Blog – Page 70

October 16, 2016 by katmillar Leave a Comment

Create New Habits By Re-Wiring Your Brain – By Jessica Lee

Have you ever wondered why it can be SO hard to break a habit?

Do you find it hard to set up a new habit and make it “stick”?

To uncover why it is so challenging at times to break and create habits, we need to journey into our fascinating and complex brains to see why we do what we do.

By understanding some of the basics of your brain, you can start to re-wire your brain so you can “stick” to the types of habits that are going to deliver the results and experiences you want in life (and let go of the ones that are holding you back).

Do you remember when you first learnt to drive a car?

It was overwhelming. There was just so much to learn and take in and all at the same time! Yet, each time you jumped into the driver’s seat and repeated the actions of driving, you got better and better and it became less overwhelming.

As you repeated the actions, you created stronger pathways in your brain, making those actions easier and easier, to the point that what felt really challenging when you were learning are actions you now do on “autopilot”.

How does this relate to habits?

There is a term used in the neuroscience community that says, “Neurons that fire together, wire together”.

Put simply, this means that through repetition we create connections in our brains that get stronger and stronger and become ingrained, becoming a habit.

The way the brain does this is phenomenal and allows us to learn and develop competency and mastery in our lives, but it can also keep us stuck doing things we wish we could stop.

If each night you eat three chocolate biscuits while watching your favourite TV shows after work, by doing this each night you are creating both a habit but also a strong neural association in your brain where watching TV at night equals eating chocolate biscuits.

When you don’t do it, it feels like something is missing.

The hold some of our habits have over us though, are about more than the strong associations we have created in our brain, but also how they can light up the pleasure pathways in our brain.

When the actions we are taking are also linked with desire and pleasure, the reward pathways in our brain lights up. The feel good and motivating chemical dopamine is released, meaning we enjoy what we are doing and crave to do more of it.

Unsurprisingly, this process and pathway, is involved in addictions. So, if we are doing things repetitively that make us feel good, we are wiring our brain and activating chemicals that make it very hard to “kick” the habit.

If you want to break habits that are not helping you reach your health, fitness, wellness and life goals, there are some questions you can ask yourself that help you change your habits to support you.

Here are 3 questions I recommend you ask and answer:

1. “Are the habits you want to break activating your pleasure pathways and making you feel good?”

If they are, just trying to “quit” these habits can be hard.

Consider what other pleasurable actions you could replace them with. This will increase the chance your new habit will stick.

Without understanding that your habit does serve you in some way (gives you pleasure) it will be a struggle to let go of it completely.

Have you ever tried to just eat a carrot when your brain and body has created a habit and desire to eat chocolate? It rarely works, especially not long-term.

Ignoring the underlying reasons why we do what we do limits our ability to move past them and change.

2. “What associations are you wiring into your brain through your repetitive actions?”

To you, does waking up mean you grab your phone and check Facebook?

Does Friday night mean junk food?

Does working on something difficult mean coffee?

When we bring awareness into the associations we are creating in our brain, we are in a position of power.

We can’t change anything we aren’t aware of, but when we do realise what we are doing we have a choice to change or continue down the same path.

Often the associations we are creating we do subconsciously, so it’s important to bring awareness into your life and consider why you do what you do and if that is what you want for your life.

3. “Have you set new habits that are “tick-able?”

Boost your motivation for your new habits by setting small “tick-able” goals you can engage with daily.

Creating a goal sheet or table that you can put on your wall and tick each day releases dopamine in your brain and in doing so makes you feel good and more motivated to keep going, and as we know, repetition leads to new habits.

When you understand what is happening in your brain when you form habits and why they can be so compelling and hard to “kick”, you can take control and consciously choose how you will “wire” your brain.

By finding new pleasurable actions, boosting your internal motivation by creating “tick-able” goals and by being conscious of what connections you are making in your brain you can break and create the habits you want to see if your life.

About Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee is a business consultant and educator and also a wellness and mindset writer and speaker. Jessica has featured in Australia’s leading magazines, including WellBeing and The Sunday Telegraph’s, Body and Soul.

Jessica created her business, The Spark Effect, so she could help business owners develop a solid marketing foundation and create compelling marketing content.

She loves helping businesses to think differently, to find clarity and to discover new ideas to gain more exposure.

She is a self-confessed nerd and loves teaching people how they can use their brain to boost creativity and productivity and create marketing messages that resonate and inspire action.

To read more about Jessica’s story and to discover more about business marketing and how to use the latest in neuroscience for everyday life and effective marketing - head on over to: www.thesparkeffect.com.au

Thank you Jess! This was a very insightful read!
Kat

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October 10, 2016 by katmillar Leave a Comment

The Benefits of a Morning Workout

Would you like to multiply your body’s ability to naturally increase its metabolism?

Exercising in the morning could be the one activity that yields you some pretty incredible results.

A jog or brisk walk first thing in the morning is a hugely beneficial activity that is well-worth considering.

The benefits actually stack upon each other to create a multiplied effect. If you stick to it consistently, it’s a powerful habit that can set you up for a lifetime of great health and energy.

There are many benefits of a morning workout:

1. Increased Metabolism:

The first thing that is happening is that movement in the morning jump-starts your metabolism.

Your body has been in a restorative, rested state all night and after 8 hours or so, you should be well rested. Jump-starting your metabolism with the walk/jog, means that your body is not only burning calories while you are doing this activity, but will continue burning calories at an accelerated pace after you stop.

How cool is that?!

You spent some energy doing the walk/jog and your body is still burning extra calories once you get home and jump into the shower.

Because you began your day with such a healthy start, psychologically and physiologically, your body is more likely to crave more natural and healthy foods. Make sure you drink plenty of water in the morning to flush out any toxins.

The benefits continue. This morning ritual of movement, drinking water and having a healthy breakfast means that you are more likely to have more energy throughout the day.

And with more energy you will probably have more focus for your work and be more productive throughout your day.

So, use this energy to your advantage to get all your tasks for the day done on time, so you have more hours at night to get to sleep.

2. Elevate hormones that build muscle

In the early morning hours, hormones such as testosterone that help build muscle mass are elevated in the body.

By exercising in the morning, you're taking advantage of these naturally circulating hormones as they're peaking, rather than later in the day when they're lower.

3. Fewer distractions early in the morning

Finally, there are fewer distractions on your way to the gym. But later in the day, distractions can sabotage your workout. It feels fantastic having a good workout under your belt, especially if you're prone to skipping it at night.

So now that you know the benefits, let's talk how to do it!

Tips to make it easier to do:

1. Get enough sleep:

Making sure you are getting the appropriate amount of sleep that you need every night is important to increase your motivation and energy to get up and move in the mornings.

If you find yourself feeling unrefreshed and tired when you wake up, I recommend that you do whatever it takes to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier to give yourself better quality sleep.

Usually you’ll be more tired at night because you had an earlier start and you added more physical activity to your day but as you get into a new routine, your body will adjust quickly.

Remember, your body recharges itself mostly between the hours of 10pm and 2am, so get as much uninterrupted sleep as you can between these hours.

2. Choose movement that suits you:

Ultimately, if you choose movement that suits you, you are more likely to stick to it. An important part of this is to pick exercise that you enjoy.

If you have knee or joint problems, get onto a grass field or at least invest in really great running shoes, which have support.

Alternatively, you may want to consider using a mini rebounder, a cross-trainer or stepper machine to avoid placing impact on your joints.

3. Prepare the night before

On the night before, lay out your workout gear near your bed. Prepare your lunch for the following day and complete any tasks that could be potential obstacles to you working out in the morning.

Set your alarm to allow yourself enough time to not be rushed and to enjoy the process in order to continue the habit long-term.

How to do it:

Get to bed early the night before – ideally by 10pm
Wake up early and have 1-2 glasses of water and a short black if you need a bit of a kick-start
Go for a jog or brisk walk or hit the weights (ideally have a fast-digesting meal first if you’re going to be doing weights or high intensity cardio)
Have another large glass of water afterwards while you are getting ready for your day
Have a healthy, natural breakfast, ideally containing some protein

Just try it for seven days and feel the positive effects. If you like it, keep it up!

At first it may be hard for you to adapt to it, but gradually your body will accept it and you won’t be able to pass it up!

This article was published in 'The Great Health Guide' magazine – October 2016

Great Health Guide™ exists to equip & propel every woman into great health & purpose by providing expert health content and inspiration.

For more info and to grab a copy of their free magazine, you can check it out here.

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September 13, 2016 by katmillar 2 Comments

3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 3

Do you ever find your ‘To Do’ list blows out, and you're left at the end of the day wondering where the time went?

This can be hugely frustrating!

In this blog post series, I explain 3 simple tips that help reduce 3 of the To-Do list traps that many people unknowingly fall into - as well as how to overcome them.

If you apply these tips, you'll feel less stressed and tense and more calm and peaceful.

Rather than fitting in just the things that feel urgent, you'll be fitting in the things that are important to you and fulfil you.

In Part 1 of this article, I talked about doing a brain dump. It's where you dump out all the messy ‘To Do’ thoughts racing around your brain, causing confusion and overwhelm.

This frees up more time and energy and allow you to focus on your most important values.

In Part 2 of this article, I explained the importance of categorising your brain dump and how to do this using 4 simple steps.

In Part 3, I give you my final tip to saving time, which is to:

Make Your Next Action Simple and Doable

Once you’ve put all your ‘To Do’ items into categories, you’re ready for the action step.

Make sure your actions are in small enough chunks that you can start getting stuck in.

Action breeds action. Once you’ve started, you gain momentum.

If diving into the difficult stuff is going to put you off and derail you, make things easy for yourself by choosing a fun and easy task to start with.

Chunk everything down to the smallest action steps and keeping going on them until they are done.

It feels amazing to take action!

Our brain hurts when we look at something that feels too hard. So we find ourselves do something more fun - like making another coffee, flicking through Facebook or something else that is easier to do. And when we do this too many times, suddenly the day is over. Woops!

Let's say you want to do a big workout

It can feel daunting. So sometimes it helps not to think too far ahead.

Start with just putting your workout gear on. That's just one simple step closer to the task. Then take another simple step - such as putting on your music to get in the mood. Then do the next step - maybe it's one set of exercises or heading out the front door.

Keep doing simple steps until the workout is done.

You'll feel incredible afterwards!

Or let's say you want to prep your meals and snacks for the week

But it feels too overwhelming.

Start by just taking out some eggs and putting them on to boil for snacks. Then while they're boiling, you may as well take a few veggies out of the fridge and start slicing them up for a simple salad. While you're at it, you could even throw a few sweet potatoes in the oven. Now that you're in the kitchen and in action, adding a few chicken breasts to a pan isn't such a big deal.

Next thing you know, all your meal prep is done.

Taking action feels amazing!

Another way to get things done, is to make it fun. Music helps. And give yourself a small reward at the end. Teach your brain that action feels so good.

Think "How can I make it more enjoyable and fun for me?"

Whatever works for you.

And here's my final word of advice for taking back control of your time.

It's important to consider the following:

Are you making choices based on what you truly want? Or are you bowing to media influence, other people's demands or social pressure?

To live a happy and fulfilled life, make sure your daily agenda is YOUR agenda.

Too often we find ourselves busy doing things for others that we hadn’t planned to do, and which aren’t moving us towards where we want to go.

This isn’t to say that we don’t help out or do things for other people. But these need to be conscious choices, not activities we just “drift” into.

When we allow other people’s agendas to decide our actions, we devalue ourselves and our goals.

How we choose to spend our 24 hours each day is what determines the course of our lives. And only we get to choose how we spend our lives and decide if we're happy with our choices each day.

So what do you think?

Do you feel in control of your time?

What can you do today to apply these tips?

Comment below and let me know your favourite time-saving tip!

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September 9, 2016 by katmillar 1 Comment

3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 2

In this blog post series, I give you 3 simple tips that help reduce 3 of the To-Do list traps that many people unknowingly fall into - as well as how to overcome them.

In part 1 of this article, I talked about the first step being a brain dump. This is where you dump out all the messy ‘To- Do’ thoughts racing around your brain, causing confusion and overwhelm.

This frees up more time and energy and allow you to focus on your most important values.

Once you've done this, the next step is to:

Categorise Your Brain Dump

The goal of this activity is to prioritise the tasks on your brain dump.

What many people get wrong when it comes to their to-do list, is either:

a. Starting doing their to-do list without doing any prioritising. This often leads to getting to the end of the day frustrated or overwhelmed because their most important tasks are still undone.

b. Spend WAY too much time trying to prioritise everything. This can be another procrastination technique which can waste a lot of time.

The way to avoid these 2 problems is to keep it really simple.

Wouldn’t it be great to feel like your ‘To-Do’ list was actually within your capacity of time and energy?

Here are the 4 steps that make it happen:

1. DUMP

There are things on your ‘To-Do’ list that just aren’t worth the time and effort.

Instead of spending half a day cleaning out a drawer you haven’t opened in three years, would it really hurt to dump the entire contents in the bin?

For each item, ask yourself - how valuable is my time compared with the value of the results?

2. DELEGATE

You really don’t have to do it all yourself.

Family members can help with things like chores. Colleagues may be willing to swap tasks you don't like or find hard for ones that are easy or enjoyable for you.

Students or interns who want to learn your skills may love the opportunity of taking on a project under your supervision.

Often, just asking "Is this something only I can do?” opens your mind to other possibilities.

Things that you assumed you needed to tackle could be removed from your ‘To-Do’ list altogether.

3. DIARISE

We all overestimate what we can achieve in a day. But we often underestimate what we can achieve in a year, or three, or five - if we strategise well.

Think long term, and think specific.

For each item, make a realistic decision as to WHEN you will do it. Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?

Then put it in your diary for that day.

Successful live by their diaries - not their to-do list.

The way I do this, is to put everything in a column in a spreadsheet. In the next column, I write a date I want to do the task. I then filter the dates.

Sometimes it's hard to choose a date, but it's a great discipline to get into just making yourself do it. Our brains work better with deadlines and if you have a sense of urgency, you are more likely to get it done.

Then look at the day's tasks and reduce your ‘To Do’ list to only your most important tasks for the day.

Ideally, choose no more than 3 tasks that strategically take you towards your major goals.

4. DO

It's action time!

Look at your most important tasks and get on with the most important one.`

Discipline yourself not to move on until you have completed it. This is the most important thing. Do NOT jump around to other tasks. ONLY once you've finished your highest priority item.

Many people know this already, but very few people do it.

Also, remember to re-evaulate your deadlines, for when you’d ideally like things to be done by. The goal is to reduce overwhelm, so if your month is blowing out, consider revising some deadlines.

And if they can’t be done in a day, then they’re not ‘To Do’ items, they're more 'project' items that need to be chunked down to tasks.

Stay focused on spending your time wisely so that you feel happy about your choices and your results.

Part 3 of this article is where I reveal my final tip to transform your To-Do list.

Click here to read Part 3

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September 2, 2016 by katmillar 2 Comments

3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 1

Do you want to get more time back?

These days, life can be so busy and many of us pack our schedules so full.

A lot of people wonder why they get to the end of the day exhausted and frustrated - wondering where their good intentions went.

If we're not careful, the days can just fly by and we can miss the things that we need to do in order to achieve our health goals. If we don't prioritise exercise and healthy food preparation, these things usually don't happen.

I'm pretty obsessed with maximising my life and not wasting time - and helping others do the same. I love supporting people in finding ways to spend their time on things that take them towards their highest values - whether that's having a massage, doing a lunchtime run or taking a holiday because their soul needs it.

The trap that many people fall into, is thinking that they have no choice as to how they spend their time. This is hugely disempowering - that belief takes away our power and can leave us feeling stressed and frustrated.

Time Management

When I started to realise the importance of prioritising our time-management, I started attending courses on how to automate and systemise areas of our life to free up more time to do what we love.

I learned incredibly powerful techniques on how to better manage time and energy - based on what is truly fulfilling.

When it comes to how you spend our time, it's important to remember that it's YOUR life and it's only YOU who gets to choose how your spend your time.

Yes we have responsibilities, but we have chosen them and we have full control about what we do each day.

If health is a priority to you, it needs to be on your to-do list.

If you're finding it a struggle to find time to eat well and exercise, in this blog post series, I give you 3 simple tips that help reduce 3 of the To-Do list traps that many people unknowingly fall into:

Doing our To-Do List - without prioritising it
Living from a To-Do List - rather than a calendar
Doing things well - that don't need to be done at all

Are you falling into these 'to-do list' mistakes that are sucking your time away? If so, here is my first top tip on how to transform your To-Do list:

Do a Brain Dump

If you have a ‘To Do’ list, the trap we can fall into is that we will just start doing it.

We don’t question it.

We haven’t worked out whether these things are actually what we want to be working towards in the big picture.

Here’s what to do with all the messy ‘To Do’ thoughts racing around your brain, causing confusion and overwhelm.

Dump it out of your brain.

Get a big piece of paper or notebook, or open a Word or Excel doc.
Write out everything you can think of that you need to do.
Keep going until you have no more 'open loops' in your mind.

Include things like emails that are sitting in your drafts, text messages you haven't responded to, notes you've written on random post-it notes, inside your head, in your handbag, in your calendar etc.

Include things like remembering to send your Mum a birthday card, ring your mechanic, make a dish for a shared lunch, thank a friend for her help - EVERYTHING swimming around in your head that you need to get to.

It may feel like a big task, but you'll notice that it literally seems to write itself when you start.

You'll feel SO much better to just have it OUT and onto something tangible.

If will free up more time and energy and allow you to focus on your most important values.

Remember - if transforming your health is a priority to you, it needs to be on your to-do list.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article, where I reveal my next top tip to transform your To-Do list.

Until then, focus on spending your time wisely so that you feel happy about your choices and your results.

Want to find out more?

I have spent thousands of hours helping people get great RESULTS and I know I can help you too.

Take the next step and click on the link to email me.

Let’s start a conversation today about how we can work together to get you feeling great.

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