The one habit I'm trying to build this year.

After escaping America and the last month of the year Nat and I have made our way through 14 days of Hotel quarantine in Australia and into a cozy one-bedroom apartment in Sydney. This will be our home for the next few months. We're still figuring out how to share a closet which is stuffed with Nats clothes and my camera gear but we're happy to be amongst family and friends and a country that has managed to do an amazing job of body-slamming covid. So there are a lot of positive things about living in Sydney the weather

ER is amazing. The food is incredible. The beaches are beautiful and there are also some negatives just a couple days ago. We found out that we live next to a feeding ground for the world's largest bad. I'm not even joking. That's that's a real thing..

What? Nope honestly, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to go outside at night or even fall asleep. But I guess that's what you get for moving to Australia since it's the start of the year. It's usually a time when I set an intention and figure out which habits I've been neglecting and the ones that I really want to focus on going forward and as I look back on.

Honey, there were certainly habits that I let slip more than usual like weightlifting meditation and healthy eating. I lived a much much more sedentary lifestyle than I would have liked but it's a fucking pandemic. So I'm going to give myself a break but as I started to reflect I did realize there was one thing I wish I did more and it's reap. So before I started making films on YouTube. I was an Avid Reader. It was really the thing that got me first interested in self development is what in.

Inspired me in my early years as a freelance filmmaker books really taught me how to be a better human. They taught me so much about business and it also gave me a healthy Escape. I often found that when I would read a couple hours at night. I would feel fulfilled I would feel relaxed. I would feel excited about the day that followed but if I finish off my day with watching a couple hours of TV or browsing on social media, I would feel drained I would feel overwhelmed and I would feel anxious.

But something changed when I became a full-time content creator, I became so consumed with creation that I stopped making time for inspiration being a full-time Creator. Especially a YouTuber can be really demanding you've got an upload schedule to stick to you. So often feel like you're falling behind and as a result your learnings become one dimensional you start to invest all your time into film making or creating and as a result you begin to fall behind in other areas, so I didn't make a conscious decision to stop..

Stop reading it something that's simply happened over the years. You know, I went from maybe reading 50 books 220 and eventually last year. I just read a handful of books. I know how good I feel when I read. I know how much fulfillment and Creative Energy I get from reading. And so I decided that that's going to be the one habit that I focus on this year. And since I talked so much about habit change on this channel, and since I even teach a course on it, I thought I'd break down exactly how I plan to get this Habit to stick..

The first thing I'm going to do is get specific about my goal. Simply just saying I want to read more doesn't help me much that's an idle wish not a specific goal. So instead I've decided that I'm going to read two books a month. I do think it's important to say I'm going to do this instead of saying I'm trying to do this so often we approach something with a lack of confidence and that seeds into everything that we do and and sometimes it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy to not really have.

of that confidence to say I'm absolutely going to do this. I'm really dedicated to this. I know that there's no way I'm going to fail of course deep down. We know that we're going to fail we know that they're going to be times when we slip up and screw up but I think having that confidence Confidence from the get-go is really helpful. And so I chose to read two books a month for a specific reason because it fits into what flow researchers call the flow channel for your Habit to fit into the flow Channel. You don't want to create a goal. That's too.

Laying or a goal that's too easy. You need to find your own sweet spot if it's overwhelming, it creates unnecessary anxiety and stress and as a result, you might avoid the Habit completely. So I thought about it at first and in the beginning, I really wanted to read one book a week because well I'm a perfectionist and it just felt really neat and orderly to read one book a week. But then when I really started to think about it, I realized that that would just add an unnecessary amount of pressure on myself and conversely if it's too easy..

Let's say like reading one book a month. The challenge would be too boring. It won't excite me enough to keep up with the Habit itself. In order to grow you need to face some sort of resistance there needs to be some kind of challenge or else it won't be interesting enough for you to keep up with it and you won't see any true growth from it. And so for me, I chose two books a month because that fits perfectly into the Goldilocks zone for this habit next. It's important to put together a plan instead of just winging it. You're giving yourself a guide..

Follow, it's like planning your route before an expedition. You might face an unforeseen challenge like a grizzly bear or I don't know the world's largest bat that might force you to change your approach, but this plan will help you get started. I'd suggest putting together a plan for the first 30 to 100 days and when it comes to my own habit of reading that's going to be pretty simple to get started. I'm simply going to pick the first six books that I want to read that will push me past the 100-day mark. So the first six books are the war of art by Steven..

Pressfield willpower by Roy Baumeister and John Tierney where the curl dad sing by Delia Owens good to Great by Jim Collins dare to lead by brene Brown and sapiens by you Val Noah her Aria and this is even going to be the order that I plan on reading the books in. Of course, that's probably going to change as I get going. I tend to get inspired by one book might want to dig deeper into a specific topic or I might want to switch it up and do something completely different by planning ahead like this by picking out six books by.

It at one specific time it allows me to take that weight off. My shoulders to have to really come up with on the spot every other week a new book to read and this is something that I'm going to do as I get a little bit closer to that 100 day Mark. I'll start to think about what are the next six books that I want to add to my cue if your habit is exercise. You can put together a four day workout routine that you can alternate if you want to meditate daily. You can find an app to get you started and create a plan for when you're going to meditate during the day put it on your to.

To do list or add it to your calendar as a reminder to take action consistently and while you've got your calendar open take a look at the first couple months and identify any times when you're going to get really busy. These are going to be the periods where you have to plan ahead because they're gonna be the moments when you're most likely to fail to build that habit. And if you miss a couple days in a row, if you miss a week your so much less likely to be able to get back up and to get going again. I've created a few ground rules for my habit that will help..

Me so here's Matt's 2020 rules for reading the length of the book doesn't matter. So if I'm having a busy couple of weeks, I'm probably not going to read a 900-page novel. I'll happily swap that for a short 100 page read just because you start a book doesn't mean you have to finish it. If after the first few days, I'm really not feeling a book. I'll set it to the side and move on to the next one. Maybe I'll revisit it. Maybe I'll replace it with another book completely. You can read books that you've read in the past. Well, I want most of my books to be new all allow myself to revisit old books..

They have inspired me in the past. And the last thing that I've done to help me to get this Habit to stick is to create accountability and I've done that by making this video now. I have three million accountability partners that I know are going to be dming and messaging me throughout the year asking me what book I'm reading this week, but don't worry. You don't need an audience really of any size to be able to create accountability. You can find an accountability partner like a workout buddy. You can join Cycling Club or a book reading club you.

Also make a post to your own Social Circle online on Instagram to let people know what you're working on and what they can expect to see out of you in the coming year. One of the thing that I was most proud of last year is building the slow growth Community with my team if you're looking for accountability or just a dose of inspiration, you can follow at slow growth on Instagram and use the hashtag slow growth. We share content there every week to help you on your journey. So if you're really serious about getting your habits to stick this year and you want an even.

Even greater dose of accountability then you can join my habit course called Simple habits. The course takes you on your step-by-step habit Journey helping you develop the right mindset to succeed and it provides the keys to have it discipline. Each lesson is densely packed with actionable advice tons of resources and a workbook to get you to take action. You also get access to the slow growth slack Community where you can find inspiration guidance and even find an accountability Squad. So this is our slack group. We've got a few channels here one called..

Ability, this is where members create their own accountability groups to help stay committed to their habit goals. If you want to learn more or join the course, you can go to slow growth.com / simple habits. If you don't have the budget right now, I completely understand no pressure just know that there is a 30-day growth guarantee or your money back. No questions asked whether or not you join the course this year. I wish you all the luck in your habit goals this year. I absolutely hope that you kick 2021, right?.

In the nuts. I think that's a good thing. I think it's a good thing to kick a year in the nuts because I feel like last year 2020 kicked us in the nuts now, it's our turn to do the nut kicking. Thank you guys for watching this video. I so appreciate it. I'm so excited for this year. I'm excited to read more to learn more from you from the books that I'm reading. I'm just I'm very excited and very grateful to be here doing this as always. Love you guys. Bye..

Did he just say he loved us I did..