crockpot in the morning when you have energy, so by the end of the day, you really can snap your fingers and dinner is served. That sounds really good to me. I think that is going on my list of things to do this week.
Another ONE thing differently I'm going to try to see how I feel, is changing up what I do after I ship out orders during the week.
So usually, after I go to the Post Office and drop off my outgoing washcloth orders, I come home and eat lunch while I turn on a Home Renovation show on HGTV.
It has become kind of a reward and relaxation time like it would be taking a lunch break at a regular job. For me, this pattern is very habitual. Like in the way that I almost feel weird if I don't do it when I come back from the Post Office. That's just something I do and have always done and I enjoy it.
However, one thing about this routine, is that I find it is harder sometimes to switch back into my work brain after I've just let it sit and consume tv for 45 minutes while I'm eating lunch.
The longing is to keep watching another episode and another episode or to see what's on another channel...so it's like slowly ripping off the band aid to get back to work, when my brain is longing for more distraction. That's not helpful to my motivation or my creativity or my productivity and takes me much longer sometimes to get back into my work flow.
So the question I've asked myself, is how might my energy, my motivation, my productivity and creativity feel if I do something different after dropping off my washcloth orders.
So instead of eating lunch and watching HGTV, what if I eat lunch at the table, and do something that stimulates my brain differently, that is more active, like turning on music or taking a walk around the block and listening to a podcast.
So that's one of the things I'm going to try and then observe how it makes me feel and if I want to actually break up that normal habit and never go back to it.
Your Brain Will Reward You
As you are trying these new things this week, one AMAZING thing about your brain, is that just your anticipation and excitement about imagining what can happen as you try something different, it will also excite your brain and release dopamine.
You will get a pleasure hit that can improve your ability to think and plan, strive, and focus, and find an interest in things. (-sources: Berkley. edu, webmd)
In anticipation of a reward, and in particular, *the unpredictability of a reward*, it actually increases anticipation and how much dopamine is released. (-webmd)
So we can get more of the "feel good" dopamine, just by planning out and trying new things. That's pretty amazing!
And these small changes, just ONE a day, you can either decide to keep doing or move on to try something else.
This is a great way to create habits and change old patterns that have a tendency to keep us stuck and unaware of what new possibilities even lie out there for us.
Small Changes, Big Impacts
So while taking a walk this morning may have only been a small change from my normal routine, it made a big impact on the way I feel, the decisions I made after my walk, and my perspective about the future.
I hope listening to this episode can do the same thing for you! Let me know if it helps! I really hope that it will. I'd love to hear from you.
If you're interested in more on this type of topic, you can go back and listen to episode 31, I posted back in February, 5 Ways to Reboot your Energy where I talk more about ways to help you keep moving forward with a little more motivation and positivity.)
Well, this episode was a little shorter, but I really wanted to share it with you this morning because it really made an impact on me and I hope it can help you too. I hope you've enjoyed it.
And if you're on Instagram come by and say hi! I really love connecting with you and you can find me @FairfaceWashcloths on both IG and Facebook. I would love to hear from you and hear what you think about this episode and share it with someone you think it might help as well.
Thanks so much, as always, for being here and I will see you next time!
