33 Mini-Habits That (Quietly) Changed My Life
60 second investment, infinite returns
It's not the big habits that (dramatically) change your life.
It's the mini-habits (that take 60 seconds or less) that you consciously practice 200-500x that (quietly) change your life.
With that stated:
Here are 33 mini-habits that I’ve built over the years…
… which quietly changed my life.
Please note:
Don’t implement the entire list at once (overkill!). Pick one or two mini-habits and add them to your daily routine. Once mastered, come back to this list and repeat until you’ve quietly changed your life.
Coolio?
If so, let’s go (rapid fire):
1. Wake up in the morning, literally jump out of bed with joy, and repeat the following thought to yourself: “I am [full name] and I am [your main intention expressed in the past or present tense] and today was brilliantly successful for me.” (homage to Trevor G. Blake for this game changer)
Why: How you start the day is how you end the day. The issue is, most people start the day with doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety. Thinking through the contents of their day and stressing over how it’s going to go. This is a poor use of your mind. A better use is to prime your mind with victory before the day even begins. This is the way of the master. To see the end before the beginning. Practice this and you’ll have better days.
2. Before you go to sleep at night, run through the events of the day and forgive anybody and everybody who rubbed you the wrong way (including yourself). It could be something big or small. Doesn’t matter. But it’s important to process and clear the experiences from the day so you can rest easy. Then bring to mind your ideal vision and let that be the last thing on your mind as you fade off into deep sleep. Do this every night and you may notice an increase in HRV, a lowering of your heart rate, and a joyful boost (the next morning).
Why: Forgiveness/letting go is to the soul what a shower is to the body. If you do it, you remain light and clean. If you don’t do it, you become heavy and drained. You don’t want to carry the wounds of today into the freshness of tomorrow. So end each night with forgiveness.
3. Clean your desk at days end and preload your laptop with websites, docs, resources you need to knock out the #1 priority the following day + block everything else with Cold Turkey Blocker.
Why: When you preload the laptop with what you need the following day… you have already started the work process. This will make it easier for you to continue the work (and get right into it because there’s zero friction) the next morning.
4. If you take supplements, buy a weekly supplement container. Every Sunday night, preload the supplements for the week and keep the container where you’ll see it.
Why: Most people have a cabinet full of supplements, but never remember to consistently take them. Make it easier by just prepping your supplements once. Plus… this makes it easy to travel around (so you don’t have to carry your oversized magnesium bottle everywhere you go).
5. Set the thermostat between 60-67 fahrenheit for sleeping.
Why: Sleep is the greatest performance enhancing drug on earth and one of the best ways to induce higher quality sleep is by making your room cold(er). This is the ideal range for sleeping.
6. Keep a 1-sentence journal.
Why: Everybody wants to journal, but hardly anybody can keep a consistent journal. With the 1-sentence journal, you simply write down 1-sentence for each day. This is easy and manageable. Plus… if you miss a day… you can easily go back and write 1-sentence. This allows you to quickly and easily build a journaling habit.
7. Sense your arms and legs and feel your feet on the floor while you eat, work, speak, lift, write, build, etc.
Why: Most people are disembodied. This results in you being head heavy and disconnects you from the field of reality. Consequences of this: You lose joy, compassion, strength, discipline, peace. All these qualities come from reality, not the separate mind. By sensing your arms and legs and feeling your feet on the floor while you live, you learn to meditate with your eyes open. And ground yourself in present moment awareness. This is where all the magic happens.
8. Do an energy cleanse before every major event/meeting/call. This will refresh your energy and help you have a better call. Watch this short to learn how.
Why: You’re essentially giving yourself an energetic massage. This relaxes the tension patterns in the face, head, neck, and shoulders (where we usually hold a lot of tension). And allows you to wash away the cobwebs that get in the way of you and present moment awareness.
9. Open the settings app on your iPhone and disable all notifications. Then create a favorites list of the contacts that may need you in the event of an emergency (i.e. parents, wife/gf, kids, etc.) and put your phone on do-not disturb mode. Keep it here 24/7 and communicate to your favorites list: If there’s an emergency, call twice (to get through DND mode). Otherwise, I’ll call you when I see it.
Why: If you live intentionally, you win. If you don’t live intentionally, you lose. Problem is: The phone trains you to react and to lose attention with every notification, ping, or text that comes through. You don’t want to build the habit of reacting. So disable all pings and get your attention back.
10. Do the bow and the arch daily.
Why: The body keeps score. All the traumas, hurts, and pains are stored in the fascia of the body. In order to liberate yourself from the past and free up your energy to act boldly in the now, you have to clear the holding patterns in the body. Doing the bow and the arch daily is a great way of doing that. By holding your body in these positions for minutes at a time, you stimulate the pains of yesterday and feel them to completion. Once you do, you become freer and bolder.
11. Imagine a bubble around negative people to contain their energy.
Why: In the book Three Simple Steps (great book) by Trevor G. Blake… he recommends putting on a mentality shield. A shield of positivity that you imagine over your body that protects you from all negativity. This is cool and it works, but personally I find it better to visualize a bubble over negative people. This keeps their energy in their own space and it can no longer leave their bubble to touch you.
12. Keep your center of gravity in the lower belly. This is the energetic, spiritual, and physical/action center of the body. The master acts from the belly. The novice acts from the head.
Why: When you act from the belly, your action(s) will become effortless because you’re in tune with the Tao. When you act from the head, your action(s) will become draining because you’re working against the Tao. Bring yourself back in the belly to create a life of flow.
13. Set a physical timer for deep work (90 minutes is ideal) and tell yourself: I can either work on X priority or sit here and do nothing. Then do one of the two. Once the timer goes off, break for 10-20 minutes and walk, stretch, breathe, get fresh air, or simply hit the ground and do as many push ups as possible. Repeat the process until you’ve knocked out 1-3 high ROI levers for the day.
Why: The timer concentrates your focus and the “I can either work on X priority or sit here and do nothing” frees you from the pressure/burden of performance – allowing you to perform lol.
14. Wake up at sunrise. Go to sleep after sunset.
Why: The body functions off light and dark. By sleeping in accordance with the sun, you sync your body back in tune with the natural rhythm of life. And create a consistent container/structure for your days. This allows you to set your circadian rhythm and get the most out of your days. (If you don’t establish your circadian rhythm, then you are training your body to misfire.)
15. Download the Drafts app. Fill up the inbox with random ideas, insights, and breakthroughs. At week's end, go through the inbox and process it: Implement, delegate, or file away. Then archive everything and start the next week with a clear garden.
Why: What you pay attention to grows. What you remove attention from dies. If you want more high quality ideas (for business and life), then start writing down the ideas you currently have. This will optimize the algorithm of life to give you more ideas. The Drafts app is the easiest way to capture ideas. (Use it as a capture system. Not as a storage system. Notion is better for that.)
16. Create a Mindset Folder. Review it 3x/daily.
Why: If you want to achieve more than what you’re currently capable of, then you have to upgrade your identity. Creating a Mindset Folder is how you do that. Reviewing the folder is how you remind yourself of who you are becoming.
17. Plan tomorrow, today by writing down 1-3 high ROI levers + open loops/any meetings + non-negotiable habits.
Why: It creates structure for your day and makes compounding work for you. (1-3 high ROI levers for 1000 days = the good life).
18. Read 10 pages/day.
Why: Committing to reading a book a week is overkill and challenging. Reading 10 pages/day is easy and effortless. When you read 10 pages/day, you build the habit of reading and some days the book captures your attention and you end up reading hundreds of pages.
19. Read 1 ad/day.
Why: In order to get what you want out of the video game of life, you have to learn to influence and persuade. The copy brain is something you want to build and continuously hone. One way of doing that is by exposing yourself to good marketing on a daily basis. Reading through an ad is the easiest way of doing that. (Bonus points if you analyze the ad for the following elements: USP, BIG IDEA, BIG PROBLEM, BIG PROMISE, PROOF.)
20. Repeat: “I am [full name] and I am so grateful and happy to be making [your income number]” 200-500x/day.
Why: You become what you obsess about.
21. Download iris eye software.
Why: Blue light bad.
22. Spend the first hour of the work day on a revenue generating task.
Why: 9/10 businesses fail because they run out of cash. Waking up in the morning, opening up your preloaded laptop, and prioritizing cashflow primes you to focus on what actually matters.
24. Do 2-4 reps of 30-50 yard sprints 1/week.
Why: Sprinting makes you explosive AF & boosts testosterone.
25. Run towards anxiety, fear, panic. Tell your brain you want more.
Why: The brain is trying to protect you. It protects you by keeping safety in and danger out. The issue is, most of us train the brain to associate feelings of anxiety, fear and panic with danger. Which makes the brain (and nervous system) glitch out whenever these feelings arise. A better approach is to do the opposite. Tell the brain you love anxiety, fear and panic every chance you get and retrain the mind to associate safety with these sensations so it stops glitching out (and pulling fire alarms).
26. Send warm DMs (with zero expectations)
Why: It’s how you build a worldwide network of elite entrepreneurs, marketers, writers, athletes, musicians, creators, artists.
27. Call your mom.
Why: Because she carried you for nine months.
28. Ship daily.
Why: It allows you to play the lottery. You never know what ad or piece of content is going to hit and go nuclear. By shipping daily, you purchase a lottery ticket (for free).
29. Buy 2 of anything consumable (i.e. cologne, supplements, whatever). Restock when you only have 1 left.
Why: Most people buy 1. Then run out. Then go without while they wait on their Amazon delivery. Buying 2 and restocking when you only have 1 left solves this problem for good.
30. Phone on Airplane Mode & Wifi off while you sleep.
Why: Electromagnetic…blah… blah… blah. I don’t know the specifics, but I swear I sleep better.
31. Cover the dinner bill.
Why: Most people play hide n seek when the bill arrives. Do the opposite. Pay the bill with a smile. And never look at it (because that reeks of scarcity).
32. Tell the inner critic to fuck off.
Why: If you don’t, it will keep you in the familiar box and ruin your life. Telling it to fuck off creates space, expansion, and room for you to be exactly as you are.
33. Never read (or watch) content that is titled “33 mini-habits that (quietly) changed my life” or “30 lessons I learned…” ever again
Why: It’s written for the algorithm. Not for you. Real juice is found by going deep (and within). Not broad (and out).
Thanks for reading ;-)
Your friend,
/tej