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10 small changes that will improve your life.

Matt D'Avella
Film & Animation
~12 min read
Nov 18, 2020
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If you're looking to make huge improvements in your life, it doesn't matter what you do every once in a while. It's what you do every day that makes the difference and sometimes the simplest nudges and behavior are all it takes to make radical changes in your future. So in this video, I want to share with you the 10 smallest changes that I've made in my life that have led to the greatest impact on my well-being my health my relationships my mental health as well as my work.

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Work some of these things take less than 10 seconds to do. But if you do them every day, you'll see a compound effect in your return. Let's get into it. All right. So change number one if you're trying to wake up early in the morning place your alarm on the opposite end of your bedroom. Now, this is a very simple change but I found that as I've tried to become more and more of a morning person over the past decade. This one small change has helped me out so much this way when you wake up..

The morning, you're not simply going to reach over to your phone grab it and hit the snooze button every 10 minutes for 2 hours instead. You actually have to get out of bed to turn your alarm off..

So the next one really relates to creating work-life balance and it's add one personal item to your to-do list, especially if that to-do list, like mine usually are are filled with nothing but work-related tasks. It's so easy to get caught up in the busyness of work to continue to be so ambitious that we neglect our personal lives that were working eight ten plus our days and we're neglecting the things that truly matter in our life..

Times and so I add things like go to the gym make a batch of smoothies call Mom. Those are the things that I know if I don't write them on my to-do list, I'll continue to put them off into the future or I might completely forget about them because I'm so busy with work, but when I go to check my to-do list throughout the day I'm reminded of what I really shouldn't be putting off and what I should be doing today. So this next one relates to your work life in your.

Email inbox create a folder called Praise and whenever you have a boss or a client that gives you positive feedback drag and drop that email into the praise folder. This really serves two purposes one it can help you when you're feeling Self Doubt and you're feeling like you're maybe not worth it. When you're questioning your path. It's great to be able to go back to these things. But it also serves a really practical function for those who have a typical nine-to-five job. And this is feedback that I got from my.

Many years ago that I think is absolutely brilliant. There will be times many times where you'll find yourself in a position where you need to either back your performance prove your performance to either a superior like a boss or perhaps if you run your own business, so you're a freelancer to new clients and what acts as a really credible proof point is when you have quotes from people that you've worked with that have worked with you. That's say how amazing you are how you're the best..

Work in the world how no one else would hire anyone else except for you. And yes, you are worth a million dollars a year. You paid a million dollars a year. You diet the next changed I recommend you make is to carry a water bottle with you everywhere you go. Now this one so simple but it's that nudge that change in your environment that continues to remind you to continue to stay hydrated to drink water. This is one of the things that so many people neglect. We're supposed to be drinking..

Eight 8-ounce glasses of water every day. I know when I was younger. I definitely did not meet that ever since I started carrying a water bottle close by when I go to the gym when I go to the cafe when I used to be able to go at least now when I'm just at my desk when I'm going around the house if I have my water bottle close by it's that constant reminder to stay hydrated to drink water. And also one of the best things is that actually curbs cravings for snacks a lot of times. We think that we're hungry when in fact, we're thirsty and so by drinking.

Water by staying hydrated all day. I snack much less often, which is a great bonus the most helpful relationship advice that I followed myself over the past decade has been never go to bed angry at your partner. Now, this is much easier said than done especially if you're having an argument late into the night. It's so easy to just go to bed fuming and mad at the person that you love. But if you continue to do that if you do that day after day,.

So easy to wake up in the morning and ignore the problem to brush it to the side, but that's only going to build up to be a much bigger problem in the future. Yes, we get in a funk sometimes and sometimes we say things we regret or we just like need some space. But if you allow that to Bridge Over a night and you wake up the next day and it's unsolved and unresolved and you haven't talked about it. Then you have given you have laid the foundations to give each other permission to.

to not be happy in this relationship. So the next one is really about healthy eating and for me that means investing in high quality low processed organic food. Now if you can afford it, I highly recommend you invest in the quality of food that you buy at the grocery store. So whenever I can I try to get grass-fed cage free organic non-processed, whatever I can to improve the quality of the ingredients..

Which eventually improves the quality of my life there were two documentaries that really got me interested in healthy eating and really turning the dial on how much I was investing in healthy foods and also really knowing what foods I should be investing in and those documentaries were fed up fed Fed Up..

Yep, that's it and food Inc. Those are the two documentaries that I watched highly recommend you check them out yourself. Now when it comes to eating healthy, there is another side to the coin and that's make sure that you don't bring junk food into your house at least limit the amount of junk food that you bring into your home. That might mean alcohol beer. It could be snacks or candy. I know from my personal experience if I have beer in the fridge, I'm gonna drink it. I'm probably going to have a beer or two..

Every night if it's there and if I have snacks and candy and chocolate and ice cream in the house, and I'm probably going to be consuming that way more often and when given the option between preparing a healthy organic meal and simply snacking on some ice cream. I'm probably going to choose the option which is easier and tastes a lot better. And so in order to really eat healthy and to really be mindful about what I'm consuming. I limit what I bring into the house to begin with this has by far made one of the biggest changes..

On my diet to date now, that's not to say that you can't buy cookies and you can't buy ice cream and you can never drink alcohol again. I certainly do bring these things into my home, but I do it with moderation leave your phone on silent and place it upside down at all times. Now, this is common etiquette already. If you're going out to hang out with family or friends if you're with anybody else you keep your phone on silent you turn it upside down put it on the table better yet. You keep it in your pocket out of sight now, this is something we do..

For other people so we should also do it for ourselves if we're working at our computer. We should really be intent on being focused on that work when our phones are right side up. We see notification come in. It's impossible. There's no will power in the world that will prevent you from picking up that phone texting and browsing for 30 or 40 minutes at a time. When you add it up all of these micro distractions throughout your day. Eventually, you're far less productive than you would have been if you would have simply remained focused on.

Your task one other thing I do before I go to bed besides putting my alarm on the other side of the room is to write out a physical to-do list and put it next to that alarm. This helps out in a number of ways and the biggest thing it does for me is it helps me to stay motivated? I have a more unconventional work life than most people. I don't have a nine-to-five finding that motivation and having a structure and a plan for your day becomes vital. Nobody's going to do it for you. So you need.

You do it free you need to do it yourself. And so writing out this to-do list putting it next to my alarm when I wake up in the morning. I see that I see the change in my environment. I see The To Do List I'm reminded of what I told myself. I was going to get done yesterday and as groggy and as tired as I might be in the morning more times than not I grab my notebook. I grab my alarm and I get to my day and finally take at least 10 minutes every day to be still..

Now this is a piece of advice that it's easy to ignore and look over but I found that when I give myself that time to be by myself to be quiet to do nothing. I always appreciate it those moments really Hold Me Together, especially when times are tough like they have been in 2020. So meditating going for a walk sitting still in a chair listening to music just simply being quiet and doing nothing is something that we rarely get..

Off of especially these days. It seems like we're always on our phone. We're watching TV. We're cooking dinner. We're eating we're talking to our spouse. We're always doing something and so by taking 10 minutes to be quiet to be still to open ourselves up to being grateful for appreciating what we have. Those are the moments that are going to make life worth it and it's it's the things that you don't think that you need, but you truly need more than anything else..

Now if you're looking to make any change in your life, it requires figuring out how habit change works. And so that's why I decided to build my very first course called Simple habits, which is now enrolling if you're interested, I'd love to talk a little bit more about it now, so I created the simple habits course for anyone who has struggled to make their habits stick whether you're looking to begin an exercise program eat healthier read more or wake up early you pick the Habit you want..

Old and the course will be your guide to make that change last through over 100 minutes of cinematic content and a guided workbook. I'll teach you all the Habit tactics that I use you'll learn how to stay motivated and you'll create a plan to help you get through the first 30 days and Beyond if you want to talk about true motivation the kind of motivation that gets you out of bed each morning need to dig a little bit deeper than your favorite Eminem playlist since accountability is so vital. I've included a 30-day text message or email accountability series. You also get a.

access to our private slack Community to get support from your peers. I've received so much amazing feedback from students since the course first launched people who've tried just about everything but if said that this course was the first thing that truly helped, so if you want to learn more about the course, you can go to slow growth.com simple habits. I'll leave a link down in the description below. It would absolutely mean the world to me if you checked it out. It's been a labor of love this year. It's been a project that I've dedicated more time and.

Energy into than any other in my life, and so I'm really proud of what I've been able to create and what my team has been able to create with me. So if you go check it out that would mean a lot. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you next time..