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Episode 3354:
Michelle McQuaid reveals how incorporating an 11-minute daily strengths habit transformed her life, moving her from a job she disliked into one that truly utilized her strengths. By understanding how habits work and anchoring new behaviors to everyday cues, you too can create small but impactful changes that align your work and life with your natural talents.
Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.livehappy.com/could-eleven-minutes-change-your-life/
Quotes to ponder:
"Discover what your strengths are. Use them as you move through each day. Then luxuriate in the success and joy of doing what you love."
"It took almost exactly one year for my boss to move me out of the job I didn’t like and into a new role where my strengths could truly shine."
"No matter what was going on, I could always find 11 minutes somewhere."
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[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily. Could Eleven Minutes Change Your Life by Michelle McQuaid of LiveHappy.com and I'm Justin Malik, your very own personal narrator. I read the best blogs that I can get permission from to you covering productivity, minimalism, personal development, all that fun stuff. And with that, let's get right to another post and start optimizing your life.
[00:00:27] Could Eleven Minutes Change Your Life by Michelle McQuaid of LiveHappy.com
[00:00:33] When I first uncovered the science of strengths, those things we do well and actually enjoy, I dreamed of spending more of my days in a blissful haze of fulfilling, joyful, and rewarding work. It all seems so easy.
[00:00:49] Discover what your strengths are. Disturbingly, only one third of us can actually answer this off the top of our heads. Use them as you move through each day. Then luxuriate in the success and joy of doing what you love. How hard could it be?
[00:01:04] Turns out, it was much tougher than I thought. You see, between a job I didn't really like, children to feed, and a husband to tend, I just couldn't seem to find the time to fit my strengths in. Despite my best intentions after figuring out what my strengths actually were, weeks ticked by with no changes at all being made in my life. Sound familiar at all?
[00:01:27] Convinced the payoff of increased engagement, easier goal achievement, lower stress, and better overall well-being was too high to simply give up, I became determined to find a busy-proof way of doing more of what I did best.
[00:01:42] I haven't yet found a way to manufacture more time, but I did stumble upon a secret to using my time more effectively.
[00:01:50] Researchers at Duke University estimate up to 40% of our actions each day are not conscious choices, but mere habits. That's a little more than six hours each day we risk losing to mere routines.
[00:02:05] No wonder William James, the founder of modern psychology, cautioned decades before that, quote,
[00:02:10] All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits, practical, emotional, and intellectual,
[00:02:19] systematically organized for our weal or our woe, and bearing us irresistibly towards our destiny, whatever the latter may be, end quote.
[00:02:28] Pretty scary stuff, right?
[00:02:30] Luckily, researchers at MIT have found that our habits run on a simple loop of cue, routine, and reward.
[00:02:38] So, how could I harness this pattern to reap all those lovely benefits of strengths-led behaviors?
[00:02:46] With my challenging schedule in mind, I decided to start small with an 11-minute daily strengths habit.
[00:02:53] Now, why 11 minutes?
[00:02:54] This was the busy-proof number that would fit into even the most hectic of days.
[00:02:58] No matter what was going on, I could always find 11 minutes somewhere.
[00:03:04] Choosing to work first on using my strength of curiosity more, I committed to using the first 30 seconds to make it easy to cue up the habit and get it started.
[00:03:14] A cue can be almost anything, from a visual trigger to a certain place, a time of day, an emotion, a sequence of thoughts, or even the company of particular people.
[00:03:26] Pulling on every tool available, I anchored my habit to turning on my computer each morning and embedded it into my environment by setting my web browser to open at my favorite research sites.
[00:03:39] Then, for good measure, I primed my brain with a when-then statement so my head would already know what to do when I found myself in a situation.
[00:03:48] When I turn on my computer, then I will use my strength of curiosity to learn more about positive psychology.
[00:03:57] Once the habit started, routine can take over for the next 10 minutes.
[00:04:01] A routine can be physical, mental, more emotional, and it can be incredibly complex or fantastically simple.
[00:04:09] My curiosity routine was to read the research that fascinated me and luxuriate in the joy of learning new things.
[00:04:16] The last 30 seconds, perhaps the most important of all, are to reward yourself for the use of your strengths.
[00:04:23] A reward can be anything that produces a natural rush of dopamine, the feel-good chemical in your head, that gets you craving more of the same behavior.
[00:04:32] I celebrated by writing down one thing I'd just learned.
[00:04:36] Yes, I'm a nerd.
[00:04:37] Then, at the end of each week, I'd package these ideas up into an email for my boss.
[00:04:41] And my 11 minutes were done.
[00:04:44] Cue, routine, reward.
[00:04:47] It took just days for this strengths habit to become the highlight of my work.
[00:04:52] It took just months for this email to spread virally through my office until more than 100 people were receiving it each week.
[00:04:59] And it took almost exactly one year for my boss to move me out of the job I didn't like
[00:05:05] and into a new role where my strengths could truly shine.
[00:05:09] So, what 11-minute strength habit could you design to prioritize the changes you really want to see in your life?
[00:05:21] You just listened to the post titled,
[00:05:23] Could 11 Minutes Change Your Life?
[00:05:25] By Michelle McQuaid of LiveHappy.com
[00:05:28] And I'll be right back with my commentary.
[00:05:31] Thank you to Michelle and the team at Live Happy.
[00:05:34] Really cool to hear not only a great life tip, but how it actually truly changed her life.
[00:05:40] That one year later, she did move into a new role that matched her strengths and she's happy with.
[00:05:46] This idea could definitely be applied to many other areas of life.
[00:05:50] For me, my cue is the shower.
[00:05:54] I shower at night and it's usually a time when I'm not too hungry or too full.
[00:05:58] A great time for exercise, really.
[00:06:01] And just to make sure I'm doing something active,
[00:06:04] I do something like 25 push-ups or squats if I didn't do anything else that day,
[00:06:09] just so I stay consistent with the habit.
[00:06:12] I know that from reading to you for so long,
[00:06:15] there's plenty of research showing that once it is a habit,
[00:06:18] it'll likely stick around.
[00:06:20] But turning it into a habit and staying consistent,
[00:06:23] at the beginning at least, is really the tricky part.
[00:06:26] It requires a why, but pairing it with a trigger and reward
[00:06:30] is definitely a little hack we can all use to make it a little bit easier.
[00:06:35] So whatever you're looking to add to your life,
[00:06:37] see if you can find a cue, a reminder to do whatever it is that you wish you were doing,
[00:06:42] and do your best to do something, even if it's really small,
[00:06:46] working towards that goal or habit.
[00:06:48] And then don't forget to reward yourself after, of course.
[00:06:51] So take that baby step today.
[00:06:53] I'll see you tomorrow.
[00:06:54] Where your optimal life awaits.