Habits and Mindset
The ideas of habits and mindset have previously been featured prominently on my previous posts of “The Productivity Habit of Just Do It” and “My Experience with the Happiness Advantage”. From January 2015 to the present, embracing these two concepts have changed my life in many positive ways. I have lost over 45 pounds, found a new direction for my career and gained a stronger sense of self than I have ever had before. To truly understand how big of an effect this had on me, I’ll need to explain the “before” – what life looked like before I took The Habit Course.
This is a photo of me in present (left:March 2016) and at the beginning (right:February 2015)
January 2015 (Pre Habit Course Corey)
Coming into 2015, I was lost. The most lost I had ever been in my life. I graduated with a business degree in the summer of 2014, and started a new job only a couple of days after my convocation. I was still having trouble accepting the reality that working in an office from eight to four everyday could be something I would do for the rest of my life. To be completely honest, that thought scared me. The worst part was that I was living a very unhealthy life. I was eating out upwards of 15 times a week and putting a ton of unhealthy, carbohydrate-heavy meals into my body. I had a gym pass but never actually went to the gym. While I have always been heavy, my weight at that time was one of the worst it had ever been. Lastly, 2014 was a very emotional year for me personally, with two people in my life passing away. Going into 2015, I was still trying to make sense of it all.
For those of you that know me, you will know how big of a role JDC West played in my life; from developing me as a leader to helping me make some of the closest friends in my life. Going into my final JDC West competition in mid-January, it was hard to see what could potentially fill that large void. But as this door began to close, another one opened.
Right before JDC West weekend, my friend Chloe told me about a course she was running with a group called Relearn Habits at UBC called “the Habit Course”. She told me about how much impact it had on her when she took the course and that she thought I would get a lot from it. I remember I initially made an excuse to myself that the trip out to UBC would be too long every week, so I almost declined the offer. However, after coming to the realization that I was not happy with where I was in life, I took the plunge and registered.
The Habit Course
The first thing I immediately noticed about The Habit Course was how big of a role people played in the effectiveness of the course. Every new concept of the course was discussed thoroughly by everyone present and then time was given for everyone to reflect about how it has affected them in their own lives. It was unlike any other type of learning I had done before. Over the five weeks of the course, I, along with 10 others, ended up learning about and integrating the different aspects of habits into our own lives. The facilitators took care to keep everyone engaged with the material. The course was structured so that the concepts that were presented in class could be practiced during the week. Inside class, we were learning about things like the science of habits, the role of mindset in our lives, mindfulness, energy management, and tips for how to make good habits stick. Outside of class, we were making all of this work in our own lives.
I started with one simple habit: to eat breakfast every morning. One thing I had realized that was very unhealthy about my lifestyle was that I wouldn’t eat in the morning and then overindulge during lunch. My energy levels were really out of whack and I was constantly exhausted. With a new focus, I went to the grocery store and bought enough oatmeal, granola and yogurt for two weeks and planned my breakfast for every day of that period. I brought all of this to work and made it a habit to eat breakfast the first thing in the morning as I checked my emails. After eating breakfast every morning, I would track it down. Within the first week I realized how much more energy I had during the day. I was also less hungry at lunch and less prone to eating junk because of it. By the end of that first week the habit had stuck. Sitting here today over a year later, this is a habit that I still keep.
With the breakfast habit conquered, I moved onto my next challenge, which was to go to the gym. I had bought a gym pass over the summer of 2014 and signed up for two years as a way to force myself to go. I went three to four times a week the first month but eventually that momentum fizzled and by January 2015 I was not going at all. I used every excuse I could find not to go. Being “too busy” or “too tired” were the most popular. This time though, with the focus & support of the Habit Course, I tried again.
One of the key learnings I had from “the Habit Course” was that the more decision points someone has before accomplishing a certain task, the higher the likelihood they wouldn’t follow through on the task. Where this was the most apparent for me was definitely when I tried to go to the gym. My process used to be: go home from work, find everything I needed for the gym, and go to my workout. I almost never actually made it out of my house. This time I changed it so that I packed everything I needed the night before and I went directly from my work to the gym. By never giving myself the time to have doubt creep into my mind of whether I should be going to the gym or not, I ended up going way more consistently. Over the last three weeks of the course, I was able to turn going to the gym into a habit.
As with the breakfast habit, I tracked my weight and my success rate. As you can see from the chart below, my weight started to change quite dramatically over the subsequent months.
My weight from the Habit Course until the summer of 2015.
Beyond these two habits I was able to create, this course also introduced me to practices that I still use today like meditation and energy management. Learning about mindset really provided some much needed perspective of where I was in life as well. By the end of the course, I felt a lot more confident about my own abilities and I had a lot better grasp over my own emotions as well. I didn’t have a crazy revelation about my career or my life but it also didn’t seem to matter as much where I was going.
The Habit Course Round 2
For six months following The Habit Course, my habits were going strong and I felt really good about where I was in life. However, by fall of 2015, I started to hit a wall again. My weight started fluctuating a lot, especially when my work started to get hectic. My career seemed to have stalled a bit too and I was starting to reevaluate if I was in the right place. My life was very much a cycle of work then home and not much else.
One day in November I was chatting with Rosy, one of facilitators of The Habit Course, and she asked if I was interested in joining the Relearn Habits team. She explained that they were always looking for good people and that she thought I’d be a good fit. I decided to meet with them and before long I was convinced that it was the right move. As a first step in joining the team, I re-enrolled myself in the course.
Coming into the course a second time with the purpose of strengthening my habits and figuring out my life, I went through one of the most drastic periods of change in my life. Beyond just habits, I embraced the mindset part of the course to a higher degree this time. I came to the realization that if I wanted to have real change, it has to start with me wanting it for the right reasons. I couldn’t just lose weight because it will make me look better for other people, it has to be because I wanted to invest in my own health. I also couldn’t beat myself up every time I didn’t accomplish a goal. By creating a positive mindset in my life, I found that my productivity hit an all time high and I was able to accomplish a lot more.
My weight from summer 2015 to present day (March 2016). Mid-November was when I started “the Habit Course”
The results came quick. As you can see from the chart above, my weight started dropping at a dramatic rate. Going into my habits with the right mindset made accomplishing it all a lot easier as well. I also found more clarity around my career. Through the reflection exercises I did in the course, I realized that the type of work I wanted to do wasn’t available where I was employed. In December, I quit my job and enrolled myself in the Full-Time Digital Marketing program at RED Academy (where I am currently a student).
How Habits and Mindset Show Up in My Life
After the course finished, I officially joined the Relearn Habits team. This is now my fourth month on the team and I can say that it is some of the most rewarding work of my life. As someone who has gotten so much out of the course, it is amazing to be able to help it reach more people. Furthermore, just by being in a team with an amazing group of people, I am constantly inspired to continue to learn more about habits and myself. The things I learned during the two times I took the course are as relevant today as ever before. I still eat breakfast every morning and I go to the gym five times a week. I am also very confident and positive about the path that I am currently on.
In recent months, I have found myself constantly re-evaluating my habits and finding new ways to have them work for me. Habits are such a huge part of my everyday life and it is something that I definitely want to invest in. I am also always checking my mindset before entering new tasks and challenges. A lot of the times I have found that this has a big effect on how productive I am and how much I enjoy something. As the saying goes “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional”; just by going into something with the right mindset, I can ensure that I get the most out of any task.
I still have many days where my habits slip or I get stuck in a really negative mindset. However, the most important thing that I have found is that these days are becoming smaller in number. The tools I have gained from “the Habit Course” help me from ever completely spiralling out of control. I have found that being mindful of these two things have really helped me become more productive and also a better person to be around. I also have a strong support network of the Relearn Habits team and the people I went through the Habit Course with to help me through the tough times. It really feels like I am just scratching the surface of what is possible so I look forward to continuing to provide updates as I go further down this journey.
