2550: The Most High Leverage Habit by Jillian Johnsrud on How to Be More Positive & Optimistic

[00:00:00] Time for strong performance with the new Galaxy Watch Ultra. No matter if you are a sportsman, a training junkie, a free-time athlete or a real sportsman. And no matter if you are a jogger, a trail marathon runner,

[00:00:15] who wants to dance through the night or go on tour de France. Get the best out of here with the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra with Galaxy AI. Let's go! Delicious meets nutritious in the snack that packs a real protein punch. Wonderful pistachios.

[00:00:32] Each one-out serving of wonderful pistachios has 6 grams of protein, giving you over 10% of your daily value and making wonderful pistachios one of the highest protein nuts. But perhaps more than that, I love all of the flavors they have.

[00:00:46] Their sea salt and vinegar ones are my favorite when I'm craving that flavor but want to keep it healthy. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Wonderful pistachios come in a variety of flavors like chili roasted, honey roasted, smoky barbecue and jalapeno lime.

[00:01:01] Perfect for enjoying with family and friends or taking them with you on the go. Whether you're a pistachio purist who loves cracking open every nut or you prefer the convenience of no-shells pistachios, wonderful pistachios has got you covered. Grab wonderful pistachios and elevate your snacking game today.

[00:01:20] So fill up with a healthy snack when hunger strikes. Visit wonderfulpastachios.com to learn more. That's wonderfulpastachios.com. This is Optimal Health Daily Episode 2550. The Most High Leverage Habit by Jillian Johnsroot of JillianJohnsroot.com and I'm Dr. Neal, your host.

[00:01:42] Hey there and welcome back to another bonus Sunday episode. This is where I share an episode from one of the other podcasts in our network where we read articles to you. Today's post comes from my brother's podcast, Optimal Living Daily

[00:01:55] where articles covering mindfulness, personal development and minimalism are read to you every day. You can find and subscribe to or follow that podcast by searching for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're listening to this. Now with that, here's my brother Justin as we optimize your life.

[00:02:17] The Most High Leverage Habit by JillianJohnsroot of JillianJohnsroot.com My 24th birthday was a watershed moment for me. It was the turning point for how I chose to look at circumstances. It all started with a birthday cake and a gift. Growing up, I had loved the Care Bears.

[00:02:37] So my wonderful husband and housemate bought me a Care Bear cake and sweater. But which character did they put on the cake? Which bear was on the sweater? Fun Shine? Nope. Wish Bear? Nope. Braveheart Lion? Nope. Grumpy Bear.

[00:02:55] My husband bought me a huge blue fleece sweater with stupid Grumpy Bear on it. I was livid mad. I might have smiled on the outside, maybe. But inside, I was steaming. Of all the Care Bears, he picked Grumpy Bear. Is that how he saw me?

[00:03:12] My one defining personality characteristic was Grumpy. Not just him, my housemate was in on this as well. They both thought I was Grumpy Bear. I fumed thinking that this was some sort of passive aggressive behavior using my birthday to point out made up character flaws.

[00:03:31] I put the plastic Grumpy Bear cake topper on my window ledge. I wore my Grumpy Bear sweater and it decided I didn't want to be Grumpy Bear. I didn't want the people closest to me to think Grumpy Bear when they thought of me.

[00:03:45] It was a slow process, slowly learning to approach situations differently, slowly learning how to look at situations differently using a new filter. One important aspect of mentoring is examining how we are looking at the challenges in a situation

[00:04:00] and then deciding if viewing it that way is helpful or unhelpful to reaching the person's goals. There's always more than one way to look at a situation. There's always more than one perspective. Some ways really help us move forward.

[00:04:15] Some ways of processing situations keep us stuck or keep us grumpy. What does this make possible? A few years back I heard Michael Hyatt say that he switched his mindset by approaching each situation with this question. What does this make possible?

[00:04:33] This has been one of the most powerful questions for me as I deal with challenges, setbacks, frustrations and tragedy. The more I have practiced this, the faster I can honestly get to this question. I spend less time irritated or upset.

[00:04:48] Over the years I've been able to honestly apply this question to more challenging situations. The way you respond to situations can be helpful in moving you forward in creating the life you want or your response can be unhelpful. Helpful versus unhelpful perspectives.

[00:05:07] Helpful and unhelpful are the terms I like to use because even an unhelpful perspective can be 100% honest, accurate, justified, and reasonable. I started with small things, a conflict at work, running late, a spilled drink. I worked on how fast I could get to that question,

[00:05:26] what does this make possible? Then I worked on bigger things, getting hurt, getting sick, a broken down car, leaking pipes. Over time it got easier to find the upside, to not wallow in anger or disappointment for too long, to not be Grumpy Bear. It's almost like muscle memory,

[00:05:46] learning to look for the perspective that will move you forward, the one that is helpful in getting you to your goals. It's been 12 years since I got the Grumpy Bear cake and sweater. I don't think I'm Grumpy Bear anymore.

[00:05:59] With small things I can jump directly to, what does this make possible? With more challenging things, it might take a few hours or days to get there. Sometimes we need time to feel the anger, disappointment, or grief. After my son unexpectedly passed away, it took me a year.

[00:06:17] For the whole first year I was crushed, angry, and overwhelmed by the unfairness of his death. I didn't want his death to have any positive outcome. I wanted to stay stuck and feel all the feelings. And that's okay. For a while, that's okay.

[00:06:32] It took about a year for me to accept that the final outcome of my son's life shouldn't be my anger. That wasn't going to be his legacy. Like I mentioned, this habit has been 12 years in the making for me.

[00:06:46] Of all the high impact habits I've built over the years, this might be the one that gave me the biggest advantage. Because things will go wrong. And your money, your work, the stock market, your budget, housing prices, it's not all up and to the right.

[00:07:03] The people I mentor are going through career transitions. They are restructuring companies, selling companies, finding new jobs, or starting their own businesses. All the things that might go wrong, the challenges, can create enough hesitation that people might not take the leap.

[00:07:19] It's just easier to stay put or give up. Creativity takes root in hope. It takes a tremendous amount of creativity and intentionality to grow your financial freedom. By creativity, I don't mean art skills, but the ability to think differently,

[00:07:36] to seek out new solutions and to process information and ideas outside of the norm. It takes creativity to come up with the very low-cost, healthy, easy meals. It takes creativity to house hack where you drastically lower your housing costs or even get paid to live somewhere else.

[00:07:54] It takes creativity to reduce your expenses by half. It takes creativity to find a side hustle or start a business. Creativity takes root in hope. That's where it lives. Hope that there is another option. Hope that your actions can change your circumstances. Hope that things can get better.

[00:08:14] When your perspective gives you hope, you will keep searching until you find the thing that works. You can creatively look at solutions until you find the perspective that's helpful. There are emotions that will stop creativity dead in its tracks, fear, anger, sadness, regret, bitterness.

[00:08:33] When our perspectives land us there, it's hard to see a situation from any other angle. It's difficult to respond creatively, to seek out new solutions, new ideas, new plans, to regroup, dust ourselves off and try again. Hope can open up our perspective.

[00:08:51] Fear, anger or bitterness shuts it down and makes our perspective small. During the stock market meltdown around 2007, I had a coworker who started investing for the first time. In three months, he had lost thousands of dollars so he sold the stocks.

[00:09:08] I tried to give him a helpful perspective. I tried to explain how this loss won't look like one in 30 years when he's ready to use that money. He sold his stocks just a few months before the very bottom of the market.

[00:09:21] If fear, anger and sadness hadn't shaped his perspective, his money would have more than doubled by now and an unhelpful perspective can be costly. You need the right perspective to get started on any big change and when things go wrong because something always will,

[00:09:38] you need a helpful perspective to keep moving forward. Learning to find the helpful perspective has pushed me through challenges and setbacks. It's helped change my disposition. And for those closest to me, it changed me from grumpy bear to a positive and powerful force for good.

[00:09:59] You just listened to the post titled, The Most High Leverage Habit by Jillian Johns-Rood of jillianjonsrood.com. I take you to Jillian. There's a powerful message in there. She said,

[00:10:10] It took about a year for me to accept that the final outcome of my son's life shouldn't be my anger. That wasn't going to be his legacy. That's a difficult one for many of us, I'm sure.

[00:10:22] And I wouldn't expect any of us to hear that line and immediately change our lives. But hopefully this perspective can over time make a positive impact, which is what this podcast is all about really. Over time, lots of time, help because improve one day at a time.

[00:10:38] So hopefully it helps. Have a great rest of your day and weekend and I'll see you tomorrow as usual. We're optimal life. Awaits.