Tiny Leaps, Big Changes

In this episode we look at the role guiding principles play in your personal growth. 

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In this episode we look at 3 major reasons to start meditating today. Get excited because this is Tiny Leaps, Big Changes.

Welcome to another episode of Tiny Leaps, Big Changes where I share simple strategies you can use to get more out of your life. My name is Gregg Clunis and in this episode I’m sharing 3 huge reasons to start meditating if you haven’t already.

The Problem

You’ve been told over and over again that you need to start meditating. I’ve brought it up a number of times on this podcast and have tried to drive the point home using as much science, research, and personal experience as I can.

But yet, you still aren’t meditating.

Why is that?

Why Meditation is Important

In this episode, I share 3 tips to help you get better at meditation. Get excited because this is Tiny Leaps, Big Changes.

Welcome to another episode of Tiny Leaps, Big Changes where I share simple strategies you can use to get more out of your life. My name is Gregg Clunis and in this episode I’m sharing 3 tips to help you get better at meditation and get more from your sessions.

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Speaking of meditation, have you started out October Meditation challenge yet? To celebrate episode 600 of the podcast I’m challenging you to meditate for as many days as possible in the month of October. And to make it even more interesting, each week I’ll be giving away $150 to a random participant.

To enter all you have to do is do a meditation session and post to Instagram as a post or a story. You can post a video, a quick message, a picture of your meditation space...whatever you want. The post must tag the podcast @tinyleaps and it must be about your meditation session.

Then each Friday I’ll be drawing a winner at random from that week’s entries and sending them $150. Easy right? For more details find the podcast over on instagram and check the full post in my highlights.

The Problem

We know the value of meditation, it’s been proven over and over again. In fact I’ve talked about this a lot over the 600 episodes of this podcast so far. But yet even with knowing how good it can be, it’s still hard as hell for most people to pick up as a habit.

On the other hand, the people who DO start and stick to it will regularly sing its praises for creating direct results in their lives.

The Solution

1) Meditation is about making an effort

So the first thing I want to say is that meditation isn’t about sitting perfectly still and finding some inner nirvana. That state is something life long practitioners are working towards but it certainly isn’t their daily experience.

Meditation is actually just about making an effort to be still. It’s about trying, even if it’s in vain, to calm the inner voice and allow thoughts to drift away without you jumping on them.

2) Thoughts will happen, let them pass

The goal isn’t to get rid of thoughts, anxieties, or stresses. Instead if you can create an unattached attitude towards your thoughts and anxiety as they drift by you then you can control your reaction or non-reaction to certain things.

3) Give yourself a center

The final piece of advice is to give yourself some kind of center to return to. The purpose here is to give yourself some kind of anchor so that when your thoughts inevitably pull you in you can find your way back to the middle.

A lot of people recommend the breath for this. By focusing on your breath you give yourself permission to ignore the drifting thoughts. It also is easy to find when you drift.

In this episode, we talk about managing your time like a budget.  Get excited because this is Tiny Leaps, Big Changes.

Welcome to Tiny Leaps, Big Changes where I share simple strategies you can use to get more out of your life. My name is Gregg Clunis and, in this episode, we will be discussing the positive benefits of managing your time like a budget.

In this episode, I announce our 30 Days to Big Changes kick off challenge and explain how you can win $150 in October. 

Full details here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17896131397609693/

To celebrate episode 600 of the podcast I want to give away $600 in October. So I decided to launch a challenge. The goal is for you to meditate as many days as possible in October. It doesn't matter if you are new to meditation or a seasoned pro.⠀

In this episode, we look at the role that friction plays in personal development. 

Sponsor: http://blinkist.com/tinyleaps

The Problem:

How many times have you thought to yourself, “I can’t seem to stop drinking soda, I just don’t have the willpower” Or maybe you blame it on a “sweet tooth.” Or you’ll say something like “If I weren’t so lazy, I would exercise more.”

Statements like this, whether we intend them to or not, reinforce an idea that our bad habits are determined by a set of characteristics we were born with.  Our habits are fixed because “that’s just how I am.”

Let me make something clear – you were not born lazy, or unorganized, or with a sweet tooth. You developed those attributes later in life through a combination of factors but they are not inherently a part of who you are.

This means you can break them.

Digging Deeper

In 1936 Kurt Lewin formulated the statement: “Behavior is a function of the Person in their Environment.”

Lewin, who earned the unofficial title the founder of Social Psychology, was a German American psychologist born in 1890.

Lewin took a complex subject – what drives human behavior - and broke it down into one sentence. “Behavior is a function of the Person in their Environment.”

It is a formula for understanding how positive life changes can come about and highlights just why bad habits can be difficult to break.

So if behavior is a function of the Person in their Environment then there are two things that can be changed. The Person or the Environment.

The Solution

Whatever habit you want to change, one way to start is to look at how you could either increase or decrease the amount of effort, or friction, it takes to make it happen.

In this way you do not have to rely on willpower and can instead tap into the power of our unconscious behaviors.

We may take the brain for granted on a day to day basis but it uses an enormous amount of energy. This is why our brain takes tasks and turns them into habits. By shifting the burden over to the sub-conscious we use less energy while still allowing those tasks to be accomplished.

QOTD: What was the last show you binged on netflix or another platform? -> http://instagram.com/tinyleaps

In this episode, we look at Mise En Place, what it means, and how it can help you change your life.

The Problem

Feeling unorganized and unable to get everything done in a day is pretty common. In fact, Americans spend nearly $10 billion a year on self-help and organization products - according to Marketplace Enterprises. Thats billions – with a B

Yet  according to the Wall St Journal office workers waste an average of 40% of their workday.  Not because they aren’t motivated, but because they were never taught organizing skills to cope with the increasing workloads and demands.

Digging Deeper

To find this guiding principle we are going to turn to an industry you might not expect. Restaurants.

Have you ever heard of Mise-en-place?

It’s a French phrase that roughly translates to “everything in its place.”  You may have heard this term on the many reality cooking shows.

And while useful to help chefs create awe-inspiring meals we can learn a great deal about how to achieve more in our own lives by looking at this principle.

The Solution

For every hour of planning, 3 to 4 hours are saved from redundancy, waiting for information, not being prepared and poorly managed tasks.

Imagine setting your work and household up so that you develop deeply ingrained habits – you put your pen back in the same spot after each use. No more hunting for car keys, or shoes, or deciding what to take to lunch during the work week.  Lose the frustration of trying to keep up with projects.

How can mise-en-place do this for you?  First thing to wrap your head around is that mise-en-place is not just a list of items to do.  It’s a mindset on being prepared for and being focused on the task at hand.

QOTD: On a scale of 1 to 5 how cluttered is your work space? -> http://instagram.com/tinyleaps

In this episode, we look at one simple strategy to improve your memory.

Sponsor: 

Head over to www.betterhelp.com/tinyleaps and use the discount code tiny leaps to get 10% off your first month.

The Problem

There are often really important things we need to remember in our day to day lives. These can be minor like remembering to take out the trash or a bit more serious like remembering your anniversary. Regardless of what it is you need to remember though it’s not always easy to do so.

Digging Deeper

The first thing we need to better understand is what our options are when it comes to memory. There are three main categories of memory:

The Solution

So how do we use this knowledge to better remember things that are important but not critical?

The answer comes in two steps:

QOTD: What is your best memory trick? -> http://instagram.com/tinyleaps

In this episode, we look at 3 simple questions to ask to find your first steps. 

Sponsor: 

Go to www.blinkist.com/tinyleaps to start your FREE 7 day trial AND get 25% off a Blinkist Premium Membership and up to 65% off audiobooks.

The Problem

Personal development is difficult. We know that taking action consistently is the key to getting results, but there is so much to consider even before we get to the “taking action” part of things.

What should we even take action on? How do we turn our goals into action in the first place? What do we do when we get stuck?

Digging Deeper

Part of the reason this happens is because of how complex personal development has gotten. Between all of the books, apps, podcasts, facebook groups, email lists, blogs...etc that are out there this industry has gotten very loud.

Everyone has their own process and their own method for helping you create change and solve your problems. And while, on the surface, this might seem like a good thing, it ultimately leads to a lot of confusing advice that often contradicts each other.

The Solution

QOTD: What is your favorite journal prompt? -> http://instagram.com/tinyleaps

In this episode, we look at why change is inevitable. 

Sponsor: http://www.betterhelp.com/tinyleaps

The Problem

Many people are afraid of change. Whether or not that change is good or bad we tend to want to hold on to the things we know and have experience with. This is the same reason why people tend to be more willing to take action in order to move away from pain than they are to gain pleasure.

Your life might not be great right now, but you’ve come to terms with that. You’ve absorbed that idea into a part of your identity and so losing it becomes painful.

Digging Deeper

Of course, being afraid of change means that many of us stay exactly the same throughout our lives. We spend each and every day working hard just to be able to maintain what we have, never thinking about how we can gain.

When setting goals or pursuing something specific we often sabotage ourselves because the focus required to gain that thing MEANS being willing to sacrifice something else. Success requires sacrifice.

The pain of that sacrifice is felt more deeply than the pleasure of the success and so we limit our success to things that require as little sacrifice as possible.

But the truth is...whether we choose to sacrifice or not...change is inevitable.

“According to researchers, the body replaces itself with a largely new set of cells every seven years to 10 years, and some of our most important parts are revamped even more rapidly”

The Solution

The only way forward is to decide, right now, that  YOU are going to have some say in the change that happens. Because remember, change is going to happen whether you like it or not. The most you can do is try to direct that change.

How do you do that? By actively trying to change. By forcing it to happen. By embracing the fear and pain and sacrifice head on, challenging it to a duel, and whooping its little booty like the conqueror that you are.

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Resources: 

https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/cellular-microscopic/does-body-really-replace-seven-years.htm#:~:text=According%20to%20researchers%2C%20the%20body,%3A%20Stanford%20University%2C%20Northrup%5D.