Elevate Your Life: Minor Changes, Major Results

Is it time to rethink some of your habits? Join Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach as they chat about how making tiny changes in your daily habits can lead to some pretty amazing results. They'll be passing on expert tips and sharing their own stories: the good, the bad and the ugly.

They talk about things like tweaks in morning routines, small shifts with food and exercise, little focus-helpers for your work day, and habits to boost your faith walk. Whether you’re looking to get more disciplined, be healthier, or just find new ways to bring a little more joy into your day, they have you covered. 

Let’s get real, none of this is magic or will transform you overnight. But you’ll get simple, actionable advice that you can start using right away. So, take a few minutes, imagine yourself.... and learn to start small, think big… and watch your life transform!

RELATED:  Own Your Morning, Own Your Day

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Imagine Yourself is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach. Lanée is a TV writer and producer, motivational speaker and podcaster. Sandy is a radio personality, voiceover artist and podcaster. They come to you from the Detroit Metro area and invite guests from all over the world to help encourage you in your health, career, faith journey and more!

Transcript

Lanée Blaise [00:00:02]:
Alright everybody, this is Lanee here with Sandy at Imagine Yourself and we are going to jump right into our episode today where we really want to talk about what a difference one little tiny thing can make, what a difference a moment in time can make in changing your life, your day, your flow, your mood, everything. So we are all about that today. We are very inspired by an episode which was called Own Your Morning, Own Your Day. We wanna talk about some of the things that we noticed and that we were inspired by that just shifted everything. Small things that are game changers.

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:47]:
So here's the thing. Own your mornings. Own your day. It kinda drew the parallel of the little tweaks that you can make in your morning, and that really changed the whole outlook of your day. And it made us think about these small habits, like Lenny was saying, that can go from little tiny tweaks to a big effect cascading over not just your day, but your life. And it doesn't have to take place in the morning. I'm gonna start with something that I actually was trying to do by tweaking my morning routine though. I was so frustrated because, you know, now that the weather is getting warmer, I wanted to get up and walk in the morning before anything.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:22]:
But recently, over the past and here's how long it could take some time. Over the past, I don't know, 3 to 4 months, I've been very consistent about getting up and reading part of the Bible. I went through the gospels, book of Acts. Believe it or not, I'm reading Revelations right now. Don't ask me why.

Lanée Blaise [00:01:39]:
Yes. It's a tough one

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:42]:
Anyway, and I thought if I mess with that, you know, then I'm changing this habit. So what am I gonna do? So I just got up a little earlier and it also helps when my pets usually wake me up anyway even if my alarm doesn't go off. And I do my bible thing, and I just sit down at the, living room with my phone, and the Bible app is the first thing I open after I feed the animals. And then I go on and I start my workday. So I'm finished with my big task of the morning earlier, and then I go a mile walk or whatever, if the weather's nice or whatever my exercise might be. So how do you like that?

Lanée Blaise [00:02:20]:
I like it because I've been doing something similar. So mine is that I love getting out and walking, especially when the weather is nice, and that serves as my reward. Because to your point, if I get up and walk immediately, it actually throws me off because I think I'm more focused right when I wake up and I can get a whole big chunk of my day wrapped up. And then the walk becomes a reward for, you know, for me getting all my stuff done. And so to your point, it kinda does, again, start with the morning, but it is just something small. And like you said too, once you've got a routine carved out, you don't wanna throw it all off, you know, if it's working for you. Sandy, there's so many things at work here because there's, like, the discipline element. There's the working with your body and with your mind and with your life to see what works.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:11]:
And And then there's also the part where sometimes things change. Like, the way you were doing things for a while, it changes. And part of it, I gotta tell you, is because of age. And I don't care if you're listening right now and you're 30 years old or you're 80 years old or anywhere in between. Things change as you go along Lanee times because of your body. And if you can sometimes embrace it a little bit and take it on that journey with you, it can help because I have a confession. I have recently, like the past couple of years, I snore badly. I'm it's just terrible.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:50]:
So I, kinda went through a health journey trying to take care of that, you know, one small aspect of my life. I ended up with this sleep thing that you put in your mouth at night on your teeth, and it helps you to do your jaw a certain way so you don't snore so badly. And then in the morning, you have to put this morning device in to put your jaw back in Lanee, and you can't talk. It's for 15 minutes. So that kind of meant that because of this health thing, now I take that 15 minutes that I used to, like, scroll on social media, and I decided I don't wanna do that even though I have to be quiet. I can't talk. I can't eat. But I stretch.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:29]:
I think I pray I get my mind right. I don't mess with my cell phone. And it's one little thing, but it has done a lot for my life. And, you know, that combined with there's all these different things that the sleep people were telling me, but they were telling that waking up at the same time each day and going to bed at the same time each night is very helpful. It helps, you know, smooth that sleep life. And that's another one, just a little tiny thing, a tiny tweak that makes a big impact. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:05]:
And like you were saying, getting older can impact in negative ways, but can also impact in positive ways because you don't have kids running your schedule. Although for me, I have to say, even though I'm an empty nester, I do have a dog and a cat running my schedule.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:19]:
the pets are doing it.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:21]:
But, you know, they just deal with it. And that's kinda the second thing I wanted to bring up is the other part of my morning or just not even my morning, but my day in general. And you wouldn't think that, but if you've seen my dog, my little Shih Tzu Max and my cat, Belle and the way they chase each other and make noise and Max always whining when you're not giving him enough attention. You would think, well, it's just a dog and a cat. You can work around that, but no. Especially when They have needs. They do. They do.

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:46]:
And sometimes they don't have needs, but they think they have needs and their needs are just to interrupt me. But I've just decided to say, okay. I don't know when I'm gonna get interrupted. There are certain times when, like, they're sleeping or things are quiet and I really focus and I turn off my phone or I don't turn it off. I put it away. Because if I pick up my phone, I'm gone. I mean, I can pick it up to look at the calendar, but now I'm on Facebook or name your thing, and then 20 minutes later, I wonder what I was looking up. And it's just gone.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:15]:
So

Lanée Blaise [00:06:16]:
And it so it feels like such a waste. That is that's another one, though, too, Sandy, right there as far as finding a way to have allotted time where the phone is over to the side, where you don't touch it, like you said, even to look at the calendar.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:30]:
Yeah. I mean, if it's necessary, Obviously, if somebody calls me up and says, I need to make an appointment for so and so, I'm not gonna say, well, you know what? I'm in my quiet time right now. So can I call you back? You might. No. I might. Well, actually, I might not have answered the phone if I didn't recognize the number, but now we're going off on a kind of a tangent here. But, yeah, so the phone, I am very easily distracted, so that is definitely something that I have to do. And you mentioned that as well, that you used to scroll on social media first thing.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:59]:
And you must have, like, a much better feeling once you get into your day now.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:03]:
I have a much better feeling. And again, too, how about this, Sandy? How about I don't know that you or me this is that part about changing too. I'm not sure that we always used to get so distracted. I feel like our society in general has a lower attention span, gets distracted more easily. We all might really want to focus in on that discipline aspect more. I'm reading a book called God Talk by Neale Donald Walsh.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:34]:
Okay.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:35]:
And he refers to a book titled The Only Thing That Matters. And it says 98% of the world's people are spending 98% of their time on things that do not matter.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:52]:
Wait a minute. Say that again? I was looking at my notes, I was distracted.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:56]:
I was looking at myself. 98% of people spend 98% of their time on things that don't matter.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:04]:
That is a pretty big percent.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:07]:
Yeah. Now this is something, I mean, I'm sure you can't prove per se. But if we really start thinking about how much time we're spending on social media and certain guilty pleasures or crazy TV shows. And it's just a lot of things that kind of come at us and take our attention away from things that matter. Our families matter. Our health matters. Our quiet time with God matters. Our work matters.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:35]:
It's just something to keep in mind to try to try to make the percentages get a little better in this world, starting with each of us.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:41]:
Yeah. Definitely. And you're talking about discipline to, make sure we focus on the right thing, and that is gonna take developing new habits. There are all kinds of great books on habits out there. Atomic Habits is probably one of the most famous ones, and I definitely love that one. And one of the things they always say is, if you wanna develop a new habit, make it easy and just example of that that's very practical might be if you go work out at a gym and you go in the morning, make sure you have your gym bag packed and ready for the door. There's not that extra resistance. Or if it's a habit you wanna break, you gotta make it harder.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:22]:
So if you're like me and you love sweets and find it hard to stop once you start eating that, and then, but other members of your family do wanna have the sweets around the house, just make sure it's stored in some place that's hard for you to get to, on a top cabinet or, you know, the back of the pantry or something like that. So you have to go through more things in order to get that, and that will help you break that habit, theoretically. And there are, of course, lot of different ways to work on your habits. Atomic Habits is a good book for that, and there's books too on these mini micro habits. One of the ways I've heard it described is you take the big goal. Maybe you, you know, write it down and you break down what are the steps that I'm gonna have to follow to get there, whether it's cutting down what you have for breakfast, maybe you add less sugar to your coffee, or, you take an extra 15 minutes on your walk. So all these are little things that come from the big goal. I'm not one of these super planners that looks at a big goal, so one of the reasons I was having so much time trouble figuring out stuff, how to tweak my habits in the morning and deal with everything that I had to deal with, was because I was thinking too big picture.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:38]:
All I really need to do needed to do was this one thing of getting up a little bit earlier and kinda work it from there. You can do that with anything in any aspect of your life. Just say, what's one little improvement that I could make right now? Pick a thing.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:52]:
Mine is actually gonna be you kinda referenced it just now. As far as the weight loss goals, I know that we grew up learning that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. But I never thought about, like, how important it is what you're eating for breakfast. And that has been my latest new small thing that I'm trying to switch. You know, I'm I'm waking up. I've got that stupid thing in my mouth or my teeth, and I'm stretching and getting my myself centered. And then, it was actually one of our former podcast guests, Jennifer Oknin. She's a wellness and health coach.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:29]:
She has been working with me as well, and she wants me to be more intentional about after I get that, you know, that stretching and get centered, then she wants me to really start focusing on what I'm gonna eat for breakfast. Not just any old thing, not just a bowl of cereal, not just a go to, but pairing things that will, you know, really help my digestive system and my day start off well and, you know, more protein, more fiber, all that good stuff. She wants me to sit and eat the breakfast either outside or next to a window where sun is shining on me. Because she says that that is, you know, the sunlight itself is very rejuvenating and makes your body say, oh, we're supposed to get ready to gear up, you know, and then get to all my work stuff and then get to my walk. So I know that was a very long answer to what you asked, but that is what I'm personally working on. And it kind of all when I get once I get in the habit, it all works together, and it all begins to flow freely. And then it doesn't feel so difficult anymore.

Sandy Kovach  [00:12:38]:
Yeah. Like, if you just do the one thing now do you have a go to breakfast to make it easy, or do you she know how

Lanée Blaise [00:12:44]:
you're gonna a list of a few different go to breakfast because that's the other thing. I was just content to just eat the same thing every day, day after day. And she's like, I do want you to mix it up a little. I want you to have, like, at least 3 little things that you can kind of swap in and out. The boiled eggs to you know, making sure that maybe those could even be boiled the night before. If it's gonna be toast, some kind of healthier bread than what I had before. And if it's gonna be nuts, don't eat a whole bunch of them because they even though they're healthy, too much is not great because they're high in fat. You can do some things that you'd ordinarily think of as maybe lunch things that you can kind of put for breakfast, which I hadn't thought, you know, I in your mind, you always just grow up thinking there's oatmeal or there's eggs and bacon and cereal and toast, and that's it.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:32]:
But she's like, who says that you have to eat those things that we say are for lunch? Why can't you eat those for breakfast if they're higher in protein and better for you and start to give you more energy?

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:44]:
So, yeah, she just gave you them. Yeah. Right? You have to pick some favorites too. Right? You just you can't

Lanée Blaise [00:13:49]:
favorites, you know, and also make it a little more fun. I had, another one of our guests, Keri Lappi...Keri was also saying, in my case in particular, she said, when you're eating, instead of just rushing around crazy, sit, you know, when I'm at home and try to get things done on deadline working from home and and nobody's here, sit and really believe that you are inviting God to the table with you to eat your meal alongside of you and to just reflect as you eat. So you're getting more reflection time and center time while you're eating also. Another beautiful way to or all I know, maybe it makes the food go in better and healthier, but also gives that little space in life. So many little things, Sandy. And talking to people who know more than I know has been helpful. Also talking to older people.

Lanée Blaise [00:14:41]:
You know, everybody needs to get themselves an older friend who can either warn you of some stuff so that you don't have to live through it, You know? Or, who just know the path before you know, there's a lot of wisdom from older folks. And then also maybe mentor some of the younger folks so that you can help them with things that they don't have to necessarily live through directly in order to benefit.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:03]:
Yeah. It's better if you don't have to get the lesson yourself. I like what you say about eating without, like, you don't eat with the TV or phone or basically bringing it up. I will bring up, like, I have a protein bar that I usually eat in the morning, and I now you're kinda making me rethink this because I eat it every day and a half a banana. And then I'll bring it up as I do my show prep. And, you know, here's the thing. Your brain is funny. Now it connects being on the computer and looking for stories with eating something.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:34]:
So now sometimes and I I have to recognize it when it happens. A little bell goes off when I'm doing something going, I think I want something to eat, and I don't. So Yeah. If you can and I mean TV. I don't do that very much anymore because I don't eat at night very often, but I used to do that. Your brain gets this connection. The TV's on, I wanna eat. I'm looking at the computer, scrolling around, reading articles.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:59]:
I wanna eat.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:00]:
That's what my son used to say that he couldn't when he was a little boy, and we'd go to watch a movie even if, you know, at the theater or at home, he'd say, wait. We can't watch the movie if we don't have popcorn. Like, it just it's just you can't. And, Sandy, that's your brain will do that, and you you might wanna really we all have to check and make sure, are we connecting good things or bad things? Because you can also flip it and have it where you do those little, you said, micro habits or atomic habits, and you pair a couple of good ones together. Every time you, gosh, have a cup of coffee, you also have something with a little protein to kick start your metabolism in a good way also. Every time you go for a walk, you say a little prayer before you go on the walk. Or, you know, you compare good things too, because you're right. It just takes a few days for your body and your mind to put together a habit, and you gotta realize, is it good or bad? Is it working for me or not? Is it serving me or not?

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:02]:
It's powerful. And, I definitely recommend if you haven't read Atomic Habits, I have it on audiobook. I just relistened to it. You know, since it was more than a couple weeks ago, I I can't remember a ton of it because that's the way my brain works.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:18]:
Hopefully, you remember the most important part.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:20]:
The most important. It's in there. It's in there. I've made some switches because of it. So and I gave it a copy to my son and he liked it. So So we're spreading it.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:28]:
We are just, again, we are trying our best. Everything we learn, we are trying to tell everybody out there who who feels like listening to us. And, of course, we welcome other folks too. Write to us on imagine yourself podcast.com. We've got the email right there. Reach out to us on social media because we love suggestions. We love new ideas. We understand that everybody is gonna do it a different way.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:54]:
Everybody is wired different and has something that kinda works for them or doesn't. But don't be afraid to try new things, and don't be afraid to realize that maybe some things that used to work for you when you were younger maybe don't work for you anymore and you might need to switch it up. So that's just how we do. We all want everybody to be as healthy and happy and thriving as possible.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:22]:
So Yeah. There's so many aspects in our life that can be helped by these well, whether you wanna call them micro habits or mini tweaks or little changes. I mean, there's just a a million things you could call them. But they're so much easier than having these. I mean, it's great to have goals and big dreams and visions. And and I really admire people who can have, like, a vision board and break it down into little things. And I may not work that way. I don't work backwards, but I do know the power of little habits going forward.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:53]:
So even if you don't wanna break down a bunch of stuff and put sticky notes all over your all over the place or whatever, what do people do? Or journal?

Lanée Blaise [00:19:01]:
Well, I was gonna say or decide they wanna run a marathon.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:04]:
Or decide they wanna run a marathon?

Lanée Blaise [00:19:05]:
Friends who are like, they walk a little bit, and now they say they are ready to run a marathon. God bless them. That's one of those ones kinda like, it's not gonna be

Lanée Blaise [00:19:16]:
me Oh, ever.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:18]:
Because that's just too big for me. So maybe I'll say, you know, I wanna get up to walking 3 miles when I go on walks every other day or something like, you know, just something small. And every time, you know, once I finish a particular project or once a certain time of day hits, then my body knows, oh, it's about time for us to do our walk. And that's that pairing something good with something good.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:45]:
I like it. Yeah. I like it. I think we're on a path here.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:48]:
And again, we encourage folks to please just send us a little message and give us some insight on some things that you've been doing to spruce up your life.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:58]:
Absolutely. You can, hit us up at imagine yourself podcast dot com. Check-in with us on social media, and we'll put all that information in

Lanée Blaise [00:20:04]:
the show notes because this is really the end of what we've got to say for today. We just wish you all well, so imagine yourself really leaning into the fact that something tiny and small that you change for the better in your life can lead to something big and beautiful and helpful as you go through this journey.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:29]:
Thanks for listening. We talked a little bit about some morning routines, and we refer to our episode, own your mornings, own your day. It's a lot more specific towards mornings, but, it definitely points you in the right direction. If you're interested, we'll link that up in the show notes. And until next time when we have something new to imagine, take care. And if you have time to give us some feedback or leave us a rating or review, we would love that too.