Episode 39 - Using the Power of Habit Stacking to Grow Your Business without Overwhelm
Jan 12, 2022
Do you ever wonder how some people manage to reach their life and business goals in a relatively short space of time whilst you’re left struggling? It’s almost as if they have a secret talent or they’re somehow different from you.
Because you too have these incredible dreams to build your business as a female entrepreneur and create your ideal lifestyle. But it feels unobtainable.
There just aren’t enough hours in the day or you end up feeling totally stressed and overwhelmed.
As you’ll find out when you listen to this week’s episode of the podcast, you too can achieve this. You can transform your productivity, finances, health and happiness with a few simple lifestyle hacks and make 2022 your best year ever.
It’s all about building powerful habits for success.
Tune in to episode 39 and discover how I’ve implemented six key habits that help ensure I nourish my body and mind, keep the happy hormones flowing, stay productive, find quality time to spend with my family, stay in control of my finances and much more. Happy listening!
Don’t forget that you can download my free eBook, “10 Simple Ways That You Can Reduce Your Sugar Intake” here.
Eleshia’s essentials
- The days that I know that I am working, I want to make sure that I'm getting the sh*t done that I need to get done in the timeframes that I need to get them done in.
- The habit of just making time for personal development is really here to stay with me because it just makes a difference.
- If the habit isn't easy, you're not going to stick to it. Stop making things harder for yourself. Think about the ways that you can implement the things that you think will work into your lifestyle easily.
Other resources mentioned
About the show:
Need simple strategies to help you grow your business and achieve more without working harder? Struggling to balance work, life, and all your other commitments and don’t want to burn out? You’re in the right place.
The Eleshia Show is a holistic business and lifestyle strategy podcast to help you get clear on your business goals, stop procrastinating, boost your income, and do what lights you up.
Women are taking notice! We have listeners across 41 countries and over 420 cities! We’re teaching female business owners across the world how to achieve more with less while looking after themselves. And we can do the same for you!
We’re having intimate conversations — the kinds that most female business owners are having privately. You don’t want to miss these.
Tune in to the podcast every Wednesday to discover exactly what expert CEOs did to get their businesses off the ground and achieve success so you can do the same!
With your host, Eleshia Harris, business coach and growth strategist, you can redefine what success means, ditch the stress and confusion and learn how to run your business from a place of ease and excitement.
If you want to talk business, wellbeing, lifestyle, mindset, goals, and scaling organic growth, don’t miss it!
Connect with Eleshia and the community today:
Show Transcript:
Eleshia Harris: I'm here to give you six habits that I am going to be taking into the new year. And we are going to talk all across the board so we're going into movement, food, systems, money, health, personal development. I'm going to try and touch all of the basis for you of all of the things that I'm going to be doing.
Hey, I'm Eleshia Harris, and I am the host of The Eleshia Show where each week, we'll be having conversations about how to enhance your wellbeing. We'll be sharing strategies and stories and insights to build your business while still navigating life because sometimes we try to separate the two. And let's face it. If you are not well, you have no business. I am a holistic business growth strategist and a wellness coach who spent over 15 years in corporate before deciding to choose me first to build my brand, Eleshia Lifestyle. I'm here to teach you how to redefine what success means to you, ditch the stress and confusion, and learn how to run your business from a place of ease and excitement. Let's get into this week's episode.
I am so excited to be back with you all. Can you believe it is January? And I know if you are anything like me, you are thinking about all of the things that you can start to implement and you may be feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I think I've mentioned it before, but I am not a new year's resolution kind of girl. I know I don't stick to them. And I need habits that I am going to stick to. So I make it really easy for myself. And that's one of the things that I wanted to share with you. If you are not making these habits easy, you're not going to do them. As simple as. So let's dive straight into it.
I'm here to give you six habits that I am going to be taking into the new year. And we are going to talk all across the board so we're going into movement, food, systems, money, health, personal development. I'm going to try and touch all of the basis for you of all of the things that I'm going to be doing. I have been researching these topics and subjects as well. I am coming to you informed, but for myself. As always, take what you need and leave the rest. But just know that we are here as a community. If you've got any questions or if there were things that I have mentioned that you were like, oh Eleshia, I'd love to know a little bit more about how you're implementing these things, then, reach out. You know me, I love to talk. So, movement.
Over the last two years, I have always been a mover. One of the things that really keeps me sane is to ensure that I move my body as much as I can. And I know when I was in corporate, that was a little bit harder. But I always used to try and get to a gym. Some of the companies that I've worked for used to have gyms on-site. I used to always make sure that I became a member so that I could go at lunchtimes. Or if I was in a contract role, I have always tried to incorporate movement into my lifestyle. In the majority of the roles that I've had over the years when I used to work in corporate, they used to be a gym on-site where I would become a member and I would use my lunch breaks or before work or after work just to get that workout in, because I knew personally myself, if I wasn't moving then I would become irritable. I was not as productive, and my body would just be stiff. So I used to always try to make sure that there were ways of me moving. In one role that I had, I was on the 42nd floor. And at least once a week, I would walk all the way down to the ground and sometimes up again. I would ensure that if I had meetings on different levels, rather than going in the lift, I would take the stairs and I would just try incorporating steps into my day on a daily basis. And then when I moved out of corporate, by then I was a Pilates teacher, so It was really embedded in me to do some kind of movement each day. And I still enjoy doing that. Now, over the course of the last two years, I have really, really honed in into my practice because it can be quite difficult if you have to be accountable to your workouts yourself. And we've had a really hard two years. From that perspective, it's been really nice to have a community where I work out with other Pilates teachers. And that's been amazing for my well-being. Just, you know, growth with regards for me when I am working out, it's not just my body that I'm working out, I'm working out my mind, I'm working out my emotions and all of the rest of those things. And it has really helped me to find more confidence in myself. I truly believe that had I had not been working out, eating well, and looking after myself, then I wouldn't be sitting here today doing this podcast for you all because I just wouldn't have had the energy or the capacity or the confidence to be sitting here and just sharing.
I would always say, try and get some kind of movement into your day. I love to dance. Me and my daughter, we have dance parties or my husband will go get on his stacks and we'll dance at 5 o'clock, 5:30 when he has finished work. That really helps boost everybody's moods. That's one of the habits that I will be continuing to do in 2022. I will be up my, exercise routines to add just some weights. At the moment, I do a lot of reformer and chair. At the moment, I do a lot of resistance work. And the reformer, I am working against resistance. But I do miss weight-bearing exercises. So I'm going to incorporate some weights into my weekly practice, probably once a week, especially as I am getting a little bit more vintage. And so I need to ensure that I am doing some weight-bearing exercises. So I need to ensure that I'm doing more frequent weight-bearing exercises to ensure that I am helping my joints and my muscles, and my skeletal frame as well. I'll be doing that. And I love it. I love, I love working out.
As I said, I am a cow when I don't. I am not very pleasant when I don't. I've literally just done a workout, and I feel really, really motivated to now go about my day and get other things done. That is really exciting to me. And yes, exercise for me is here to stay. And again, it doesn't have to be long durations. Remember what I've said previously? And if you haven't heard me say it before, just do what you can especially as we are all busy. But if you can do 10 to 15 minutes of movement a day, that may be enough for you. If you can then move it out to 30 to 40 minutes, great. And also, think about where you are in your cycle if you still have a bleed because that's also going to impact your energy. Ensure that you're taking into consideration the exercises you're doing at different phases of your cycle. And that was a game-changer for me.
When I started to take note of the exercises I was doing, what I was feeding myself, how much hydration I was putting into my body, what work activities that I was doing at different times at different phases in my cycle, when I started to collect all of that information and that data, it made such a difference to how I want it to move my life forward. And it took some of the pressure off. It made me feel like, oh, now I understand why I may not have the energy to do this, or maybe why I don't actually want to do this particular project at this time. So really take into consideration where you are. And if this is new information to you and you're like, what the hell are you talking about, Eleshia? Go back to the 6-week series that I did with Mairi Taylor where we talked about how to harness your female cycle and to live in flow. And we went into a wealth of information there. So, go back.
All of this information is out there for you. I share as much as I can on my journey, from leaving corporate to where I am now. And we don't just talk about wellbeing and lifestyle, we talk about everything in between also because it is really important for me to have these open and honest conversations with you all just in case it helps somebody. And then when it comes to food, I touched upon this last week.
So, therefore, I will just be looking at the things that I totally love. And maybe just reducing the amount that I eat. So I am reducing. I'm going to try not to eliminate different foods out of my life too much, but when it comes to one thing that I will be reducing and I'm trying to eliminate as much as I can, it is white sugar. I do need to try to ensure that that doesn't creep back in. And as we've just had the holidays, I noticed that I was eating more quality treats and more Maltesers than I usually do. I'm not mad about that. I just know now that the holidays are over. I gave myself that grace to really just enjoy it without any regrets. But I also know what sugar does to me. It makes me feel sluggish. It makes me feel tired. It makes me feel drained. For all of those reasons, I will be reducing as much as I can. But I will be reducing as much artificial sugars as I can, and just really reaching into the natural sugars. And so remember, I have done a whole e-book titled, 10 Simple Ways That You Can Reduce Your Sugar Intake. If that's something that you also need to do, go ahead and download that e-book. It really has a lot of information in it. And I'll also be doing, I don't want to call it a challenge, but I'll also be doing a reset. I much prefer calling it a reset. I'll be doing a reset from the 10th of January, and I'll just be sharing with you how I will be reducing my sugar intake over the next 10 days.
Let's talk about products and systems with regards to the systems that I use on a daily basis last year, and that I will be bringing into 2022 as really good habits to do. So I love ClickUp, and I love just knowing what tasks are coming up for me. I really enjoy just having reminders come in. I will be continuing to use that. I also enjoy my Google Calendar because it just tells me, because rather than me having to think about, oh, it's a workday. What am I going to spend my time doing? I've already mapped it all out. It's already in my diary. I know myself well enough to know that if it's not in my diary and it's not going to get done. So I ensure that all of my clients are in their, time to actually do my client prep is in their, time to work out is in there. My walks, my food intake, I've also got reminders to ensure that I've taken my vitamins and I've drunk enough for the day. And yes, it may sound like, oh my gosh, you have scheduled every hour. And then yes, it may sound like you have scheduled every minute of your day, Eleshia. Wow. It doesn't feel like that. And it also is only for two of my days a week. The two days that I work condensed hours and I really go for it are the Tuesdays and Thursdays of my week, where that's when I see my clients, that's when I'm working in the business, and so forth. And for the rest of my week, yes, I still have things in my diary but it isn't so controlled. But on the days that I know that I am working, I want to make sure that I'm getting the shit done that I need to get done in the timeframes that I need to get them done in. So when it comes to a Wednesday or a Friday, I'm like, okay, at least I've got as much as I can do in those two days. And don't get me wrong, I still give myself some flexibility time. So I still have some white space in those days to ensure that if anything takes a little bit longer or if anything comes up. I'm not falling into a place of overwhelm and then thinking when am I going to get this work done? So, yes. That's two things that I'm really sticking to.
At the beginning of the year, I started my planning like I discussed last week. And I'll be using that plan also. And then with regards to products and stuff, I will be buying myself a new journal because I love stationery and my pens. I've discussed this before. You can go back and listen to the episodes when I told you all about the systems and the products that I use, but I need to have new stationery and so forth. A lot of the things that I already purchased, things that I'm still continuing to use with regards to products that help me or my day-to-day, and then I will also be continuing to use my Apple Watch to ensure that I'm doing my steps. But it's a really good reminder because it also gives me notifications of when to get up, when to move my body.
One thing that I am really bringing into 2022 is more playlists. I love to have music on when I am working. Some days it needs to be just really low-key music where I can just hear it in the background, but sometimes I need a full-on hype band. So I'll be doing more playlists, and actually while mentioning playlists, I have put together a playlist of all of the songs that all of the guests have told me that they enjoy. I asked all of my guests before they came on to have a conversation with me, what was that tune that really got you going? I'm going to share that playlist with you as well and hopefully, you can be jamming to The Eleshia Show Playlist.
So before, each of my guests come onto the show, I asked them, what is your favourite song? What is that song that lights you up? And each one of them has provided me with a song, so I'm going to put that into a playlist for you so that you can be jamming along as well when you're doing some of your work to The Eleshia Show Playlist. I hope you enjoy it.
So let's talk about finances. Another thing that I am going to ensure that I do is to look at my finances more frequently. And sometimes we don't want to have those hard conversations with ourselves about finances. And over the last couple of months, I've really been doing a lot of research on just females and business owners with regards to their finances. And the messages that we tell ourselves, and also the things that we don't do, for me, this is really, really important. We need to focus on our own finances. For example, I sometimes forget to look at some of my statements, and then I forget that I have subscriptions that I no longer need. And so that's one of the things that I'll be doing in January is ensuring again that I have no subscriptions that I haven't used for the last couple of months and ensuring that those are taken care of. I'll also be looking at my statements more frequently. So when I read a book, a couple of months ago, and the author was saying, you should be looking at your statements every day. And I was like, wow, that seems a bit excessive. But actually, it gives you a good frame of mind of where you're at. And so, I will be looking at my statements. I'm not going to say that I'm going to do it every day yet because it's a new habit for me, but I'm going to be making sure that I'm looking at it more.
I'm also going to be making sure that I am charging my worth because sometimes we also get into the habit of comparing ourselves to somebody else that may be charging a little bit less than us, or maybe charging a little bit more than us. And actually, from my perspective, you should be charging what you are comfortable with and then maybe making it a little bit more to make it a little bit uncomfortable. But no, on a serious note, we need to all be making sure that we are charging our worth. And especially as multi-passionate people, like myself, hey. I have spent tens of thousands of pounds on studying and research and making sure that my skills are up to date, and all of that. Don't let people make you feel bad when you charge your worth because there is so much else that goes on behind the scenes before you make that decision to present somebody with that price. And I am guilty of undercharging definitely. And this year, I'm going to get more comfortable with making sure that I am charging my worth.
So let's talk about money. Sometimes as female business owners, we are uncomfortable with talking about money. One of the things that I have really become aware of as being a business owner is that if I am not taking care of my financials and I'm not looking at my revenue and I am not charging my worth then I can sometimes feel a little bit resentful, and I am being honest. For me, a habit that is coming into 2022 is to ensure that I am looking at my revenue more often. I was reading a book and the author said, you should be looking at your statements every day. And I was like, whoa, whoa, wow. Okay, that's a bit excessive. But then when I started to think about it, I was like, actually that makes a lot of sense because if you're not looking at what's coming in and what's going out, then how do you know? I've been guilty of not looking at my statements. And then checking them down the line and then realizing that I've got subscriptions that I've not been using for a couple of months, or not remembering that I signed up for a year subscription and I hardly used it. And now, it's just automatically renewed itself. We've all done it. So I'm not here to say, you must, you must, you must. But what I'm saying is just be a little bit more aware. We don't often want to talk about financials. And I know it's a little bit taboo. And in my household, oh, we never shared what we were making because you didn't want people to know. And God forbid that you're making more money than your next door neighbor or you're making less. But now, we've gotten to a place where we should be feeling empowered that we are business owners and we are able to run our own businesses, we're able to ensure that all of the bills are paid and we've got a little bit extra to enjoy life.
We should be feeling empowered and be sharing more because the more we speak about money, the more money we will be bringing in. Therefore I'm going to be making sure that I track my outgoings and my incomings. I'm going to be talking more about my money and what I want. And I'm also going to be making sure that I am charging what I'm worth. Because a lot of us get into a place where we're like, oh, we compare ourselves and we look at what somebody else is paid. We look at what somebody else is charging. We're like, oh my gosh, I feel a little bit uncomfortable with charging more than that person. But we also have to remember how much money we are spending. From my perspective, I have spent over 20 odd years studying. I have spent tens of thousands of pounds. And now I need to start thinking about getting more of a return on my investment.
One of the things for 2022 for me is making sure that I am happy with the prices of all of my services, of all of my products, and I am charging what I think I am worth. I want you to do the same. So we've touched upon movement. We've touched upon food. So I want to talk about your overall wellbeing and ensuring that you're making time for yourself. That is always going to be something that I discuss with you. You have to invest in yourself. Make sure that one of the habits that you get into is ensuring that you have some time for yourself even if it's just that one hour per week to start off with. Build it into your calendar where maybe once a week you take yourself out for lunch, and you just spend time with yourself.
I think this is so, so important and I've really loved having the downtime with the family over the holidays. But I also know how important it is for me to ensure that I have my own time to make sure that I continue to grow. I continue to grow as Eleshia. That is really important for myself, for my family, for my business, for other people. I would really, really hope that you can get at least an hour in with yourself and not to do anything that is for the family, but just for yourself. You deserve it. Maybe even incorporate spending some more time with family and friends if that's available to you and if that lights you up as well. And that helps to balance your energy and bring some of those positive relationships into your life again. For me, it really fills me with gratitude to know that I've got some really good people around me. But I've also got the ability to spend some time on my own. And I know that not everybody can do that. I'm not trying to be insensitive. I'm just saying if you can, and there are ways, then it's really going to help you. It will really help.
As I touched upon earlier, I love learning and I love personal development. And to be honest with you, the majority of women do, because we're always searching for something. So personal development is definitely here to stay for me. And I love doing that via reading books. Last year, I made a goal to read or listen to 22 books. And I didn't get through the whole 22 books, but then I also didn't know that I'd be launching this podcast so soon. So I'm going to give myself some grace. I got through 15. And there are some books that I listened to, and then I actually had to buy the book as well because the books were so amazing that I just needed to see the letters on the page as well to help those sink in as well and just have them as a reference guide.
I've really enjoyed learning. I am in a few groups that I've really, really loved. And I've gotten so much out of being part of different communities like I've previously said. And so, that habit of just making time for personal development is really here to stay with me because it just makes a difference. We are here to continue to learn and if we're not learning, then we're not growing. For me, it just makes a lot of sense. And then you're going to ask me, Eleshia, how am I going to keep all of these habits? So by now, you know that I love, love, love, love, love to plan and a great checklist. And you may be thinking, Eleshia, that is a lot of habits and that's how I feel also. But then, at the beginning of 2021, I read Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it made things a little bit clearer for me. I loved the format of habit stacking. If you've not heard of it, it's where you actually piggyback a habit that you already do. Let's say brushing your teeth, and then you add another habit on top of that. For example, I wanted to do more meditation last year. So what I would do is I would brush my teeth and then I would meditate.
In my brain, it was like, okay, you brush your teeth, and then you meditate, Eleshia. And then when I wanted to then start morning pages, then I flipped around. So then I would do, okay, I wake up. I would spend some time doing morning pages, then I would brush my teeth and then I would meditate. And then when I wanted to do morning pages, then added another habit on. So I would brush my teeth. I would meditate. And then I would write my morning pages. And it just helped to have that download come down from the meditation onto paper, and then I could go about my day. And all in all, I would try and keep that really simple because my daughter would wake up around the same time that I would, and for the first 10 minutes, I would make sure I brushed my teeth and meditated, and then I did my morning journal and then I went about my day.
Some people would be like, oh, does that really work? But then you can then also incorporate the 2-minute rule. So even if you've only got two minutes, two minutes to brush your teeth, two minutes to meditate, two minutes to actually just write down something that you're grateful for. So it can work. Anyone can do anything in two minutes. So really make sure that the habits that you want to do are easy to implement into your existing routine.
Research shows that if the habit isn't easy, you're not going to stick to it. If you know this and you know that you're going to need some external accountability because you won't sit to them, then find that external accountability. And just talking about that, I've also decided that for the remainder of January and going into February, I'm going to do eight days, eight minutes of movement in the morning, eight minutes of meditation, eight minutes of journaling. So if you want to join me, I will add the information in the show notes as well. I'm really excited about this. It's because I really want to make sure that I'm making the most of my mornings.
I read The Miracle Morning, and although there were things in there that I was like, yay, no. One of the reasons why I'm doing this is because I want to expand that time a little bit more. I've got 10 minutes down. And now, as my daughter gets older, she can join me for the movement. The meditation maybe not be so much, but she can move with me because I want to make sure that she sees me put in healthy habits in place. So as she gets older, she sees that she can be doing the same also.
I want to leave this thought with you. Stop making things harder for yourself. take into consideration some of the things that I've said in this episode. And think about the ways that you can implement the things that you think will work into your lifestyle easily. Don't make it hard. Try not to overthink it. If you are starting to procrastinate on something that you really want to do, reach out to a friend, a family member, me, anybody who you think will help keep you accountable so that you are able to do the things that you know that you are going to enjoy in 2022. I look forward to spending so much more time with you over the coming months. And yes, let's do this again next week. Until then, bye now.
I really hope you enjoyed this episode of The Eleshia Show. If you loved this episode as much as I did, head over and rate and subscribe so you'll never miss an episode. New episodes drop every week on a Wednesday. I can't wait to hang out with you again soon. And lastly, remember to invest in yourself first because you are important and amazing. Take care. Until next time. Bye-bye.
