This week, Dr. Serene Shereef and I took the conversation to another level as we talk about mindfulness, productivity systems and habit building. Let’s have a meaningful conversation about taking the steps on being who we envisioned ourselves to be.
Highlights from the conversation:
[00:55] Dr. Serene Shereef
· Mom to 3 wonderful children
· A wife and a life coach
· Surgeon and medical educator
· Owner of Serenity Wellness MD
· Host of the Mindfulness and Productivity Systems Podcast
[03:50] Perfection in Imperfections
With social media and television portrayals, we are told we have to be the perfect mom, wife, husband, children, or business owner. But the perfection is being with and living with the imperfections of our lives. Finding joy in just being “us” is important not only for us and our mental health but also for those around us. Taking away the pressure of “we gotta do what someone else is doing.”
[07:24] The Making of a Habit
Habits are a way to take our daily mental fatigue having to make decisions about everything. Researchers at duke university found that at least 40% of what we do on a daily basis are habits and a lot of them are built unconsciously. When people start saying “we have to build a habit”, they likely mean, “these are the steps, I have a tracker, let’s build it”. More often than not, even if they build it, it is going to be hard to sustain because they have not done all of the ground work. Laying the ground work is essential for the sustainability of it and making the habit long-lasting.
[09:02] Knowing the “what” and “why”
The way to making a habit should be, first, understanding what is it that we truly want and why do we want it. Really digging deep to our core beliefs. For instance, if we want to be a healthy person, we first need to build an identity around being healthy. That may not mean we are that person who runs 3 miles a day, it means that when there are choices in front of us, we have a habit of making choices that are good for us. This is completely different from just saying, “my habit is doing this and that”, it is looking at the identity that we want to build. Once we have that, we can then start building a habit around it to make it fun, accessible and thoughtless.
[19:23] Building the keystone habits
Keystone habits are little modifications we add into our routines that accidentally spread to other elements of their lives. Knowing what would make the biggest impact in our lives is imperative in making these keystone habits. Again, connecting back to ourselves, connecting back to what is important to us, what is our identity. It is really connecting back to core beliefs and what we envision we are going to build as an identity over the next year. And then, we look at the things that will make a big difference to these goals.
One of the sure-fire ways to build a habit is to build a habit that falls outside our core values. When there is no behavior and flexibility, we begin to feel trapped outside the habit. In building a habit, know that we grow into it, there are a lot of changes that comes along with it. Whatever the goal we may have, we are off to a good start when we understand our core values and build our keystone habits.
Catch up with Dr. Serene Shereef by contacting her at [email protected] or
check her website here:https://www.serenitywellnessmd.com
Join the Challenge: https://www.serenitywellnessmd.com/21daychallenge
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