- 7/5/2025
comment,share,lke & follow my channel....
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Hey Balancers and welcome back to another episode of the Balance Theory podcast.
00:04I'm your host Erica and if you're somebody like me who is curious to learn more about themselves,
00:11who is on a self-development, a self-improvement journey, who is interested in curating and
00:17creating a life that is more aligned, authentic and balanced for them, then this episode is for
00:23you. Today I'm going to share 10 cherry-picked habits that I think are incredibly powerful for
00:30anybody in a self-improvement journey. We're not only going to talk about what those habits are,
00:36but why I have personally made an episode dedicating time to talk about their importance in the self
00:43improvement and self-development journey. I think when we talk about habits, I could go on a 50-page
00:49tangent of all the different things I do that I love that are great for my motivation and my
00:54discipline and all these things. But the reason I wanted to dedicate it to habits specifically for
01:00the self-improvement journey is because that is what this podcast is about. And I really feel
01:05that if you can have a routine that gives you both the time and space to be in your own thoughts and
01:13think about the things you want and why you want them and have the energy to do that as well,
01:17that is the most important and the most critical way you're actually going to make long-lasting,
01:23impactful and aligned change in your life. Some of these habits may be ones you've heard before.
01:27They may not necessarily be new. Some might be interesting. You may not have thought about them
01:33in terms of being a habit or including it in your routine. And I'm really excited to share these
01:37because I feel like before I implemented a lot of these, I was very chop and change with my
01:44discipline when it came to my self-improvement. And what I mean with that is I would sometimes feel
01:49very grounded and connected with myself and sometimes I wouldn't. I would constantly be
01:54kind of like chopping in and out of what I call alignment, feeling really grounded in myself.
01:59So these in combination have worked really well for me. You may listen and choose to adopt maybe
02:05a handful of them or maybe one really sticks out to you. This isn't a perfect list for you.
02:11This is what's currently working for me. And I just hope that some of them
02:14inspire you, if not to think about your own habits and whether they are playing a key role in your
02:20self-improvement journey or whether they're ones that you can adopt on your own path as well.
02:24And I have saved my favorite and what I think is the best until last. So make sure you stay tuned
02:29till the end. Okay. The first habit that I think has been indispensable for my self-improvement
02:35journey is movement. So I'm not necessarily talking about going to the gym every single day of the
02:41week. I'm just talking about moving your body every day. There is something magical and beautiful
02:49about being in that mind-body connection. For me, it's quite a flexible routine throughout my week.
02:56So I do have a gym program that I do, but I do like mixing that up with Pilates, with walking,
03:01with yoga. It's just, you know, there's obviously the science aspect of it, which I'm not a professional
03:08or qualified to speak on in terms of the endorphins it gives you, the feel-good hormones, all that.
03:13That's quite obvious to me after I've done a workout, how good you feel. But it's just also in terms of
03:19telling yourself you're going to stick to something and then showing up for yourself.
03:23That practice has such a key role to play in terms of your discipline, in terms of creating
03:31and sticking to things. You're basically building up evidence of telling yourself you're going to do
03:36things and sticking to them. And if you want to improve or grow as a person, having that foundation
03:42of knowing you can do things that you stick to is really, really key and crucial in terms of growing.
03:47The third reason I think that's really, really important is, like I said, that mind-body connection.
03:52Actually, being very present when you're moving, feeling how your body feels in different things,
03:58pushing yourself. I don't know. There's just something really magical about it. And I really
04:02feel a difference on the days I move my body versus the days that I don't. For example, I mean,
04:08it's nice to have breaks and go on holidays, but even things like my posture feels off. I don't feel as
04:14energetic. It's just crazy the range of benefits that come with it. But this discipline or this habit
04:21has been critical to me improving as a person and actually being committed on that journey.
04:27So having a very committed movement habit, I think is really important for anyone that's serious about
04:33growing as a person. Number two, this is a golden pillar for me. It's a no phone rule. So I have a
04:40rule where for the first, let's say two hours of the day and the last hour of the day, I have my phone
04:46on do not disturb and I really try and not go on it unless it's for something I absolutely need to.
04:51And the way I do this is I use on the iPhone, it's called the do not disturb feature, which basically
04:57means you won't get any notifications pop up on your phone. It doesn't put it on aeroplane mode or
05:02anything like that. So everything is still coming through. They're just not popping up on your home
05:06phone, which means you're not being distracted. First thing in the morning, this is very, very important
05:11for me. This is when I'm doing my movement. So I'm waking up and I'm going straight to the gym or I'm
05:17going straight for my walk. It's something I like to do first thing in the morning. If I had my phone
05:21not on do not disturb, I'd be waking up to my alarm and instantly seeing all my notifications. And what
05:27that does is it puts me in an immediate space of distraction. So that means I'm not, I don't have that
05:34space and time for myself, right? The phone is such a beautiful tool we've got. We can access the world
05:41in our pockets, but it also means our attention is grabbed constantly. And so I find using this do
05:47not disturb feature or the no phone rule is a way for you to commit time for yourself and keep that
05:54sacred. And what I love doing is when I'm ready to be distracted, that's when I take my phone off,
06:00do not disturb in the morning. And it's this really nice practice of I've just had two, three hours
06:05to myself and I'm now choosing that I'm prepared to be distracted. So it's this really nice way of
06:11just controlling your energy and conserving it for yourself. And the other thing I'll say is,
06:17especially with the night one, think about the energy and pace of you scrolling on social media
06:23constantly, right? It's like dopamine here, dopamine here. You're just distracted, very, very short,
06:28grabby soul energy, right? You're just like always needing something to top it up, to top it up,
06:34to top it up. And it's very like quick, frantic energy. If you can actually switch that off a
06:39decent amount of time before you go to bed, that actually gets your energy back into this just slow,
06:46not distracted, kind of neutral state. If you have scrolled and then try and go to sleep, it's highly
06:53likely that it takes you quite some time to go to sleep. And for me personally, I can only put this
06:57down to the way that I get revved up just being on my phone, especially the way we consume short
07:03form content and social media. So having that rule has been incredible for my sleep. It's been
07:10incredible for my own connection with myself and just really protecting me from being distracted.
07:17I mean, we've got all day to be on our phone. A lot of us use our phone for work. It's basically
07:22on my desk all day when I'm working. So I'm never without it. So I can choose to just switch that off
07:29and use that do not disturb feature as kind of like a barrier for my own time. So this has been a habit
07:35that I have found incredibly profound to just create that time and space for myself and opt in and out of
07:43distraction. And just as a quick aside, like if you're someone who is trying to build a different
07:50life for yourself, if you're trying to focus, if you're trying to be a little bit more organized
07:53or disciplined, use this feature throughout the day as well. You know, if you've got an hour to do work,
07:59it's really hard sometimes to have the phone face down because you're tempted to look at it
08:02and, you know, we check it. We have those natural tendencies and urges. But if you use the do not
08:08disturb feature, it's still there. You can see the time, but you're not distracted by that notification
08:13going off. So this has been an amazing feature. I really love it. And using it as the way I start
08:19and end my day has been really, really powerful. The third habit is for anyone listening who's like
08:24me, who likes being very organized in the form of lists, to-do lists, calendars, things like that.
08:31Having a very organized way and having apps that actually help you organize your things and your time
08:38is very important. Otherwise, if things are scrambled in your head, they're going to be
08:43scrambled in your reality, right? It's the same thing as like, if your environment is a mess,
08:48you're going to feel like messy and scattered and all over the place. So I won't go on too long about
08:54this because I know different people have different preferences for how they like to be organized or do
08:59these lists. I actually used to be pen on paper, very old school type girl where I'd have my to-do
09:06list. But I think since I've moved into like planning ahead more and doing more quarterly,
09:12six-month yearly goals, it's just been impossible to keep track of that on paper. So I like to use
09:18two apps. The first one is called Sunsama. This app is basically a calendar, but if you're like me and
09:25you have a lot of different email accounts, so I've got one for the podcast, one for work, one for
09:29personal, one for my e-commerce business. It's very hard to keep track of all the meetings and
09:34do dates for things when they're all on different Gmail accounts, all on different calendars. So this
09:41app basically lets you pull in all your calendars in one and it'll display all the deadlines,
09:48meetings, things in each of those calendars in the one place, which has been amazing. The second one I
09:53really love using is Calendly. So this is basically just a meeting booking type app. But the reason I
10:00love it is I'm currently based in Dubai. I do a lot of business and have a lot of meetings that
10:05take place in Australia, in the UK, in the US, and having to sit down and work out the time zone
10:11difference is just, it goes over my head. So this app basically lets the person booking choose their
10:17time zone. You've set it to your time zone and it's just very seamless. I mean, I can't keep track
10:22of daylight savings and all of that. So this has been great. I've put some links in the show notes.
10:29If you guys want to check those out, they've been two apps I really love using. And then in terms of
10:34just keeping track of my goals, my corporate brain has taken over this one and I really use a bland
10:41Google Doc list. It just helped, it's helped me kind of build out the big picture goals in terms of
10:48yearly, six month, three month. But this habit in and of itself, whether you do it through apps, whether you
10:54do it as written, just being organized is really important. If you're someone who is focusing on
11:00growing and learning more about yourself, you have to be organized with your time because then you can
11:04A, see where your time is going. You can vet your time, which is really important to make sure that
11:10where it's going is conducive to who you want to be. But also, and most importantly, when you are clear
11:17in the mind, when you're organized, it just gives you this peace of mind to think clearly because you're not
11:24scattered like the way your calendar or your week is. So for anyone listening who already is a fan of
11:31to-do lists, you're probably already across this, but those are just some apps that I like to use. If there's
11:35any you use, like even with to-do lists, I know there are so many, please feel free to drop them in the
11:40comments too. So I can check them out. So other people listening can check them out too. But this habit is
11:45really, really important if you are bettering yourself. Fourth one, fourth habit that is very
11:50important if you're on a self-discovery or a self-improvement journey is preparing your own
11:55food. Now, I have spoken to so many people, especially here in Dubai that tell me it's so
12:01much cheaper and faster to just order food every single day. And I hear you. The truth is it probably
12:06is, but it's all about the quality of what we are consuming. For me personally, I have found that if I
12:15am ordering takeaway, which generally has a lot more sugar and preservatives and different things
12:21in there that are not clean food, shall we say, it really impacts my energy. And this is what this
12:27point, this habit is all about. It's about energy management, because if you know what you're consuming
12:32and you're not having too much of a heavy meal, your energy is going to stretch a lot longer every
12:38single day. Also, just in terms of your general health, you know, health, I think is the foundation
12:45to anything you want to do in life. If you've got your health, you have the energy to show up and do
12:49the things that you want to do every single day. So prepping food has been a great way for me to
12:56actually manage my energy and make sure that I'm just on top of my health in general. This kind of brings
13:02me on to my fifth thing, my fifth habit, which is having Sundays as a planning day. Because a lot of
13:08people will say to me, I don't have the time to meal prep, it takes too long, all those kinds of
13:13things. So in general, Sunday for me is a planning day. It's planning my meetings and what my week looks
13:20like. It's making sure I haven't scheduled in too many calls that I'm going to have no time to do my core
13:25things or my core habits, right? Because that's very important to my balance. It's making sure that I have
13:32pre-ordered my groceries. So on the grocery note, let's just go to the side for a sec.
13:36I generally plan and order everything on a Saturday. I don't want to discount the mental toll it takes
13:44to actually like plan out what you're going to eat. Think of all the groceries you need to order
13:49and then actually order them. I feel very grateful. I live in a city where it's accessible to order food
13:54basically same day or next day delivery. But if you can create like a two day window where you plan
14:01and order and then the food arrives and you prep, it's a very easy way to just get into the swing
14:06of doing things. Because if you wake up on a Sunday and think, oh, what am I going to eat this
14:10week? Order it. By the time it comes, it's probably later in the day. Or even if you go and do your
14:14shopping, it's just a lot of decisions you have to make in one day. So I found splitting it out just
14:19splits the mental energy required to do those things. And Sundays are such a great day for me to just get
14:26ahead of my week. You know, that's assuming you have a Monday to Friday schedule. If your schedules
14:31push forward or you work weekends or your weekend break or days offer during the week, you could use
14:36that as your planning day too. But it just gives me a level of comfort and peace of mind that in that
14:43week coming up, I've organized the things that are non-negotiables to me. I have the time to do and
14:50spend the time doing the things that matter to me. And I just have that clarity going into the week.
14:54So use Sundays to plan your week out or use your day off to plan your week out, whether that is
15:00food, whether that is meetings and your calendar, whether it is things you need to do, like building
15:07out a to-do list and steps around that. Use Sundays as a planning day because when Monday kicks in and
15:14unexpected client work comes up, you've got deadlines you weren't expecting, it can throw the week out.
15:20So if you've already organized stuff for the week, then those things don't, you don't have to miss
15:25out on those things. The sixth habit that's been really powerful in my own self-improvement journey
15:31has been this concept of constant education. So it's constantly learning. And I feel like once you
15:38start this journey, you realize, you know, it's that famous saying, the more you know, the more you
15:43realize you don't know. And it's so true. I think learning about ourselves and becoming better as a
15:49person is a lifelong pursuit. I don't think we'll ever get to a stage where we're just
15:54done. You know, like we feel like we've accomplished or learned everything there is to learn about
15:59ourselves. I really do think we could do that until our very last day. And so being engaged in
16:05constant education, which you're probably already doing if you're listening to this podcast, but
16:10through podcasts, through books, through interesting articles, through reading papers,
16:14whatever you find inspiring, whatever gets you thinking, actually having that as a habit. So not
16:21just ad hocly when you feel like it, having as a habit, for example, Monday mornings, when you're
16:26walking on the treadmill, that's your time to learn something new. I do that actually on a Thursday.
16:30It's my 60 minute walk day. And I always listen to a podcast on something I am interested to learn
16:37about at that period in time. And that topic area or the theme of that changes depending on what stage
16:43I'm at in life. For example, now it's a lot around pregnancy, having babies, it's really just
16:50firming up my understanding in that area, because it's something I'm interested in and something I
16:54hope, you know, to engage in in the next couple of years of my life. But that topic or what I choose
17:00to learn about for my own growth changes depending on where I'm at in life. But I have that core habit
17:06of constant education. So anchoring that into your week and actually having it as a regular habit
17:13is a sure way to guarantee that you're constantly evolving and growing in whatever area you want
17:19to focus on confidence, public speaking, YouTube, whatever it is. The seventh type of habit that I
17:27found has been incredible for my self improvement journey is having a mindful habit. Now I want to
17:34keep this one quite broad. And I never want to be the person to tell you that this is the habit that
17:40you need to adopt. And this is how you need to do it, because we're all very different in terms of
17:44how we like to learn how we like to process. So when I say having a mindful habit, I'm talking about
17:50distraction free time and space for yourself. So one could say that the phone free time that I shared
17:57before is a mindful habit. But let's go a little bit deeper. You know, within that time, you can have
18:04no phone. But if you're watching Netflix or doing something else, then that is kind of redundant.
18:08So what are we choosing to do in that time? For me, a mindful habit looks like meditation,
18:14maybe journaling, maybe just sitting there and just being with my own thoughts, right? Thinking
18:19about them. Whatever you choose to make this mean, I mean, it could even be like going on a silent walk,
18:25right? Where you don't have any distraction, and you're just really present in the moment.
18:28Any form of mindful habit, I think is really key to anyone on a self improvement journey, because
18:35you have that time with yourself. And if you're trying to grow and evolve as a person,
18:40but you're not connected or plugged into what's actually going on in you right now, what you're
18:45thinking, where your head's at, where your mindset is, reflecting on the way you think and feel about
18:51things, you're almost operating from a point of assumption, right? You're assuming what's going on
18:57without actually plugging in. So having a mindful habit in your routine is really important for you to
19:03establish where things are at, where you're currently at, so that any efforts you make or whatever
19:09you're doing in terms of your routine or your improvement is actually reflective or matches
19:15where you're currently at. The eighth habit that I think is really key to anyone on a self improvement
19:21journey is being clear on your priorities. Now bear with me as I break this down, because I want to talk
19:26about it in the context of having spare time and actually filling it mindfully rather than just
19:33doing anything you feel like doing. So when I talk about the balance theory and the concept of balance,
19:39we talk about the three areas of our life. So our health, our relationships and our fulfillment.
19:44We speak about these areas as gardens. Now with gardens, they generally need a bit of sun and a bit of
19:51water in order to survive, right? And we call these and non-negotiables. They're the bare essentials that
19:57each garden bed needs in order to survive and non-negotiables. That's our first type of priorities.
20:03If I was to hypothetically add some fertilizer, that's only going to bolster the growth and the
20:12liveliness of that garden. It won't be dead without it. It's only going to be a value add. And that is how I look
20:19at the second area of priorities, which I call our wants. So when I take you guys through the priority
20:27lists, we've got our non-negotiables, which are akin to our sun and water for our garden beds. It's the bare
20:32essentials. It's the things they need to thrive. And then we've got our wants. These are the would be nice to
20:38have and would only be a bonus value add to those garden beds. Let's talk about a practical example.
20:45Let's say that is in our relationships. Let's say with my romantic relationship. So with my husband,
20:53I have a non-negotiable that we spend quality time together. We have kind of like a date night,
20:59right? At least once a week. And we've also now evolved and we, um, cause our working schedules
21:05are completely different, right? So when we sit down and have dinner, we have a non-negotiable that
21:10there's no phones, no tech. And we just, we actually talk and communicate because it's really
21:15easy to get stuck in everything you're doing and not share that with the person you're with. So for
21:19us, that's our non-negotiables that forms our sun and water on our non-negotiable priority list.
21:26Now, if I'm talking about the wants, it would be nice to have a second date night to maybe spend a
21:32morning together instead of a night. So those things would go on my wants priority list. Why is this
21:39important? Generally, what we do is we will build out our time, our week without non-negotiables. So
21:45these are the things that for our health, our relationships, and our fulfillment are non-negotiable
21:51to make sure that those areas are alive and well, that they are tended to. And that basically forms
21:57our balance. But naturally we're going to have these gaps in time. We're going to have this spare time.
22:03And if we get to that spare time and we fill it with random stuff, things that we've said yes to
22:10that we don't really want to go to, those things can be really not conducive to the life we're trying
22:16to create. So the intention or the aim to have this second priority list is basically to have a menu of
22:23options of things that you can do when you do have that spare time, because you've already identified
22:28that they would only be a value add to the things that are non-negotiables. So basically what I'm
22:34trying to say is instead of just filling your time with whatever that's not really mindful, that may
22:40actually not be contributing to helping these areas thrive, you can actually build out a secondary list
22:46of wants that if you choose to spend your time doing those things is going to bolster those areas.
22:52If this is something you're really interested in, I did do a free 20 minute talk on stage where I
22:57actually take you through how to work out your balance, how to do these priority lists. There's
23:01a free worksheet that goes with it. I'll drop a link on the video now and I'll put a link in the show
23:06notes to it as well. And you can actually work out what that looks like for you. But basically the
23:13habit here is filling your spare time with things that are still priorities so that your time is spent in
23:20a very intentional and aligned way. There's a caveat to this, and this is the ninth habit, which is this
23:27thing I like to call no agenda time. So I don't think it's realistic to have 24-7 of your routine
23:34planned and coordinated and organized, right? That's not the intention with having these priorities
23:39front of mind. The intention with that is to be clear on what matters for you so that the things
23:45you're doing in your life actually align and make that a reality. But I do think there is a value
23:51or a benefit in having just a bit of time and space where you are free to just do whatever,
23:57right? There's nothing wrong with having a good scroll sesh or binging Netflix or doing those sorts
24:01of things. So what I actually have coined or come up with is this concept of no agenda time.
24:07And generally I like to make this on a Sunday afternoon. It's a two hour block and it's basically
24:12as self-explanatory as what it sounds. It's a time block with no agenda, which means when I get to
24:18that day, I can choose in that moment, okay, what I feel like doing, that's what I'm going to do.
24:23Whether it be nothing, whether it be watch something on Netflix, whether it be social,
24:29go out, stay at home, go to the beach, whatever I feel like doing, I can just do in that time
24:35without the thought of priorities and all of that. So this gives you that space to just do what you feel
24:41you need to do. But I think this in tandem with being clear on the priorities means you have a really
24:47nice, well-rounded schedule where your time isn't spent saying yes to people just because you've got
24:52nothing else to do, or you don't have that clarity, doing things you don't want to do, or just getting
24:57caught being stuck, not doing much at all. Definitely check out that video if this is interesting to you
25:02and if you're resonating and feel like it could offer some real benefit in terms of being a habit
25:07in your weekly routine. The very last one, I did say I'd save the best till last. This has been a habit
25:13that really surprised me. I used to be that kind of person that would look at my routine and my
25:19schedule in a very rigid and fixed way. You know, I've got A, B, C things to do in the morning.
25:25I've got to do those and then I can start my day, right? It was a very rigid way of looking at my
25:30routine. But the habit that has been the most profound to my self-improvement journey is actually
25:38flexibility. What I mean when I say that is you can have the perfect routine, you can have a list
25:44of habits, but if you don't have an element of flexibility, it is virtually impossible for you
25:50to move with the ebbs and flows that form life, right? Life happens. If we get really fixed up
25:57and wound up that we have to do our routines a certain way, that things have to happen in this
26:03perfect order, it doesn't allow for the chaos and unpredictability of life. So flexibility in my
26:10routine and having flexibility as a habit or a skill, if you will, means you can wake up one day
26:18and have a gym sesh planned, but feel emotionally you're not there. Physically, you need more rest.
26:24So maybe you convert that to something low impact like a walk. This happens actually to me last week.
26:29It means that when I said I was going to do a whole recording block on the weekend and I woke up that
26:34day and I wasn't feeling aligned and grounded in myself and I wasn't feeling like I had the energy
26:39to show up the way I wanted to, I just postponed that. And being organized is important for this
26:45because if you had no choice but to do a certain thing on a certain date, then your hands are kind of
26:51tied and you have to do things irrespective how you feel, right? But if you're organized and if you
26:57bring in this element of flexibility, it means you can really embrace things when you've got the right
27:02energy to do them. And I only bring this up because it's been so powerful in terms of the way I look at
27:09my time and my balance, but because I really used to be stuck in this rigid mindset. Where it left me
27:18was a position where I almost was landlocked in by it. I was handcuffed to my routine and the point of a
27:26routine is to give you flexibility and clarity in where you're going. And looking at it in a very
27:32rigid way was doing nothing but that. It meant I was going against my intuitive nature. It means I was
27:38being inauthentic for the sake of ticking things off my to-do list when I felt like my time would be
27:44spent doing something else better. So again, this is why like having the two different priority lists
27:49is really important because you can start to say, okay, I can see when something is a non-negotiable,
27:53I can see when something is a want and I can see when I need to switch in between the things.
27:58I can see when a non-negotiable needs to be adapted or made a little more flexible because it's too
28:04rigid. And I think just if you start thinking about the concept of flexibility in terms of your routine,
28:10it's a really, really powerful one to make sure you're not a slave to it. Basically, that's where I
28:15felt like I was many, many times in the past. I was just a slave to my routine and it was really
28:21hindering the whole point of having one in the first place. So that personally for me has been
28:26one of my favorite skills or habits to implement in terms of me growing as a person and being on
28:31this self-improvement journey. So those are the 10 habits that I feel have been incredible for my
28:37self-improvement journey. They're the habits that I'm adopting right here and now in this moment.
28:42And like what I always say with balance, it's a changing concept. So maybe in 10 years from now,
28:47this 10 list of habits will look different or will be shifted a little bit. But these are what's
28:53working for me right now. I would love to hear if you guys are currently already thinking about some
28:58of these. Maybe you've got them in your routine already. Maybe you've got some other habits that I
29:02haven't spoken about that you'd love to share. Make sure you drop them in the comments below.
29:06Don't forget to hit subscribe and the bell notification so you don't miss any new content that
29:11comes out. And it also really helps us reach more people like me and you who are on a similar path
29:17kind of content or way of thinking to help them shift into creating a life that's more aligned
29:22for them. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to another episode. And I can't wait to share next
29:27week's guest. I'll see you all next week for the interview. And until then, stay balanced.
Recommended
1:13:59
|
Up next
43:16
27:00
10:00
50:53
3:51
1:40:34
49:21
58:58
1:20:31
33:31
50:57
1:07:15
58:44
47:10
1:35:21
30:01