Episode 007-Who Has More Willpower?

Show Summary

On this episode we discuss the last year on our No Sugary Drink challenge. A year ago, three of us decided that we were going to challenge each other to see who would be the first to drink a sugary drink. It became a battle to see who has more willpower. All three of us are still at it, and I’m going to share several of the tips we learned this year that apply to anyone trying to accomplish a goal.

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Transcript of Episode

Episode Seven – Who Has More Willpower?

Hudson

Welcome to the Be Daring Life podcast. I’m your host Hudson and today I am joined by Jenna and Rachel as we discuss today’s topic of focus.

Rachel

I just have a little announcement here, right off the top. We have taken surveys and asked lots of questions about skills that adults wished that they had learned as teenagers. The number one skill that people had wished they had learned was how to handle money. We ourselves had challenges with money when we first got out on our own. We decided that we wanted our kids to have a strong financial foundation, so we designed a program for them to practice real life skills. We have turned it into a course. We just want to announce that the alpha version of our Right Foot finance course for parents on how to teach your middle school and high school kids how to handle money will be launching the second week of March. This is the first run of the course so we are going to be offering it at a significant discount. The beta testers for this course will also receive a lot of one-on-one coaching on how to teach your kids to handle money.

So for more information go to rightfootfinances.com.

OK, so how’s the weekend gone for you guys?

Hudson

Good

Jenna

Pretty good.

Rachel

Jenna…Jenna went horseback riding for like four hours yesterday and she’s walking around like a cowboy but I think she’s recovering.

I have a little I want to tell you that goes along with what we are talking about today. Last February, Keith and I went on a trip to Los Angeles for a marketing conference. We use to live there, but I don’t remember this being an issue when we lived there – I guess because we had our own place. We go out there and .. those people don’t know anything about sweet tea.

Hudson

They’re uncultured.

Rachel

Yeah, I don’t know about you people out west. And up north as well. We had gone out for our 25th anniversary a few months before that to Idaho for a week and that was also an issue up there. Like, people don’t know what sweet tea is. I can’t imagine that that is .. OK. I’m just kidding, hope you know that. But we really our sweet tea at this house.

So we went to this conference and I couldn’t find sweet tea. I think it was the last day we where there, we decided let’s do, because we are frugal people, and Chili’s three for ten. What’s not to love? Right – you get all that food for ten bucks. And so we decided to order it to go and take an Uber over and get it and come back. So they had sweet tea on the menu. And I was so excited. And so we get our food and we get back to our hotel, which wasn’t that far away. And I take my giant styrofoam cup – I’m ready to like – you know you gotta get yourself all settled. Gotta be comfortable – get yourself settled in when you take that first suck. So I’m like, I’m all settled, I’m getting ready, and I suck it up. Guess what was was wrong.

Hudson

It was unsweet tea.

Rachel

Yes it was like..ooh..I was so disappointed after all that. I should have tested it at the store. So the rest of the night I was depressed and I came to the conclusion that this sweet tea has got a grip on me that is not good. I decided when I got back like I’m going to try and cut this out of my life for a little bit just to get some control. Because it had gotten to the point – Oh ..it’s been a great day – let’s celebrate with sweet tea. And then it would be like, Oh, it’s been a horrible day – I’m so depressed let’s commiserate with some sweet tea. So sweet tea was my everything got-to drink.

Hudson

You can tell if someone is southern if they always have sweet tea in their fridge.

Rachel

And we did have it in our fridge a lot. It use to only be for parties and then it kinda ..

Jenna

… we built it into our life.

Rachel

So I got home and I’m like I gotta stop with the sweet tea for a while. I asked the kids if they wanted to join me in a challenge to see who could go the longest without a sugary drink. I really didn’t think they would do it. But I found two of them who decided to do it with me and so they are here today and we are going to discuss our year and what it has been like. So you wanna tell us..what where the rules?

Jenna

The rules for this challenge was we couldn’t have any sugary drinks at all. All we could drink was water and milk, straight milk. No hot chocolate, no coffee with creamer, none of it.

Rachel

No juice, no icees, no sweet tea. And what was the reward?

Hudson

The reward was the person that lost had to take the other two to a local frozen yogurt shop.

Rachel

So this Thursday it will have been a year of us doing this challenge and we are just going to talk about this past year and what it has been like and what we are going to do from here. So, what have been the challenges with doing this?

Hudson

Sports practice and then after not being able to get an icee.

Jenna

It being really cold, and not being able to get hot chocolate.

Rachel

Right. That’s really satisfying when you are freezing. Nice cup of hot chocolate. What else?

Hudson

No sodas at parties.

Rachel

Right

Jenna

And definitely sweet tea.

Rachel

So we did this together. Was it easier to do it together?

Hudson

yeah

Jenna

Because you had someone supporting you and telling you “Don’t do that”. Or you could have like my brother who is just over here going “I’ll buy you a Coke if you break.”

Rachel

So how long do you think you would have lasted doing it alone? I don’t know that I could have gone a month. What do you think?

Hudson

Maybe four or five months.

Rachel

Really?

Jenna

Yeah I probably say what he said – maybe close to it.

Rachel

Well it’s really helped me having you guys do it with me because I don’t want to be the one to break.

The people that succeed in life do not succeed because they were born with more will power than other people, they succeed because they set up systems or make plans to help them in their goals. So for an example – you decide where you are going to spend your money before you have it in your hand.

Hudson

Dave Ramsey said tell your money where to go, instead of asking where it went.

Rachel

He does say that. If you are trying to eat healthy, you pack a lunch the night before or you plan out some healthy snacks. Otherwise when it is lunchtime you are going to panic. You are going to feel like I’m going to die if I don’t get some food right now and probably going to make an unhealthy choice. Right?

Hudson

Yep

Rachel

What was the biggest step in this for you guys?

Hudson

Deciding to do it.

Rachel

Right. So once you really really decide to do something like totally commit it’s a lot easier to not be talked into right? Or to give in. If you half-way commit will you stick with it?

Jenna

No

Rachel

No. The next tip we have that we’ve learned is to narrow your focus. If you try to work on a bunch of different things at once-like I’m going to start exercising, I’m going to start cooking and eating healthy meals, I’m going to read thirty minutes a day and write a book – that‘s too many things. What will happen to you if you decide to do that manuy things at once?

Jenna

You’ll get overwhelmed and you will just not do them at all and you won’t get any of them done.

Rachel

Right. So for this we didn’t just decide we’re going to not drink sugary drinks, we’re also going to cut out all sugar, exercise – though we do do that – we do exercise a couple of times a week. We go for long walks and we try to eat healthy. But it wasn’t as strong a goal. So our tip for that is narrow your focus.

So our next tip is find others who will encourage you or do it with you. They don’t necessarily have to do it with you as long as they will encourage you that will help you stick to your commitment. And do you really want friends who are always try and encourage you to not be your best self? Right? You are gonna want friends who are going to encourage you. So surround yourself with people who are going to encourage you and/or do it with you.

If you are doing something diet related find alternatives that you can keep in your house like don’t buy a bunch of snacks and then tell yourself you are going to go on a diet.

Keep the goal in front of you. Don’t put stuff in your surroundings thats going to trip you up. If you are doing something diet related don’t fill your house all kinds of unhealthy snacks or at least put some snacks that you can have in your house.

Another tip, break the goal down into smaller increments or milestones. What I mean by that is if we had started out at the beginning and said we are going to do this challenge for a year or we are going to do this challenge for the rest of our lives what are the chances that we would have done it?

Hudson

Not at all.

Rachel

Right. A year just seems so long. So, when we first started it was like can we go a week and then a month and it turned into a year. If you are trying to break a habit that’s a really difficult habit like stopping smoking sometimes you just have to say “Can I go fifteen minutes?” And then when those fifteen minutes are done you say “Can I go another fifteen minutes?”

Another tip is have an emergency plan in mind. Like you plan on always packing a healthy lunch. What are you going to do on the day you forget it? That’s usually the point in which I fail. I would be just like I gotta go to the drive through and get something and I’m not going to pick something healthy. It’s just like I’ve already given up. Give me, you know, a chicken sandwich and some fries. So you need to have a plan in your mind. Put it in there before you even think about – before you’re even in that situation. Like if I forge my lunch I will got to Zaxby’s – that’s our favorite healthy lunch spot. And what do we get there?

Hudson

A zalad.

Rachel

A cobb zalad. Like this also applies to – having this predetermined plan applies not to just a goal but also to like if you know you are going to be in a situation in the future like you find yourself at a party where you didn’t know was going to turn bad and friends are doing stuff that you know you shouldn’t be doing you have to decide beforehand if I ever come to a situation where I’m offered drugs or cigarettes – something I have decided that I’m not going to do then you just say, beforehand, in your mind, like right now, say to yourself if this happens what am I going to do?

Because if you wait until you are in the moment, just like me, going through the drive through, you are going to be more susceptible to making a bad choice.

This challenge has been a little different than a normal goal. Apparently we are highly competitive, and none of us want to be the one that gives up and has to take the other two to get frozen yogurt. It’s crazy because it won’t really cost that much money but it has been enough of a motivation to keep us going. It is not the money that is motivating us.

Jenna

It’s just the bragging rights I feel like. And saying “Well I have a stronger will-power than you.”

Rachel

We didn’t know we where so competitive about that did we?

Jenna

No.

Rachel

So we just want to encourage people as you go towards your goals and dreams. Don’t despise small successes. If you are making progress, celebrate it. You may not be moving as fast as you like but you are improving.

Hudson

So tune in on Thursday, our one year anniversary. We will be doing a Facebook Live to find out what we are going to do. Are we going to keep going or if we are going to stop.

Jenna

If you really like us and you really want to let the world know how much you like us, give us a review on ITunes. The more reviews we have, the more visible our podcast is. That helps others find us and the great community we are building. And go checkout our website out at raisingconfidentteens.com.

Hudson

And remember to go out and Be Daring!