🎈(#4) Ultimate Flex!

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Message from the author:

Stacking Habits is an idea from James Clear - Author of Atomic Habits. The word “Stacking” made so much sense to me when I was building my plan to achieve my health and wellbeing goals.

Hope you gain something from this one. Feel free to drop me a note or ask a question on IG.

This issue is dedicated to two very strong women that I grew up around. My Mother and My Godmother. In Issue #4 I will be sharing 2 Life Lessons they had passed on to me which I use to this day.

Have you ever wanted to build habits … but became overwhelmed with all the life hacks?

With all these things to add you start asking yourself - “where do I even find the time to do all of this?”

Through social media we receive constant messages like … you should meditate, you need to ground yourself in the morning, you should journal, you need to count calories, you should get sunlight first thing … you should, you need, you should.

It’s a lot, right?

And it gets to the point where you want to try everything, but just don't know where to begin.

Whilst most of these habits or hacks are really good for you and are beneficial … you probably don’t need them all right now.

You just need to know what to add right now that moves you closer to your goals.

In Issue #3 (feel free to check it out if you haven’t read it yet) - we spoke about breaking up with Bad Habits to free space in your life and remove things which are holding you back.

They say the best way to predict your future is to create it … so let’s start today.

The Ultimate Flex!

When I was younger it was all about aesthetics (100% aesthetics) …. don’t get me wrong, looking good and feeling good is still a goal. But that’s only part of the puzzle to building my ideal life.

To me … The Ultimate Flex is taking pride in looking after yourself and not being afraid to design your ideal lifestyle.

Be proud of making progress in life and don’t feel guilty.

You deserve it.

2 Wise Women Once Told Me This…

When I was growing up - I had two very strong women around me that would give life advice, which I still hold with me today.

The first woman is my mother.

Her simple yet effective piece of advice was this:

“Take what you need and throw away the rest.”

This came at time (I believe in grade 10) when I was having a few challenges with the Senior Head Basketball Coach at school (he was an ex-NBL coach and super old school). I had the talent, he knew it, and he expected a lot from me.

She kept reminding me of this saying through the season which helped me filter through the noise and utilize the opportunity to develop under pressure.

As the season rounded out and my challenging first year playing for the senior team came to an end - I was awarded the MVP Trophy for my age group team. In my award speech made it a point to shout him out - I don’t think he was impressed with my words though (I can carry chip on my shoulder at times haha)

2 years later - I become the School Basketball Captain and Captain of the Firsts Basketball team, along with many other accomplishments.

The second woman was my Godmother (May she rest in paradise).

She asked me one day, if I thought she was a giving person and I said yes… I always see you giving to other people and giving to me.

She said, “Son, I am the most selfish person you will ever meet” - “You know why?”

I replied with a simple, why?

She said … “In life you must give to yourself first.”

“If you do that - then you can give to others with all your heart.”

“The only reason you see me giving, is because I have already filled my cup first.”

These two simple life lessons:

Take what you need - throw away the rest & give to yourself first…

Hold true to this day, as much as they did back then.

When looking to create your ideal lifestyle and habits, keep it simple and put you first.

Filter through all the noise. Choose Habits that align with your vision and ensure you look after yourself. Then you can give to others if you choose without having an empty cup.

Busy People! … Let’s Get Stacked!

I'm going to finish with something you can hopefully take away from today.

The term “Stacking Habits” means building value adding habits on top of each other daily that make sense to you and where you want to be.

So first, in order to get somewhere, we need to know where we are going.

Set yourself S.M.A.R.T goals. (We won't dive deep into goals today - but look up SMART if you are not familiar with the acronym).

Before we move on - we need to commit to setting time aside to do this.

As we are busy people, prioritizing will help you stay the course.

If you are serious about it … give this a go:

Break up the below section over a week - find 15-30min over a few days if you need to.

To get the mindset right - here's a Buddhism quote to think about:

“You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day. Unless you’re too busy, then you should sit for an hour.”

Let it simmer for a bit.

The Goal Setting Section:

• Carve out time for yourself to write down and visualize your goals.

• Make a commitment statement. Something that will hold you accountable. You may feel weird … but who cares. This is for you and only you.

• Have accountability partners - 1 or 2 people that you believe will hold you accountable.

• Think about 3 or 4 Habits (less is even better) you are wanting to add which moves you closer towards these goals.

• Think about how you will track your progress - it doesn’t need to be pretty; it just needs to work.

James Clear and his System:

This isn’t his whole system from Atomic Habits - but some points I find very useful.

• CHUNKING HABITS (and STACK THEM)

  • Now that you know your goal and have habits you want to bring in. Look to group them into Morning and Night Routines

    My Daily Lifestyle Habits in Chunks looks something like this.

    30-minute Morning Stack (Breathwork, Meditation and Stretching) & 1-Hour Night Stack (Training and Creative Block).

    Thats it! In a 24-hour period … I have 1 hour and 30 minutes which I commit to giving back to myself. Doesn’t sound like much … but this is a time period that I feel I can commit to, and it keeps my cup full

• NEVER MISS TWICE

  • Consistency doesn’t mean 100% everyday, as we have discussed previously. Just keep this simple rule in mind - if you miss it once - try and complete the habit the following day. This - “Never 2-day rule” - lets you be a human being and also allows you the space to not feel guilty for missing a day. Follow this over weeks and months - your habit is now becoming stronger and easier … that Dopamine is now kicking in and attaching itself to the positive habits.

• POWER OF TINY GAINS (1% Better Every day)

  • Above, you have set out your goal or vision (long term) - now break it down into small wins. Become a 1 Percenter.

    Example - if my long-term goal is to get stronger - my training needs to be no-excuse proof. I have created 4 movement workouts that I do each day and split them into 2 super sets. I know if I just do these 4 movements consistently - then I will slowly move towards my goal and I feel good once I have completed them.

    My training use to consist of a lot more back in the day … now it is simple, and it is working for me.

An additional tip:

If you are struggling to build the habit into your routine. Attach it to a habit that already exists.

Example - Brushing your teeth, making coffee/tea in the morning, putting the kids to bed.

These will be your trigger points to go right into the new habit/s you are trying to bring into your daily life.

For me - In the morning I know that I will make a coffee. Once the coffee is made, I grab it and start sipping it whilst walking down to the home gym and from here I start my Morning Stack. At night - I say good night to my daughter and walk straight to the gym for my training session.

The “coffee” and “good night” are already daily habits for me that happen more often than not.

When wanting to add my habit stacks - I strategically placed them after these two trigger points.

It's been over 3 months now and this is still my daily routine and completion rate of habits has been high.

We want to give and help as many people as possible.

You made it to the end of another Issue.

Nothing to ponder on this week, as there is a bit to take away from today.

Good luck on your journey to Stacking Habits - all my links are available - so feel free to reach out and ask questions fam.

Just remember that the ULTIMATE FLEX - is giving back to yourself first.

Until Next Week.

JC