Episode 136, The easiest way to make Habits a part of your life!

Simplify Your Sales and Business meetings. Lisa Thal is an Author, Speaker, and Business Coach. She has over 35 years of marketing, sales, and leadership experience. She wrote the book "Three Word Meetings."  Lisa coaches leaders on simplifying sales and business meetings with fun and interesting 3-word  topics to get your sales team motivated and inspired.

 

What helps you establish a good habit? These three words: Behavior, Time, and Location.

 

Hello, Three Word Podcasters! If this is your first time, welcome. I am your host Lisa Thal, and I share my thoughts on three-word topics to help engage and inspire you and those you lead.

 

I am sharing insights from James Clear's book Atomic Habits to help define whom you want to be and create a habit to help you exceed your goals this year.

 

In episode 134, we set the foundation. It centered around step one, which is getting clear on your Identity, whom you want to become, and the steps to supporting that Identity you wish to create for yourself.

 

In episode 135, we focused on building systems and processes to help you achieve your goals. You want to focus on building a system and developing a process rather than achieving a goal or an outcome.

 

One of my favorite James Clear quotes is; You don't rise to the level of your goals; you fall to the level of your systems.

 

We then touched on how to get started creating better habits, beginning with The Two-Minute Rule, "When you start a new habit, it should take less than two minutes to do."

 

So how do we fit our Habits into our Life? 

 

I know we all have the best intentions when we start with our vision of success. But what keeps some of us from achieving our goals and others following short?   

 

James Clear says One effective way to insert a new habit into your life is with an "implementation intention." An implementation intention is a plan you make beforehand about when and where to act. That is, how you intend to implement your habit. It's all about finding the right time and place for your habit.

 

The simple way to apply his strategy to your habits is to fill out this sentence using Three Words - you know I love this.

 

I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].

 

Let me give you a few examples of what this looks like for me.

 

• I will drink 16 ounces of water before I get out of bed.
• I will read Atomic Habits at 4 am in my kitchen while drinking my coffee.
• I will run my dogs at 5 am outside every day.  

 

The crucial step here is finding the right time and location to insert the new habit into your daily routine. You are looking for the decisive moment where your new habit should live.

 

Make sure your implementation intention is specific and clear. Here are a few examples for your business: I will use workspace as a location because many of you are working remotely.

 

• I will ask for one referral from a Happy Customer at 10 am each day from my workspace.
• I will call one new client at 4 pm from my workspace.
• I will set my priorities at 5 pm for the next day at my workspace.

 

It's important to note that when and where you choose to insert a habit into your daily routine can make a big difference. If you're trying to add meditation into your morning routine, but mornings are chaotic, and your kids keep running into the room, then that may be the wrong place and time. Consider when you are most likely to be successful. Don't ask yourself to make a habit when you're likely to be occupied with something else.

 

The more tightly bound your new habit is to a specific time and location, the better the odds are that you will notice when the time comes to act.

 

We will wrap up the series from Atomic Habits on Building better habits in 4 Simple Steps. So pick a time and location where you can join me. And let's remember these Three Words.

I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].  

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Learn more about Simplifying Your sales meetings using 3-word topics at http://www.threewordmeetings.com .

 

To learn more about Atomic Habits: http://jamesclear.com