Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 253 of the Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! In a world where sharing negative news is the norm. Be the exception and share something positive like say a podcast. That’s a not so subtle hint to share these episodes, in case you didn’t notice. This is a good one to share because most of us want to be better and most of us are also slightly unaware of some of the things we do that we aren’t aware of. I did something this last week that opened my eyes to a few things that I do that were
I decided to start a new thing. Nothing major. Just a little side note on my calendar. But man has it already shown me big things. I am old school when it comes to calendars. I like to have my beautiful physical calendar book where I can write things down to do and check them off.
I do this for every day because I have a practice called Monday hour one where I plan my week.
But those are just lists that I know need to be done. The new thing is a side note on my calendar. It’s my general goal for the day of how I want to show up. There are three things I’ve written that have made a huge impact on me and showed me where through the course of the day I do things or don’t do things that I simply wasn’t aware I was doing. Looking back I am sure some of them drive my husband, Eric crazy!!
The first thing I wrote is to simply be intentional in every thing I do that day. Just a little side note and at the end of the day I rate myself on how I did.
Here’s what I noticed. My to dos are a one time deal. Do the thing. Check it off. My side note is in my mind all day. I noticed so many things that day where I could be more intentional. My brain would see something and think it needed to be done but it wouldn’t hit my conscious brain. Like the laundry in the laundry room needed to be put away. I saw it and started to keep going then my intentional note alerted me and I put the laundry away. I have this habit of hanging onto paper towels and reusing them.
Growing up we didn’t just use paper towels a lot because it was expensive. So I notice I have a habit of saving them for a second or third use, the funny thing is my brother does the same thing he told me. Haha so I won’t throw them out if I just used them to dry my clean hands, in my mind that’s a reusable papertowel, so I’ll keep it for later use. This is something that I know bugs Eric because he laughingly has told me he can afford to buy me new paper towels so I don’t have to reuse them. But old habits die hard and I noticed there were a couple laying around for my use later and so I picked them up and threw them away. There was a glass in the bathroom I noticed but it didn’t occur to me to grab it and take it to the kitchen until my intentional note alerted me hey this needs to be done. Little things all day. There was a surprising amount of this. It made me very aware of the amount of times I see things but I don’t really see them to where my thinking brain is alerted to do something about it. It’s a very interesting exercise.
Another day, I wrote be the best version of me possible in every way. This was again when opening. Same thing throughout the day. I had a thought of maybe skipping my run but wait that isn’t being the best version of me. Something I heard triggered me to want to go on Twitter but my thought was wait is that making me better? Of course it’s not. I had an urge to grab a coffee and by coffee i mean basically a milk shake. Ha. But then I thought wait is that making me better? A green tea would be great too and actually make me better. Little things like this all day. Small little decisions that would have gone a different direction had I not had that side note.
The third thing I wrote as my side note was to notice any thoughts that aren’t serving me and turn them around. So I would catch myself starting to judge someone and I would quickly come up with something nice about them, I would start to be negative about something I don’t like about myself when I look in the mirror so I would turn it around to notice something I love about myself. I would catch myself having a thought about someone close to me that wasn’t serving me or them and could have caused me to go down a negative spiral, it’s pretty wild how often we have negative thoughts we aren’t
even aware.
I realized this is more than just a side note, it’s actually helping the intelligent part of my brain stay alert throughout the day because I am constantly asking is this making me better or constantly noticing when I need to be more intentional, and it was a really big one of noticing those thoughts that weren’t serving me. It’s a really powerful exercise.
It’s not a to do it’s a general “how am I going to show up”?
A lot of times conflict between us and your partner is over small little things like who does the laundry, why are you leaving your underwear on the floor? How come you just put the dishes in the sink? They aren’t going to wash themselves. When we are showing up intentionally, maybe we just do those things without having a problem with it.
Very often our healthy lifestyle is derailed by the little things we don’t think about, the coffee we say we are grabbing but it’s really a milk shake disguised as coffee, the little chocolates we eat from the candy dish at work, the third spoonful of healthy peanut butter you’ve eaten during the day. The amount of times we skip the gym because we just didn’t feel like going.
And our whole happiness in life can be derailed by letting our brain have it’s way with us by just continuing to think thoughts that aren’t serving us. Judging every single person you see in some negative way, looking in the mirror and being harsh on ourselves, replaying the fight over and over in your head, or creating a fight in your head that never will take place but definitely shows up in how you act around that person, these are all thoughts that don’t serve us but most of us fall prey to. Simply being aware you’re doing it can gradually help you turn those thoughts around.
When we think of a side note, we don’t generally give it much value. But this side note, this one could do big things, it could create a better relationship by being intentional around the house, it could cause you to be healthier by making better choices, and it could increase your overall happiness by being aware of and eliminating some of those negative thoughts that you’ve been thinking without knowing it.
My challenge to you this week is to create your own side note habit. Just a general side note of “how you’re gonna show up today.” The three side notes I use and you are welcome to borrow them, but these have proven pretty effective for me and how I’m showing up. I just write them as a side note.
The first one is: Be intentional in everything I do today
The second one was: Ask myself all day if this decision I’m making is making me better
And finally: Notice every thought I have that isn’t serving me and flip it around to a positive.
I’ll bet you’ll be surprised how often you notice the little things you aren’t aware of, we all live busy lives, but we deserve for that life to be intentional, beautiful and happy…who knew that could happen from a side note?
I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
