12 Habits for Life

*Upbeat Music Stop. Look at this! There's a guy out here right now, and he's jogging in the pouring rain.

You got this dude! Hilarious I think the most frustrating thing about building habits and about self development in general. Is this idea that inspiration doesn't always correlate to change So it doesn't matter how motivated or inspired that you are It doesn't mean that you're actually going to do something about it.

It doesn't mean that you're actually, actually gonna change your life So I wanted to talk about why you should start thinking long-term and stop trying to change everything about your life in a day *Upbeat music I enter most things in life with just a pinch of skepticism. That's especially true of self-help I remember the first time I listened to my bootleg copy of Tony Robbins Awake the Giant Within Recording: I really respect you as the kind of person who really wants to change the quality of your life, and you're committed to do something about it Matt: So stupid *Techno music I was hooked on self-help. It's not all good most of it is corny, but I almost always finished the books feeling inspired and ready to change everything about my life The problem is I tried to take on too much at once I try to build six habits at the exact same time and that approach would always fail Then I started to view habit change as a series of experiments I'd commit to going to the gym for 30 days straight or I'd read a book every week for a year Some were more extreme than others.

They didn't always stick but my success ratio skyrocketed and they always pushed me to learn something new about myself So this year in an effort to try to learn more but also to make myself feel very uncomfortable I'm gonna be doing 12 30-day experiments. Some of those experiments will include quitting caffeine. As a daily coffee drinker for the last five years I've been dreading this one but I know that it'll be healthy to take a little bit of a break.

Cold showers for 30 days I've taken many cold showers in the past but I've never committed to doing it for this long and it makes me very nervous and I've already started this month by quitting sugar So I'll be announcing these challenges on Twitter and Instagram Probably the day before the 30-day challenge, so at the end of every month and I want to encourage you guys to do this with me Now you don't have to do every single one I understand that our lives are very busy and to take on some of these would be asking a lot but if there's ones that appeal to you if there's ones that Excite you or if there's ones that you find Scare the shit out of you - like the cold showers - then I encourage you to do them along with me because I think together we can learn a lot. All right, so I completely understand that you might not want to develop the same exact habits that I'm building. You look at the cold showers and you're scared.

You're a little bitch! That's rude. I can't say that I shouldn't call you a bitch but You're being a bitch, but no okay if you actually don't want to do it, that's totally fine That's why I've actually come up with a list of 12 habits that you might want to build instead So these are the twelve habits that I've built that have had the greatest impact on my life and that I think might help you Exercise every day set a minimum amount of time to work out every day that you can actually follow through with.

Everyone can set aside ten to fifteen minutes to go for a jog do a few push-ups or sit-ups. Eat more veggies Most days I make smoothies to get more veggies into my diet Even adding more veggies to one meal a day can make a big difference Read every day. Listen to an audiobook or do some light reading before bed You don't have to read a book every week But the dense content you get from books is unlike any other medium Drnk more water.

The common recommendation is to drink 64 ounces or 2 liters of water per day. Stop buying new stuff You can learn a lot by stopping purchases for even 30 days You'll break that habit loop of buying just for the dopamine hit or as a distraction mechanism. You'll also likely save a lot of money Meditate I'll be honest, I don't meditate much, but it's been a habit that I valued in the past Sam Harris has a meditation app called waking up which I'd recommend checking out Build a morning or nighttime routine This is a little bit more advanced but something that might be called a keystone habit You're developing one habit that's connected to many others What are three things that you can do every morning or night that will increase the quality of your life?

Work on a passion project Take 30 minutes to write for your blog, start learning photography, or even learn an instrument Sometimes we get so focused on achievement that we're not really focused on things that we actually enjoy or love Declutter Spend the month downsizing and cleaning out your junk drawers The minimalist created a really effective game called the minimalism game In it you get rid of one thing on the first day Two things on the second day three things on the third day all the way to date thirty You end up getting rid of a lot of shit Journal A daily journal can help you catch negative patterns or get a clearer vision on your goals I've carried one on and off for years and the act of getting my thoughts down has helped me a lot. Wake up early I wasn't always an early riser I used to spend late nights working to get projects finished last minute But waking up early has helped me avoid procrastination and spend time with family and friends after 5:00 p. m.

Quit social media I made a video last year about my 30-day social media detox That change continues to save me time every day and avoids me from falling into the comparison trap that I often find on Instagram and apps like it So you can scale up the difficulty on these habits you can scale them down if you want to do 5 minutes or 60 minutes for your exercise every day Have at it and come up with one that fits best with your life I usually recommend to start small keep it nice and easy five minutes is is great because most of the time we don't do 5 minutes We say hey I'm gonna sit down and work for 5 minutes set a timer, you're usually gonna work for way longer So don't be overly ambitious that you completely destroy the entire process But this is something that I'm really excited about I'm really excited to explore and create these videos and share with you the lessons that I've learned so obviously stay subscribed to this channel To see those videos as they come out and of course I want to see you guys in the comments and I want to see the things that you are learning from some of these experiments and challenges yourself. Even if it's something that you've done in the past Thank you guys so much for watching And of course if you want to support this ad-free channel There's something you can do to help. You may have heard that I have a Patreon account at patreon.

com/mattdavella I'm making videos that I don't release anywhere else. So far I've made 10 videos on filmmaking and creativity, 4 videos on lifestyle design 3 videos that are personal vlogs and 5 AMAs The main tier which is $12 gets you access to all of this content and it also helps to ensure that I can keep this channel ad free and keep doing what I'm doing here. So your support means so much to me, of course, if you don't have the money, that's totally okay I'm trying to make this as afordable as possible for people at the cost of a cup of coffee every week but if you can't afford that or if right now you're on a budget and you're trying to save up money or pay off your debt I totally understand; I do not want you to feel pressured Continue to enjoy my videos ad free and guilt-free The fact that you subscribe and watch them is enough for me.

Thank you so much, and I'll see you next time.