3157: Add the Best; Drop the Worst by Steve Pavlina on New Habit Formation & Self-Improvement

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[00:00:38] This is Optimal Living Daily, episode 3157, Add The Best, Drop The Worst by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:00:47] and I'm your narrator Justin Malik.

[00:00:49] I read to you every single day of the year from the best articles or blogs I can find, with permission from the authors of course.

[00:00:56] And it's all in an effort to make your and my day even a tiny bit better.

[00:01:01] And with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:01:09] Add The Best, Drop The Worst by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com

[00:01:16] When you realize that you have many bad or mediocre habits that are holding you back in life, you may start to feel overwhelmed.

[00:01:24] Where should you begin?

[00:01:26] Should you upgrade your health habits?

[00:01:28] Attempt a 30-day super trial?

[00:01:30] Commit to working an hour a day on your online business?

[00:01:34] Here's a simple heuristic that will help you identify which habits to change first.

[00:01:40] Add the best, drop the worst.

[00:01:43] So let's start with the first part.

[00:01:45] Can you identify some of the absolute best habits you could add to your life, such that if you maintain these habits every day for the next 20 years, you'd make a huge difference in your results?

[00:01:57] Go ahead and brainstorm a few ideas. Jot them down.

[00:02:01] You don't need a lot. A small handful of ideas is fine.

[00:02:05] Now, is there a certain idea that pops out at you?

[00:02:07] It may be on your short list or you may come up with a new idea.

[00:02:12] This is probably an idea that you fear, at least a little, but it will also be the idea that excites you the most when you think about the long-term results.

[00:02:21] If you added this one habit to your life and truly mastered it, it would trump all the others.

[00:02:27] If you could only install one new permanent habit, this would be it.

[00:02:31] What is it?

[00:02:33] And don't give me that I don't know.

[00:02:36] If you don't know, then put your brain to the task and figure it out.

[00:02:40] Of course, you can't really know which single habit is the absolute best.

[00:02:44] You don't know what the future will bring, so you can't know which habit will be best suited to your future growth and results.

[00:02:51] But surely you can make an educated guess.

[00:02:55] And if you can't even guess, then I'll tell you what to use.

[00:02:58] Start drinking one quart of fresh juice every day.

[00:03:02] I like carrot, celery, cucumber, apple, kale, parsley, ginger, lime.

[00:03:09] It has to be fresh, none of that store-bought stuff.

[00:03:12] And drink it on an empty stomach.

[00:03:14] Seriously, if your mind is too foggy to think clearly about this, it's a safe bet your diet sucks.

[00:03:20] Processed foods really cloud up the brain.

[00:03:23] So I'd start with an upgrade there if I were you.

[00:03:26] Your worst habit.

[00:03:28] Next, use a similar process to identify your single worst habit.

[00:03:33] What is that one nasty habit that if you could somehow drop it from your life permanently,

[00:03:38] it would make a huge difference in your results over the next 20 years?

[00:03:43] What one problem behavior keeps biting you again and again?

[00:03:48] Is drinking soda making you fat, foggy and anxious?

[00:03:52] Does checking email more than once a day kill your productivity?

[00:03:56] Are you wasting way too much time watching TV?

[00:03:59] What habit seems to be slowing you down more than any other?

[00:04:03] Which one would you be overjoyed to finally be rid of?

[00:04:07] A decent choice here is to pick the worst food or class of foods

[00:04:12] that you know has been hurting your ability to enjoy high energy,

[00:04:16] good mental focus and deep concentration.

[00:04:20] Choose crisp and clear habits.

[00:04:24] Don't make these habits complicated or vague.

[00:04:27] Choose simple habits with clear and crisp boundaries.

[00:04:31] So don't pick procrastinating as your bad habit

[00:04:34] and being more productive as your good habit.

[00:04:38] Or overeating as the bad and eating healthier as the good.

[00:04:43] What do those things even mean?

[00:04:45] How do you measure success versus failure?

[00:04:48] These choices are meaningless.

[00:04:50] If you pick something like that, you're being stupid so stop it.

[00:04:55] Don't be stupid here.

[00:04:56] Be down to earth and specific.

[00:04:59] When you choose a specific habit,

[00:05:01] there will be a clear and sharp dividing line between success and failure.

[00:05:07] Either you did the action or you didn't.

[00:05:09] There's no gray area in the middle.

[00:05:12] Choose a bad habit like consuming coffee

[00:05:14] and a good habit like getting up at 5 am every morning.

[00:05:19] These are clear, specific and easy to measure.

[00:05:23] Either you drank some coffee in a day or you had none.

[00:05:27] Either you're up and on your feet at 5 am or you aren't.

[00:05:31] If you had a sip of coffee or a chocolate covered espresso bean, you failed.

[00:05:36] If you had no coffee whatsoever in a day, you succeeded.

[00:05:41] That's crisp and clear.

[00:05:43] If you hit the snooze and got up at 5-10 am, you failed.

[00:05:48] If you're vertical before the clock hits 5-01 am, you succeeded.

[00:05:52] No room for doubt.

[00:05:54] That fuzzy gray zone between success and failure

[00:05:57] is the death of many would-be habit changes.

[00:06:01] Don't waste your time in that space.

[00:06:04] That is the zone of pretenders and wannabes.

[00:06:08] If it makes sense to do so,

[00:06:09] choose related habits such that your worst habit to drop

[00:06:14] and your best habit to add are two sides of the same coin.

[00:06:19] For instance, stop drinking soda and drink a quart of green juice every day instead.

[00:06:25] This isn't essential but it does make the process of change

[00:06:28] a little easier if you compare up habits like this.

[00:06:32] Begin a 30-day trial.

[00:06:34] Now that you have your two habits and you vetted them for clarity and crispness

[00:06:39] and lack of stupidity, you're ready to get started.

[00:06:43] Begin by kicking off a 30-day trial of both habits simultaneously.

[00:06:48] Technically, you're doing two overlapping trials together.

[00:06:51] One trial is to drop your worst habit and the other is to add your best habit.

[00:06:56] Use the process described in the article Habit Changes Like Chess

[00:07:00] to set yourself up for success.

[00:07:03] Do what it takes to handle the early game, middle game,

[00:07:06] and end game as you transition from the old behaviors to the new ones.

[00:07:11] Don't look back.

[00:07:13] Once you've locked in these habits, repeat the process.

[00:07:16] Seek out your new worst habit and your new potential best habit.

[00:07:21] Then recondition those as a pair too.

[00:07:24] You may have been lucky finding yourself blessed with an assortment of

[00:07:27] positive habits that have served you well throughout your life,

[00:07:30] but most likely you still have a collection of time-wasting,

[00:07:34] energy-draining, soul-sucking behaviors that you'd be delighted to dump.

[00:07:39] No matter what your starting point is,

[00:07:41] you can always continue to apply the Add the Best, Drop the Worst heuristic.

[00:07:47] Even good habits can be replaced by great ones.

[00:07:55] You just listened to the post titled Add the Best, Drop the Worst

[00:07:59] by Steve Pavlina of StevePavlina.com and I'll be right back with my commentary.

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[00:09:14] Thank you to Steve.

[00:09:15] He mentioned a previous article of his titled Habit Change is Like Chess,

[00:09:20] and I did narrate that one too, so if you want to go back and check that one out,

[00:09:25] that was from episode 3085.

[00:09:28] He also mentioned drinking coffee as a bad habit,

[00:09:31] but I'm not quite so sure that's the case.

[00:09:34] I think some newer studies are showing that it has benefit.

[00:09:38] Unless you drink it too late in the day and it affects your sleep,

[00:09:41] or if you have reflux or other stomach issues,

[00:09:44] in that case, yeah, I'd probably put it on the list of habits to remove.

[00:09:48] But otherwise, might be good for you.

[00:09:51] But in any case, I definitely agree with how he described these goals.

[00:09:55] They really need to be black and white,

[00:09:58] and very specific so you know that you either did it or not.

[00:10:03] It goes back to the idea of smart goals that we hear every once in a while on this show.

[00:10:07] You're much more likely to reach those goals if they're specific, measurable,

[00:10:12] achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

[00:10:16] I did like the idea of maybe adding one habit and dropping another that are related.

[00:10:22] Might be able to hit two birds with one stone and make the process much less painful.

[00:10:27] So thank you to Steve for the ideas.

[00:10:29] Thank you for being here and coming back every day to listen.

[00:10:33] That keeps all of this going and it really means a lot.

[00:10:36] Have a great rest of your day and I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.