Shawn: And we’re back. Welcome everyone to BioTrust Radio. Hopefully you’re loving the content that we’re providing you, you like the community that we’re creating, and you like listening to us. Me, being Shawn Wells, and Tim Skwiat, my amazing partner in crime here. And we’ve been talking about one of our most popular episodes, it was the 11?Tim: 11 Ways to a Better You.

Shawn: 11 Ways to a Better You, and it really is a good episode packed with powerful habits. I listened to it earlier and it was amazing, and I’m not surprised we got so much good feedback on it. So, we decided to go through some of these lists, some other lists of powerful habits we found on the internet. We collated, we curated. We curated—that’s the word—and we found just a few that were amazing. We have this one here that we’re going to go through and it’s How to Become a Better You With These Powerful Daily Habits. There’s 12 powerful habits, and this is by Mindvalley, which, if you know this company, the CEO is Vishen Lakhiani, who is the author of The Code of the Extraordinary Mind. There’s an amazing app, where it goes through just mindset, meditation, and there’s a lot of different guides on the Mindvalley app that take you through the various journeys to making a better you, self-discovery, etc. So, these actually obviously fit well with that approach. There’s a quote here that’s good that we’ll have to set the tone. “Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” That’s Ralph Waldo Emerson.So getting into it how to become a better you with these powerful habits, #1: “The Art of Silence.” Wow, let me think on this one because if you’re someone that always has to have the TV on in the background, always has to have the radio on, always has to have people talking, has to be at the mall, has to have distractions, has to be talking, has to look at your phone. If you’re just someone who’s ceaselessly looking to be distracted, then you’re someone who’s not discovering. You’re someone who’s not discovering what’s going on with you, what’s going on with the world around you. You’re someone that is there, but not there. You’re not really present.

And the art of silence is one of those essential powerful habits to get into that parasympathetic realm, to get into that theta state of your brainwaves, to like take it down a notch, to get introspective, to meditate, to have a better, healthier mind. Otherwise, you’re just kind of in a constant sympathetic state where you’re just amped up and you just need constant distraction and noise, and that’s just not healthy.

Tim: I agree with that, Shawn. Both my wife and I are really keen on that quiet time and the silence, and we’re okay with sitting in the same room and being silent together, at times. It’s funny because we know quite a few people who aren’t comfortable with that silence, and we intentionally will put ourselves in situations where we create that uncomfortable silence. And I don’t mean that like in a bad way or to be funny or anything like that, but there’s tremendous value in that silence. And being in the same room as another person and being okay with the silence, I think we’re talking here about just letting the mind relax a little bit and things like that.

But another thing that this reminded me of was just unplugging, as well. I think a lot of times if you’re not in conversation with someone or in the same room, like you said, you have to have the TV on, you have to be scrolling through your Facebook feed. Like you don’t ever slow down. You’re constantly looking for that dopamine rush or something like that. So, unplug, even if it’s not for a full day. Maybe it’s just for a few hours of a day.

Shawn: Yeah.

Tim: Just unplug from your phone, your computer. But this is particularly true if you have a family. I’m not saying you have to be silent during that time. I’m saying maybe that’s the right time to spend with your family, with your kids, with your loved ones, and things like that.

Shawn: Yeah, that makes me think of a Dr. Andy Galpin, who’s popular right now, with this book, Unplugged. And that message.

Tim: Oh, yeah.

Shawn: #2 on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Exercise.” And this one’s near and dear to our hearts, and I think you have probably plenty to say on this front, being that our host, Tim Skwiat, is a personal trainer for many years and a strength and conditioning coach, and has a background in exercise physiology, is a sport nutritionist. He’s just brilliant when it comes to kinesiology exercise, physiology, anatomy, etc. So, what are your thoughts on that, Tim?

Tim: I mean, the benefits of regular exercise cannot be overstated. Just simply put, mind/body/spirit, every aspect of overall health and exercise is going to positively influence, when it’s done properly and in healthy amounts. Under-exercise is obviously, a sedentary lifestyle, obviously is not healthy, but over-exercise can be just as devastating to your health. So, how much is the right dose? That’s not the point of what we’re talking about here. It’s just to make exercise part of your daily ritual or your weekly routine.

I think a big thing is that if you’re not currently exercising, find something that you enjoy doing, and maybe find someone that you enjoy doing it with. The biggest thing is just starting to commit time to it, if you’re new to exercise, and just starting to set aside that time and then you can gradually increase that amount of time.

Shawn: Start moving your body.

Tim: Just moving your body, in general.

Shawn: There’s more robust ways of attacking this: high-intensity interval training, blood flow restriction. We talk about all that kind of stuff, but at the very least, just move your body and you’ll just feel better.

Tim: Exactly.

Shawn: Because it was meant to move.

Tim: Move your body. And preferably, the more variety you can do, the better. So, even if you exercise five times a week. If you could do five different things. If your goal is just to be healthier and have a healthier body, then that would that would be ideal.

Shawn: The variety leads to a healthier mind in the process, I think.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Yeah. And it’s something that if you add variety, you’ll stick to long-term, which is critical in that equation.

So, number three on the list of powerful habits is, “The Art of Seeing the Future.” This is really cool. So, this isn’t talking about being a psychic, but visualization, and we’ve talked about this before. This is like the power of positive thinking. And very successful people, success doesn’t just happen to them. They do some things very intentionally. They visualize things, they’re delusional. Quite often they’ll refer to themselves as being delusional. I mean, I’ve heard it said that if no one thinks you’re crazy, then you’re probably not going to be a noteworthy entrepreneur.

That would apply to someone who’s a musician, an athlete, someone who’s chasing their dream. Someone has view you is somewhat crazy, because you’re just going after it with reckless abandon. Why? Because you don’t just see where you will be today, tomorrow, a week from now, a month from now. You see where you’re going to be when you’re dominating whatever it is you’re doing. Maybe you won’t get there.

You know, I always respected the people, there’s athletes that say, “Yeah, I can beat Michael Jordan.” Most people are like, “He ain’t going to beat Michael Jordan. What are you talking about?” But, the only guy who’s going to beat Michael Jordan is a guy that believes he can beat Michael Jordan.

Tim: Absolutely.

Shawn: So, that’s where it starts, is the belief. So, visualization is key. Where do you see yourself? And you have to see it to believe it, and you have to believe it to achieve it. So, I mean, that’s where it all starts. You need to visualize it.

Tim: Bob Proctor is really well-known for his talk about visualization and the power of the mind. The mind is such a powerful tool.

Shawn: It can have a placebo effect.

Tim: Exactly. And it can be such a double-edged sword though, because we talked about negativity before and how that can bring you down. But the mind is such a powerful tool, and underutilized tool. Bob Proctor talks about visualization, and when you have this this deep etched vision of yourself or where you want to be, in your mind’s eye, then what happens is really cool. What happens is that every thought, behavior, action, everything follows in-line with that vision, because that becomes your priority.

Shawn: Right. Some people say, “Oh, you’re manifesting it. The universe is serving it up to you.” Is it that? And I’m not discarding that. Or is it what you’re saying, where you’re just so solely focused, so clear on your objective, that everything that comes into your path seems to be fulfilling that because you’re like the relentless optimist. No matter what it is, you’re like, “Well, that just made me stronger. Well that’s something that I needed.”

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: If it’s something positive, you’re like, “Cool! That’s what I needed. That’s helping me towards my goal.” If it’s something that’s “bad,” or something that’s challenging, you’re like, “You know what? I needed that. That made me stronger.”

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: So it doesn’t matter what happens because everything’s leading you on your path. Everything you’re manifesting it, because you’re seeing it

Tim: Exactly. One final thought on the visualization thing, another thing that might people might find effective is creating a vision board. So, that’s where you actually draw cut out pictures of things that you aspire to have or do, or be. And you have them in front of you, so you’re looking at those things every day as a visual reminder of what you strive for. What does this mean to you? What is the purpose of your day?

I know my wife had a vision board and she had like the car, pictures of like an ideal family that she wanted, and she’s checking things off her list. And I’m not saying it’s just about things, but I’m just giving examples. Having this vision, it needs to be very clearly etched in your mind’s eye. You need to believe it, and you see it, believe it, and become it.

Shawn: Right. No, I love that, Tim. That’s literally one of the most profound things on here. I think that one is critical to you becoming something great.

Number 4 on the list of powerful habits is pretty special, along the same lines. “The Art of Affirmations.” We believe in this, the power of positive thinking, but vocalizing it to yourself is one of the most powerful habits. So, you’re saying these things, and the words you say or what you become. We’ve talked about this, that if you say, “Gosh, I’m stupid. Gosh, I’m fat. Why should I bother? I’m going to fail,” or “I’ll never find a good guys. I’m just bound to date losers.” Well, that’s the power of your words. But the power of your words in a positive way, that you say back to you. Certainly you need to put good people around you that are saying positive things to you, but you need to be one of those people.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Be your advocate. It starts with you. That love that you want to receive, starts with you. You want love, then start giving love out and in. So be that person that loves yourself and start saying things to yourself that are kind. Start saying the things of where you want to be, and vocalizing those. And now you’re hearing it in your ear, so you’re your advocate. You say like, “I believe that today is the day that I will really truly change someone’s life,” you mentioned that. That’s a profound challenge.

But I would say that it’s kind of unique. I mean, if you if you go with your gut and just whatever is on your heart that day, then give yourself some affirmations, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly your life can change by what you’re saying to yourself. So. I love this one.

Tim: Yeah, agreed. And just like we’ve talked about before, too, Shawn, I know this is about becoming a better you, but I think offering those positive affirmations to others is important as well. Again, being specific and genuine with that type of feedback means even more. And spontaneity of those positive affirmations, kind of coming out of the blue and not saying something generic all the time, I think having even greater impact. So, just be mindful of how your words can impact others.

Shawn: Sounds great, Tim.

Tim: So, the number five on the list of powerful habits, “The Art of Blessings and Counting Them.” We talked about this once before. I can’t remember his name, but this guy on Tim Ferriss that he lived biblically for a year and he wrote a book on it. The one thing that he said that was kind of the most profound lesson that he took away from it is all the things—it was about ceaselessly thanking the Lord. And he wasn’t Christian, actually, but he was living biblically. Some of it was like having a beard and dressing a certain way, and all these things that are in like the Old Testament.

But one of them was being like ceaselessly thanking the Lord for all the things that are going right in your life. And he said it was amazing when he focused in on it, that we usually talk about the one or two things that go wrong that day, but there’s hundreds of things that go right every day; that elevator works, that your car turns on, that you have food on the table, that you have people that love you, that your pen works. I mean, there’s so many things that go right and we take it all for granted.

And we’re blessed. We are blessed. I promise you, if you’re listening to this podcast right now, you are blessed. I’m not saying your life’s perfect, but you are blessed. You’re not someone who is homeless, who is illiterate, who is living in a war-torn area, who’s in sex slavery right now. You’re not in some of these dire situations like other people in the world. If you’re listening to this podcast, you are better off than the majority of the planet. So, there’s a lot to be thankful for. You may compare yourself to these couple people that you fixate on, but maybe you should start fixating on the people, the majority, you’ll have a much better life then.

Tim: Agreed, Shawn. You’ve said it this way before, too. A lot of people tend to say, “Oh, here we go again. Murphy’s Law. Everything’s going bad.” Well, think about it the other way, like, “Wow, here we go again. This is awesome. Look how many of these things are going right for me. Oh, I have to get the grocery store? Oh, I can actually drive my car to the grocery store and I have the ability to get food to provide for my family. Oh, I have the ability to do this. I have this roof over my head. I have these clothes on my back.” Like you said, there’s so many things that we take for granted.

And there’s so many things that go right each day and yet we fixate on the negatives, most of the time. So, take time to write down the things you’re grateful for like. You’re doing a gratitude journal right now. It’s an awesome idea. Just spend time. Three things, right now, write them down, or say him out loud. Even better. What are the things that you’re grateful for?

Shawn: I’m grateful for—I know you were asking this kind of more figuratively—but I’m grateful for you being my partner here on the show. I think it’s a blessing to have you. You make this show a better show. I love our chemistry. You’re a great person. I learned from you. I’m grateful for the listeners because I’ve heard them vocalize the impact this has on them, and I love having a vehicle to impact people.

Tim: Absolutely.

Shawn: Because I feel like this is my life’s mission. I feel like this is why I was put on the planet is to change lives and make people discover their joy, be it through health, fitness, exercise, mental health, whatever. I just want to touch lives. And I think lastly, I should say that I’m thankful to BioTrust for the job that I have and for funding this idea. Because it is what I always wanted to do and I think it’s the thing, even though we make incredible supplements and I’m the world’s greatest formulator, and we have a great team and all these things, the thing I’m most proud of with this job is the podcasts.

Tim: That’s awesome.

Shawn: So, there’s my three.

Tim: I’m glad. That’s perfect because I wanted everyone to take time to do that and to think through it and say it out loud or write it down because there’s so many great things.

Shawn:  Yeah, we are blessed. And hopefully you guys are feeling that you’re blessed as well. Number 6 on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Giving.” And man, this is a really good list of powerful habits. Some people say it’s a selfish thing, because when you give you actually like get so much in return, and you only know that once you become good at giving. Whatever it is, giving is extremely rewarding. You want your relationships to be profound, put everyone else, put there their needs—I won’t say first above yours—in a priority position, and think about those. Be mindful of those.

Don’t just think about yourself and what people can do for you. Think, “What can I do for this person to make their day better?” and then you’ll find that their relationship to you is much more profound. They want to be around you because you make them feel better. They want to be around you because you’re sincere, you listen to them. That’s a deeper relationship versus, “What can you do for me?” that’s more superficial. People sense that, right? I mean you sense those relationships. You know there’s those relationships around you. But the people that you really gravitate for, the people that you’re I don’t know some “ride or die” came to mind. It’s kind of an odd term, but the people that you go to war for. You got their back. Those are the people that recognize that you give things to them, that you think of them. And those are people that will give to you, and it’s a symbiotic relationship. And giving begets more giving.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: And it’s such a wonderful thing, if you think about that. And hoarding begets more hoarding. You can set that ball in motion. You can change a whole room. You can change a whole company. You can change a whole world. The whole “pay it forward” thing. I don’t know if you remember that movie, but that’s an amazing concept that what you put out there, almost karmically, what you put out there comes back to you.

Tim: Yeah. I love that you took it that direction, Shawn, because I think when most people here “giving,” automatically their mind goes to donating money, which is important. It’s necessary, giving to charity. That’s one of the things that I take enormous pride in is part of being BioTrust is that thanks to our customers and our listeners, we’re able to give back on a scale greater than I would ever be able to, to Make-A-Wish.

Shawn: Right.

Tim: Over 1.6 million dollars, 185 wishes, almost 3 million meals to hungry children through No Kid Hungry.

Shawn: Pencils of Promise.

Tim: Two schools do Pencils of Promise, water for an entire village through Water.org. All these amazing giving things. But I love that you talked about giving, like you’ve mentioned this before, being giving of your time and how time is like one of the most valuable resources that we can offer people. Whether it’s a co-worker, offering them our mentorship time, or whether it’s volunteering our time for a church or for a local organization. But to summarize, what I took away from what you just was something that I like to refer to as “servant-leadership.” To operate with this mindset of how can I better serve others? And I don’t mean that like as a slave or anything like that, but how can I be a better servant and lead by example.

Shawn: That’s literally like Lewis’ mantra, Lewis Howes.

Tim: Oh, really?

Shawn: So, if someone really identifies, resonates with what Tim just said, go seek out Lewis Howes, go listen to his podcast, School of Greatness, and go read his books. That’s literally the type of person he is. Which I like to have people like that around me and follow and set a bar for me.

So, number 7 on the list of powerful habits, “The Art of Insight.” So, that’s interesting. Well, we’re actually like I was talking about in Myers-Briggs test, I am a teacher, an INTJ. And one of the things that I have, along with empathy, is insight. And I really think is part of listening skills and observant skills, I have insight. Some people call it intuition. But really, intuition just means that you’re observing.

It’s kind of goes back to the silence thing and some of these other skills that we talked about. When you’re distracted, you’re not observing, you’re not being insightful. So, you’re missing out on the mystery, the beauty of the world that can be there when you’re tapping into some of the less superficial aspects of the world, and tapping into the more deep aspects of the world or the people around you. That when you have that insight, it also makes your life more profound. You’re more cerebral, you are more educated, you make better decisions because you’ve had insight. Because you’re looking at it on a deeper level.

Tim: Yeah, and I think something that this makes me think about is being intuitive to your own body, right? And just listen, being insightful to how your body’s responding. Again, like we’ve talked about too, your behaviors. Are you treating your body properly? How is your body responding to the food that you’re putting into it, to your lifestyle choices, to the people that you’re around, to your exercise? Is something hurt? Do you feel lethargic? Do you feel great? What are the things that are making you feel great? So being insightful because the environment around you and the behaviors that you choose, those are all telling your genes to do certain things, so it’s all information for your body. And so how is that information being carried out in your body? Listen to it. Again, like we’ve talked up before, be insightful and listen to how you’re talking to and about yourself, and to others. You talked about like intuitiveness.

Also, another thing that came to mind for me was emotional intelligence, emotional IQ. Be aware of your own emotions and how they’re impacting others, and how they’re being impacted by the things around you. But also be in-tune with the emotions of others around you. And if you sense that someone, if you have the insight that someone around you needs you to reach out to them to ask them how that how they’re doing, which you have an uncanny ability to do because you can pick up on that by observing people. Like say, “That’s not a normal behavior,” or “I haven’t reached out to him in a while. I need a touch base with him to see how he’s doing. Just to touch base. Just to check in.” And those things make a difference. So, be insightful to others’ needs as well.

Shawn: Yeah, your superpower, Tim, is really building people up and making them feel good about themselves. But you’re very good at insight and observance, to build the people up, to tell them some of their skills, their abilities that they have, that quite often don’t get pointed out. I think that’s really a special ability that you have.

Tim: Thank you.

Shawn: Yeah, so number eight on the list of powerful habits, “The Art of Growing Your Mind.” We’re big fans of this one.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: Hopefully, if you’re listening the podcasts, we know that this is you, right? You’re growing your mind. The fact that you’re listening to a podcast right now instead of like shrinking your mind with Michael Bay movies, watching Transformers or something. Or like just literally numbing your brain, and you’re choosing to better yourself. The fact that you’re here, you’re listening; whether right now you’re on the treadmill, you’re in the car, you’re just laying down in bed, or wherever you’re listening to us, you’re growing your mind. And I think that this already resonates with you.

If you’re someone who likes to read, to listen to audiobooks, to podcasts, to go to the zoo, the aquarium, the arboretum, you just want to challenge yourself and learn more and find out things. I will say, almost everything is a vehicle to learn if you let it be. You can interact with certain people that either you’re not learning from these people or there are certain people that are dying to teach you things.

And TV, people say, “Oh, TV’s bad.” There’s incredible stuff that’s on TV to learn from. People say, “Oh, Netflix. That’s just where cartoons are or this is this show or that show.” There’s amazing documentaries on Netflix. I watch nature ones and the Magic Pill and all the stuff that’s on Netflix that you can learn from

Tim: Right.

Shawn: The World Wide Web. It’s a place where there’s stupid memes and internet porn and all kinds of things that aren’t necessarily healthy for you, that fill it up. There’s also Wikipedia, there’s also National Geographic, and Google Maps, and all these things that you can just really find out all this neat stuff. YouTube, same thing.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: You know, there’s one-minute physics lessons on YouTube, and all this cool stuff that’s there. There’s a world of information, if you let it be. And it’s all right at your fingertips, for free. We live in an incredible world, where there’s so much knowledge for free. And I would challenge you, like I was saying, I used to work at a nursing home and there’s all these people that are just kind of—I don’t use the term “rotting away”—but it’s just frustrating to see people that aren’t cared for, that no one wants to interact with. And meanwhile, they have a lifetime of knowledge that’s sitting in them that no one cares to get anything from. People should be lining up.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Like, “Hey, what can I learn from you, man. You have 60 years of marriage. You have 60 years of working. You have 60 years of history that you’ve seen. Tell me about that because I want to I want to understand. I want to live a better life now.”

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: “You’ve already lived it. You’ve made mistakes and you’ve had triumphs. Let me know about both those. The things you crushed it on and the things that you messed up, and let me learn from you.”

Tim: Yeah, that’s profound, man. You know why? Because that actually breathes life into those types of folks, right? That are a little bit older, like “Wow, this person actually has interest in my life.”

Shawn: Yeah.

Tim: They may be at a point where that’s really impactful. I know with Amie—Amie’s my wife—has all four grandparents still, and I’m constantly asking them questions about what their life used to look like. For instance, her grandmother on one side grew up and raised chickens, and they made all their own food. And then her grandfather on the other side grew up on a farm and was a farmer. And I’m constantly asking them questions. And you can just see five years of life tacked back on to them after this discussion. They’re just so invigorated by the discussion.

Shawn: You’re taking them back to that time.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: You’re literally rewinding the clock and saying like, “Hey would you mind taking your brain back to that place where you were like doing thing?” Yeah, that is rewinding the clock, quite literally.

Tim: And someone cares, right? They want to learn. And my challenge to the listener, as you do this growing your mind practice and you start to focus on reading books, watch TED Talks and what have you, is when you immerse yourself into the new content, it’s not just a quantity journey. It’s about quality. So, as you immerse yourself into this new content, think about answering the question, “What am I going to learn from this?” Or if someone was going to ask me the question, “Okay, what did you get out of that book or what did you get out of watching that video?” be prepared to answer that. Be prepared to summarize it.

Shawn: Can I take that one step further day say, what are you going to do with your life as a result of that information?

Tim:  Absolutely.

Shawn: How are you going to apply that information?

Tim: Exactly. Like you’re being quizzed on it or something like that.

Shawn: Yeah.

Tim: Or how can you practically apply it? I love it.

Shawn: Yeah, exactly. Number 9 on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Presence.” Man, is this one just massive. You know, 50 years ago this wouldn’t have even been a thing. Mindfulness, presence, be here now, and all this stuff. There’s so many movements around this. Why? Because we’re super distracted. We’re multitasking, and we’ve talked about how that’s a complete myth.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Scientifically, it doesn’t exist. That we are never present. We’re out. And you’ve seen probably some videos or you’ve seen it firsthand in real life, where all these people are in the same room but they’re all looking at their phones. They’re all sharing the same space and they should all be talking to each other, but they’re actually talking to other people that aren’t in that room.

Tim: It’s crazy.

Shawn: And you’re squandering real human interaction. Again, these devices are what we make them. They can be wonderful things, just like the TV, just like all the other things I was talking about before. But, we do need to be mindful, we do need to be present, and we do need to embrace nature, we do need to embrace the moment, we do need to embrace the people that are around us, and give them all the respect they’re due. Give nature the respect it’s due, the beauty it has, the animals that are so majestic and fascinating. And there’s just so much that’s right there, right in front of. You don’t have to always go to YouTube and Netflix and all these other things. There’s so much. There’s people that are right in front of your face. There’s nature that’s right in front of your face. What are you doing? It’s right there, so be present in the moment.

Tim: That’s awesome, Shawn. I would say that if you have trouble with your weight, then being mindful about your eating habits is probably one of the most powerful habits you could focus on.

Shawn: Wow.

Tim: To eat mindfully and slowly. Those two things kind of go hand-in-hand. But what I mean by that is to really think about the food choice that you’re about to make. First of all, are you even hungry, if you’re choosing to eat? And are you just eating while you’re on your phone, doing all that other stuff or on your computer. Be present with your meal, be present with your food. Smell it, chew it.

Shawn: Enjoy it.

Tim: Enjoy it and eat slowly. And then tune in to your actual cues of satisfaction. Don’t just eat until it’s gone. If you’re if you’re satisfied after half of what you have on your plate’s gone, stop eating. But just that act of being mindful and actually tuning in to your body’s hunger and satiety cues, and taking in the entire meal, preferably with other people. It might even be something new for a lot of people. But with no other distractions in front of you and just being fully present at the meal and while you’re eating, could be a tremendous step for a lot of people if they’re struggling with their weight.

Shawn: That’s good stuff. Wow, this has been a really good list of powerful habits. And number 10 on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Priorities.” So, this one can really reshape your efficiency in life. I think kind of going hand-in-hand with degree of distraction, we can be extremely busy but not very effective. And if you think about push notifications and dings and beeps, and all day long there’s something bing-dong. There’s something. There’s something on Facebook, something on Instagram, something from Outlook, something from Gmail, a text message, or whatever.

All day long you’re getting something. Some notification that’s distracting your attention that you think needs that urgent attention because you want to complete it and clear it. But what we need to do is prioritize and batch. And we need to acknowledge what is truly important and what is not, and we need to focus on what is truly important and prioritize those things.

Tim: Shawn, you said “batch.” Can you expand on that just a little bit for people who maybe aren’t familiar with what that term means?

Shawn: Yeah, and I think you have some knowledge on this front, too. I happened to think of Tim Ferriss, The 4-hour Workweek, that he talks about trying to have your day revolve around, instead of having all these different items kind of intermixed all day long, he likes to batch when he does his emails.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Twice a day he’ll check his emails. And then he’ll batch all of his phone calls into a two or three or four-hour block where he’s walking and he’s knocking out all his phone calls, together, like in a row. And the more you can batch, the more efficient it is. I think of contract manufacturing, right?

Tim: Right.

Shawn: Some of these processes by which we make supplements. If we were like making one supplement at a time, that would be really stupid, right?

Tim: Right.

Shawn: What we need to do is batch those processes if we’re making 10,000 bottles of BioTrust Low Carb Protein, then we need to do each step one-at-a-time for those 10,000 bottles.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: Instead of doing one bottle at a time, 10,000 times.

Tim: Yeah, exactly. The reason I wanted to kind of clarify that a little bit too is because you gave a really good example early on where we’re constantly getting dinged and basically this multitasking idea. Batching is basically this idea of unit tasking, single tasking. You’re really just focusing on that one task at a time. And a great book on powerful habits is called The Power of Less by Leo Babauta, which I think we’ve mentioned on the show before. A great book, easy read. It’s one of its one of my favorite books. Definitely one that I’ve given to other people. So, if you’re kind of guilty of being or thinking you’re an effective multitasker, check out that book.

Shawn: And Tim Ferriss’ The 4-hour Workweek. It’s an excellent one as well.

Tim: Yeah.

Shawn: This was the one on the list of powerful habits that we were like “what?” But we’re going through the list and we’ll give our thoughts. So, number 11 on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Dining.” This one mentions that basically it seems like you should be vegan or something, which I don’t fully agree with. But I do believe that you should get plants in your diet. Here’s what I believe. I believe you should just eat whole foods. And whether it’s Whole 30, paleo, primal, Mediterranean.

Tim: Whatever it is.

Shawn: Just eat whole food. You’re not going to go wrong. It’s not going to be unhealthy. Yeah, there’s keto and there’s some other things that you can do. There’s intermittent fasting which you can do. There’s some other things, but the place that all diets should start, we should all agree, is you need to eat food so let’s make it real food.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: That’s pretty simple, but it seems to be a point of confusion lately, because probably two-thirds of our food supply is processed or ultra-processed food, and even dining out is becoming like that. I will say another aspect of dining that’s important, is I learned about the Blue Zones which is longer life areas, I think seven areas on the planet. There’s a book on discovering those Blue Zones, where people live longer, one of which is Sardinia, which Claudia, my foreign exchange student, is from. And they have lunches in the middle of the day, where they take to two hours plus. They just stop working and they go home or go to a restaurant and they all have fellowship, and they have a long lunch. Sometimes they have wine and all these things, but the whole point is that—we’ve talked about the value of relationships before—that they fellowship, they talk about their day, their lives. They’re having that therapy, that mental health therapy.

Tim: Right.

Shawn: All this happens over dining. Don’t think that just food is food. Food is one of the most powerful vehicles for fellowship in our world. Almost all of our holidays revolve around food, almost all of our experiences going out of our house revolves around food. Food is very pivotal. It’s one of the foundational things to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, right? I mean, we all need to eat, and so let’s make it an enjoyable experience. Let’s enjoy that food. Like you were talking about, be mindful of the food, but also be mindful of the company that you’re spending time with. And I think that’s where there is power in dining.

Tim: Yeah. That’s a really good point. Something that jumped out to me about that is that I think oftentimes if we’re not surrounding ourselves with like-minded people, we can alienate ourselves if we’re like “healthy eaters,” because either we don’t associate with other healthy eaters or we don’t think that we do. And that can be detrimental to our goals and our health in a number of different ways. So, it just kind of reminds me to encourage people to surround yourself with other healthy like-minded people who follow similar eating habits. Because not only is it food fellowship, but it also makes eating healthy easier, right?

Shawn: Right, absolutely. If your significant other is pounding down Twinkies and you’re sitting there eating rice cakes.

Tim: You’ve got all kinds of problems.

Shawn: That’s a tough road. Okay, so we’re on the last one. We’re on number 12. So, thank you everyone for sticking with us through another list of powerful habits. I think this is really fun. These are really great lists with powerful habits and I think when we delve into this stuff, I think it’s just transformative for us, and hopefully it is for you too.

Okay, last but not least on the list of powerful habits is “The Art of Down Time.” So, man, this is one I really need to focus on and I’m not so good at. I can stay very busy and I am not very good at unplugging. I’m not very good at powering down. I’m not very good at doing these things, and I would be far more efficient if I did. And it’s that kind of thing where, “I can’t afford to train someone. I’ll just do it myself.”

Tim: Right.

Shawn: And if you’re always in that mindset, then you’ll always be doing it yourself and never get ahead. I mean, sometimes you have to take that step back to take two steps forward, and that’s the down time thing. It’s just like you can’t just play basketball or whatever your sport is 24 hours a day. No, you need to obviously recover, repair, sleep. Let your mind take a break and then you can go back and play, and play well. But if you’re over-trained, you don’t play well. And it’s the same in life. You might be overtraining in life. You might have too much on your plate and you might be too overwhelmed. You need some of that downtime.

Tim: If you find yourself in that situation, you probably need to take some downtime to analyze it, right.

Shawn: That’s true. It is very true, actually.

Tim: But joking aside, it’s probably something that needs to be scheduled for some people. I’m like you, I’m a busybody. From the time I get up in the morning until basically the time I go to bed, I have a hard time not doing something, and it’s a challenge. So, I think scheduling downtime. Even if it’s a short period of time at first, and just using it as a time for relaxation, meditation, reading a fiction book or something like that. Just something to kind of wind yourself down would be a good start. Breathing work and things like that.

Shawn: Yeah, the breathing would be perfect here. Well cool, I really appreciate you, Tim, and I appreciate everyone listening on BioTrust Radio, being part of the tribe. We appreciate what’s been built. I think in a very short period of time we’ve kind of built a nice community. And if you want to check out the faces and voices in that community, go to BioTrust.com/VIP, and that’s our Facebook VIP group.

We also have a blog and we have BioTrustRadio.com, where we have the transcripts and notes and links and all that kind of stuff. And then, of course, you can listen to our podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play. We’re at all those. Download, subscribe, and review us. All of it helps. And then feel free to send us emails, leave messages on the Facebook group. We want your feedback. We want to steer the show in the direction that you want it to go, and we want to know how we’re doing. So, we really appreciate you guys for listening. Thanks again for another great episode. We love you and hope you can take something away from this list of powerful habits.

Tim: Take care guys.