72. The Power of Habits: Back To School Series For School Counselors

Episode Summary:

This episode kicks off a special series dedicated to sharing valuable lessons and advice to help school counselors have their best year ever. Drawing inspiration from James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, Carol discusses the profound impact of habits on personal identity and professional effectiveness. She shares practical strategies for habit formation, such as habit stacking and the two-minute rule, and emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in developing habits that support wellness and work-life balance.

Key Points:

  • Introduction to the Atomic Habits book by James Clear.
  • The concept of habits reflecting identity.
  • Practical examples of habit formation in personal and professional life.
  • Strategies like habit stacking and the two-minute rule.
  • Importance of self-awareness in habit development.

Actionable Tips:

  • Identify and reflect on your current habits.
  • Use habit stacking to create new routines.
  • Implement the two-minute rule to gradually build new habits.
  • Foster habits that support your wellness and work-life balance.

Resources Mentioned:

Atomic Habits by James Clear

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Transcript

Carol: You're listening to the counselor chat podcast, a show for school counselors looking for easy to implement strategies, how to tips, collaboration, and a little spark of joy. I'm Carol Miller, your host. I'm a full time school counselor and the face behind counseling essentials. I'm all about creating simplified systems, data driven practices, and using creative approaches to engage students. If you're looking for a little inspiration to help you make a big impact on student growth and success, you're in the right place, because we're better together. Ready to chat? Let's dive in.

Carol: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Counselor Chat. It's Carol here, and I thought as we are headed back into the school year, I wanted to do something a little bit different. I wanted to have a little series just sharing some of the advice, the lessons that I've learned in my three decades plus of school counseling. And I wanted to share that with you because I want you guys to really have the best school year ever. And so, as I was thinking, okay, what do I want to share with people today? I really look back to a book that I read. It was actually a few years ago, but it's one that has had a, I think, a pretty tremendous impact on what I do. I actually read it because I was like, oh. It was recommended to me by small business owners as a good way to really help grow a small business, but really, it's a game changer in just your personal, your personal growth as well. And the book is called Atomic Habits. It's by James Clear, and I think it came out in 2018. It's pretty recent. It has been a couple years since it was first released. In Atomic habits, the book really discusses how our habits are not just actions that we take, but they really are a reflection of our identity. And as I've been watching the Olympics, I really have come to realize that our athletes really have identified themselves as, well athletes, of course. And they have all the habits and they developed all the habits that have really made them an athlete. I think if we think about our own habits and who we are, the who we are is really defined by the little things that we do each day. So if we think of ourselves as a person who shows up on time for things, it's because we have put into place those habits to make sure that we get to places on time, if not early. Sometimes I don't have a good. I'm an on time person. I'm kind of a. We're rolling into the parking lot at work just as the bell is about to ring. And that has kind of become my identity there, that I'm like one of the last persons to roll into the parking lot. But if I want to change that identity, I really need to change some of my habits. There's, I think, a lot of little, small, incremental changes that we can do to help us form new habits. And I wanted to start off by talking about this because our habits really do form our identity. They really shape our values, they shape our goals. And when we shape our daily actions, we really contribute to the perceptions that others have about us in our school community. So it's really important, I think, for us as counselors to really shape our habits and to mold those into ones that help us form the identity that we want to be or we want to have. One habit that I have really made over the years is to not open my email when it's not a work day or not work time. And people have come to realize that I don't open my email when I'm not at work. And so it has really decreased my stress level and I'm not continuously checking. And my boss knows that if he really needs to communicate something to me, he will try to get a hold of me in a different manner. He's one of the few people, there's only two people at work that have my phone number. He is one of them, and my co counselor is the other. And so usually what he does, if he really needs to get ahold of me, is he calls Ashley and Ashley texts me, or Ashley will say, hey, did you see that email? You need to open it up today. So those are the things that I know that I do, but it really creates a sense of wellness on my part. And I think as counselors, one of the things that we want to do is we want to really foster a sense of wellness. And so those little habits that we get into really are helpful. Another thing that I do is I only check my email at certain times of the day rather than keep it up all day, because it was really a distraction. And I learned that when I checked my email over and over constantly throughout the day, I wasn't getting, I wasn't fully focusing on maybe other tasks that I had in front of me, whether it was writing a lesson plan or answering or filling out some data forms or even looking at data. I was getting too distracted by saying, what do people need from me? That I wasn't really preparing the things that people needed from me. So I had to kind of switch things a little bit you know, in the book atomic habits, some of the other things that really help or that James has talked about that really help us to build and stick to habits are things like habit stacking. That's where we combine our habits to create routines by, if we want a new habit that we attach it to, one that we're already really good at. So I do this in my, well, I have done this in my own personal life. I really am trying to be a little bit more focused on my physical wellness this year. I haven't been very good at it. I used to ironically consider myself a very athletic person. When I was in college, I played sports, and after college I played sports, and I've really considered myself to be an athlete. And as I've had children and I've lost, and I don't do any sporting events myself, I don't participate myself, I become more of a watcher. Well, I've gained some weight. I gained a lot of weight. I'm not really cooking as healthy as I used to, and so I've lost that identity. But as I have wanted to really increase my physical wellness, one thing that I do faithfully already, that is a habit, is I brush my teeth every morning and every night. So I thought about that habit stacking. I haven't been very good at doing any type of exercising. And so now I try to do like wall push ups or something that I can, I can do really quickly, and I attach it to my brushing of my teeth. It could be just walking in my home for 15 minutes or like I said, wall exercises just to try to improve my physical fitness. And I found that because I have attached it to brushing my teeth. So I brush my teeth and then immediately I go and I do that. It's become a habit that I now do. And I think when we are at work, if we are looking at work habits, we can also habit stack. So if we are saying, oh, I know it's the end of the day and I turn my computer off faithfully every day before I go home, attach something to that. Turning off the computer, maybe it's just before. So just before I'm going to make sure that I have, I wrote my to do list and now maybe I put it on a post it note and I have it attached to my computer, and now I'm turning off my computer. But habit stacking can be a really great way of combining habits to create routines and a two minute rule. James talks about having a two minute rule. Just take two minutes to do something. And if you do that and you do it consistently, it becomes easier, and then you can gradually extend the amount of time on it. I use the two minute rule at school. I take two minutes to quickly look around in the morning to decide what do I really need to focus on, on for the day, what are the things that are the heavy hitters that I absolutely have to do and do I want to change anything that I put in my to do list? Because sometimes as I'm sleeping, I think I had another thought, and this is what I want to do. But a two minute rule is a really, it's another great way to follow a habit consistently. But you also need to, I think, as you're developing your habits and your identity of how you want others to perceive you is to really have a self awareness of understanding what your habits already are. What triggers can kind of derail you from following a habit. And maybe some of the reasons behind the habits that you already have, why are they so important to you? What makes them something that you want to actually do? And you have to, I think, look at your work life and decide, how do I create this balance? And how do I create these habits that will really will fulfill me, sustain me and keep me sane? Because we all know that sometimes, as a school counselor, life is not, life is not sane. So think about all the habits that you have, the habits that you want to improve, the habits that maybe aren't good habits to even start with. And think about what do you need to do to change them? Because like I said earlier, habits really, they show our identity. We identify ourselves based on the habits that we have. So if you have goals of being healthier, try to form habits where you are doing healthier things. If you want to have a habit of having a better work life balance, create habits that are going to help you have a better work life balance. If you want to have habits of really using the data to drive your program, develop habits of collecting, identifying and using the data habits. Those are what keeps us going and what moves us forward. They can also be what holds us back. So, my friends, as we head into the new year, I really want you to think about your habits and think about the things that you love that have to go and that you need to add to next time. We're going to talk about another little tidbit that I have that I hope is helpful in helping you to have a really great year. But until next time, have a great week. Check out the book atomic habits and I'll actually drop a link to it. In the show notes and check out what habits you have. All right, until next time. Bye bye.

Carol: Thanks for listening to today's episode of Counselor Chat. All of the links I talked about can be found in the show notes and@counselingessentials.org podcast be sure to hit, follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast player. And if you would be so kind to leave a review, I'd really appreciate it. Want to connect? Send me a DM on Facebook or Instagram at counseling essentials until next time. Can't wait till we chat. Bye for now.