Episode Description

In this episode of The Samantha Leith Podcast we take a look at the power of a Daily Success Formula and how you can create the daily habits you need for success. Taken from episodes 1-5 of The Samantha Leith Show.

Show Notes

Hi, I’m Samantha Leith. And this is my show. Welcome to this month, which is all about the daily success formula. Now, it’s not math, it’s not rocket science. In fact, it’s pretty easy. It’s about you creating the things every day to make your life an extraordinary one, which is what we all want. So come with me as we take a look behind the scenes at a few of the things I do in every single day to live my extraordinary life. There’ll be some tips and some tricks that you may want to add to your life straight away.

MAKE YOUR BED

Every single day, I make my bed. In his book, Make Your Bed, literally, William H. McRaven talked about the importance of this one simple act. It really is the basis of which your daily success formula starts. It gives you a feeling of accomplishment, increases your productivity. Ironically, it reduces your stress level even if you’re worried about turning down on the corners perfectly. It stops you hitting that snooze button, going back to sleep, not getting in a good sleep cycle and feeling like crap. Your room is instantly going to feel better. So when you come home and go into your bedroom later that night you’ll feel better. You won’t be discouraged because there’s mess around the place. It’s also part of you developing really, really good habits and being respectful of your space, your own personal retreat, which is what your bedroom is. It’s your space.

MEDITATION

Next up in my day is meditation. Now, I need guided meditation and I actually used to stay in bed to do this, using an app or music that I downloaded from somewhere to help me through the meditation. These days, I actually get up, make my bed and sit in a chair to do it, but I do still use the app. So why do I do it? It reduces stress, it helps keep anxiety at bay and any of those little niggly feelings that are coming up. It’s healthy for you, your mind, your body, everything. It’s scientifically proven to have these incredible benefits to you physically and mentally. It’ll enhance your self awareness. It’ll actually make you think more. Because even if you’re in a meditative state and you’ve got ping pong brain going around, there is still some cognition happening. You will still pick up things that you’ll be able to take further into your day. I do recommend though, go for an app. Get the help you need to start meditation and be kind to yourself with it because it can be a tricky habit to get into.

SUCCESSFUL HABITS

“Successful people are simply those with successful habits.” Brian Tracy said that and you’ve probably heard it or something similar at some point. I say extraordinary people are those that choose extraordinary habits. So what exactly is a daily success formula? It can be whatever you want it to be. It’s unique to you. It’s what has you running like a Lamborghini rather than a rusty old tricycle. For all of us, that means incorporating things into your day that work for you; not for somebody else, not something you read about. It’s trial and error. And sometimes it can be the addition or subtraction of something blindingly bloody obvious. Now, this is really starting to sound like a mathematical equation, but don’t panic, it’s not actually that complicated. If we Google the habits of successful people around the world, you’ll get a list that looks a little like this. Successful people believe in themselves, they get up early, they work on their goals, they read a lot, exercise is a big priority, they sleep well, they take inspired action, they have really good boundaries, they’re grateful, and they take time to think.

There are many more, which I’ll cover over the next few weeks. But the thing is, if you actually did everything they said you “need to do” to be successful every day, you wouldn’t have much time left for work related tasks, relaxation, find the things that fill your cup. So I believe your daily success formula has to include those things. Building them into your day, make them a priority. This isn’t a perfect diary management system. I’ve tried them all, and as someone with ADHD, I haven’t really found one that suits me to a T. So I use a combination of things to make all of this happen, which I will share with you. I want to help you find your groove, find your formula. So we’re going through two or through my day. Maybe you’ll find inspiration. Hell, maybe you’ll think I’m a bit of a twit. And sometimes you might want to try something I did or you might want to ditch it. The magical part of finding your groove with your daily habits is it will improve your confidence.

It’s improved by the thoughts you have and the actions you take. Every time you honor a commitment to yourself, any time you see an improvement in an area of your life, when you meet a goal or a challenge you’ve set for yourself, and your formula will help you do that and so much more. William James, a famous Harvard psychologist and philosopher who in the 1800’s led some of the earliest investigations into habits said that the daily lives of humans and other living creatures can be defined as bundles of habits. The majority of our daily actions are actually just habits, whether you’re making dinner, talking to your spouse, brushing your teeth. Nearly half of these actions stem from a habit that we do blindly every day without thinking about it again and again. Habit is often described differently by psychologists and neurologists. However, Dictionary.com, if you want to have a Google, states that it’s an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it becomes almost involuntary. The most common definition of a habit is it’s an automatic behavioral response to an environmental cue or trigger.

And your life is a culmination of these habits; fitness, finances, careers, happiness, and [inaudible 00:08:04] are some of your habits. Some of your formula will become habits you don’t need to think about. Other parts, like me, you may need a reminder on your phone.

CAFFEINE

Okay. Onto the macchiato part of my morning ends. My coffee. Do I need it? No. Some days I actually don’t have coffee, especially when I’m traveling, because it’s usually crappy coffee. But when I’m at home, I definitely have it. There are people that say it’s good for you. People that say it’s bad for you. I don’t care. It’s part of my ritual and I like it. But for those that say it is partly good for you, it can help you live longer, may up you process sugar a little bit better in your system, may help with your heart health and your mental health. Some say it’s even good for your liver, which given the champagne, could be a good thing. It has these benefits, especially if you’re doing something like a bullet-proof coffee to help you boost your day.

And for someone like me, who’s been diagnosed with a ADHD, there’s links to me having had caffeine in my life for so many years and needing that help with my mental dexterity. So if you like coffee, go for it. Just go for it.

JOURNALING

Many successful people in the world talk about the importance of journaling. It took me a while to get into it, but now, my day is not the same without it. And it is another of my [inaudible 00:08:04] in my morning ends. Some of the benefits include reducing stress and anxiety, clearing your mind, connecting the dots between your common thoughts and patterns can help you achieve goals. And yes, it can help you improve your confidence. There are many methods to journaling, from free thought to dream journals, food, fitness, gratitude, morning pages, artistic, day’s reflection, bullet, a minute a day, you can even write a letter. But the purpose of journaling is to help take that stuff out of your mind. Your brain is not meant to be the house of everything.

We want to get it out, and putting it onto paper so you can focus on other things helps with that. I do really recommend writing with a pen and paper and have something nice to write in and make it ritualistic. Do it at the same time every single day, and take as much or as little time as you need. Find a process that works for you. And if you like, you can grab the download on the website that will help take you through my journaling process.

EXERCISE

Exercise. Yes, the movement in my morning ends. Why do it? Because I enjoy it. I actually really like it. It helps me start my day well. And yes, I feel it when I don’t. As someone who was brought up believing that you only exercised to lose weight, it’s a new thing for me. And I feel it. Those endorphins running through your system are like a red bull for your veins.

READING

Reading. Oh my golly, golly, gosh. Reading is not just what you’re meant to do at school and study. Reading shouldn’t be a task. Reading is something you enjoy. My mum used to say that once you learn and like the skill of reading, you’ll never be bored a day in your life. And I truly believe it. I go through phases with reading of nonfiction and fiction, but generally I try and read one nonfiction book every single week on a topic I’m really interested in. Or I might have heard someone on a podcast and gone, oh, I really, really, really want that book. And I read it. But I do still have fiction because I don’t think our lives can just be about learning. So I buy my nonfiction in books, because I like to hold them and mark them. And then I read crappy love books or science fiction or crime books on my Kindle, and that’s how I end my day, with that kind of thing. But learning and reading? Magical for all of us.

BREAKFAST

Breakfast. Now, this is a debatable topic for many people because some people like intermittent fasting. Some people fast for a couple of days. Some people just grab a coffee. But you know what? I like breakfast. And as someone who’s had a gastric sleeve, I need breakfast. I have these small meals throughout the day and I don’t have the energy I need to get through my morning and do what I need to do if I don’t have breakfast. I try and have healthy ones. I’m going through a bircher phase at the moment. So there’s a fiber there, there’s a fruit there, but again, I make it something enjoyable for me and I sit down if I’m by myself and take the time to actually enjoy it.

And if I’m with my daughter, we sit down and have breakfast together. It’s when I also have a quick flick through social media, see what’s happening in the world, and I’ll take my vitamins. Now here’s a hint. If you’re not very good at taking vitamins, get them delivered in a pack for you. Oh, my golly gosh. Game changer. Makes life so much easier. And when you can, go out for breakfast, because that is even better.

SACRED TIME

Let’s talk about sacred time. It’s special and it’s yours. With all that we do every day, the hustle … I hate that word. And the bustle. You need to slow yourself down, decrease the adrenaline pumping through your veins, keep the anxiety at bay, and just be. It’s a gift and you give it to yourself every day. Every single day. Let me repeat that loudly for those in the back row. Every single day. For me, it’s my morning M’s, my chillax at night. Now it doesn’t always involve bubbles in my bath and a glass, but it’s always something. Yet it’s nothing. What I mean is, in that time everything I am doing is for me. It’s the ultimate in self care. There, I said it.

Self-care. It’s not just about massages and facials. It’s the stuff that recharges you, your soul. Fuels you so you can be, do, and have all you desire in your life. Thomas Moore, all through care of the soul says, we seem to have a complex about busyness in our culture. Most of us do have time in our days that we could devote to simple relaxation, but we convince ourselves that we don’t. It seems there’s always something that needs doing, always someone who needs our attention. Unfortunately, Moore says, we don’t get a lot of support in this culture for doing nothing. If we aren’t accomplishing something, we feel like we’re wasting time.

The guilt that we can feel when we give ourselves this time at first can be excruciating. I should be washing or cleaning or working or talking or selling or writing or doing something. Anything to keep me busy and make me feel well useful. Stop. You can’t be jack shit to anybody or anything if you’re running on empty, and unlike your car that has a great warning system for the tank, us mere mortals will burn out, get sick, or crumple without much of a warning in most cases. Yes, there’s a reason they say to use the oxygen mask first on yourself. You can’t help yourself if you yourself are in distress.

Think of your sacred time as a date you’re having with yourself. It should feel special and maybe sometimes you’ll take yourself on an actual date. Don’t forget to buy yourself flowers either and good wine. Some days you won’t be able to have a big chunk of time, so look for the small incidental moments to just be. Maybe a quick walk outside, breathing deeply, focusing on nature and not caring that your phone is sitting inside on your desk.

Sacred time can help you to be more resilient, focused, understanding, grateful, and can be a bit like giving the negative a bit of a rinse cycle in your mind. It’s not about achieving anything in that time. Yes, you can be like me and sometimes mark off sacred time on your daily do sheet. But hopefully, it will eventually be a habit for you.

Sacred time can involve anything from yoga to meditation, music, cooking, dancing, anything that feels good to you. Breathing is my go-to if I’ve got a busy day. In for three, hold for three, out for five. Yes, because taking longer to release the breath slows you down, reduces anxiety and increases the parasympathetic system by activating your vagus nerve. And that, to me, sounds like the ultimate in self care right there.

GETTING READY FOR YOUR DAY

I love getting frocked up. Like really, seriously, getting frocked up. And working from home so often, especially in these times we’ve had over the last couple of years with the pandemic, that getting frocked up ritual part of my day went a little bit helter skelter. But as soon as I got back into that mode of getting dressed for myself so I could be my most confident self, so I felt good, it all came back. And the important part of this piece is doing it for you. Unless you have something really particular that you’ve got to do that day, get dressed so you feel fabulous. That may be a ball gown with ugg boots. It might be jeans and a t-shirt. But take that time to change from your pajamas or your gym gear, whatever it is you’ve got, to go into that next step of who you are for the day because it will continue those success habits and be part of that formula for you throughout the day. So get your frock on.

CONNECTION

Connection is a really, really, really, really, really big part of our lives. And if anything, the last couple of years have taught us how important that connection with people, whether it be friends or family or colleagues … We want to feel that link to other. It fills our heart. It’s the basis of so, so many great things in our lives. So I take time every single day to remain connected to people. I’ll go on social media and I’ll say happy birthday to everybody whose birthday it is, or say congratulations on a new role. Whatever’s been going on in their life. If something sad has happened, I’ll acknowledge that. I’ll also have a little bit of a social scroll and maybe someone’s done something really fun and I can comment on it. I might write a quick card if they is a birthday coming up, or I want to say thank you to somebody for something.

But this time that I take in this part of my day is about keeping those veins of connection, those links to people, really true and really honest. Some of the people in my life have been friends for 35 years, and that’s not by accident. That is by nurturing those relationships. So make that a priority every day. I went through a phase once where I’d just pick a letter in my phone and I’d call someone whose name started with that letter, and every single day on my drive I’d ring someone else. Ask yourself, what can you do today to remain more connected to people in your life?

YOUR WORKDAY

Okay. Let’s get into our workday. Done everything else. So how does your work day look? Well, for me, I’m all about eating that big frog first. You know that thing you’re really, really don’t want to do? Get it done. Okay? And if you get that done first, you free up your day to do more of what you want to do.

So for me, my day might involve creating some content, writing a blog post. It might be lodging my BAS. It could be doing a Zoom presentation, recording a webinar for someone. Sometimes if I’m really lucky and the world we’re in at the moment, it might be a virtual event or out and about again for real-life event. There’ll be client work. There’ll be all sorts of things in my day, but I make sure my day set up in 45-minute increments. So I do the 45 minutes of work, and then I’ll have that 15 minutes of something else. It might be my social scrolling, it might be reading a book. Be something probably to fill my cup, like phoning a friend. Find what works for you. Have that in your diary or whatever planning method you use and stick to it.

By doing that big thing first or make the rest of the day flow and then you can give yourself the time and permission to do the fun stuff like creating graphics in Canva or reading some trashy book that you’ve really, really had your mindset on or who knows watching Below Deck Mediterranean.

LUNCH

Not everyone takes time for lunch, especially when you’ve got your own business or you’re busy, and you see those people around you not taking time and stop. You have to take the time to actually eat properly. Eat something nourishing preferably, but take time away from your phone away from the hustle and bustle, away from your to-do list. Take 15, 20, 30 minutes to have lunch and calm the F down.

THE RIGHT KIND OF HABITS

Developing and focusing on the right kind of habits gives us the power to turn our best intentions into reality. Habits grow stronger over time so it’s important to cultivate the ones that are going to help you achieve your goals. Just think about those less than good few habits, like snacking on chocolate while you’re watching The Real Housewives of Wherever is not going to get you where you want to go, young lady.

When a habit is ingrained, your brain stops being fully engaged in the decision-making and the action taking, which freeze up energy that can be used to focus on other things. The good news is that habits aren’t concrete. Habits can be changed, replaced, or even ignored, although that one can be a bit tricky. Habits can stick even when motivation is dwindling to still help you achieve what you want to achieve. Habits are the foundation for the tone of your life.

James Clear, in his brilliant book Atomic Habits, uses a four-step process. The cue triggers the craving, which motivates the response, which provides a reward, which satisfies the craving and ultimately becomes associated with the cue. Together, these four steps form a neurological feedback loop. Cue, craving, response, reward. Cue, craving, response, reward. You get the picture.

It ultimately allows you to create automatic habits. He splits these four steps into two phases. The problem phase and the solution phase. The problem phase, the cue and the craving. The solution phase, being the response and the reward. So think of this problem, that bloody alarm goes off in the morning. Craving. You feel exhausted, pissed off, and you really want to go back and see if you can start your dream again. Response. You go back to sleep. Reward. You feel like shit because you didn’t go back into a good sleep cycle. And now, you’re running late.

What if we flip that? Cue. That bloody alarm goes off in the morning. Craving. You feel exhausted, pissed off. You want to go back to sleep and see if you can start your dream again. But your response, you get up, you make your bed. The reward, you feel accomplished, alert, and like you’re starting the day right.

HONING YOUR SKILLS

Got to be honest, I don’t like honing my skills. But if you’ve got your own business, you have to. If you are skilled in something really specific, you have to. Whether you are an auditor, a brain surgeon, or a singer, you have to hone what it is you do. And some industries have requirements of that, that you have to tick off boxes every single year. But for others we don’t, so we’ve got to make sure we do it ourselves and that is definitely part of your daily success formula.

For me, that sitting back, watching videos of me talking and sometimes it’s going to be bloody cringeworthy and I’m going to hate to do it. But I’m going to see things that I can improve on, things that I need to change, and things that I need to get rid of. For me, every day also involves singing some scales, practicing some songs. My voice is my instrument, whether I’m singing or speaking or even on a coaching call to a client, so I’ve got to make sure it’s in tip-top condition. Those breathing exercises and singing boring old scales does it every day.

THE HABITS OF SOME FRIENDS

Hey, it’s Sam here. I’m in the studio just finishing my first month of the Daily Success Formula, and I’d really, really love it if you could just hold up your phone like this and shoot me a quick video telling me one, maybe two if you want, things that you do every single day as part of your day daily success formula. Thank you. Bye.

Hey, Sam. Warwick Merry here. Couple of things that I do as part of my daily success formula, stay hydrated. I struggle with that, can I tell you, drinking water. So I’ve got a new trick. I use diet cordial instead. Ooh, it makes it exciting. So staying hydrated. And the other one I like to do is just have a shift in perspective. It’s just stepping away from the desk and walking around. I’d like to say I walk the dog every day. To be honest, I don’t, but it is sometimes just a shift in perspective. If I get a bit stuck and just moving around is a good little daily success habit. Hope these help.

Hey, there. My name’s Angela Raspass. I’m a business mentor, an author, and a self-worth educator. And as a part of my daily success routine, number one, working from home, I need to make sure that I’ve got a clear boundary between my home life and my work life. And that comes down to the way that I dress each day. I always get dressed up as though I’m going out to the office. That puts me in the right mindset. The second thing that I do is when I sit down at my desk, there is a piece of music that I play every single day. It’s almost as though it prepares me for being in that workspace and lets my mind and my body know that it is time to get pro and start working. So those are just two of the small things that I do that I find really helpful.

Hello, everyone. Here are a couple of things that I do every single day that Sam likes to call key success habits. First thing I do when I get up, hot cup of water with a squeeze of lemon. That really gets things moving. It’s really great. And then the next thing I do is a 10-minute qigong routine. Eight exercise, eight reps, and I’m done. And then, I feel I can launch into the day. Hope that helps. Thanks. (Danielle Dobson)

CONNECTION

Oh yep, I’m going to say it again. Stay connected. If you want to stay connected to people in your life, it’s actually up to you. It’s not always up to the other person, so make the effort. If you have to schedule it in, schedule it in, but take another five, 10 minutes to phone a friend or even send an email saying something with a funny meme or video you saw. For me, I like the phone calls and I have a little bit of a walk while I’m doing it or I’ll sit and have a tea or coffee while I talk to someone, but do it every single day, multiple times if you can.

To work out what your formula is, it helps to know what you want your perfect day to look like. I swear this is an exercise worth doing, even if you’ve done it before, so stay with me. And I’ll go a step further and say creating your perfect week and year makes it so much easier to make these decisions and plans.

So here are some questions:

• • What time do you want to wake up?
  • Who do you want to wake up with?
  • Where do you live?
  • What’s the first thing you want to do?
  • Who do you want to be spending time with during your day?
  • What are you grateful for?
  • What are you really excited about?
  • How do you want to feel every single day?
  • And who do you want to do things for?
  • What exercise do you want to do every day? And I mean every day.
  • What do you want to do for work, and how many hours do you want to work?
  • Who do you work with?
  • How much do you want to earn a day?
  • Who are you actually being of service to?
  • What do you do for fun during the day? Because that’s really important.
  • What personal growth things do you do during the day?
  • What are you creating for yourself and for others?
  • What are your relaxation rituals?
  • What time do you go to bed?
  • And what’s your family time like?

Write it all down, and when you’ve got an idea of what your day looks like, I want you to go to town. I want you to spend five minutes, five, writing it down. Describe it in as much detail as you can, so actually feel like you’re living in it. Look at the good and not so good in your wheel of life as well, and that’ll start to help you determine the habits you want to create. Start small. Increase as you go. Be prepared to fail, but have the commitment to start again.

Break it down. Be patient. Get an accountability buddy. Because when building these new habits, you need that help. And sometimes you need to stack them, like I do. Alarm, meditate, coffee, journal, exercise, breakfast, to-do list, shower, mirroring exercise, personal grooming, read, desk, first task, email. That’s my stack.

FITTING IN YOUR GOALS

So now we’re going to look at how you’re going to fit your goals into this.

• • So what are the top five priorities or goals in your life?
  • And what are the five stresses or issues in your life?
  • Where are you sabotaging yourself?
  • What would help set you up for greater success?
  • What do you want more of in your life?
  • What do you know you should do, but you don’t do?
  • What could you do more of to fill your cup?
  • And what are the five habits you’d like to create?

I want you to think of the benefit for each of those habits. And I want you to think about what you’re going to need to do o make that habit stick. I promise it isn’t about creating a cookie cutter life for you that makes you feel like your Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. The beauty of creating the formula is the flexibility because when it works well, you feel extraordinary, and you have the space to do whatever you want with your time.

MAKING TIME FOR FUN

I’m just going to cut to the chase, people. You need to make sure you have fun in your life. Honestly, we get so busy doing our must-dos and our have-tos and things for other people that we forget to have fun. So if you have to literally take a colored pen and put it in your diary with a big circle saying “have fun,” I want you to do that. For me, fun usually involves people I love. Might be friends, might be family, might be going to see a show with someone I love or someone I care about. It might be having a deep conversation with someone. All of those things go in my fun bucket.

For me, making crazy birthday cakes for people I care about is part of my fun bucket. For me, putting up a Christmas tree with my daughter, put crazy hats on and singing Christmas carols really, really, really, really loudly until she thinks we’re going to piss off the neighbors, that fills my fun bucket. Going dancing, I can’t remember the last time we did that.

Tell your funny story. I got to have a holiday in Tasmania before the recent lockdown, and that was the most fun I’ve had in four days in my entire life. Was it easy to go? No. I had other commitments on. Could I really afford it? Yeah, probably not the most sensible financial decision at the time. But my fun cup was so full by the time I got back from that trip and that connection with the people and the enjoyment and the experience that lockdown didn’t really affect me in that first week. It did later, but we’ll get to that another day.

Filling your heart with fun is crucial for your confidence. It’s crucial for your mindset, crucial for your courage, your charisma. Every aspect of your life is impacted by your ability to relax and have fun, to take a deep breath and to embrace that inner child. And you know what? Sometimes be a little bit of a twit. Okay? But having that fun is vital. So ask yourself, what is it that you can do in your life that could be a little bit more fun? And go do that stuff. Schedule it in your diary. Ask someone out and have some fun.

HOME / LIFE ADMIN

You’re going to laugh, but this section is actually titled Home Shit and Life Admin. Do you know why? Because that shit got to get done. For me, I know that walking into my house and having it look a certain way and feel a certain way is part of my success formula. Having my house feel like it does, to me, is part of my confidence. I know that I can walk home and go, yep, this is it. And that stuff’s important, so we need to schedule it in.

Don’t be one of those people that says, “Oh, get to it all on someday.” Because someday never comes. If you take half an hour, 45 minutes, an hour, even 10 minutes every single day as part of your daily success formula to do these home adminy things, you’ll see a difference. I swear. Might be folding the washing.

Again, how can two people use so many bloody towels?
It might be feeding the dog, walking the dog, It could be watering the garden before you actually kill all the herbs. Could be painting a room. Could be doing your filing. And that stuff is not interesting, but it has to get done, and doing it off and ticking it off every single day will make you feel better. I swear.

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Produced by Rebecca Saunders and Pyrmont Studios

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Feeling Good
Songwriters: Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse
© Tratore, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Produced by Samantha Leith / Michael Allen
Vocals by Samantha Leith