1285: Teeth, tablets and habit stacking

If like me you find habits a bit tricky, today I’m sharing my latest quirky - but effective! - experiment.

Episode transcript:

Good morning, Daily Peppers, and a very happy Monday to you. So to kick off this week, I thought I would share with you something seemingly silly, but also really helpful that I've been discovering about habit building. So one of the things that I find the hardest to do is to take my morning medication. I can't tell you why, but it feels nearly impossible. Every day, I swear I get better, and I simply don't until recently. So like many of you, I've heard of habit stacking. And the idea is attaching a habit that you want to form to something that you already do. But the problem has been in my case that there aren't a huge amount of established habits to stack anything onto.

But then I wondered, what if I just take the word habit out of the equation and just simply think about the things that I have to do every day that I'm gonna get done no matter what? And one of those things for me is putting in my front tooth denture. I don't feel confident without it in. I won't leave the house without it. I won't do a call without it. So I know it is something that I do every single day. So I started this experiment of, what if I make this kind of rule for myself of I can't put my teeth in until I've taken my tablets? And I love a bit of alliteration, so I love that they both started with t. And we are now three and a half weeks into the experiment, and I can tell you I have not missed a tablet any of those days. And that might not sound a huge amount to you, but for me, that's a fucking miracle.

There are some medications that I've been on for about seventeen years, and I have never been this consistent. So I share this today as an invitation for you to try it out yourself, to attach something that you want to do to something that you have to do, not in a kind of punishing way, but just a way of trying out whether it works. I'm not gonna lie. I didn't have high hopes for my front tooth and tablet habit because I've tried many things, but this just seems to have stuck. And I've now reached that sweet spot where I take my tablets without much thought at all. Now I know not all of us have front tooth dentures, but I'm pretty sure, though no judgment if you don't, most of us put on knickers or some kind of underwear every day. So have a think about how this looks in your life. Think about the things that you have to do or you do every single day regardless, and see how you compare it with something you really want to do.

See if you can keep both things to a similar length of time so it doesn't feel like too big of an ask. Get creative and find some alliteration if you can. And, also, just a quick reminder that we all have different flavors of hard. For me, taking tablets is incredibly difficult. To somebody else, they wouldn't bat an eye. And something that perhaps I do without batting my eyes, somebody else finds really difficult. And that's okay. We're all humans.

We all have our own quirks. So less judgment, and your dream shitter is not welcome here. So try it on for size. Have a fabulous start to the week, and I'll see you tomorrow.

Transcription provided by Castmagic.io

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A short, snappy and sassy daily podcast to keep your internal - and external - dreamshitters at bay!

The Daily Pep! is the rebel-rousing, daily podcast for couragemakers, creative, multi-passionate and unconventional women. If you’re surrounded by people who don’t get who you are or what you do, if you want reminders you’re on the right path (no matter how scary it feels), or you’re sick of being your very own worst enemy, this is the podcast for you.

Every weekday, your host - writer, coach and professional rebel-rouser - Meg Kissack helps you build a creative and wholehearted life, one day at a time. Through short and snappy insights, reminders and stories, The Daily Pep! is here to remind you you’re not alone, and that everything changes when you believe you matter. Each episode is short and snappy, designed to fit in with (or help you start) your habits and routines.

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