184. Creating Your Best Life with Holly Smith

💭 What if you could transform your life in just 30 days?

In this episode of The Leadership Project, we are joined by Holly Smith, acclaimed author of '30 Days to Happiness' and host of the '30 Days to Happiness' podcast.

Holly shares her profound journey from overcoming personal struggles in her teenage years to becoming a high-performance coach. She emphasises the interconnectivity between happiness, productivity, and habits, sharing practical tips on establishing routines, recognizing one's values, and maintaining productivity, especially for working parents. Holly delves into the significance of identifying and resolving past emotions, discovering one's purpose, and staying aligned with personal values.

Listeners are encouraged to consider their environment, mindset, and intentional choices to foster happiness and productivity in everyday life.

🌐 Connect with Holly:
• Website: https://30daystohappiness.com.au/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollysmithcoach/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holly_smith00/
https://www.instagram.com/30_days_to_happiness/

📚 You can purchase Holly's book at Amazon:
• 30 Days To Happiness: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BB5WLFM5/

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Welcome to C-Suite Strategies, the podcast where we discuss the art of scaling businesses.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Holly Smith
• 8:59 [Ad] C-Suite Strategies
• 9:47 (Cont.) Holly Smith
• 14:35 Resolving Past Patterns to Build Habits
• 23:06 Finding True Happiness Within
• 35:19 Reflecting on Daily Habits and Mindset
• 39:23 Maximizing Productivity as a Working Mom
• 43:51 Boosting Productivity and Happiness Habits

Transcript

Mick Spiers: 0:00

Imagine what it would be like to wake up happy every day. What is the connection between our daily habits, productivity and happiness? In today's episode of the leadership project, we are joined by Holly Smith, author of 30 Days To Happiness. Holly shares with us her happiness formula and 30 daily habits we can take on to strive for happiness in our lives. We explore the power of habit and living a purposeful life and the connection between productivity habits and our own happiness. Enjoy the show. Hey everyone, and welcome back to The Leadership Project. I've got a special treat for you today. I'm joined by Holly Smith. Holly is the author of the book 30 Days To Happiness and the host of the 30 Days to happiness podcast. The way I look at her work, though, is I consider her to be the queen of productivity and the master of productive habits, and that's what we're going to unpack today. There's three words there, happiness, productivity and habits, and the three in my world coexist. So let's see how it all comes together. So without any further ado, Holly, I'd love it, if you would say hello to the audience, and I'd love to know a little bit about your background and what inspired you to start the community that you have and do the work that you do.

Holly Smith: 1:31

Great question, and thanks so much for having me on this podcast. That means a lot, and just means that there's one more day that I can share my my true purpose, which is to help people wake up happy every single day. My journey kind of started back where my parents were never together, so my parents were always split. I never knew what it was like to have, you know, two people in the household. I had a brother, and pretty much I grew up like riding horses. My dream was to go to the Olympics for show jumping. My life as horses, it was like buying and selling. I'm always an entrepreneur, and I was competing every weekend my purpose and my outlet as well. I found it really hard to control my emotions growing up. So my outlet was also my horses. I'd go ride them. I'd feel free mentally and physically, emotionally, and then that was kind of like, yeah, my outlet anyway. So something happened with my family my teenage years. I think I was around 16, and, yeah, two of my horses passed away as well. And then we moved off acreage. And here I was like, you know, obviously had the best I had an amazing upbringing. Had the beach life. I was like, I had the country life, but we moved to, like, just a normal suburban look. And I was like, I can hear people flushing their toilet next to me, and I was like, This is so crazy. I felt like everything my life was just stripped away. May seem like a first world problem, but for a 16 year old girl who never really kind of dealt with what was really going on in her life, and didn't know how this was like, everything was ripped away. So honestly, I put on heaps away. I was really into sport growing up, so I stopped all sport as well. Yeah, put on heaps away. Didn't have really great friends, and I just got had all these really negative emotions and thoughts come into my head. And it was probably quite a few years, probably two years, I just had, like, super suicidal thoughts, just hoping that one day I just would die and I wouldn't have to deal with myself, kind of thing. And there was one day I was like, I'm done. I prayed to God, but I was like, This is my last resort. I'm done. I'm hurting that much, and I didn't have any support system at that time, you know, I was hurting so much, and I was like, God, if you know, you don't want me to be like this, take take that pain away. And like, I call it my miracle healing, I went to bed, I went to sleep that night, I woke up and it was like, you know, these dark glasses had been lifted off, and I didn't have suicidal thoughts ever again from that day. And I call it my miracle healing. It could have just been a change of perspective, but either way, from then, I wrote this book with 30 Days Happiness, and it's the 30 habits that reconstruct your subconscious mind to wake up happy every single day, and they're the habits that helped me come out of this depression that I was in. So from there, I was in the real estate industry. Got burnt out, and then, yeah, started my online fitness business, and now here I am as a high performance coach.

Mick Spiers: 4:18

So, thank you so much for sharing. I'm sorry that you went through that as a teenager and in the early years, I can imagine that juxtaposition of being a country girl with horses and then all of a sudden being in suburbia, and probably brought something to the surface for you. I want to quickly cut in with the audience and say, if anyone's listening to this and the term suicidal thoughts brought anything for you, please do listen to what Holly said about the word support system and reach out and get help if you need it. So if you're in Australia, there's services like lifeline. I know that there's a very much an international audience that listened to this podcast, many of them you in the. Us reach out and see if there's another service similar to you. So do get help, do get help, do get help, and then see what you can take from Holly in terms of these habits that helped her to get her life back on track. Because I feel like there's going to be something in that for all of us. So tell me Holly in that in those darker days. How did you discover the power of habit?

Holly Smith: 5:25

It's really interesting. I picked up this book. This was after I felt like I was like, Okay, well, I feel like there's more to life than just, you know, partying and trying to get through school. And when I was a teenager, it's really interesting. The same habits came back up again that I adopted back when I was, I guess, a teenager, when I was in the real estate industry, and I got burnt out. But I'll talk about that in a second. So the first book I ever read, and I have, actually, no, I found it on a Facebook Ad. So, Dean Graziosi was sending his free book millionaire success habits, and I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to read this. It was free. I got it in the mail, and I've read every single page, like, multiple times I did all the exercises in this book, and honestly, it gave me a vision for my life. It was just the coolest thing ever. That was, like, probably the first book I actually read multiple times every single year, and did all the exercises in this book, and then all those habits, kind of like inspired me to take action. And then there was all these other habits. So I was working in the real estate industry, and I was working like 14, 16, hour days. So I do PT in the morning, work, run the office all day, do door knocking, cold call, be there as a sales associate, run the whole office, look after 100 properties, I was doing everything, and then go back, do more. PT, get to sleep by like, 10 o'clock, and then do it all again at three o'clock and explain. And it was just like crazy. And I remember driving, and I was so physically, mentally, emotionally, like exhausted. And I was like, I'm gonna thank myself for this one there. Thank myself for this one day. And I think, you know, I worked out hard because I wasn't getting paid well in the real estate industry at all. At that time, I was paid 11, 15 an hour, and my PT job paid well. So I ended up buying a new car, which was awesome. But from that, I got so burnt out at Christmas time that my whole body gave way. Where, if you believe that your muscles hold emotion, right? So my knees, my hips, my lower back completely gave way. Had a bulge disc in my lower back, and I couldn't walk for four weeks. But because I did not listen to my body, and I didn't implement the habits that are in my book, because I was just trying to just trying to heal myself in the totally wrong way. I was just trying to distract myself. That's what I thought. If I can push through everything's going to be fine, and I'll get through it. It's okay. I'm going to get through it. That's what I thought. But that's shoving everything under a rug. And what I realized is that I was running away from everything that had happened in my past, and I hadn't actually dealt with it yet. So in the time, I was like, you know, I was in a really bad relationship. Didn't have a good relationship with half my family members. I just felt like my life was falling apart. So I thought, I can't do this forever. So I thought, okay, what are the habits that got me out of this depression? Like, what are the habits that I know can help me? I was like, okay, you know, affirmations, I remember. And I was just like, when I put on 10 kilos, went for a walk one day because I hated my body so much, I was crying. And I was like, I love my body. I love my body. I'm grateful today I can walk. And I just kept changing that and changing in my brain over and over and over again. Anyway, so other habits, like, you know, waking up on time, putting yourself first, first thing in the morning, getting to the gym, sunlight, first thing in the morning, like all these amazing habits honestly helped me through the burnout, same habits helps me through the depression. So I thought I'm going to make a business out of it. So I built my first business, which was business and online personal training program for busy individuals. And yeah, that turned into the happiness formula.

Mick Spiers: 9:38

All right, brilliant. Thank you again for sharing so openly your backstory. I'm curious to know about some of those physical manifestations of the burnout, and whether we do pay attention to them, and whether we think it's, you know, we just have to be stoic, and we have to push through, and it's part of the grind and just work harder. What tips do you have for the audience about making sure that we are paying attention to those signs?

Holly Smith: 10:07

The thing is, we aren't going to become aware of these signs if we do not take a step back. And we are, we can't be aware, right? We're so blinded by the end results. I call it a circle, right? Some people call it the right. So you're in the middle of a circle, and there's this big circle and keeps going around and around and around and around. And that's your daily routine, your daily attitude, your daily mindset, your daily habits that you currently have. But the thing is, outside this circle, there are so many different opportunities be physical. Can't see these opportunities because you are so shut off and blinded, because you're so set on the outcome for something specific, right? You're so set on making a million dollars, you're so set on finding the love of your life. You're so set of just surviving every single day going to get through. But then there's something deeper. I've gotta provide for my family. I'm not good enough. Can't provide my family. I can't do this. Not good enough if I don't spend two hours in the gym today, even though I'm exhausted and burnt out like all these thoughts, there's a reason why you are where you are now. What I would suggest for anyone who feels like that and you physically know there are more opportunity for you, but you can't just physically see them. You need to force yourself to go on a holiday, just take a step back for a day. I remember going camping. I worked three years straight like did not take a break. I met my now husband. We went camping, and I was like, Holy molly, I don't know what to do with myself. I'm going crazy because I was in fight or flight mode for so long, and I was going through a bodybuilding cop. So even everything was just heightened, right? So that that's another thing when you're so, like, physically, mentally, emotionally, like, on the verge of burnout, everything is heightened. So you know, your husband or your wife leaves something on the ground, maybe by accident, and it's worse than it actually is, because you see on fight flight mode, you know. So I would suggest that anyone to kind of just you have to kind of force yourself, like you do, getting up in the morning and not snoozing your alarm. Yes, it's hard, but if you do it, it's going to benefit. You got to think of it as the same way, especially like onto the gym. No one wants to go to the gym at five o'clock in the morning. Not everyone. Some people do don't do any work, like just go, that's a beach, if that's a country, and just be, just be. That's my suggestion.

Mick Spiers: 12:24

All right, so I'm, I'm picking up a few things here. The first one is the awareness. So what we need to develop is the awareness. But to get that awareness, we need to disconnect for a moment from the rat race, from the firefighting, from the daily churn, might even be technology. Put your phone away for and it's in those quiet moments that we might be able to notice and name what's going on with us. How does that sit with you?

Holly Smith: 12:54

Yeah, and that's the thing like, Why do you think most of like the successful people in the world go to a cabin in the woods for like, a month.

Mick Spiers: 13:01

Yeah, yeah, right. Okay.

Holly Smith: 13:03

You know, just get creative.

Mick Spiers: 13:05

All right, really good. So this is our first tip. We're going to step back and we're going to notice a name. We're going to disconnect for a while to make sure we're not just on that circle, on that hamster wheel the whole time, where we're constantly running on I'm going to say adrenaline at this point.

Holly Smith: 13:20

Yes, that's it.

Mick Spiers: 13:21

And then the adrenaline might even you hinted towards this catastrophization that something happens in your life, but you're so amped up on adrenaline that that little thing becomes a big thing very quickly for you. And unless we step back, we can't notice it. That's really powerful. Holly, the next part I want to get to is you've spoken a lot about resolving the past, right? So what we'd call a resolving mindset. You yourself spoke about falling into bad habits and back into older habits. And you coming from the fitness industry, I think this would resonate very strongly with you, whether it's a new a poor nutrition habit, a poor fitness habit or a poor workaholic habit, whatever it is, if you haven't addressed the limiting belief or the root cause of what stimulated that habit in the first place, it's going to keep coming back. So tell me more about this resolving element of how you are able to resolve your past so that you could look forward?

Holly Smith: 14:19

Yeah. I mean, there's multiple ways that you can do this. There's lots of like, you know, obviously awareness is key in a child work, but also helpful mindset things. But honestly, it wasn't until a bit later in life where I've realized that these habits and these mindsets and these belief systems were actually a chain reaction. And they kept coming up, coming up, coming up. And you attract what you are, right, and what you put out. So I think Joseph Dispenza said that he goes, you know, to change reality, you need to change your personality. So I think I look back and I always attract narcissists into my life, right? Strange, okay, well, I was obviously looking for some kind of, like validation from there or something, right? Because there was a family member who was very narcissistic. So the first relationship I got into, very narcissistic, and it was the worst, like the worst version of me there possibly was. But I'm grateful it happened, because I'm here now, I look at like some of the clients that I had as a fitness trainer, and they had narcissistic police, and it wasn't until I realized that this was a like, a very repetitive thing that I didn't realize was even a thing, until I sat down with a friend for coffee and she was like, You need to get rid of this client. You need to get rid of this person. Because. They're causing all this. And I thought, hang on a second, this same thing has happened multiple times in my life. So firstly, this action step go back into your timeline, you got to think about like, there's five key emotions, from what I can remember, there's anger. And you think, okay, when was the first time that you can remember when you felt angry? The second thing you would ask yourself is, when was the first time, far back as you can remember, that was 563, 10. When was the last like, the first time that you felt sadness? And then you do the same with, I think it was anger, sadness. There's three others, and I'll put them, um, I'll let you guys know exactly what they are. But, um, you need to ask yourself, yeah, I guess when was the first time that you felt those emotions? And then you're able to actually see what triggered it and how going through your life, like, when was the next time that you felt that same kind of anger? That makes sense. So I remember sadness like for six year old me, that's like when I speak to my inner child, six year old me was actually depressed and sad because she didn't know what was going on in her life with the parents situation and this and that. And I look back and that was like the first time I felt sad. And then again, like with my horses, that was the same kind of sadness. So every time I think now of horses, I actually get quite sad. But also, there's such spiritual creatures that I feel like that's linked to, like my value of authenticity. So hopefully I'm not going too off track here. But if you do that exercise, it will help you kind of determine what patterns you're seeing that may be where you are now. So I would also ask as well, this is a great exercise that you can do to find your values. So for those you know, leaders or CEOs or whoever's listening to this, I would suggest that everyone has their values up on their wall, because it helps you make better decisions. It reminds you of who you are as a person with the business and you will attract more things in your life in accordance to the value. So when you do this exercise, you can kind of think, Okay, well, I did this, and this led to this, so therefore my value is probably discipline or authenticity or quality or whatever it is.

Mick Spiers: 17:43

All right, let me play back to you what I'm taking away, and I'm going to add something in the middle, and the rest will be what I've heard from you. So the first one is to notice the pattern. So for you, it was, Why do I keep on attracting narcissistic people? Okay? For others, it might be something else. Why do I keep on falling off this, falling off that, whatever it is in your life that is the recurring pattern. Notice the pattern then I'm hearing from you to track back to what might be the first instance of that pattern, or the root cause of that pattern. And if you don't do that work, it's going to keep on happening when you're unpacking the emotions, the bit I want to say here is that emotions are information. They're telling us about, either a met need or an unmet need. So if you're feeling angry, why are you feeling angry? It's trying to alert you of something, and it's going to be a fundamental need. So I prescribed to glasses choice theory on this one. There's many other theories, but I go to classes choice theory and his fundamental needs, need for survival. Did I feel threatened? Need for love and belonging? Did I feel unloved? Did I feel excluded? Did I feel like I didn't belong? The need for power, which translates more to the need to matter so and that's connected to your validation, right? So the need to matter means that I want to be seen, heard, and to feel like I matter to someone else, so I keep on attracting narcissistic people to make sure that I feel like I matter. The need for fun, that's a basic one, and the need for freedom, freedom of choice and freedom from oppression. So unpacking that to go, Okay, why do I keep on repeating this pattern? What caused the pattern? What emotion was connected to the pattern, and what was that emotion trying to tell me? And from there, you're going to work out what, what do I value? So come to your values point of view. If I've worked out what it was that was the missing ingredient, what was that emotion trying to tell me that's going to alert me to what I value most in the world? How does that sit with you?

Holly Smith: 19:49

Yeah, I love that. And I think can't remember who said it, but I'm reading the book The Big Leap at the moment by yeah, great book. I totally recommend. I have two books that are in alignment with maybe the people who've listened to your podcast, and what we're talking about right now is heal your life by Louise Hayes and the big league I find those two books really nicely talk about a variety of, you know, things that kind of an align with what we just talked about. So I just thought I would also add that.

Mick Spiers: 20:19

Yeah, very good. All right, so from here, and I love this connection to values now, because this might drive some of this, how does that then drive you towards the habit building? So you talk about 30 habits, you talk about 30 Days To Happiness. How do we start to convert those things that are most important to us into the habits that we're going to stick to?

Holly Smith: 20:41

That's the thing. Like, you're only you're going to stick to habits that you value, right and actually having more an emotional attachment towards your values. So honestly, my the biggest question people ask, or the number one question people ask me, is, like, how do I What habits do I pick? How do I pick the right habits? How do I stick to them? How do I say execute them like you know, so I guess the answer of question, you need to understand your values. We don't know your values. There's multiple different exercises you can do to find your values, and then you've got to look at your routine and think, all right, what habits are going to benefit me in my life right now? Okay, well, I have brain frog, and I'm not getting good sleep at night, and I'm just not performing on my meetings as an example. Okay, well, maybe we need to start waking up at the same time every day and say those affirmations in the morning to raise your vibration, and then maybe go get some sunlight and go for a walk and debrief. Maybe you start a new nighttime routine. Maybe you need to go connect with other like minded people. Maybe those negative thoughts are starting to creep in and you just keep distracting yourself so you don't have to deal with them. What's the habit that's going to help that? So you got to look back, I guess, what we've talked about again, and think, Okay, what habits are going to serve me right now? The thing is, what people do is they look at other people's awesome lifestyles, their millionaire morning routine, and they think, Oh, I'm gonna do ice baths, I'm gonna go for a 10k run. Oh, I'm gonna run an marathon and do all these amazing things, but it's not in alignment with their lifestyle, what they want for life, or their values. And then they realize that it's not, and then they're like, Oh, this is why I've been failing, and this is why not really failing, but this is why I've been finding it so hard to execute. So pick the habits that are going to serve you. There's so many different habits. I mean, there's 30 different habits in my book. There's multiple different other books that you can read, you can go on chat.GBT or online, and search habits for to resolve this, or to help me with this. But the thing is, you don't pick heaps of habits. Don't pick 10 habits and have, like, a 10 step morning routine, and then your work day's chaotic, and then you've got a 10 step night time routine, and it just feels too much. Pick the one, the three, maybe five, if you've already conquered those three habits that are going to serve you right now. So I was actually talking to one of my clients. He's a lawyer, and he's just got, like, so many cases on at the moment, and he's like, Oh, I really want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this, I want to do this. But I just like, he's not doing any of them every week. So I'm like, just pick the one to two habits that are actually going to benefit you right now. And I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this, because there might be resistance money making activities. People resist money making activities. So that's going to become a habit. My suggestion is you do the same thing, so money making activities at the same time every day, if you can, in an environment you enjoy. So you actually are less resistant to go there and do it, if that makes sense, more likely to get it done. You can also create productive triggers as well, if you find it really difficult. So let's just say that you know, you go to a cafe to work on your money making activity. That cafe, you going there at nine o'clock every day to work on that money making activity that might become your new habit. And it doesn't matter really so much of how you get that you just got to make it a habit somehow. And I find habits stacking with something you enjoy doing, or an environment that you really enjoy being in helps to create that habit. So that was one of the habits, right? And the other one was, Okay, I gotta finish work at 5pm or 6pm do my end of day report, send it to me or send it to someone to hold them accountable. And that's it. Cut off work, no more work. So that's like two habits that he decided that he was going to stick to not 10 different habits.

Mick Spiers: 24:21

So I'm loving this, Holly. Let me unpack a little bit of it. So first of all, I'd love the question, which habit is going to serve me best right now, and that served me best might be around what is it that I'm trying to achieve in life? How is it connected to the person I want to be? How is it connected to my values? And that congruence with values is going to take you a long way, and then to start getting into it, this habit stacking concept, I love it. So what is the environment that's going to support? Does it suit my lifestyle? If I'm not a morning person, don't do the 4:30 by the way, I'm a morning person. I know. I know you are as well, but not everyone is. So if it's not, if you're not a morning person, don't do that. One. Do something else. What's the environment that's going to support it, and what can be the trigger? And I love your example of the coffee shop, one of the ones I was thinking about the other day. I can't remember where I saw this one. Maybe it was on your podcast. Anyway, the idea that I want to build a habit that I really need to drink more water. And let's say I've got a really good reason why I need to drink more water. Well, every time I go to the kitchen, get another coffee because I drink far too much coffee, I'm going to have a glass of water every time I go past the kitchen, as an example, environment trigger habit stacking. So, yeah, no really powerful. Love this. Now for you, it's 30 Days To Happiness. Got a question I'm dying to ask you, what does happiness mean to you, Holly Smith?

Holly Smith: 25:48

Well, happiness, I could say, you know, it's about giving you time power, which I talk about in my book, or this and that, but honestly, happiness stems from what you believe. So I look at it now, and my definition of happiness isn't exactly as but I for last probably seven years, my definition of happiness, and if someone asked me this question, um, so until last, probably two weeks, I realized that this isn't my definition anymore, and I've got to find a new one. And it was if I won the lotto tomorrow, I would not be any happier than I am right now, meaning that money, not my current circumstance, nothing can make me happy, only within so that's that, I guess that's my definition now, and that's what happiness means to me. But I look back, right? And I think the reason that was my definition is because I grew up with believing that I was never good enough without money, and that's a money limiting belief of mine growing up, if I didn't work hard enough, I'm not going to be successful, and then I can't drive that car that I want, and then I can't live in a really nice house, and I can't go on holidays and all these things that I can't have. That's what I grew up believing. So I thought, if I earn enough money, it's going to solve all my problems. So I think that's where my definition really stemmed from, and it really reminded me that Happiness doesn't come from external things. Yes, they make you happy. Bye, bye, new car. I'm gonna be happy driving. And of course, I am. If I, um, got holiday, it's gonna bring joy in the memories. But if you were in a, this is actually explain this book, if you were sitting in, I guess, a tent, it's not even a tent. It's like a peeping made of sticks that you made yourself, and you're stuck on a desert island, and there's a tornado coming, right? And I want you to visualize the tornado as all your problems and challenges in life. And you sit there in your car and you're peaceful and nothing bothers you. You're just so happy to be alive. That, to me, is true havings

Mick Spiers: 27:41

Yeah, I really love it, and I love it's very personal that what you're talking about, and I love this that it's coming from the inside. A lot of people that do follow the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of just one more, when they go after that car, there's always one more car. So if you buy the latest buy the latest BMW, that's amazing, and it fills your heart with pleasure for a period. Guess what? Next year, there's a new model, and then the year after that, there's another model, and you earn your first million dollars, then you want to earn your second million dollars. To me, that pursuit, there's no end to that. You're never happy, but if it comes from the inside, I'm going to not just include material things in there. I'm going to say, if you're putting all of your happiness eggs in the basket of someone else making you happy, that's also not necessarily the right path. How does that sit with you?

Holly Smith: 28:35

Yeah, it's really interesting. And a lot of like, most people answer to like, you know, what's your definition of happiness? What makes you happy? They go, okay, you know, my purpose is my family. And yes, waking up for you know, for example, my daughter. You know, I feel after her like that is part of my purpose, right? But every single person has a gift. Every single person has a gift, and I believe if you don't, if you're not aware of that gift, you're not going to know how to, I guess, serve others and serve the world and understand your purpose and why you're alive today. And I truly believe true happiness comes from living in your divine purpose and knowing that you are right where you're supposed to be, not wishing for more, not wanting more, but just being and I know it's really hard in today's society, even for me, I'm not perfect, and I'm not just a spiritual being walking around being happy all the time, absolutely not. I get angry. I get, you know, emotional. I cry. I'm a normal human being, but that's the thing. We're humans. We make mistakes. But I can guarantee, if you know your purpose and purpose is not a destination, by the way, whoever's listening to this so like, oh, once I buy this house or find my husband, or do this, I will be happy. And you know, or whatever you think your purpose is, purpose is a daily action, something that you can ask yourself, Okay, well, what can I do to pursue my purpose today? Right? And it could honestly just be like, you're really good at smiling, so you smile at everyone you walk past. That could be your purpose for today, but you kind of have to be in tune with yourself. If you don't really know your purpose. I do have a purpose workshop actually, that is really helpful. And I'm sure there's lots of other books you can read on it, but, yeah, just remind yourself that purpose is not a destination. Just think like, Okay, well, what can I do every day that's going to serve you know, the greater good of the world, humans, animals, environment, it's always linked to something, right? So mine is to wake up, help people wake up happy every day. Okay? Can I do today to help someone wake up happier? Post on Instagram, personally, on LinkedIn, join a podcast.

Mick Spiers: 30:46

I love that so, and it's definitely not a destination, because there's always more that you can do to fulfill that purpose each day. So that's really powerful. So know your purpose, do the work to find your purpose. And yeah, sure, look at Holly's program for this. There's others as well. But know your purpose, and make sure that every day that you're pursuing that purpose, that's the pursuit that you're after, and making sure that it's internally rewarding when you are achieving that purpose. The other thing I'm picking up throughout the conversation is congruence with values. So to make sure that that purpose and your actions are in congruence with your values, to make sure you don't wake up finding yourself a little bit lost and not feeling yourself not feeling like, Well, no, that didn't feel right. Today. If you're going home at the end of a day's work and going it didn't feel right. There's either a disconnection to purpose or there's a incongruence with values is the things I'm picking up today.

Holly Smith: 31:45

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. I think that's why it's really important that you you understand your values and your purpose, and you have them up on a wall. Like every single person I work with, they must have their purpose and their values and even their mission, if they have one up on that wall, so they can see it every day, and they'll know that if they're not in alignment with who they are as a person and those values and that purpose for the day, they're just Yeah, again, like you said, they're going to feel disconnected to who they really are. So for people who are listening, because think about those days we you're just in the flow. You just just, you feel like you're just smashing life, like life is just good. Maybe you signed up a new client, or just, you know, sold, sold something for a salesperson. Maybe you just had the best gym session, and you deadlifted 100 kilos, like you just winning at life, and it was just such a great day. Have a think about what were the habits that you implemented? What was the mindset that you had when you first broke up in the morning? Because whatever you think first thing in the morning is what you want to attract, how you want to react, and what you're going to receive for the rest of the day. So ask yourself that, and then kind of have a look and think, Okay, well, what did I think about first thing in the morning? What was my mindset throughout the day? Who did I talk to did I just choose to be happy today? Happiness is a choice. Even though women feel like it's absolutely not. You have a choice to speak negative words. You have a choice to think negative words, right? But a lot of it all stems from our thoughts, right? So if you want to train your thoughts to think more positively, then you need to look at your environment. What are you watching? Are you listening to low vibration music, lots of swearing and just doesn't vibe with you? Or maybe watching TV shows that aren't in alignment with your values and your purpose? I found myself, I remember watching, I don't know if you know, the TV show shameless, quite a few years ago, like long time ago, and I was like, I all of a sudden had a poverty mentality. I never had a poverty mortality. I thought, Okay, well, what am I doing in my life that potentially could be causing this the TV shows. I'm not joking. I removed myself from that. I started watching positive things, reading my self help books, again, doing all those things and surrounding myself with positive like my people at networking events and friends and that, going to the gym, being with fit people and game changer, totally new person for the better.

Mick Spiers: 34:12

Really love it. Holly, so there's a few things there, this surrounding yourself with people that are congruent with your values and purpose, making sure your environment is congruent to this. Then I picked up something else there. I picked up quite a bit of intentionality. So when you wake up in the morning, what am I going to do today that's congruent with my purpose and values? I heard a lot of gratitude there that reframing things like it might be you didn't say these words, but what I heard, even though you didn't say this, I was picking up this thing of, instead of saying, I have to go to work today, I get to go to work today, because when I'm at work, I get to help people, and it's aligned to my purpose, etc, etc. And then I heard a really big thread of reflection. So I heard you processing and going, did I live my values today. Did I live my purpose? How did it work? What worked? Well, what didn't work? Well, what would I do differently next time? So intentionality, gratitude and reflection and an environment that's congruent with your purpose and values?

Holly Smith: 35:13

Yeah, that's exactly right, and that's something I suggest as well. I get a lot of people do end of day reports, and for people who are listening to this and really find it hard to shut off work or leave work at work, and you're bringing it home and this and that, my suggestion is to do an end of day report to hold yourself accountable. And if you have an accountability partner, you can also send it to them every day, but pick the time that you want to finish work and then ask yourself some simple questions. Some of the ones that I love are like, You know what? It well today. What made me happy? What can I do better tomorrow to become more in alignment with who I am? What are my three MITs for tomorrow? So most important tasks did I work on? Money Making activities if you're in business, because I could be easily resisted or forgotten. How could I help someone else, somewhere? So like that's a great question to help you get out your own head, especially if you've had a really hard day at work, you're just thinking about like maybe you're in victim mentality or victim mode. Oh, why me this that I just want to go to sleep like I'm done. It's okay. Just feel that motion, let it be but know that you do have a choice. You don't have to stay like that forever. Generally, a good night's sleep will do it too.

Mick Spiers: 36:23

Yeah, I'm loving there. There's there was an element of gratitude there as well. But I was also thinking there's an element of self compassion a little bit as well. Like, if you reflect at the end of the day and go, actually, I did do something that helped another human being today. Otherwise you might go home frustrated, going, I didn't get anything done today. But if you take the time to reflect, you go, Oh, hang on, a second, I did that thing and it brought a smile to Joseph's face, or whoever, right? Yeah. Okay, that's really powerful as well. So we've covered two of our three major chapters as someone who is pretty darn good at productivity. It would be criminal not to ask you, on behalf of the audience, for some tips on productivity. As I'm going to say, even as a working mum, it doesn't have to be put in that box. But I think there's a lot of people that listen to the show that are working parents that do have a lot of commitments that they juggle. What are Holly Smith's tips for productivity as a working mom?

Holly Smith: 37:25

Yeah, honestly, it's, like, one of my favorite topics. I don't know why, but honestly, like, I think one of my values is work ethic and accountability and discipline, right? Which is crazy, but they're my values. So being productive isn't like my values, and I think that's why I loved talking about it so much. There's so many different things out there when it when it's all about productivity, you can go, I can do this method, I can do this method. I can do this method. There's so many things you can do, but we've got to think about, okay, why do you want to be more productive? I'm going to able to make more money, be a little bit more organized, not feel overwhelmed. Have a good night's sleep knowing that I don't have 1000 emails waiting. Ask yourself, why do I want to be more productive? And then it will stem be an accept. How can you be more productive? Okay, let's start with your routine. Routine is like the foundation to any kind of productivity hack or habit that you want to build. So I'll talk about a little bit of a routine, because it will stem into why it will make you more productive. First thing is, you need to start waking up at the same time every day. Maybe you start Monday, Friday. You don't have to do it on the weekends. It's fine, but just make it a habit. When you wake up at the same time every day, your body acts like a clock, and you'll start waking up every day at the same time without your alarm, but you'll wake up with energy. So I wake up at 435, o'clock every morning myself, and I'm like, why am I wide awake? Ah, it's because I've trained my body to do that. You can train your body to do absolutely anything. Just remind yourself that so a really important and a good habit as well is to keep your space organized, make your bed, clean your desk, get things just neat and tidy so you don't come in. So it's actually been scientifically proven that, you know, a messy house is like a messy mind, or a messy desk is a overwhelmed mind. So get clean, just clean, clean your space where you're going to work. Especially another productivity pack I really love is working out before you do an MIT. So I'll talk about MIT in a second. But MIT sample most important tasks for those who are new here, so you might be doing your first MIT, first most important task, or maybe it's a money making activity, most important tasks for the day. What really works is that to increase your endorphins. Lovely to your brain. So you increase your focus, your productivity and also your awareness, as well as working out, raising that heart rate before your productive hour. So I used to do this all the time. I used to do my gym session and go to it, then straight after, go to a cafe, have my coffee, and I would smash up, I don't know, maybe five hours of work in an hour because I was so productive, and I use that high performance habit and hack to get more done. So that is a really great one. Affirmations are really great in the morning too. So if you want to choose happiness, you want to choose how you want to feel and react for the day, maybe grab some affirmations that are going to be in alignment with where you want to go, who you want to be. So someone might be okay. Well, Money comes to me easily and effortlessly, and I'm a magnet for divine prosperity. So you might want to say that if you want to attract more money, I am going to show up as the best leader I have ever met today, and I'm going to be strong in my values, or whatever. You're going to find affirmations that work for. You so that you can say them over and over again. One affirmation that I love in Louis Hayes book is I love myself as I am. So if you're listening to this and you're really like, I don't love myself, I wake up like, just not loving my life. I'm stuck in a rut. Or you look at your body and you're like, I really don't love myself. If you don't love yourself, everything that you do is not going to be with love and abundance, right? So you're not you're going to feel overwhelmed. You're going to feel like you're constantly on a rat wheel because you don't love yourself. It's really interesting, and there's all science back behind us. So saying the affirmation all through your head, I love myself as I am, I love myself as I am, I love myself as I am. That is going to be a game changer, not just for your productivity, because you're going to be grateful and love yourself for how productive you can be, but you're going to just like know that what you're doing is right. I don't know. We'll talk more about that later. So MIT, let's look at MIT's do not pick 10 things to do or 20 things to do. Don't have a really long to do lists like the goal is to get rid of that, to do list actually, and just have one to three MITs. Now you may be thinking, Okay, well, if they all take five hours each, I would suggest that you pick three MITs that don't take you any longer than maybe three hours. So one of them might be like, 20 minutes, one of them might be two hours, and one might be like, you know, another 40 minutes or something. So all up, if it goes over, it's no big deal. But what your MIT is your most important task. But if you complete this task and move the ball forward for tomorrow the next day, right, you don't feel behind, and you want to put it in the most productive part of your day. Now this is becoming aware of your energy. So if you look and feel throughout your day of when you were the most energized, when you were the most productive, when you just felt your best, I would suggest that you put your MITs in those time books. Now it's a really cool hacker that you can do works every time for me it's 5am the morning, nine o'clock in the morning, and then probably like after lunch at 12 o'clock, they're my three MIT's done. So you've got to become, you know, energy, aware of where do you best work. Some people are night out. It's like, I have a client who, like, loves working 11pm at night, and I think that's crazy, but to him, it's not because he focuses at 11 o'clock at night, and he always has. So you're going to do what works for you. You don't have to be an early bird. Like, there's nothing wrong with going to bed late. So that's another really important thing for those who are like, you know, business owners or, I guess, have to do money making activities through the business board or income forward. A lot of people have resisted tasks. So I always suggest that you put a resisted task or something that's been on your to do list for so long, in a time block and in an environment like we've already talked about today, that you enjoy. So that's also going to make you more productive. We've talked about productive triggers already, planning your days, planning your weeks, planning your quarters, planning your years, all in alignment with your purpose, your mission, your values. It's going to make you way more productive because you actually have somewhere to go. So I can run you through how to plan a really product. Really productive week now, but I don't want to take up too much of you.

Mick Spiers: 43:45

That was a perfect crash course in productivity, Holly, so I think we'll, we'll run with that so that the things that I picked up there were routine, intentionality, knowing yourself, intentionally, planning your day for when you're most productive, having no more than three most important tasks for the day, the MITs, and knowing when you're going to schedule those, working it around your workouts, that was really cool as well. And then the affirmations along the way, really positive, really love it. Thank you so much, Holly for sharing so much of your wisdom with us today, around habits, around productivity, around purpose, around happiness, it's been really amazing. I'd like to now take us to our Rapid Round. So these are the same four questions that we ask all of our guests. So first of all, what's the one thing that you know now? Holly Smith, that you wish you knew when you were 20?

Holly Smith: 44:41

That if you take a break from your current rut or cycle or work to get creative and tap into that creative part of your brain, you will manifest naturally the things you want in your life a lot easier.

Mick Spiers: 44:54

So we need to declutter, disconnect and then almost give the space for that to happen. Yeah. Like it, Holly. Yeah.

Holly Smith: 45:05

Yeah, yeah. For creativity, every time I go on holidays, I manifest so many crazy, amazing things in life. It's really weird,

Mick Spiers: 45:12

Very cool. Alright, you're making me think, when was the last time I had a holiday, right? Well done. All right. What's your favorite book?

Holly Smith: 45:19

My favorite book, honestly, it was millionaire success habits by Dingo Rosie, because that was, like the first book I properly read. But the book that has honestly, really helped me forgive and become emotionally aware of limiting beliefs like we talked about today, was Louise Hayes book Heal Your Life.

Mick Spiers: 45:39

Okay, all right, brilliant. What's your favorite quote?

Holly Smith: 45:42

Do not let your emotions overpower your intelligence. I started saying that to myself when I was 12 years old. No clue where I got the quote from, but a 12 year old saying that like it's a bit strange thinking that now, but yeah, it just helps me remind myself that I am full control of my emotions all the time.

Mick Spiers: 46:01

Well done. The emotions are there to tell you something, but you're the one that can choose how you respond, right? Yeah. So really good, right? Brilliant. Now people are going to be listening to this. They're going to be deeply interested in some of the things that you shared, whether it's the 30 Days To Happiness, thinking about trying to find their purpose, trying to find their congruence, build habits, productivity. There's so much that you bring to the table, Holly, how do people find you? If they'd like your help or would like to know more about you?

Holly Smith: 46:33

Yeah. So you can find me on LinkedIn as Holly Smith and Instagram as holly_smith00, or you can honestly go to my website, which is www.30 daystappiness.com.au, so that's the best place to find. If you're listening to this, we'd love you to join our new school community. It's completely free, and I'm giving away my happiness formula because this year, just, honestly, just want to give. There are so many people that need so much but don't know where to start or don't have the resources. So my five plus years of resources and trainings and coaching, they're all in there completely for free. So if you'd like to join, just connect with me on LinkedIn and I'll send you the link.

Mick Spiers: 47:13

Wow, that's brilliant. Thank you for being so kind and generous with your time today, and also with these gifts that you're bringing for people in our community as well. Thank you so much, Holly. It's been a great pleasure having you on the show. I feel richer for having our conversation, and I know the audience will as well. Thank you.

Holly Smith: 47:29

Thank you. It's been an absolute pleasure and so much fun.

Mick Spiers: 47:32

You've been listening to The Leadership Project. In the next episode, we are joined by Tony Martignetti, and we explore the important role of vulnerability and authenticity in leadership. Don't forget to subscribe to The Leadership Project YouTube channel where we bring you weekly live stream shows, video podcasts and other curated videos all about leadership. Thank you for listening to The Leadership Project mickspiers.com a huge call out to Faris Sedek for his video editing of all of our video content and to all of the team at TLP. Joan Gozon, Gerald Calibo And my amazing wife Sei Spiers, I could not do this show without you. Don't forget to subscribe to The Leadership Project YouTube channel, where we bring you interesting videos each and every week, and you can follow us on social, particularly on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. Now, in the meantime, please do take care, look out for each other and join us on this journey as we learn together and lead together.