Habits for Happiness: How to Stay Happy

I would like to welcome you to Habits For Happiness, a blueprint for creating your best year ever in 2023. I'm your host Rob Cressy and quick overview on who I am. I'm a personal growth coach who helps leaders optimize their time, energy, and well-being so ultimately they can become their ideal self. So let's get to why in the world am I doing this live talk?

Well, in the last 48 hours something very unique has happened. I gave away the habit tracker that I use. It's a Google Sheet habit tracker. If you don't have it, you can go to robcressy.com backslash habits and get a free copy of this. So I gave this out to free to anybody who wants it and two days ago this started to get shared on social media in a variety of entrepreneurship communities that I'm a part of.

Well, next thing you know, over 100 people have downloaded this and requested access in the last 48 hours. So I was like, you know what? I want to keep this party going. I want to give more to the community for the people who want to design growth in their life for this year. So I decided let's do this talk where I share how people can use a habit tracker to design their best self this year.

And this is something that I implemented in my life. And what I do, it was an absolute game changer. So the goal of this conversation is to give you the blueprint for how you can create 2023 as the best year of your life by using a very easy to use habit tracker. So let's start with this. How in the world does this apply to what's going on with you right now?

As we speak, we're recording this on January 6th, 2023. And you know what everybody's saying? New year, new me. It's 2023. On the surface, this is super good. I'm all about encouragement. I'm all about helping people who want to grow. But here's what we know to be true. The majority of the world, boom, they put a goal out once a year on New Year's. Boom, this is my resolution. This is the thing that I'm going to do and be.

And unfortunately, a few days, a few weeks, or maybe a few months later, they've fallen back into their old habits and old ways and did not create the growth in the dream life and the ideal version that they set out on January 1st. And I got to caveat this. This conversation is for people who want growth in their life. This habit tracker is for people who want growth in their life.

I'm not going to convince you that you should want to be your ideal self or create 2023 as the best year ever for yourself. That's the game I am playing. And hopefully, that's the game you're playing by being here. Because that's the level that we operate on. Because this is about optimization and taking things in your life to the next level so that you can do more of what you love and show up powerfully and be the best version of yourself. So as long as we're all on the same page with that, we're going to be good.

So I want you to ask yourself, what has stopped you in the past from creating more positive habits? For me, and you're welcome to throw this in the chat, but some things that come top of mind for me that I hear all the time, certainly in the coaching that I do. You know what, Rob? Rob, I'm just overwhelmed with the number of things to do or that are going on in my life. There's the phrase, I've got a lot going on, or I'm too busy with dot, dot, dot. There's also, I don't know what to do. I don't have enough time, which is absolutely the worst one.

A lot of people don't have a personal connection to what it is that they're doing. So they want to get better. They want to create new positive habits. They look at it, doesn't really create the emotion and the feeling in themselves. They see it as another item on their to-do list, not a get-to-do. And then the last one, why do I even need this? And the big word here is need. Well, that's a word I want everybody to throw in the trash because you don't need to do anything. You get to do all of this. You don't need to, you don't should, throw all of that.

So what's actually lacking for most of these people who aren't able to find a way to implement these positive habits in their life? They're lacking commitment, follow through, accountability, action, love, ease of execution, consistency, and simplicity. So what I would like to do is help you throw all of your self-limiting beliefs, judgments, and excuses in the trash because they're not serving you.

And what this is all about is helping you step into the most powerful version of yourself where you're doing more of what you love easily, consistently, and day by day. You are creating your best year ever by living moment to moment, by designing the way that you make that happen.

And how in the world do we even get to this place in the first place with me? I was not this way over a decade ago. So in my previous life, I was a digital advertising sales rep and I was very good at it. I was very successful and made a lot of money, but I didn't wake up every day looking forward to slinging banner ads and text links. So I quit my job and went all in on living my dreams and making my dreams happen as a full-time creator.

And I went to zero and I woke up on that very first day and it was amazing because two things happened. Number one, a realization struck for me. I was like, holy crap, everything is on me. And I realized there was an awareness or a realization or an awakening. Every single decision in my life is now on me.

And I was not this person the day before. But now when I was at zero, no one had told me what to do, no one to say when to wake up, what to eat, what to do for work. Do you go to the gym? What do you love doing? Nothing. All on me. And the beautiful thing that happened because of this is two things. Number one, I became self-aware. I realized, holy smokes, I get to make every single decision in my life.

And number two, I adopted a growth mindset. Because when you're at zero, I'm like, all right, I don't want to be at zero for very long. So I audited the success habits of the most successful people in the world. What are the things that they're doing, their habits, routines, their mindsets, their ways of being, the people that I aspire to do things like. And day after day, week after week, for more than a decade, I went ahead and went all in on my personal growth and development.

So how in the world do you get to the place where you are using a habit tracker and helping other people as a coach in doing this for themselves? I've transformed my life over the last decade using these very simple habits, routines, mindsets, and ways of being that I'm sharing with you.

So there are three secrets to creating your best year ever that I want to share with you specifically as it relates to using this habit tracker. Secret number one, come from a place of love. Secret number two, let's make this easy. And secret number three, the power of consistency. So what I'm going to do is I am going to break down every single one of these.

So number one, as it relates to creating your best year ever and being your ideal self and using a habit tracker to do more of what you love, come from a place of love. So I want you to ask yourself this. It's so simple. So you're sitting there and it's a blank screen or a blank piece of paper. Just ask yourself this. What would you love to do? What would you love more of in your life? And then write this down.

Because one of the areas where people fall into a self-limiting belief is that they think they should or have to do something. No, the goal of tracking your habits is to do more positive things in your life that contribute to your growth and your goals that you love. This isn't sitting here and saying, all right, let's dial for dollars like you're working in a call center like I used to do. No, that's heavy and negative. These are all positive things.

Because the people who say, why in the world would I want to do this or use this? Why in the world would you not want to do more things in your life that you love? To me, it is literally the simplest concept in the world. All right, what do you want to do? More of in your life. Write down 10 of those. Congratulations. Those are 10 positive habits that you get to track or do every single day.

So for me, this is something that is holistic and applies to all areas of your life. And this is oh so important. I want you to hear this from a non-business lens. Of course, there's business application because when you're better at life, you're better at business. But for me, this is about filling up all of the buckets of your life.

So some examples for you. I love to play basketball. So one of the habits that I track is play basketball. I've got a one-year-old son. One of the habits that I track is read to my son five minutes a day. Another one is meditate. These are all very simple positive habits that I love to do.

But wait, Rob, you're telling me you need to put into a habit tracker that you need to read to your son every single day? Well, guess what? If something is important enough, I will inspect what I expect. Sure, I could just leave it to chance that every single day I am going to read to my son. But guess what? I am so committed to being with my son and learning and developing with him that I want to, I get to track every single day that I do it. It is that important.

What this does, this gets you looking forward to doing it. It also is the power of intention. Boom, I'm setting the intention that I get to read with my son for five minutes a day. And then number two, the power of awareness. In that document, every single day, boom, there it is. Five minutes, read with my son. Boom, five minutes, read with my son. It is so simple. So secret number one, come from a place of love as it relates to your personal growth in designing habits that serve you.

Secret number two, easy street. Let's make this easy. Because once again, so many people see this spreadsheet and they're like, oh my God, Rob, I'm just so overwhelmed. I get so anxious just even looking at your spreadsheet. And I look at them like they're speaking hieroglyphics. I'm like, you realize this takes me about one minute a day, right? And it's filled all with things that I love. So let's make sure if you're thinking along the track of this is too much, please throw that in the trash because this could not be easier and more simple.

So how in the world do I create this as easy and simple in my life? And you can too. On my Apple Watch every single day, you can also use your phone. You can also use a calendar. But I would recommend something that you have or is with you all the time. I set an alarm for 7:45 PM every single day. And when that alarm goes off, what do I do? Boom. That is the start of my evening routine where I open up my habit tracker and I go in and I log all of the various things that I've done so far today.

And if I look and there's a few of them that I have not done yet, I have a choice to make. Hey, do I want to take the one minute, three minutes, five minutes, maybe 10 minutes that it would take to do one, two, three, four, five, six, or seven of those? Sure. Oftentimes, just simply opening that thing up actually triggers me to do the things that are the positive habits that create growth and love and freedom and joy and harmony in my life.

Remember, we're going to go back to what we just talked about. These are all things that you design, that you love, that you have identified as creating growth in your life that will help you be your ideal self. So if you're following me, I'm going to repeat these things over and over and over again. This is oh so simple because you're the one designing this.

So now we have the consistency trigger that goes. All right, time to go in there and log it. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Done. One minute. Great. I have just said to myself, congratulations, Rob. You have just done the positive habits or at least some of them that you would love to do every single day. That contributes to who you are being as the best version of yourself. Once again, how long does this take? One minute. Everybody has one minute to do this.

So if we're going to look at the amount of time it actually takes, if you're starting at zero and you're like, Rob, I have no idea what you're talking about. You are speaking like an alien. But I like that alien language. So I'm about this life. So all you got to do, open up the document, go to robcressy.com backslash habit if you have not had it yet or gotten access to it.

And then boom, you're going to see an Excel file, which we'll get to in a second, or a Google Sheet file, where you can just fill in your 10 positive habits. So maybe you give yourself the gift of 10 minutes and say, all right, I'm going to write down a few of these. Boom, you put it in there. You can even start with one if you want. But I would hope that you have such a fervor for life that there's more than one thing that you would love more of in your life. So that's it. And then number two, boom, your alarm goes off. You go and track it. Move on to the next day.

So those are the first two secrets of creating a blueprint for creating your best year ever in 2023. And then secret number three is the power of consistency. And this is the simplest concept in the world. You're going to hear this over and over again, simple, simple.

So by using this habit tracker, you win in the micro your day, that moment. Hey, here's one, two, three, seven, nine, 10, 15 things that I would love to do every single day. When I do them, boom, I win in that moment because I just did and lived in action. I am the person who did the things that I said I wanted to do to be my best self. Yes, micro win.

But now we're going to go in the macro, the high level. Do it for one day and then one week and then one month and then one year. And in my case, 10 years. Imagine what your life would be like next month or a decade from now. If you just use this very simple habit tracker to create more positive habits in your life. What do you think that that would look like? You're going to win. You're going to create your best year ever every single year. And you're going to have your best day ever every single day.

Because here's the thing. Your best year ever and your best day ever is a mindset, a lifestyle and a way of being. It didn't mean that you got married every day or every year or had a child or went to the Super Bowl. Those are great moments. But you can't do anything about the past and you can't control the future. All that you have is this moment. So let's design amazing moments that we love and make it easy. Do more of the things that we love and make it consistent.

And here is one super, super important key to this with this habit tracker. If you do not do something, one of your positive habits, it is not a negative. I repeat, it is not a negative. This habit tracker is only meant to be a positive in your life. So you're sitting there and if you get one of 12, congratulations. You just did one positive thing that contributed to your day. If you do three of 12, congratulations. You did three.

You don't sit there and go, oh my God, who am I? I'm such a loser for only doing three of 12 habits of the things that I want to be. No, that's not the goal of this. The goal is more of what you love, not judging yourself for what you do not do. Because remember, for the majority of people, we are starting at zero. Well, we're tracking none of these positive habits. So by design, if you do even one thing, you are already better today than you were yesterday.

And then as you do it, little by little, you start to do, I go from one to three to five. And I can't wait until the day when you slide into my DMs at Rob Cressy on all social media platforms. And you say, Rob, I had a perfect day today. I did every single one of the things on my habit tracker. And it was the absolute best.

And here's the thing. I'll tell you from experience, doing all of them in one day. And I think right now I've got 13. It's a lot. I don't have perfect days all the time. I would actually say a perfect day is a rarity for me to get all of them done. But guess what? You will. And I also want to hear when you go from one to three or three to five or five to seven, when all of a sudden you're like, Rob, I feel the momentum. I'm using this and I'm doing more of what I love. It is something that is the absolute gift.

So once again, to do a quick recap of those three secrets for creating your best year ever in 2023. Secret number one, come from a place of love. Design positive habits that you want more of in your life that bring you joy, happiness, and harmony. Because you get to design this and you get to do this. Secret number two, stay on easy street. This is something that takes only one minute a day. So keep this easy and don't overthink it.

And number three, the power of consistency. By setting an alarm on your watch or your phone that goes off every single day, that becomes the trigger for you to fill in your habit tracker, aka creating that consistency practice for you. One day turns into one week, turns into one month, which turns into one year, which turns into your best year ever.

So to wrap a bow on this and to give some recommendations, how do you create your best year ever in 2023? Boom. Start by committing to yourself and say, 2023 will be my best year ever. And then go ahead and write that down on a piece of paper. Why? Because you're using the power of language. You're speaking things into existence. Abracadabra. I am as I speak.

And once you've got that intention, you're like, oh, well, every single day I will see the piece of paper that says, 2023, best year ever. Drip, drip, drip. Just a drip of consistency, drip of consistency. Because imagine being the person that says, 2023 is my best year ever, once a day. And they see it on their piece of paper, once a day. Versus the person who says that or sees that, zero times. Zero times 365 is zero. One times 365 is 365 times. God forbid we make that number two.

You want to create your best year ever. Let's keep it simple. Let's keep it easy. That's what the power of awareness is. That's what the power of consistency is. I'm telling you, I operate my entire life around this. My coaching program is built on things like this. Everything I'm sharing with you is invisible. It costs nothing. And all it is is a choice. It's a conscious choice to say, I am going to be the best version of myself. I'm going to do more of what I love. And I'm going to show up powerfully.

And lastly, I want you to see this as a tool for growth. So imagine yourself as a superhero that has a tool belt of things that you get to use to create your best year ever and show up as your ideal self. This habit tracker is just one of them. It's a tool you can use that says, oh, well, I know when I use this tool, I do more of the things that I want in my life. And I can quantify it, which helps me see where am I doing the things that I love? And where are there opportunities for improvement?

Because once again, as we talked about at the very beginning, this is about optimizing your life. Really, it's about optimizing your time, energy, and well-being. This is how you get more done in less time. This is how you show up happy every single day because you've designed your happiness.

So my call to action for you is go to the habit tracker today and create your 10 positive habits that you want in your life that will create the best year ever for you in 2023. And then from there, create your alarm. What time is it going to go off for you to trigger? I'm going to fill this out. And then number three, fill it out. And I would love for you to send me a screenshot or a video or a picture or a message when you do this because I'm a champion for you and I want to support you in this journey.

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