3650: 5 Habits I'm Glad I Stuck With by Josie Michelle Davis on Productivity and Mindset

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] Hey Sandra, wir haben uns ja lange nicht mehr gesehen. Grüß dich Nadine! Mensch, du siehst ja toll aus. Ja danke, ich habe mein Plus fürs gesündere Ich entdeckt. Was? Komm, ich zeig's dir.

[00:00:13] [SPEAKER_04] Die Bewegungskurse der AOK Plus. Kostenfrei für AOK Plus Versicherte. Entdecke dein Plus fürs gesündere Ich und starte mit unserem Self-Check. Ganz einfach online auf aok.de. Aus Liebe zur Gesundheit. AOK Plus.

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_03] Hey Spotify, it's Dampson Idris here to celebrate Tommy Hilfiger's Apex GP Collection.

[00:00:35] [SPEAKER_02] Angetrieben vom Nervenkitzel der Geschwindigkeit und der Kraft des außergewöhnlichen Styles vereint die Capture Collection von Tommy Hilfiger performance-orientiertes Design mit grenzenlosem Selbstbewusstsein. Das ist mehr als nur ein Look. Es ist die Uniform für alle, die ihre Träume verwirklichen wollen.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_03] Discover Tommy Hilfiger's limited edition Apex GP Collection. Inspired by F1 The Movie. Only in cinemas. June 25th.

[00:00:58] [SPEAKER_00] This is Optimal Living Daily. 5 Habits I'm Glad I Stuck With by Josie Michelle Davis of Josiemichelledavis.com. And I'm your narrator Justin Malek reading you blogs every single day of the year to help you live a more meaningful life. We have five shows where we do that. Search for Optimal Living Daily wherever you're hearing this to find all five shows. But since you're here, let's get to another post as we optimize your life.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00] 5 Habits I'm Glad I Stuck With by Josie Michelle Davis of Josiemichelledavis.com I am all about them habits. Seriously, building positive habits into my life has been the ultimate game changer for me. When I look back on who I used to be, struggling to get anything done even with ten times more free hours in the day than I have now, I feel a little bad for that girl. She was doing her best, she just couldn't figure out how to pull it together.

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_00] Days started late, focus was impossible, and energy was non-existent. Committing myself to building positive habits has totally flipped all of that. Don't get me wrong, most of these were incredibly hard to get past the stage of my brain screaming, I don't want to do this. The struggle was real, but it sure as f*** was worth it. 5 AM Wake Up Okay, okay, I know I'm already about to lose you here, but hang on for a minute. Sometimes desperation breeds good things.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00] Last year I transitioned back to a 9 to 5 after working freelance for a year. I was heading back to a full-time gig with a nice long commute, and I knew I didn't want to revert to how I'd been in the past, letting work and driving be my entire life. I knew I wanted to keep my nights set aside to spend with my husband, so there was just not a lot of options to fit in time for myself and my own goals. I went from waking up between 8 to 9 AM every day, to waking up at 5 AM, and I'm honestly so glad I did.

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00] If you think you're not a morning person, and are already tired waking up earlier, you might think, why would you wake up earlier? Well, so did I, but now I'm eating those words and I'm not even mad about it. I actually just finished reading The Miracle Morning, and found myself really relating to a lot of his sentiments about early wake-up calls and making the most of that time. I highly recommend it if you're thinking about becoming an early riser too. Plus then you don't have to listen to me ramble on about it. Daily Exercise You knew it was coming.

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00] Making exercise a daily habit was incredibly hard, but the most important habit I've built so far. Getting my blood flowing and focusing on my movement every day has really helped me fight depression, gain more energy, and build confidence. It's also my dedicated me time, and I've come to really appreciate having that. I won't prattle on, mostly since I've already done that before, but seriously, I know that you may think you aren't a workout person, that you hate gyms, and that you'd rather do anything besides exercise,

[00:03:45] [SPEAKER_00] but I promise that it is worth those first few painful months to make it a habit. AM Workouts This is essentially the baby of the last two habits, but I feel like it needs its own little section because I used to truly, deeply, and profoundly hate working out in the mornings. I avoided it at all costs. You can ask my poor husband who had to listen to me complain about it daily for at least two months before I finally learned to love it. I was an incredibly slow runner in the morning and it felt like every move was agony,

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_00] but when I went back to my 9-5, I knew night workouts weren't something I could keep up consistently. So I did it, even though I absolutely hated it. And then I kept doing it. Then I noticed I felt better throughout the day, and loved being able to check such a big thing off my to-do list before I even got to work. Working out in the morning also has the major benefit of being hard to back out of. If you wait until later in the day, it's easy to talk yourself out of it or find a million excuses.

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_00] As soon as I wake up, I throw on my gym clothes and I'm basically out the door, so it's a lot harder to talk myself out of it since my brain isn't even on yet. If you're a PM exerciser and trying to switch to AM, my biggest piece of advice is to be kind to yourself. Your run times may be slower, but just give yourself a big gold star and a pat on the back for getting it done. Audiobooks. And now for something completely different.

[00:05:06] [SPEAKER_00] I spend two plus hours in the car every weekday, and usually a good chunk even on the weekends. So I have all this car time that for years I really didn't know what to do with. I'd actually re-listen to podcasts a lot. I always had struggled with getting into audiobooks. I really struggled with finding narrators I could stand to listen to for six plus hours. I wrote them off as not for me, but then one day I got really bored and decided I needed to use all of this car time smarter. Honestly, this one has been difficult at times. I'm still really picky about narrators.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00] Just this morning I turned off a book two minutes in because of the narrator. And generally like to stick to non-fiction since I'm driving and don't want to get too caught up in a fiction world. I'm crazy, I know. I also like to try and keep costs down, so I try to find as many through the Libby Library app, but that often means having to wait for holds. I try to spend just five minutes a week going through available audiobooks from the library and placing holds on anything that looks good so that I constantly have new holds coming in after I'm finishing other books.

[00:06:03] [SPEAKER_00] The best part about using the library is that I don't feel guilty if I don't like a narrator and decide to skip the book altogether. The reason that I'm so glad I've made listening to audiobooks a habit is that I've listened to so many life-changing books in the last year that I know I wouldn't have gotten through it if I had to try to find time during the rest of my life. Utilizing that driving time has been one of the best things I've done for myself recently. Writing. When I was a teen, I used to scribble in my journal every night.

[00:06:30] [SPEAKER_00] What started as an English assignment easily became a habit I loved and that helped me a lot. When I started to get paranoid that someone was reading my journals, I stopped altogether. Ever since then, it was a struggle to get myself to write. I'd buy myself a nice notebook, write in it for two days, and then never touch it again. Even on my blog, I would avoid writing more than a paragraph or two, mostly just about style and other easy things. The beginning of this year, I put my foot down. I knew writing was something I always loved and I needed to get back to,

[00:06:59] [SPEAKER_00] so I made a goal of writing every day, even if it was just jotting some thoughts down in my phone's notepad app. Not only have I really enjoyed sharing my writing on the blog now, I also have gotten back to daily journaling as part of my morning routine. Getting my brain moving and having a space to release some of the trapped thoughts has really helped me let go of things just a little easier. Overall, I think building positive self-growth habits into your daily life is something we should all strive for.

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00] I really struggle with all of these things, but I took them one at a time and one day at a time. And once I got through that painful adjustment period, I found myself wondering how in the heck I'd made it this far in life without them. You just listened to the post titled, Five Habits I'm Glad I Stuck With by Josie Michelle Davis of JosieMichelleDavis.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Summer nights used to be brutal for me, tossing, turning, flipping the pillow,

[00:07:55] [SPEAKER_00] until I discovered Cozy Earth. Their temperature regulating sheets have completely transformed how I sleep. They naturally wick away heat and moisture, helping me stay several degrees cooler even during the hottest nights. I honestly noticed the difference the very first night. And it's not just the sheets, their all-day tea and studio pant collection have become my go-to for ultimate comfort and breathability during the day. It feels like I'm living in a temperature-controlled cloud,

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_00] whether I'm lounging at home or trying to stay cool while working. Plus, Cozy Earth offers a 100-night sleep trial, so you can test them during the peak of summer. If you're not completely in love, you can send them back hassle-free. And, all their bedding products come with a 10-year warranty. Upgrade your summer. Go to CozyEarth.com and use code OLD for 40% off best-selling temperature-regulating sheets, apparel, and more. Trust me, you'll feel the difference the very first night.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_00] Sleep cooler, lounge lighter, stay cozy. If you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple ShopPay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy? That's Shopify. And there's a reason so many businesses sell with it. Because Shopify makes it incredibly easy to start and run your business. Shopify is the commerce platform behind 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S.

[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_00] From household names like Mattel and Gymshark, to brands just getting started. Shopify gives you that leg up from day dot, with hundreds of beautiful, ready-to-go templates to express your brand style, and forget about the code. Tackle all those important tasks in one place, from inventory to payments to analytics and more. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_00] and start selling today at shopify.com slash old. Go to shopify.com slash old. Shopify.com slash old. And thank you to Josie. This is a very different strategy than what Cal Newport talked about two weeks ago, right? He flat out said, don't set a goal to write every day. But this is working for Josie. Same with exercise for her or waking up at 5am. It's a great example of how different things work for different people.

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_00] Maybe she has missed a day, but it doesn't stop her from jumping right back on and continuing. We all have different personalities and trying something is always better than doing nothing. So if you do try a daily habit like what Josie does, if it doesn't work, try Cal's approach. That's what this podcast is all about, hearing different perspectives so they can choose what works best for you. I'll do it for today. Have a great day, great weekend if you're listening in real time. And I'll see you tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.