- Good morning, good life.
Welcome back to Amy TV where we come together to help you
go after the life that you want.
One of my favorite quotes to enter every day with,
every new day with is from
my dear, dear friend, Oprah Winfrey.
Oprah, call me girl.
"The greatest discovery of all time is that a person
can change his future by merely changing his attitude."
Attitude, in my opinion, is a massively important piece
to going after the life that you want.
And if you wanna lead with a positive attitude,
you need to take control of you day.
So today I wanna talk about the seven daily habits that,
I believe, will do just that and help you change you life
for the better.
(upbeat music)
If you're new around here, you may not know
my obsession with habit building and change.
But let me tell you, it's significant.
Habits, if you don't know, are behaviors or tasks
that we practice throughout the day basically automatically
which allows us to start routines
and keep us from having to make too many decisions.
I do not need more decisions in my life.
Oh my gosh.
I just don't.
The less decision making that we put ourselves through,
the easier it is for us to take on the bigger, hairier
moments that need a little bit more brain power.
When you have a lot of good habits and you limit the bad,
then you are really building that infrastructure for
an amazing life which is why I'm so obsessed and unashamed.
I know if have found my ultimate habits
that have helped me have the right attitude everyday.
They have taken me from someone aimlessly wondering
through a boring existence and turned me into a, hopefully,
high performing and ambitious designer of my own life.
So that's why I wanna share them with you today.
Before we can get into today's discussion,
you know what time it is.
I have to give a little bit of Twitter gratitude,
and today I wanna shine a light on mdmkoo.
Thank you so much.
I acknowledge you for your time and attention of
watching these videos and also, I appreciate your retweet.
If you would potentially like to be featured here
on Twitter gratitude, all you gotta do is follow me on
Twitter and retweet my latest video when it comes out.
The first daily habit that completely changed my life
is a self-care ritual.
I talk about this a lot and I do believe that not only
does it help you start with your freshest face forward
but makes you feel so much better, mindset wise.
I have talked extensively about my morning routines
in the past but they include a lot of things like
starting with skincare and actually washing the crud
of yesterday out of my face, making the bed,
I do my morning pages or a journal
which I absolutely love and am totally religious with.
I have been dabbling a lot more in meditation.
And the routine is mostly is exactly the same
which is what makes it a routine
but it also changes every once in a while.
Sometimes I'll make time to read in the morning.
Sometimes I don't.
But just those couple of things that I always do,
skincare, lemon water, morning pages.
If I have those three at a minimum, I'm doing really good.
I might add in a couple of flavorful things like
reading, and meditation, and maybe some visualization,
and a walk with the dog.
Stuff like that that keeps you making it feel like
you started your day on your own terms.
This is something I am completely obsessed with
which is why I just started my Shine Squad recently
which is for people who are obsessed
with starting their day off right.
More details about that in the description below.
But I truly think that not waking up and rolling over
to look at my phone which is plugged into the wall
and probably has been like making lights and things,
keeping me from sleeping properly.
There was a time when it was roll over,
hit snooze on your alarm but still either fall back asleep
or engage the phone that's next to your bed
which is a terrible idea across the board,
both snoozing and messing up your sleep cycles.
And looking at your phone to decide how you feel
about your day based on what other people have tweeted.
Like, no thank you.
That self-care morning ritual is my holy grail,
best tip that there will ever be
about living your best life everyday.
It's grounding, it's very grounding.
My second life changing daily habit is
move your butt and track it.
We came up with this fun little phrase, move your butt,
in a video not that long ago but I just like to say it
because it sounds better than exercise.
I don't wanna exercise.
I hate that word.
But tracking it is also a key element of this.
I'm very much a person who like to get credit
and gold stars.
Like I kind of wish I still had a teacher in my life
that would put gold stars on a chart
that sat on my refrigerator at home.
I might just have to start that for myself (laughs).
That's a really fun idea.
So I wanna be able to exercise but I also wanna feel like
I accomplished something by doing it
not just the good feeling of exercise.
I'm not the type of person to be like,
I'm gonna snap a selfie to get credit for working out today.
I don't really like snapping selfies at the gym.
It makes me feel gross.
It is my grossest moment.
I am all red, and sweaty, and gross.
But, I want my Apple Watch, which I'm not wearing today
which is so funny, but I want my Apple Watch
to tell me how many calories that I burned.
I wanna tell my app that I logged it in.
I wanna mark it as a habit that I have done.
I want to check the box, so that I can be able to say,
do you work out three to five days a week?
Yes you do, Amy.
You can literally go back and look at your
beautifully calendar blocked life and find what you did
to work out and when it happened
for the exact amount of time because you are OCD, oh my God.
But I really do think that there is
a lot to be said about tracking it.
They say this about dieting too, you know,
just start logging what you eat and it'll open your eyes
about how much you eat every single day
when you probably don't think it's as much as you do.
I think that's true of working out.
Are you really working out as much as you do?
Do you really need to do as much as you think you do?
If you just did a really good workout for 20 minutes a day,
it might do more than the stuff that you do when really
aren't going to your full potential for an hour, at the gym.
It's very eye opening when I didn't burn as many calories
as wish I had.
But the key is, move your butt and track it,
at least three to five days a week.
That has completely changed my life.
I am much more self aware about how I feel,
and how clothes fit, and when I know
that my body's gonna start swelling up
because I had too much bread.
Like, that kind of stuff, you really become
hyper aware of it in your 30's but I kind of wish
I would've more in my 20's.
So speaking of that, that brings me to
my third daily habit that has changed my life.
This is something that I discovered in 2015.
It does have to do with eating,
and I am not sitting here recommending it for everyone
but I do know that it works, for me.
It works for the right mindset,
but it's actually becoming a lot more popular these days.
I've seen a lot more books around it, but basically
I only eat during an eight hour period of the day,
at least five days a week.
So what does that mean?
It's basically my own version of intermittent fasting.
You saw recently that we did a 48 hour fast.
I talked a little bit about this then
very scrambly in a vlog.
But basically, that is not a thing I do.
That's the first time we ever did that.
It was really weird.
I just like to keep the basic practices on a daily basis
because I know that will compound in a good way.
Probably not the exact same way that a 48 hour fast
accomplishes but the point is, I am fasting
for 16 hours a day, five days a week.
I've been doing this, like I said, since like 2015.
I lost some weight during that year and then someone told me
about intermittent fasting and that was the tactic I used
to keep the weight off and it worked.
I've never been overweight per se.
You can go back and watch all my videos
and see what periods of time that I'm talking about.
And you'll just be able to tell where there's...
(patting face)
something up here because you know I ain't filming
(laughs) down here.
But basically, it helped me to understand
how much am I eating throughout the day
by having a very focused period of time that I do this.
The point of all this is that when your body is in a
fasting state, essentially, if you read up on this
and talk to the doctors and the sciences
and all those things that I am not.
Talk to the sciences, that's a good one.
They will tell that when you're in a fasted state,
essentially not eating for period of time,
that your body starts to use the fat stores
that are happening, all up in here, instead of
waiting for you to take them in and then storing them.
So while you're eating, they're being stored
but when you're not eating, they're being burnt.
And I would like the burn, please.
I would like the burn while I am not working out.
Please, yes.
So I have to say this, from the bottom of my heart,
this has completely changed my life
because I look at food very differently.
I look at snacking very differently,
and I feel better every single day.
I have a lot more energy.
I know everybody says that about whatever fad diet
they are on, but this, to me, is not a fad diet.
I believe it is a total lifestyle change
that still allows me to have the occasional slice of cake.
Yes.
As long as it's between the hours of 11:00 am and 7:00 pm
(clicks with mouth), we're in.
Not everyday, but...
We could.
I mean could test that theory.
I will link to a couple of resources so you can
read up on this from the professionals,
in case it is of any interest to you.
That's all in the description below.
My fourth daily habit
that has absolutely changed my life is reading.
I feel very grateful that I'm back in a stage of adulthood
where I enjoy reading.
You know, there's sort of like that chunk of time
in the middle of your childhood and becoming a grown woman,
that you're like, I don't like reading
because people are making me read things I don't wanna read.
(coughs)
School.
But I love that I am in a stage of my life
where I love to read because I know science is proving,
readers are just rocking it.
Not only are they successful, not only are they
going after the life they want, they have a longer life.
Don't worry, there's a video coming up about this
but I'm sort of like letting it out of the bag
a little bit early because I'm so obsessed with it.
But this habit is amazing.
If you ever wanna meet somebody,
if you ever admire somebody,
if you ever wanna learn from somebody,
if you just wanna talk to somebody read their book.
It's not the same,
but you get to know people on a very, very deep level.
Also, if you are a content creator,
you should never sit down with
somebody that you wanna interview or somebody that you
want to collaborate with,
without sitting down and reading their book.
At least skimming it.
At least getting the good stories out of it.
I just sat down and did a couple of interviews recently,
and I got so many comments that people were saying
this was some of the best interviewing that they had done
with just little ole me on my podcast
because I did my homework.
All you gotta do to get to know somebody really well
is read their book.
And if you do that, you can really,
this is a pro networking tip too,
you really break ground with them.
And so reading has changed my life in a lot of ways.
Not just from a networking standpoint
but from a mindset standpoint.
We're not always right.
We don't always have the answers.
Other people do, so go get them.
Also, watch for that video.
Subscribe to this channel.
I'm gonna talk about how to read more books
but I will link to that in the description
or in the card if it is out.
Speaking of networking, my fifth tip is one
that I have to remember to do and it can be hard sometimes
because I'm introverted and I just sit here
and I do all my work and I'm like
busy, busy, busy (fake laughing).
But it has truly changed my life by doing this
and that is texting or emailing five people every day.
What this allows me to do is to be a high performing,
connected person while also working from home.
I am at home a lot.
This is who I talk to all day.
Can you even see (laughs)?
Luce.
We have the most riveting conversations, don't we?
Like, did you pee on carpet?
And, why are you bleeding?
So as you can imagine,
I need to connect with humans sometimes.
And my husband is one of them.
When he comes home or in the morning, that's one.
But there are lots of people that we meet in life
and if don't follow up on those relationships,
if we don't keep them, if we don't nurture them
it's very easy to lose track of them.
So I try to just send a just because text or email,
to as many people as I can, a day
and it's usually between 4:00 and 5:00.
And if you do that, think about that, do the math
because I didn't in advance of giving this tip (laughs).
Hey Alexa.
What's five times 365?
- [Alexa] Five time 365 is 1,825.
- 1,825, that's amazing.
I love having machines that do math for me.
1,825 people, now you're probably gonna repeat a few people
because there are those who are
the ones you wanna check in more often
or maybe you wanna talk to them twice a year,
make sure that you're on their radar.
And then there's gonna be the random people
that you've never talked to before
and you're taking a chance on sending them an email.
Doing this has changed my life because again,
it keeps me connected to other people.
It keeps me finding new opportunities without actually
going in and saying, what can you do for me.
I'm simply saying, hey, I was thinking about you,
or I have something I thought you would like to see,
or whatever the case may be.
Just customizing it for them and just doing that
a couple times a day really makes you
the most connected introvert from home that could ever be.
Another daily habit that has completely changed my life
and I'm sure it is of no shock to the people
who have been hanging out with me for a long time,
that is reviewing my tasks on calendar every night.
I have to look at my calendar because I schedule everything,
not just appointments, not just meetings,
not just phone calls, but things I have to do.
And so looking at my calendar gives me an idea of
what I need to be prepared for.
This has also allowed me to be
a lot more efficient with my time.
For instance, today I'm doing a lot of, a-ha,
this kind of thing.
I'm filming a couple of videos.
I'm doing a photo shoot later.
I have a meeting.
So it's great for conserving makeup
and only having to put it on once a week.
That is my personal goal (laughs).
So there's those days where I like all up in
Instagram stories like, look at me, I put a face on.
And the other days I'm like, I have nothing to say.
That was a little tangent but regardless,
knowing what I'm gonna do and when I'm gonna do it
makes you hyper aware of the amount of time
you actually have on this planet and in that day.
And that's why I do every single night.
It makes me go into the next day prepared without actually
having to do as much preparation as you would think.
It's a little bit more overwhelming going into something
that you haven't given a lot of thought to
if for some reason your schedule is getting
a lot busier by the day.
If your company is keeping you busy with meetings and tasks.
Or if you're like me and you could be on a
podcast interview, or you could be filming a video,
or you could be going to coffee,
or you could be walking the dog.
You just have to know what's coming, when you have to do it,
how much time you have to it so that you can be
much more effective and that has completely changed my life.
I know for a fact that I have been able to do more
over longer periods of time because I'm focused on
the short period of time.
Actually, not even kidding, I have have blank space
on my calendar but only for like super fun TV time
with my husband which is when we eat dinner.
And last night we were watching a show
and I was like, this isn't a good show.
We were on episode one and I was like,
alright fine, we'll keep giving it a chance.
Halfway through episode two I was like,
(clears throat loudly)
it not worth it (laughs).
I was like, I can't sit through this.
I don't think I would've done that three years ago.
I'm hyper aware of how much time I'm giving to something
that's subpar, no thanks.
And my last daily habit that has
completely changed my life is something I eluded to earlier
and that is making my phone go to sleep
in its own bedroom, my office.
I do not bring my phone into my room after a certain time.
It is a slippery slope when you just sort of,
you know how just lay down on your bed
and you're just like scrolling.
You're in your pajamas, you haven't washed your face yet
and you're not really ready,
and then you're there for like an hour.
And then you're like, dang it, I was supposed to go to bed
half an hour ago and I've had this...
No, I don't even bring my phone into my bedroom
when I know it's time to shut things down.
I tuck it in.
Plug it in and put it away.
And the alarm goes off and that's what makes me
get out of bed because I have to walk all the way over here
to turn it off and that is the last I even look at my phone
for a couple of hours in the morning.
I do not sleep with my phone in my bedroom.
Sometimes I'll go a little crazy and do it on the weekends
because it doesn't matter, I don't have an alarm set.
But even those nights, I'm so habitual about
not looking at my phone so that I get good sleep.
I don't look at it.
Even if for some reason Lucy wakes me up at 2:00 am,
I refuse to look at my phone.
Refuse, I can't do it.
I promise you, sleeping with your phone in another room,
limiting any lights or devices in your room
or at least getting a nice sleep mask
in case your partner prefers to have their devices.
You know what, I don't tell Vin what to do.
I think he should do what's ever good for him.
Sometimes he wants to come to bed with me
but he also wants to watch a movie
so I just put my eye mask on.
That's his prerogative.
I have not desire to look at his movie
and I have no desire to look at his device.
I'm going to sleep now.
It's my devices that I need to be in control of.
So having that self awareness, I think, has been tremendous.
It has definitely helped me be healthier in my mind.
I don't know what people are doing all the time.
When you become so consumed with what everyone's doing
all the time and it's all you talk about or think about,
you don't get a whole lot of stuff done for yourself.
So if you really feel the need to take your phone
to bed with you, you're basically saying,
I would like to take the whole world to bed with me.
All their problems, all the ideas, all their opinions,
all their videos, and I don't have enough room for that.
Alright those are my seven daily habits
that have completely changed my life and here's what I think
you may have learned from it in a tweetable.
"Caring for myself is not a self-indulgence,
"it is self-preservation," Audre Lorde.
Alright, now I wanna hear from you.
What is something that you wish you could change
in your life.
It could be anything.
Leave that in the comments below.
I'd love to see what's on your mind.
And just another quick reminder that if you love
the idea of habit building, and change,
and being self aware, and working on your morning routine
so that you can after the life that you want,
I highly recommend that you check out my new Shine Squad.
The details are in description below.
That's all for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it, as always.
Make sure you subscribe for good vibes.
Kiss the ones you love.
And go after the life you want.
Cheers.
(upbeat music)
I feel like I should be like...
(hums)
I keep looking at myself like, am I really this tan?
No (laughs), no, but yes, but no, but yes.
Spray tan is a beautiful thing.
My sixth daily habit for a life changed is...
I forget.
(laughs)