SHOW NOTES

In this episode of Habits for Humans with Kim Flynn, we discuss what happens when you get stuck and are unable to shift a habit? Instead of trying to muscle your way through habit changes, try shifiting your environment. Every room in your house has one or two habits associated with it. When you walk into a room, you naturally do those one or two behaviors. Shift your environment and you shift your life.

Welcome to Habits for Humans, the show that explores how to program your brain to maximize your potential. The goal of this podcast is to teach you how to instill systems and habits to live a healthy, sustainable, deeply satisfying way of life.

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OUR HOST
Kim Flynn is a best-selling author, podcaster, and serial entrepreneur who has built multiple businesses to 7 and 8 figures. She is the CEO of Card Salad, a health and wellness company that provides organizational products to live a healthy, sustainable, deeply satisfying way of life. Kim is a frequent guest expert in systems and habits on podcasts, television and radio shows.

Do you have expertise and a unique solution to a specific health and wellness problem? If you would like to be a guest on the show, apply here: https://habitsforhumans.com/contact/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi, everyone. Welcome to habits for humans. The podcast that explores what makes people tick and how to program this brain of ours to do what we want it to do. We are going to explore why we can sometimes. And in some areas of our lives achieve extraordinary accomplishments. And other times it’s just everything we can do to get out of bed. So if we want to be healthy and happy, what is the secret to programming this brain of ours to maximize our potential? I’m your host, Kim Flint. And today I am going to just talk to you, uh, about what you do when you can’t seem to break a bad habit, or can’t seem to instill a good habit. 

What happens when you’re trying, but your body and your brain. You’re just not participating in what you want it to do. So we’re going to explore two concepts here today. We’re going to explore the very powerful concept of environment and walk you through all the different environmental, uh, pieces you have in your home and how those environmental places and pieces and people trigger the habits that you actually have. 

That’s the most powerful. Um, determinate determinator, if that’s a word of, uh, of being able to follow habits or break habits. And also we’re going to talk about routines, how to build an actual routine that you follow not to control yourself, not to make yourself into a drone, but to put those things that you want to put in place almost on autopilot. 

Um, so we’re going to talk about those two things today. Uh, we have a giveaway for our listeners today at the end. And if you like free stuff, stay tuned until the end, a word from our sponsor that I know a thing or three about it’s actually my company it’s habits for humans is brought to you by card salad, a health and wellness company that teaches you how to program your brain. 

Using systems and habits shocking. I know. And so, you know how everyone wants to eat healthy, uh, but it takes so damn long to meal plan every single week. And so oftentimes you don’t end up meal planning and then it’s just a free for all of eating, whatever is in the refrigerator or a lot of takeout or a lot of freezer meals. Uh, so what I did was create a product called eat well, it’s a done for you meal planning system. 

Every week, the meals get healthier and healthier and leaner and leaner. So you never feel like you’re a diet, you’re on a diet and you aren’t on a diet. You’re just gradually. Increasing. Um, your body’s ability to process vegetables. That’s really what we’re doing here. Uh, it comes with a menu board and then they actually show it to you really quickly. It comes with a menu board right here, you hang it on your fridge. It comes with these recipe cards that come in the mail, and then it comes with done for you shopping lists. We encourage our people to shop online, have those recipes delivered. 

And then of course the powerful part are these daily habit cards. Every day, you’re reading the content. And then you are saying, okay, what do I do? What do I do in your checking off the boxes of what you do every day to instill great eating habits? Um, Stay tuned at the end of this podcast, I’m going to give you a week free of meal planning at the end of this podcast today. 

So I am just to introduce myself. I am a bestselling author podcast or in serial entrepreneur with several seven and eight figure businesses under my belt. I’m currently the CEO of card salad at health and wellness company that provides organizational products to live a healthy, sustainable, deeply satisfying way of life. 

And it isn’t that what we’re looking for post COVID post 2020, we’re looking for a deeply satisfying way of life, not the old routines of nine to five and grind that we used to. I know, I know for me anyway. Uh, it really. Had a huge impact on my life. And I’m looking for something different in this part too, or for some of us part 12 as a part of our life. 

Uh, I’ve been featured on natural national television and radio shows on the recipient of two Stevie awards, the woman entrepreneur of the year and workplace of the year, which I’m really proud of. It would be workplace of the year. Um, my company made the fortune 500, 5,000 list in 2018 in the top 50. 

A list of fastest growing companies in my home state of Utah in 2019, and then 2020 changed everything. So. So I’m an expert in systems and process building. And I love to interview guests on this podcast. It’s actually one of my favorite things to do. I’ve got a lot of business things going on right now. And one of my favorite things to do is this podcast. I love learning. 

Uh, from people. Who are interested in the same things that I am. So, um, today we’re going to talk about, uh, again, um, what you do when you have fallen off the wagon, or think you fallen off the wagon and you’re not able to instill a new habit, uh, or, or break an old habit. And we’re going to talk about the two big factors which are environment and routines. 

Changing your environment to change your habits

So let’s jump into it. Um, there was a study. Oh, what book did this come from? I’ve read so many habit books. If, if there’s a habit book out there, I have read it. Forgive me. Uh, if I have forgotten which book this came from, but, uh, it’s probably quoted in two or three of them that I’ve read. And that is, there was a big study, uh, after the Vietnam war, all the, uh, the veterans came back from Vietnam and many of them were addicted to opioids and they came back to the U S and it’s well-known that opioid addiction is one of the most powerful addictions. 

Right. And it came back to the us and something crazy, like 70% of them were able to instantly. Overcome their opioid addiction. And the reason they were able to was because the environment changed. So even though those addictions were powerful, both mentally and physically, the second, they changed their environment. All of a sudden those addictions went away. So, um, environment is one of the strongest indicators of what you do. 

What are your habits based on your environment? So I want you to right now, imagine. A habit that you are trying to break or instill. And one of my habits that I am trying to break, and you actually don’t break habits. You actually just replace habits. And so we’re not going to try to break anything. We’re not going to try to force ourselves to not choose into a behavior we’re instead going to not force ourselves. We’re going to put ourselves in a habit. 

Uh, environment that’s conducive to replacing that habit. And so for me, that would be, uh, overeating after dinner. I’m not hungry. Uh, I am maybe a little bit bored. Um, I like to be busy and after dinner is kind of like the kids and my husband liked to watch TV. I’m not much of a TV person. And so I find myself popping on my iPad and playing what my kids call my stupid game. It’s like a, it’s like an off-brand of candy crush. That’s the game that I’m addicted to. 

Not sure how that happened, but there it is. So. Um, and so I have this habit of my kids sit down and watch TV. They like to watch scary movies. I’m not a fan. And so I kind of try to tune the movie out by playing my stupid game. And so that’s my habit. And then, because it’s not deeply satisfying to me, uh, playing a game on my iPad on my kids. Watch TV is not deeply satisfying to me. It’s it’s not a routine that I really enjoy. 

My brain is like chirping at me saying now you’re kind of bored. This is not very fulfilling. And so then what do I do? I stand up, I walk into the kitchen and if my son has made cookies, I get two or three more and a nice glass of cold milk. Every time I get up or else I just go back to the fridge, find leftovers from dinner and just kind of munch. Right? I’m just. 

You can tell in that habit that my body is kind of like, man, my brain is kinda like I’m looking for something new to do. And so that’s the habit that I’m trying to replace. And so right now, I want you to think of a habit that you would like to replace, um, or a habit that you’d like to instill that you’ve tried to, but you haven’t seen much success on that. 

Um, and so what I want you to do is imagine the different locations in your home or where you do this habit, you might do this habit in the car. Maybe it’s going to get fast food in the car. Maybe this habit is at work. You, um, I don’t know, lots of habits can happen at work too, where you’re not working and you’re, you know, chatting with people instead of getting stuff done, whatever your habit is, but mine is going to be at home. 

The first thing I want you to imagine is where in your home does this habit happen? And so for me, it’s my main family room area. It’s connected to the kitchen. It’s just a big family room area. Um, and I want you to ask yourself, what else do I do in this area? And really that’s pretty much the only thing I do in that area. I sit in a particular spot on my couch. 

We all have like, not a formal assigned seats, but it seems like, oh yeah, I have an assigned seat on the couch. That’s where mom said that’s where dad said. So that’s where the kids that. Um, so imagine yourself in that environment where you do this habit. Our want to instill this habit. And, uh, next, ask yourself, ask yourself, what else do you do in this room? And for me truly, I don’t do anything else in that family room, except for sit in that seat and get on my iPad. That’s all I do in that room. So that’s right. There should be a huge. 

Uh, eye-opener for, oh, when I walk into the room, that’s what I do. That’s the environment. And that’s the habit. If I want to change the habit, I have to change the environment. Meaning maybe I sit on a different place on the couch. Maybe instead of having my iPad there, I have cross-stitch there or something I don’t do. Or, or maybe a crossword puzzle, a paper crossword puzzle book. 

Uh, or maybe I have firewood out and put a chair next to the fireplace and puts a stack of books there. How can I change my environment to produce a different result? Because I know if I’m going to walk into that family room, that is what I’m doing. And if I’m doing that, I’m constantly getting up to eat. 

Um, let’s go through every room of your house and ask yourself, what do you do in each of those rooms? And I’ve found after doing this, that each room pretty much has one, maybe two functions and they are so dialed into your habits. Whenever that’s the trigger. Whenever you walk into the room, that’s the habit that you do. 

So I found in my kitchen, when I walk into the main area of my kitchen, what I do is dishes. And at that that’s a new habit for me. That’s only about a two years old. Um, and I’ve instilled that habit in me using SNL habits. If you haven’t. Uh, listened to that podcast yet. So the very first one I did. 

SNL habits slow. Uh, no force or discipline and something that can last a lifetime. Those are your SNL habits. And so, uh, I’ve instilled that dish washing habit of mine that I actually enjoy. Now, I actually walk and go in there. I always say to myself, I’m just going to do three dishes. And if I have time, I do more than three, but most of the time, I’m just like, well, three dishes I’m done. 

And so that’s your that’s. That’s what I do. And I walk into the kitchen. Uh, when I walk into the, the back of the bar area in my kitchen, I always put away my kids’ stuff. That’s on the counter. Um, that’s my habit that I do. And so I like those habits. Those habits are functional for me, they’re productive for me and I actually enjoy doing them. And so those are constructive habits for me. There’s nothing to change there. 

Um, now let’s think about the dining room. If you have a dining area in your kitchen, or if you have a formal dining room, let’s talk about the dining area and your kitchen first. What is your habit there? When you sit down there, do you read the newspaper? Does anyone actually read newspapers anymore? 

I don’t. Um, do you jump on your phone and scroll social media? Do you drink your coffee and just mindlessly eat? What do you do when you sit down on that kitchen table? Uh, for me, my habits are to eat. That’s all I do on the kitchen table I eat. And so, uh, if I find that when I stay at the kitchen table, even after dinner with, if my kids are still around, I just continue to eat because that is the function. My brain is programmed through habits. When I’m in this location, I eat just like those Vietnam veterans. 

When I am in Vietnam, I do drugs. I am an on opioids. And when I’m in the U S I don’t for me, it’s when I’m sitting in the T. In my kitchen table I eat. So what could I do to, to shift that a little bit, if I’m not happy with that? Um, I’ve experimented putting a stack of games, like a banana grams and little games like that next to the table. And, uh, I love playing games like that. And so after I finished my food and the kids are all still there, I’ve experimented with clearing out the plates and then like just dumping, Bananagrams out and starting. 

And my kids don’t really like to play with me. 

They don’t love that game. I need to find a different, really easy, fun game that we can just like pick up and start doing. And so we’re not just eating, eating, eating. So think about yourself and in your life. What do you do around the kitchen table? All right, next question. Similar. But for me, very different. 

If your home has a formal dining room. Uh, for me, that is the most. Unused room in the house. I’ve seen, uh, uh, home maps where they’re heat maps. And you can tell where people are with heat maps on the home. And the dining room is usually in the formal living room. I usually like untouched. For me, my dining room, honestly, it’s a hallway between the kitchen and going outside. That’s all the dining room is we never use it. We use it maybe three times a year. 

If guests are coming over and we want to make it fancy, we use it. Or a Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner. That’s it. That’s the only time we use that dining room. And think about what a potential possibility that room could be. If you have an unused room or an unused area in your home, a corner of a room that’s not used. 

What could you do to instill good habits by using that room? Uh, I was thinking about this earlier and I was thinking. I could cause that’s the, the, the door out. Uh, to the, to the, my outside, and that’s where I have meditation. And when it gets too cold, I tend to not use that door and go outside because it’s too cold. And I go sit in my meditation bench outside, but you know, when it gets cold, I, I, I stopped doing that habit. 

And I was thinking I really enjoy being outside, even when it’s cold. What if I put a big puffy, like sleeping bag coat right next to that door in the dining room and put some slippers. And so every day, even if I’m in my pajamas, even if it’s 30 degrees outside and snowing, I can wrap up in that big, uh, sleeping bag coat, throw some slippers on if they’re in that dining room and then head out to my meditation spot. 

That’s actually a use for that room. Right? Keep in mind that that rooms or environments are triggered. Triggers for habits. How can I use that rumor area to trigger a better habit or a habit that I’m trying to instill? Um, the living room for me, let’s go to the formal living room. If you have a formal living room, mine is used in the winter time. Usually not in the summertime it’s used in the winter time and it’s like our reading room. 

And so there’s stacks of books everywhere. Oftentimes we have a puzzle out and there’s a fireplace there. And that really is a gathering space for our family that we use a lot in the winter time. How could I. Uh, trigger that space in the summertime. That’s something to think about as well. How can you use that environment? Instill better habits. 

So your assignment. Uh, as you listen to this podcast, or when you finish listening to it is to list out each room in your house. Uh, bedrooms are very telling what do you do in your bedroom? I do two things in my bedroom. Well, my, maybe I do a few more things in the bedroom as well. But two main things in the bedroom. 

I watch TV. And I get into the bathtub. Those are my two things that I do. And when I’m in the bathtub, I plug in on my bathtub, iPad. I know it’s embarrassing, but I have a bathtub iPad. Yes, it has fallen in a couple of times and no, I have not died yet. Fingers crossed that I will not get electrocuted the next time I, my iPad drops into the bathtub, but I read, uh, and, you know, look up and watch tic talk and do stupid stuff on that iPad. 

So that’s my habit that I do in the, in the bedroom. Um, if you want to make that bedroom a more relaxing. If a calm environment to prepare you for sleep, watch your habits. When you walk into that bedroom, what happens? Do you have laundry, um, big piles of laundry on your bed. That’s not conducive to a good night’s sleep. If you have a TV, like I do, um, it does the TV help you get to sleep or are you watching things that. 

You know, make you wake up. Um, and so that’s something to consider. What is the goal? When you walk into that room? What habits do you want to have? And, uh, and, and is the environment conducive to those habits? All right. So that is, uh, the, the environment piece. If you’re not able to break a habit, sorry, replace a habit. 

Or instill a new habit. What is the environment that that’s happening in go through every room in your house and write out what happens in that environment? And the next thing you do is write out what is one thing I can change or do differently or add to that environment or rearrange furniture, or add a new chair, or put a pile of books in there. 

What can I do to add or change or delete from the environment so that I can instill those new habits? The next thing we’re going to talk about is building habit routines. And this is one of the most powerful habit instiller principles that there is. Um, some people think I have a lot of resistance to building habit routines because they feel super, super structured. 

And they think, especially for dreamer personalities, people who have big creativity and like to kind of fly by the seat of their pants, they feel like, oh my goodness. If I had this structured habit routine, I would be locked into my life. And I, and I wouldn’t be able to breathe. I want to propose to you that it’s actually the opposite. What happens when you build these habit? Routines is all of the mundane stuff that you don’t want to think about. Whether you’re a high achiever, whether you’re a creative, whether you’re a loving, nurturing kind of personality type, it doesn’t matter. 

All of those mundane things that you don’t want to worry about. Like doing laundry. Uh, getting in the shower. Brushing your teeth, doing the dishes though. Self care, as well as household care and life care kind of things that if you stop doing them, your life is not very good. If you stop showering, your life, quality does go down. I hate to tell you, it just does. 

Uh, same thing. If you don’t do dishes, your life quality does go down. There’s mounds of dishes everywhere. It’s not pleasant to be in an environment that feels messy. And so all of those, uh, self care and household care items, we want to put all of those into a habit routine. Not to confine you, but to free your brain and free your life up for the things that you actually want to put brain power on and put discipline on. We don’t want you to be like, oh, I have to do the dishes now, or I have to do the laundry now. 

That requires a lot of brain power to get yourself to do that. Um, and we don’t want to spend your precious, precious energy and willpower on mundane things like doing the dishes and doing the laundry. So what’s the, what’s the goal then? Or what’s the solution? The solution It’s it’s creating habit routines. So let me walk you through my morning routine. And again, this is not something. 

They keep in mind, slow, write SNL, slow, no force or discipline and sustainable for a lifetime. That’s your SNL. So think about this habit routine, as I tell it to you, I want you to know that this took months and months to get into these routines. Uh, this was not quick. This was not fast. You build one piece of the habit at a time. And as soon as you can feel that habit stick, then you have my permission to add another habit to it. But so often when you say, okay, I’m going to have a 16 step routine that I do every day. And then we force ourselves and discipline ourselves and we do it for maybe three days and we fall off the wagon because that’s not how our brains work. 

And so as I give you this habit routine, please, please keep in mind. You’re going to build this one step at a time. The slow cut is the shortcut. So when I wake up in the morning, I shower and get dressed. And I have a new routine now where I put on the basics of makeup. I just put on a foundation and some mascara and a lip gloss. And I do that pretty much every day. And that has not always been a habit for me. 

Uh, for many years, I only put on makeup when I was, uh, I don’t know. Going to want to impress someone. And I like how I look with makeup and it feels good to me. So that’s a habit that I’ve instilled a habit that I’ve taken out in my morning routine is weighing myself. I used to weigh myself every single morning and like the next hour mood is based on that. I lose a pound that I gain a pound. 

It’s so silly. So I’ve gotten rid of the weighing myself every morning habit. So get dressed, head downstairs that I have my coffee in my hand. And that’s when I go into my, uh, um, habit of meditation. And I go outside, sit in my meditation corner. Of course, it’s an it’s triggered by my environment, coffee in my hand. That’s my environment. 

And then I’ve recently put a coat when it was big puffy coats in my dining room have yet to put slippers in there, but I want to do that next. Uh, have that in the dining room. And then I put my coat on and head out there. And even when it’s cold, I can do my meditation in the morning. My meditation habit did not come quickly. Did not come easily. It wasn’t like I will meditate every day. Starting right now. That’s not how it worked. It was more like I will do 10 breaths whenever I’m sitting in this chair, I will just do 10 breaths. 

And that’s it. Um, and now I use, uh, sometimes I do 10, if I’m, my brain is really bouncing and I just can’t focus. Sure. I’ll do 10. That’s fine. That’s like my minimal, my minimum requirement for myself. It’s 10. Right. So easy to do. Uh, but usually I do a hundred breaths. Um, And so that’s my meditation in the morning, my routine. And then I come back in and then I head off to work. And then I also do the gym on Monday, Wednesday. 

Wednesdays and Fridays, and the gym is not a habit that came quickly. That took six months to actually have, uh, the desire to go to the gym. And now it’s just instilled in me. It’s just a habit. I do. I get in my car. I go to the gym. That’s where, that’s where I go. So. That’s my morning routine. 

Think about building a morning routine for you? Oh, I forgot one piece in there. When I walk out of my bedroom, I always pass the laundry room. And in our family, my husband traditionally did the laundry for most of our married life. We’ve got four kids. That’s a lot of laundry and my husband has a different way of doing things than I do. And I absolutely respect and honor his way. And his way was you let the laundry pile up until it’s overflowing and there’s, you know, 20 baskets of dirty clothes. 

And then you spend all day on a Saturday. Probably once a month and you just do all that laundry and spend all day doing that. That’s not what I want to spend my day on Saturday doing. And so that’s not my style of doing things. And so when I, uh, we kind of switched roles a little bit and I started taking more care of the household in 2020, actually I started, uh, saying, how would this work for me? 

Uh, the 20. Piles of laundry is not working for me. How would it work for me? And that is slowly, gently instilling a habit. And so my habit, every time I walk past the laundry room is I swap out the laundry. I put, you know, the, the laundry in the dryer and put a new load in, and then I fold three things and that’s it. 

I only throw a fold, three things. So I fold three tells three sheets, three of my daughters clothes. Um, my kids all do fold their own clothes, except for my 12 year old who’s special needs. And we we’d fold her clothes for her. So that’s all I do three things. And then that is my minimum requirement. But what ends up happening? Oftentimes if not most of the time is you kind of get in your groove and it’s kind of satisfying to get like halfway folded, like the laundry in the one basket is halfway folded. 

So I find myself just folding more. And oftentimes I fold an entire basket in that three, but every time I walked by that laundry room, so. So on my way, downstairs in the morning and also on my way upstairs at the end of the day. So at a minimum, I’m doing two loads of laundry a day and folding six things without even thinking about it. 

I have found that this habit has been so instilled in me that even when I’m in a hurry, I’m like, it’s just gonna take a minute. I’m just going to do one load of laundry. So. Uh, so those are my, uh, routine. So that’s your next assignment from this podcast? And that is to go through your morning routine, possibly your evening routine. And I’ve got bells and whistles going on all around me and doorbells and all kinds of stuff going on here. But, um, so go through your house, your habits, and just start very, very slowly. 

Um, if you want to do 72 things, scale it back to three. Uh, I want to make my bed maybe making your bed is too big in the beginning. Maybe you just want to put your pillows on the top of your bed and that’s all you do for a week until it becomes so natural and just flows. And then you do the next step, which is maybe you just pull up the sheet and so slow. 

No force or discipline and sustainable for a lifetime. That is your challenge from this podcast today. So, thanks so much everyone for joining us. As we wrap up reminder, the goal of this podcast is to program your brain, to start instilling systems and habits into your daily life. It’s not about what you know, it’s about what you do. Starting one very small step at a time. 

So we have a giveaway from our sponsor card salad. Go to habits for humans.com. Sign up for a free seven day eat real foods challenge. This is seven days of recipes done for you shopping list and habit cards. It’s meal planning done for you for all next week. So go ahead and download that. And, uh, thank you for joining us and thank you to our listeners. This is habits for humans, the podcast that teaches you how to program your brain to maximize your potential. And thank you in advance for giving us a positive review. Have a good one.