I love to share the client stories that touch me, and those that I think all of my readers can benefit from. Today, the theme of the day seems to be creating good habits. Learning how to make good habits is a bigger part of your success than you might realize.
A client of mine had the clear goal to overcome her acne and wear less makeup. Boy, she was in luck, because I happen to have a history in skincare. As much as she wanted to believe her genes were the problem, I could see that it was her skincare routine. She didn’t have all of the best habits in place.
Are you REALLY doing everything it takes? How can you know?
“But I’ve tried everything. I’m doing everything I should.”
All of us like to tell ourselves that. Sometimes, we even start to believe it.
Sure, we did discover that her facial cleanser was not the best match, but it ran deeper than that. All seemingly small stumbling blocks seem to, don’t they?
Her problem was that she had OTHER habits taking up critical time that she could’ve better invested in her skin.
At night, the last two hours was her only quiet time to herself. As a single Mom, I get it. I understand more than she’ll ever know. However, the way she was using the end of the day was not going to lead her into a morning with smooth skin.
Rather than spending the extra time rubbing and kneading the oiliest areas of her skin with the soap… rather than taking the time to do masks and treatments at night before bed… She was spending ALL of that time reading.
Reading is good for you, though, right? Definitely. Most of us don’t do nearly as much of that as we should. While that seems harmless enough, she was not finding balance and creating structure. Yes, it’s true – you need structure in your down time, too.
Instead, she’d wake up the next day, letting the chips fall where they may. Of course, just as you’d expect… the mirror would greet her to a new breakout and dirty pores every morning! She just wasn’t seeing the chain reaction. Or, she didn’t want to. We’ve all been there.
Knowing how to make good habits is one thing. But getting them to stick is another.
What was missing was making her skin a higher priority. To begin with, she needed to stop looking at reading time from a place of lack, and she needed to find other ways to read more.
It shouldn’t surprise you that I later found out she had so little “me time” to read because of other habits and priorities throughout the week. Our habits truly are at the root of whether we succeed or fail in anything.
She needed to have a bigger WHY for investing in her skin at night. She needed to change her perspective on the reason she was doing it. To change the way she was looking at it, she needed to see that it wasn’t just sacrificing downtime for cleaner skin tonight. She was preparing tonight for beautiful skin tomorrow!
If you want to make your “why” stick, you need to think about how it will impact the rest of your life, too. I discussed with her how she could completely reverse the chain reaction, and how this habit would have a positive effect on the rest of her day. We began to play out the ideal day in her head with her new skin routine.
You need to do the same, and start from the beginning. It should look a bit like this…
- I come home from work, eat dinner, and go upstairs for me-time as I usually would.
- Before bed, I have two hours to work with. Out of those two hours, it should only take me about 20 minutes to care for my skin. I’ll set a timer for the remainder of that time, then commit to getting busy with my skin after it goes off.
- I wake up the next morning with clear pores, and clean skin. I’m able to wash up quickly and get straight to makeup. Because my skin is clean and not irritated, a little makeup goes a long way.
- Because I saved so much time on my makeup, I’m able to finish getting ready quickly enough to arrive early to work. My boss admires and appreciates this.
- I feel proud for saving so much time and accomplishing my goal. I love waking up to this face! Because my skin looks its best every day, I feel confident and it’s easier for me to smile and feel good. My loved ones see it, and customers see it.
What habits can you change? Script out your new habit and how it will impact your life. What sacrifice do you have to make and why is this worthy? Get brainstorming and write it down!
