Episode 280: How to Make Healthy Habits Fun & Easy with Dr. Jaime Hope

Hal: Drumroll, please. Welcome everybody the Goal… No. Wait. All right. Let’s start over. Welcome, everybody, to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, who nails the introductions every time but I’m excited for you to join me today. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your valuable time and in exchange for your valuable time, I intend to give you a lot of value back and with my guest today I think that will be easy. I could just turn it over and let her talk for the next 30 minutes, and I think you’re going to get a ton of value. This is a friend of mine, Dr. Jaime Hope, and Jaime and I met at an event. Actually, no, no. We met when Joe Polish and she came to town a year or two years ago. Jaime, how long ago was that?

 

Dr. Jaime: Yeah. It was almost two years ago.

 

Hal: Two years ago? And we went to a restaurant, I think a Mexican restaurant for dinner?

 

Dr. Jaime: I know we did Cirque du Soleil. 

 

Hal: And we had Cirque du Soleil. Yeah. We went to the circus with my kids and my wife and you and Ursula. My wife hit it off like you guys love each other, and I mentioned that I was interviewing you today and she’s like, “I love Jaime. Tell her I said hi.” So, there you go. Hi from Ursula. 

 

Dr. Jaime: Hi. I love your family so much. I had so much fun playing with your kids. 

 

Hal: They love you. You’re so great with kids and you have kids. That explains why. You’ve gotten practice over the years.

 

Dr. Jaime: That helps. 

 

Hal: Yeah. All right. Let’s pretend I didn’t talk to you yet. I want to give you an official introduction.

 

Dr. Jaime: Deal. 

 

Hal: All right. So, everybody, goal achievers, here we go. Dr. Jaime Hope is a dual board-certified physician working outside of Detroit, Michigan in one of the busiest emergency departments in the country. So, she has arguably like one of the highest stress jobs. Imagine working in an ER outside of Detroit. You’re going to see the craziest people, not craziest people, but just the crazy situations, probably the craziest people too. I don’t know. 

 

Dr. Jaime: I don’t know. 

 

Hal: Yeah. Over the boat. But over 12 years on the job she’s learned that no matter what brought her patients to the ER, they all want the same thing and it’s the same thing that all of us want and that’s to live happier, healthier lives. And today, whether she’s helping patients, teaching future doctors, or she’s engaging in the local community, Dr. Hope is showing others how to create better habits and make healthy living fun, practical, and accessible and the latest way that she is doing that is her new book. It’s called Habit That!: How You Can Health Up in Just 5 Minutes a Day. I’ve got the book. I’m reading the book. It is phenomenal and, yeah, I’m excited because if you are a student of personal development, you know that our lives, our results, are created by our habits. If you have good habits, you produce good results, not just in your health but, I mean, your finances and your marriage, you name it, but if have bad habits then produce bad results and life can become a struggle. So, really excited to dive into habits today. So, Jaime, welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. 

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Dr. Jaime: Hal, thank you so much for having me. I am a listener and a fan and just to being your friend so it is such a huge honor to be here today. Thank you. 

 

Hal: Awesome. Yeah. I’m hoping that as you’re coming to the FamBundance event here. Is that next month? When is the FamBundance event? I don’t know. It’s on the calendar.

 

Dr. Jaime: It’s at the beginning of August in Austin.  

 

Hal: Okay. So, it is. It’s coming up. So, yeah, so hopefully I’m flying out of town. As I mentioned, I’m only in town the first day of the event. I’m going to try to make it up so I can get some of the value from the event and to see you. But I want to start like I want to ask you this. How did an ER doctor become an author and national speaker on healthy habits, confidence, and resilience?

 

Dr. Jaime: So, interestingly enough, that is one of the questions I get asked most often. So, when I’m speaking or at a mastermind or at an entrepreneurial event, everyone’s like, “Wait, you’re a doctor. What are you doing here?” So, in addition to the occasional person that collapses at a conference where I’m helping, what I’m doing so, Hal, in my job I see people show up on the worst day of their life and it’s an honor. I get to take care of them. I get to be present, empathetic, give them the best that medical science has to offer but I always had this thing in the back of my head. What if we just help them upstream so they don’t have to end up here on the worst day of their life? And so, I’ve always been into healthy habits and personal development just like you and so I started doing tons of research getting extra certifications, extra knowledge, and all these things into healthy habits. And I started learning it and then I started teaching it. I’m an assistant professor at a medical school so I’m actually teaching this to future physicians and then people saw my expertise and started asking me to speak and then I took all of that that I’ve learned and put it into a book.

 

Hal: That makes sense. And the book published pretty recently, right? 2018?

 

Dr. Jaime: It came out in January 2019.  

 

Hal: Oh, okay. Got it. So, very recently, this year. 

 

Dr. Jaime: It’s my new baby and I’m so excited about it. 

 

Hal: All right. So, here’s what I like to ask. So, for me, all of my books came out of a struggle like my first book, Taking Life Head On, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver, had all these horrible injuries and have it overcome that and then felt the sense of responsibility to share what I learned that I thought could help other people and then the Miracle Morning was kind of the same thing. It’s like I hit rock bottom, financial crisis, created this morning routine that turned my life around and I thought, “Man, I have to share this for the people.” And so, I’m wondering, you’re now this expert on habits. Have you ever struggled with unhealthy habits? If so, what did that look like? 

 

Dr. Jaime: Absolutely. That’s my favorite part. I’m very authentic, very vulnerable about this. This was my struggle and I think like you, some of the best work, the books and speaking and stuff like that comes out of having gone through the struggle yourself. So, when I was a kid, my diet could best be described as I was Cheetotarian. It was just all junk food. I think if I ate ten servings of vegetables in my entire childhood that was probably 9.5 of them were forced. I even remember a specific event in my childhood where I had canned green beans. That was our vegetable at dinner and my mom was finally so fed up with my habits she said, “You’re going to sit there until you eat those,” and so I did. And I was not a defiant child. I wasn’t argumentative but I sat at the table, Hal, until bedtime staring at that plate of green beans because I was like, “I am absolutely not going to eat those.”

 

Hal: You sound like my daughter. 

 

Dr. Jaime: I know, right? And so, as I’m getting older I’m set in science, nerding out, wanting to go to medical school, I had this moment with Cheeto dust on my hands thinking – can you imagine me like holding up this hand with a stethoscope and saying, “Now, you need to eat broccoli,” and I’m like, “Excuse me, could you please explain the dust?” And I was thinking, gosh, if I’m going to tell people that they need to take charge of their life and take care of their habits, I’m going to have to go through that first and I’m not going to pretend it was easy, Hal. There are certain things that I still struggle with, but I decided not to start with green beans, my ultra-nemesis I started with just a very simple habit that I felt was accessible to me and that was drink more water. So, I used my goals, my habit ideas, and I put up a chart in my closet. My college roommate thought I was a total weirdo and just started checking how much water I was drinking until I integrated that as a habit. It’s been some years since college, and I don’t even have to think about it. It’s so ingrained in my life. I drink water and no problem. 

 

And so, one by one in small ways I started tackling all of those health habits and it wasn’t easy. It’s been many years and I love vegetables. I easily can get five or more servings a day without even trying. The funny thing is, though, I still hate green beans. I hate them. So, other than that, I have really made a big difference in my healthy habits and I can share my struggles and help people when they stumble along the journey too because I have been there.

 

Hal: So, let me ask you a question. I know that drinking water is a big, I think like for a lot of – everybody knows I should drink more water and few people it’s like one thing that people just don’t succeed in doing at. So, two things. Real quick I’m going to share my strategy for that when I made that decision and I want to hear if you have any specific tips. What I did is I bought this plastic jug and with like a little handle on it, BPA-free of course, but it was a big 32-ounce jug and the way that I ensure that I got 64 ounces of water a day is I was not allowed to have lunch until that jug was finished. So, I sipped it all day long and then I just kind of time at 32 ounces before lunch and then 32 ounces before bed. And I couldn’t go to bed until the jug was finished. And so, it was like a really simple accountable right in front of my face way to do the water. So, I don’t know if you have something like that or any tips or strategies on how you either started to get the water drinking going or how you do it to this day and I know now it’s kind of second nature but however you’re drinking that so there are listeners can make that, if that’s a goal of theirs, they can implement.

 

Dr. Jaime: Well, Hal, you hit in a lot of really important things with water and with any goal setting thing. You need them be measurable, it needs to be time-bound so you know when you’re hitting your goals and have specific things. Okay. I can’t have lunch until I finish this thing. So, I got my own water bottle before it was cool back when everybody was just using the disposable water bottle all the time. Now, hopefully, people are getting away from that and they make them where you can track it on the side, or you track the paper so there are so many different things. The key is you have to keep it in front of you. You have to measure it. So, the whole like all management and goal principles what is measured improves, what is measured and recorded improves exponentially. And you can apply that with any of the goals and habits and it makes you substantially more successful.

 

Hal: Now, to measure and track your goals and habits, do you use paper and pen? Do you use a journal? Do you use an app? Like what works for you?

 

Dr. Jaime: I use all of the above and so I have experimented around with a couple of different ways. For my exercise goal for the year, I have a piece of paper that I laminated old school style and every time I work out, I put the date on it and I have the whole year in one place in my office so I’m getting a constant visual of where am I relative to that goal and you mark off the quarters to make sure that you’re hitting it by that time and for me, of course, like you, I’d like to exceed my goals.

 

Hal: Of course. 

 

Dr. Jaime: So, I see that as a personal challenge to make sure I’m always ahead of schedule but some of the other things, tracking vegetable intake, tracking how often I’m doing my meditation and yoga, things like that, I have a goals tracker app on my phone.

 

Hal: Got it. So, you use both. You like paper and app.

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes.

 

Hal: Do you have a preference? Because I know for some people like for me, I like digital for almost everything that I do then I have like my – Chip Franks is one of my team members. He…

 

Dr. Jaime: I love Chip.

 

Hal: Oh yeah. You know Chip?

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes. 

 

Hal: Everybody knows Chip. I love Chip. But he uses, he loves that pen to paper that feeling of being able to write in the journal. There’s a journal with him at all times wherever he goes. So, do you have a preference? You pick one or the other or it just depends on the thing or the goal?

 

Dr. Jaime: It depends on the goal because some of them I really just want to see and for journaling, I do that with pen and paper and then everything else I do digital.

 

Hal: Okay. Got it. So, mostly digital and then pen and paper. Yeah. For me, my phone is with me all the time.

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes. But the beautiful thing for anybody with any goal, I assure you there is an app for that. However, you want to track it, whatever something, you’ll stick with it. You’ll put on the first screen of your phone, don’t hide it in the back. It’s whatever you’ll stick with, that’s the most important thing that matters.

 

Hal: Yeah. And to me, I have my self-concept from me being a kid is I always viewed myself as a lazy non-disciplined person and even though when I say that usually, my friends are people that are like, “You’re like the most disciplined person I know,” and like…

 

Dr. Jaime: Yeah. It doesn’t make any sense.

 

Hal: Right. But I let myself go and it’s like body dysmorphia. We look in the mirror and it’s like, “I’m fat,” and everyone is like everyone is like, “Dude, no” or “Girl, no you’re not.” But anyway, so the point is I think that my hope that we’ll be sharing that is it’s what you’re talking about and what we’re talking about is setting yourself up for success. It’s making it easy like me getting that water jug, remove the need for me to remember to walk to the kitchen eight times a day and refill a glass. Like because I’m forgetful, I’m lazy, I’m this, I’m that. Okay. Great. You don’t have to be the most disciplined person in the world. Just make it easy.

 

Dr. Jaime: Oh my gosh. Hal, I am so about that. Every little barrier to achieving a goal makes a difference and the more you see the goal as difficult, any little barrier becomes a huge impediment. You’re like, “Ugh, the kitchen is so far, I’m not going to bother refilling my glass.” If you don’t want it bad enough and I talk about that a lot. Remove any possible barrier to getting it. What you said there reminds me of one of the most other important things that I talk about in goalsetting. Everybody always wants to jump straight to, “Okay. What’s the magic secret diet that’s going to fix me?” And the key is mindset. So, you describe yourself as lazy and undisciplined. Those are kind of our ANTs, our automatic negative thoughts.

 

Hal: Oh, I was like that. 

 

Dr. Jaime: And I talk to people about eliminating your ANTs and it’s that old mindset because if you still believe that, you’ll try to work towards your goals, but that mindset is going to argue with that because you want to behave consistent with your behavior. If you believe stealing is strong and you’re robbing a bank, you’re going to feel cognitively uncomfortable. And so same thing with those negative inner labels. So, if somebody even in terms of health, if somebody views themselves as fat even if they’re not currently or they view themselves as a diet failure or undisciplined, they will eventually act more consistent with that inner label than with their goals.

 

Hal: Got that. That makes sense.

 

Dr. Jaime: And it’s the same thing in business. People sabotage themselves. Hal, have you ever seen anybody do that? Procrastination or that…

 

Hal: There’s a mirror right here.

 

Dr. Jaime: And I’m talking about myself and so when you see it’s about mindset first. So, I actually tell people, “Before you’re eliminating the junk food out of your life, we need to start working on these junk thoughts, these ANTs, these views of ourselves, this self-label, and then you can actually start achieving goals. Then the framework that I have people follow in terms of setting up their goals and habits it’s kind of almost ridiculously easy. It’s setting that groundwork. It’s the mindset of rolling with the barriers and then your momentum is unstoppable.

 

Hal: Got it. So, do you have, and I know health is obviously a big focus for you personally and also what you coach people on and teach on and speak on. So, do you start people on a specific diet plan or exercise regimen? How do you address that? Because I know one of the number one goals in any survey anywhere is it’s health-related or fitness-related. I want to lose weight. I want to eat better. I want to quit smoking. So, do you start on a diet plan or exercise regimen or how do you approach that?

 

Dr. Jaime: So, that’s an important question because a lot of people they want the magic diet and particularly if it has some kind of catchy sexy name, it becomes the fad of the month. But really there’s no one size fits all approach. I mean, if I prescribe to you nothing but paleo and you’re a vegan, that doesn’t make any sense and people have different health needs based on their body composition and their goals and stuff like that. So, the concept of a one size fits all diet is ridiculous no matter how fancy the name is. But seriously, before I even address people’s nutritional status and their exercise, I really am going to those junk thoughts to that mindset and sometimes if people are struggling so much with that, I’ll give them a new label, “I am a healthy person.” I’ve always hated the idea I want to eat like a skinny person eats because the truth is some people can eat nothing but bacon and donuts and be skinny either through genetics or they are just burning that calories. 

 

Hal: Metabolism or something. 

 

Dr. Jaime: Yeah. So, being skinny doesn’t necessarily equate to being healthy so I ask people to think of themselves, “I am a healthy person. Okay. What would a healthy person do?” And when you start putting your mind around that, then we can start moving forward with creating healthy habits. Some people need to do those resets where they’re doing a massive diet change all at once to help get them on track but the truth is most of those are not sustainable and I’m a big believer in creating and maintaining healthy habits over the long term because those big yoyo swings in diet and weight are not healthy for you.

 

Hal: I have a friend I haven’t talked to in quite a few years, but I used to work with a gal, and she looked great. She’s in great shape. She used to run 6 miles a day. She ate at the ampm every day. She stopped at ampm, the gas station, and that’s where she got her food out of the hot thing. She would eat hamburgers and I’m like…

 

Dr. Jaime: And that’s hamburgers in air quotes because what that’s probably not real meat. 

 

Hal: Yeah. That’s like dog burger. I don’t even know what that is and finally one day I’m like I’m saying this out of love, I’m like, “You look great but on the inside like what you’re doing to your body.” “Yeah.” “Just because you look hot, I think that’s not good.” But I love what you just said, okay, what you talked about and we could go deep into this, I don’t know if you will or not, but I mean identity shift. That changing or any change, changing your habits, those specifically, it really starts with or it can start with or, I mean, it should start with changing your identity which is identifying your current past/current identity which is, “Okay. I’ve been someone who has settled for mediocrity in this area of my life,” and that’s why I like, anyway, in Miracle Morning I start with that like that reality check like, hey, if you’re really painfully honest with yourself like where are you settling for mediocrity as a parent, in what area in your health. So, first, this is what my identity has been. I’ve settled for mediocrity in these areas in my life or this area of my life and then what is the identity I want? 

 

And like you said, it is not just I’m a skinny person but I’m a healthy person and then it’s okay and then you commit. It’s not just creating that identity or identifying it but it’s actually committing to it like I will live – here’s the identity that I’m committed to living in alignment with. I will be a healthy person, making healthy choices, and then it’s easy to weight it as every choice. It’s like, should I eat this? I’m really in the mood for pizza and that’s like, “Well, wait, the identity that I’ve committed to is I am a healthy person.” I’m not saying you can’t eat pizza but if it’s every day. I had a coaching client once that he drank a 12-pack of Mountain Dew a day and had two extra-large pizzas, I swear to God. And after like six years and I go, “How are you still alive? What?” I mean, it’s crazy. Anyway, he was like in his 20s. But anyway, yeah, I don’t know if there is any more to expand on that but just the importance of like your identity is crucial and if you’ve seen yourself as a smoker then you’ll keep smoking but if you identify, “I’m no longer willing…” I’m sorry. What did you say?

 

Dr. Jaime: No matter how many times a smoker tries to quit, if in their head if they’re saying, “I am a smoker,” then they’re just a smoker who has put the pack down for a few days or weeks.

 

Hal: Yes. And then when we think about that because they still identify as a smoker. It’s like I’m quitting for as long as I can. I can’t do it anymore. 

 

Dr. Jaime: And you’ve got to see this because people have this self-identity, “I’m not a morning person. I can’t do the miracle morning,” quote. I have this self-identity. I’m like I know you can relate to this quote, “I’m not a morning person.”

 

Hal: I forgot. Yeah. They’re like the most obvious one that I could relate to. It did not even cross my mind. Thank you for pointing that out.

 

Dr. Jaime: Exactly. And the same thing with entrepreneurs. I know a huge portion of this audience are entrepreneurs and some of them could be playing at the next level, finding streams of horizontal income like our dear friend, David Osborn, talks about in Wealth Can’t Wait. But in their mind, they’re like, “I’m a small entrepreneur or I can’t do that or I’m not a big player,” so with all of these things. The best thing about this is my study is human habits. I’ve chosen this book to talk about health but really this work is applied anywhere. And so, I tell people, I mean, you use the word the mindset that you’re committed to and that’s exactly what I talk about. I tell people to go full-on and commit, literally get out a marker and write it on your bathroom mirror, “I am a healthy person.” Putting that in post-it notes all around your house, have an app on your phone that will alarm a few times a day and pop up with that, and change the password on your computer so every time you have to log in, you have to type, “I am a healthy person.” People then add in some random numbers and capitalizations.

 

Hal: Actually…

 

Dr. Jaime: I’m not hacking everyone’s computer. Don’t worry. But truly because your brain believes what you tell it. People have no idea of the power of mantra and suggestion to your brain. It’s incredible. You’ve been telling your brain for years you’re lazy or you’re not a morning person and you act like it because your brain believes it. So, why would you not think your brain would believe the opposite if you start telling it that? Your brain doesn’t care. It doesn’t value one over the other. It just believes that you tell it and acts accordingly.

 

Hal: Yeah. And for me, like low hanging fruit on that is when you wake up feeling like an emotional funk or you’re just kind of feeling depressed one day for really no reason, you’re like, “Life’s great. Why am I feeling like depressed? It doesn’t make sense.” But, yeah, I understand the power of suggestion. I used to literally go, “I feel good, I feel great, I feel happy, I feel a lot.” I’ll just say it over and over and over and I’ll smile, and I’ll embody, and all of a sudden it literally shifts. You shift your psychology, you shift your physiology, you feel better, you’re happy. I want to dive in though with you on being that this is the Achieve Your Goals Podcast and that your habits are what determines really your outcomes aka your goals. So, I just want to hear your perspective, your thoughts, even if you have any system or steps or anything you can obviously share whatever you like and find valuable but so how do you view habits as they relate to goals?

 

Dr. Jaime: I believe habits are the pathway to goals.

 

Hal: I like that, pathway.

 

Dr. Jaime: Okay. So, the goal you say what is the endpoint? For some people, it’s a certain weight or a certain dollar amount or a certain anything. Honestly, really the goal isn’t the thing. It’s who you become in the process and the habits you create along the way, because that goal really shouldn’t be a stopping point. That should just be the next marking point toward the habits. And habits can work in anything. You and I were talking before we started about our other – we have a lot of mutual friends.

 

Hal: Yeah. Everyone loves you, Jamie. By the way, everyone loves you. Everybody like says you’re like the most supportive person. It’s not just that you’re nice and sweet and pleasurable but, sorry, I’m going to go off in a little rant here but you’re like the most supportive person. David Osborn like a good friend, my coauthor, our friend, you came up recently and he’s like, “Jaime is like she goes to bat for everybody for all of her friends.” Anyway, I just want to acknowledge you that everybody can learn from you. We should do another episode like a follow-up kind of road of just how to be a good friend because you are freaking amazing friend. You actively support people at a really high level, and I want to thank you for that and acknowledge you.

 

Dr. Jaime: Thank you for that acknowledgment. That made me feel wonderful. It matters and people ask what’s your superpower and what are my superpower? It’s seeing other people’s superpowers and affirming the good in other people and supporting them. And sometimes even just somebody is down in a funk, a quick reframe, and holding up the mirror so somebody can see themselves in the amazing way that I see them, it matters. So, thank you. I really believe in friendship. I love that.

 

Hal: Yeah. You’re awesome. Okay. Cool.

 

Dr. Jaime: Wait. We’re going to talk about Jon Berghoff.

 

Hal: Oh, yes. That’s funny. Thank you.

 

Dr. Jaime: [Inaudible – 25:36] because we were so excited about all of our friends.

 

Hal: Yeah. Got it. Because I got to text Jon today. So, Jon Berghoff is obviously one of my best friends. He is my business partner. We have the Best Year Ever Blueprint Event that we put on. He has been a co-host in this podcast and he’s doing some freaking groundbreaking as you know better than me because you’ve gone through it all. You’re certified in Jon’s training, but he is doing some incredible work that is changing the future of the planet. I mean, he’s changing the future of society.

 

Dr. Jaime: That is actually not hyperbole.

 

Hal: No, it’s not.

 

Dr. Jaime: This is transformative.

 

Hal: Yeah. So, talk about that. Tell me like how did you get involved with Jon. What are you doing with him? What did you do with him? Yeah. I’d love to hear it.

 

Dr. Jaime: So, kind of an interesting pathway. Of course, all of it started with our mutual incredibly dear friend Joe Polish. Genius Network founder, Joe Polish. So, I was hanging out with him and he introduced me to you and I met David and as you know, he’s one of the elders of the GoBundance Tribe and for many years women have kind of been quietly knocking on the door saying, “Hey, where’s our tribe?” And so, when David and the other elders and Jon Berghoff wanted to start the women’s GoBundance Tribe they sent me off there and this incredibly wonderful, amazing strong group of women and Jon Berghoff was running the event and so in addition to being fully engaged in the people I was working with, I’m looking at him and the way he’s facilitating this is so masterful, it took maybe 10 or 15 minutes into the event and I was like I immediately knew I’m going to do that. 

 

That is the missing piece because I do keynotes, I’ve been teaching, I’m an assistant professor, all those things but this masterful facilitation is so next level. So, now I get to work with entrepreneurs, with individuals, with businesses, with companies and take this work of facilitation of genuinely getting the crowdsource with them in the room and helping elevate people. I mean, this work has been used at the United Nations, Facebook, Cleveland Clinic, some of the biggest places in the world.

 

Hal: BMW. Yeah, you name it. 

 

Dr. Jaime: Yeah. I mean I could namedrop for – talking about all this amazing stuff. And so, the way I use this work is helping people improve their productivity, their engagement, their fulfillment in life through healthy habit creation and maintenance, confidence, and resilience because that’s my jam.

 

Hal: Yeah. Got it. And so, with Jon’s work, it’s teaching people how to facilitate rapid transformation at the group level or tapping into the wisdom of a group and at the organizational level and his work is yet to – what’s LEAF? He just changed the brand to XCHANGE. I don’t know if you can explain the name. 

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes. Well, and I love that because truly when you’re in a room, it used to be this stage on a stage. There’s one person, one magical leader who holds all the wisdom and everyone else should just sit there and absorb it. But now it’s an exchange of ideas because the collective wisdom in the room is so much greater than people even realize and when you can tap into that and then dream together, design a future and co-create, that’s how you change the world.

 

Hal: Yeah. And let me tell you, if you’re listening right now and you’re like, “All right. What was the last two minutes about? I don’t facilitate. I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. I just want to achieve my goals,” like let me just tell you that I’ll tell you here’s what I’ve learned from Jon’s work that is really applied at the individual level and that is that this really is kind of two parts. Number one is whenever I’m having trouble solving a problem is having conversations about the problem with other people. So, if I have a challenge, a problem, an opportunity, if I’m stuck, can’t make a decision. So, if you’re listening to this and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m there,” and I think we‘re all there pretty frequently, just having these conversations like I’ve been working on my brand. Actually, there is a little news that I’m going to drop for the first time for our listeners.

 

Dr. Jaime: Ooh, sneak peek. I love it. 

 

Hal: Yeah. We are changing the name of this podcast and I don’t know exactly when. We’re changing the name, we’re changing the theme, and it’s based on basically the future of my entire brand. It’s called The Miracle Life and it’ll probably be called The Miracle Life Podcast and there’s really four pillars to it and it’s all evolving so this is like a preliminary like kind of letting everybody listening now but there’s four pillars to The Miracle Life. The Miracle Life I’m going to say that would be my next book. We have a Miracle Life mentorship program, a mastermind, a live event, the whole thing around this and the miracle morning, of course, is part of The Miracle Life but it’s only a part of it. I mean, there’s more to it. In my morning routine, I’m ready to take on the day. Now, how do I create the most extraordinary life I could imagine? And the four pillars are love yourself as you are, see yourself as you can be, create the most extraordinary meaningful life you can imagine, and help others do the same. And so, that is kind of the future of my work and the future of the podcast. Well, now there is a reason I was going to mention that.

 

Dr. Jaime: Well, we’re talking about how well this ties in. So, I talk about habits and goalsetting and stuff like that and so the facilitation I do with Jon Berghoff’s group and what you’re doing, all of these things are habits you can create. You add to your daily life, you set these goals, and you live a miracle life.

 

Hal: That is true. Thank you for saving there. I was floundering. But, yeah, so if you’re listening to this, I mean, just realize that, identify in fact I love to kind of tie-up along this and then I’ll ask where people can get in touch. I know you got some cool free stuff that they can get to add value right away but if you are listening to this, realize that whatever your goals are whether the goals you are working towards, goals you haven’t even set yet, goals that you are thinking about that you haven’t set, what Jaime’s expertise is what your expertise needs to become which is habits. If we want to change our life, we have to change our behavior and we have to change our behavior consistently and consistent behavior is what is known as a habit and if you have healthy habits, those will produce a healthy life. If you have a habit of spending more money than you make, you will be a financial ruin. Now, the habit of saving more money than you spend, you will be financially successful. If you have a habit of doing your Miracle Morning every day, learning, growing, improving yourself, well, you will become a better version of yourself. If you have a habit of putting the snooze button 10 times and are rushing up to work, you’ve missed a huge opportunity to become the person that you need to be to create everything you want for your life. 

 

So, I would encourage everybody to schedule some time, do it now if you have 10 minutes. It doesn’t need to be a lot of time. Half an hour is probably ideal, a little bit more time, but pull out your journal, digital or physical, and identify what are the habits right now. I would start with what are the habits right now that you’re doing that are good, that are positive. It’s always good to put yourself in a frame of empowerment, tap into your strengths. In fact, that’s the basis of Jon’s work that you’re doing, right?

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes. 

 

Hal: By looking at what you are already doing well so you can do more of that and putting knowledge to yourself. You can feel like, “Hey, I’ve proven that I have the ability to do some good habits,” or you’re spending time with your kids every day like that’s a great habit. Are you drinking water already? Are you eating right? Are you exercising? What are the habits you already had in place? Start there. Look at your strengths and put those on paper. Do it in writing. Don’t just think about it. You just need to see it and then I would really look at what are the habits that I’m doing that may be detrimental. Before I had cancer, I was taking Adderall and I know I’m not a doctor, I’m not going to give medical advice but when I look at I’m like maybe that’s very close to methamphetamine like maybe that’s not a good habit and I cut that out. And so, it’s look at what are the habits in your life that are non-productive, that are counter-productive, that are maybe if you stay on those, the traps with those habits, that might cause you major pain in the future. 

 

So, look at the habits that you need to change and then look at your goals and go, “Okay. What are my goals and then look at what are the habits that will get me to the goals?” Because the beauty of it is as Jaime has eloquently shared in this episode and talks about in her book, Habit That!, if you line up your habits and you have habits that are the habits that will eventually meet your goals, now your success is inevitable. Now, the only variable is timing and maybe have a goal doing it in six months, but it takes you two years, whatever. You’re eventually going to get there if you get your habits in place but don’t put the cart before the horse being the goal before the habit. The habits got to come first, and the habits are what lead to the goals. So, Jamie, did I say that okay? Anything to add to that? You’re the expert, not me.

 

Dr. Jaime: No. I was going to say you’re officially hired to the Habit That! team. That was perfect.

 

[CLOSING]

 

Hal: Awesome. Well, I appreciate it. Cool. So, what’s the best way to get in touch with you? And I know you got some free stuff that they can get a sneak peek in the book and there are some other stuff you’re mentioning before we started talking.

 

Dr. Jaime: Yes. So, my website is DrHopeHealth.com. That’s also my Twitter handle. And so, on my website you can get the Smarter Goals Worksheet, you can get the 12 Reasons Exercise I talked about in the book, and you can get a free sneak peek of the book itself.

 

Hal: All three of those resources are great. The first two I love that because I know for me when I listen to the podcast, I become so visual. I’m like is there anything I can download like I need something, I need to see something, fill something out, write something. So…

 

Dr. Jaime: You literally can download it right off the website and start using it today.

 

Hal: That is killing it and I’m actually on Twitter right now because I don’t want to follow you. I’m embarrassed to say that but hold on.

 

Dr. Jaime: All you’re a terrible friend. No, I’m kidding. A lot of my Twitter is also emergency medicine stuff so it’s kind of a very interesting split where it’s the healthy habit and resilient stuff and then because I’m also an ER doc so some of it nerdy ER stuff so you can kind of select which tweet to look at. And then I have a Facebook group. It’s smaller but it’s really designed to kind of crowd. I’m not the Guru of the site. It’s how can we support each other in our imperfectly perfect journey toward healthier habits. And so, you just search for The HabitThat Tribe.

 

Hal: The HabitThat Tribe based on your book, Habit That! Awesome. Jamie, well I love you. I’m so grateful that we got to chat today. It’s really valuable for me and I’m sure our listeners too.

 

Dr. Jaime: Hal, thank you so much for having me. I can’t wait to hang out again soon.

 

Hal: I know. I will see you hopefully at the FamBundance in the next couple of weeks and until then, goal achievers, thanks for tuning in another episode of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. As you already know, you are a loyal listener, I love you, I appreciate you, and thank you so much for your time and energy and attention. Hope you got as much value out of talking with Jaime today as I did, and I will talk to you next week. Take care! 

[END]