Episode 29: Lessons From My Apple Watch

Hello, my friends. Welcome to Episode 29. At Christmas, I won an Apple watch as a door prize at my work Christmas party. Now let me explain. I probably would never have bought one. Oh, don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with them but I am probably the least techy person that I know and, in all honesty, at the time I had an iPhone 6. Yes, a 6 – not a 6s or a 6s plus. A good old 6. So, it was so old that they had discontinued the updates long enough ago that I couldn’t even connect the new watch to it.

So, after much debate and more and more apps not working, I broke down and bought a new phone, and then I could finally connect to my apple watch.

Now my apple watch is a bit bossy.

It has been decided that there are 3 things that are important for me to do each day.

1.       Stand for at least one minute every hour for 12 hours per day.

2.       Exercise for at least 30 mins per day

3.       Move for ~300 calories each day.

Now, this is the first lesson. Just like my watch has the important things programmed into it. What are the things that are important for you to get done every day?

So often we don’t even think about this.

We so often are not intentional at all about choosing the things that we do each day. We often don’t plan. We often don’t get done the things that we need for self-care or that are just little things that mean the world to us but we often don’t do them because we run out of time.

There are many thought leaders that will speak about their morning routines – from walks in the sun, cold showers, meditation, vitamin supplements, yoga classes, goals or gratitude lists, and the list goes on. But they intentionally have chosen which things are important to get done in the morning and they make sure they do them every morning.

What are your three things?

Take a little bit of time with this.

Align all the things you could do against your values.

Make a choice to do the little important things every day.

Some ideas might include – family meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), exercise -walks, runs, yoga, education – taking an online course, reading a book, personal development, time with family, time with friends, healthy meals, naps in the sun,

Just like my watch has the important things programmed into it. We need to choose what these important things are in our lives and then carve out the time to do each one of them. Even just choose one thing that you do each day for you and watch your life transform!

Now the second lesson from my watch. Reminders.

Now for the standing goal, my watch gives me a reminder at 10 mins to the hour if I have not completed my one minute of standing yet for that hour.

We all need reminders.

We need them to be relentless like my watch.

We all get distracted or consumed with the things we are doing or caught up in the moment or caught up in work and we will forget to do the things that we have decided are important.

So set your reminders.

Pick a time.

Pick a frequency.

And figure out a way to remind yourself of the things you have chosen to do.

I am serious. If we don’t set up reminders -these things don’t become habits.

Lesson 3 – celebration.

My watch celebrates every accomplishment every day!

It congratulates me when I finish my exercise goal.

It congratulates me when I finish my movement goal.

It congratulates me when I finish my stand goal.

Our Brains love this type of reinforcement.

Good job you! Is an amazing tool for motivation and inspiration.

How are you doing to acknowledge and celebrate yourself for getting the things done you have chosen. Take some time to make a plan for that.

These tiny things that we do every day add up to some pretty major accomplishments and can really contribute to our overall well-being.

This is the compound effect. Little actions add up to big results.

Let me use this podcast as an example. Back when I started this if you had asked me to sit down and record 29 episodes I would have thought it wasn’t possible but by just starting and doing it consistently I now have 29 recorded.

And often to motivate yourself to keep going you have to celebrate every episode! Be proud of yourself for doing it every week! Be so happy when it’s written, so happy when it’s recorded and so excited when it’s edited and scheduled.

We have so many small steps we take to accomplish great things and we need to celebrate all along the way.

How will you celebrate the small stuff?

Now the last lesson for today is tracking.

Now have you ever heard of streaking? Now not the naked person running across the football field but the tracking of accomplishments for an extended period of time.

My watch does this.

Every day I complete a goal – it tells me how many days I have consistently completed that goal (aka a streak). It tells me what my longest streak is and how I am doing on that.

This kind of tracking can be so powerful.

Once again. Big, impossible things are accomplished one small possible step at a time.

So let’s take all those steps.

Let’s get consistent with the steps we are taking.

Keep those streaks up as long as possible.

It will be fun.

Have a wonderful week.