Swapping out the bad for the good

Time management expert Julie Morgenstern reveals how to analyze what we are receiving from a bad habit and explains the tool of replacing it with a different choice that yields the same result.

Transcript

00:00

[MUSIC PLAYING] Nobody lets go of anything, any bad behavior, any bad habits, without reaching for something else.

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We can't just stop doing something. We have to do something different, instead.

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That is the key to breaking bad habits is to replace them with a healthier choice that gets you to the same goal

00:27

that the bad habit was serving. And it really starts with understanding whatever it is you're trying to stop doing-- eating too much,

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drinking too much, smoking. All habits have a good intention. What is it that I'm trying to get to here?

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And then, what is a better way for me to achieve that goal? Clutter, in many ways, is a habit.

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Like, not putting things away or kind of leaving things in a really messy state.

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There's a few ways to kind of break the habit of piling and cluttering and not

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maintaining a space. One of them is a mindset shift, which is putting things away immediately.

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But stop thinking of it as putting it away. Think of it as setting things up for their next use.

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It's a gift to yourself that when you go looking for that T-shirt or the calendar,

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it's going to be exactly where it belongs. You open up the closet, you open up the drawer, and voila, it's there.

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It's like a time gift to yourself. And then, also, with clients, what we will often do

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is create one small space in their home that is an oasis of order.

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Just the bookshelf. Just your sock drawer. Just the utensil door in the kitchen.

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Maybe, just your fridge. If you just do one oasis of order and don't try to do it all at once, you would feel such a victory that you

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have conquered that space, and it is a nourishment for you. So those are ways to break a habit through mindset

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and very small concrete steps. Take a deep breath in.

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MAN: Mindset is everything. I'm not 90 for nothing. Small steps, one motion.