Change Your Life in 5 Minutes | Jim Kwik & Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

can you change your life in five minutes absolutely Dr rangan Chatterjee is the host of one of my favorite Health shows business big business understand the rules of behavior change why they understand it and they apply it but once you realize how good you can feel with five minute practices very quickly you want more welcome back to the quick brain podcast I am your host and your brain coach Jim quick and uh the topic we're going to talk about today is how to feel better in five minutes this also could be how to have a better brain in five minutes because I think that you know I feel better we're talking about mental health starts with brain health and we definitely have an expert here in his podcast Studio Dr rangan Chatterjee it's so good to be here with you it's the host of one of my favorite Health shows it's uh the biggest in the UK and in through Europe he's written five best-selling books and uh the one I want to talk about here I have a couple here I have happy mind happy life which was so good and this I actually haven't read is feel better in five thirty plus five minute tips to lose weight improve sleep and move more thanks for being on the show Jen I'm I'm really excited it's exciting to get to know know you over the last few hours I really enjoyed our chats on my podcast and a massive fan of your work yeah this was a long time coming we've been talking about doing each other's shows for quite a number of years yeah I'm glad thank you it's so so right now we're in your studio and we've been geeking out about the the power of our own brains you know and keeping good mental health and I wanted to have you on my show because it's been on our team's uh bucket list to have you on the show when you wrote uh feel better in five is that is that realistic like you're a busy man right you have you have your business you have your family well we talked about juggling and we're all juggling you know what are you doing and is it really possible to isolate five minutes and and how and for happiness and health yeah 100 look it sounds a bit like a gimmick doesn't it five minutes but if I think about my own life and how I've managed to look after my brain my body my heart whilst being you know married two young children busy job as well as my job as a medical doctor you know I write a book a year I host a podcast I also for many years have cared for my elderly parents right so I get what it feels like to be busy but I've always found a way to look after myself through that busyness and one of the things I always found with patients is that it will always say to me wrong and I I don't have time you know I want to be healthy but I don't have time I thought it's really interesting because let's take tooth brushing as an example we kind of know that if we brush our teeth for two minutes in the morning and two minutes in the evening which hopefully everyone listening to the show right now does yes please do that we know that four minutes a day of tooth brushing generally speaking is gonna look after or dental hygiene for life sure you're gonna have a checkup and you may need some polishing and cleaning whatever but by and large what we don't do is go oh I'm I'm too busy on Monday you know I don't have time for my brushing Works busy I've got to take pick the kids up right Tuesday Wednesday we don't do that and then go oh the weekend on Sunday I'm going to do a one hour deep clean on my teeth we don't do that we you know anyone listening now knows that that sounds ridiculous yet when it comes to Behavior change for our health for our brains right we make it too difficult we make it really hard people think that five minutes is not enough so they stop doing anything that's going to help them and this is why they try and go for like a one-hour walk at the weekend or a one-hour yoga session nothing wrong with that but in my view not a substitute for daily practices that can help you and these practices don't need to take long just like toothbrushing can take four minutes a day I do a workout a strength workout every single day I haven't missed a day for maybe three or four years now and I would say I would argue it has nothing to do with motivation it's because I've applied the principles of behavior change into my life right and and a lot of the time we don't follow those principles those rules when it comes to ourselves right so I'll explain the behavior first right how do I do this well I have a morning routine which you can maybe get into if you want to but one component of that morning routine is a five minute strength workout right so how do I do that well there's two rules of behavior change I mean in the book there's my six rules right but the two rules I think I'd love to share with people are number one you've got to make it easy yeah right so why'd you have to make it easy uh you know you and me are both good friends with Professor BJ Fogg you know World leading experts and behavior change from Stanford's uh we had a great chat a few years ago because what was really great about our conversation was that the things I had figured out through seeing patients he figured out through research so our our conversations together was a beautiful kind of meeting of clinical experience from me and scientific research from BJ and we basically came to the same conclusion that these small habits done consistently are how most people make changes right so the reason I do my workout every day is because it's not a one-hour workout it's not a 30 minute workout it's five minutes even on my busiest days I can't say I don't have time right I do have five minutes so what do I do one of the things I do in my morning routine is I come into my kitchen and I make coffee now I'm very particular with how I make coffee I I like the ritual around it I I like a specific type of coffee right so I get out my French Press I weigh out my coffee pour in the water and I put a timer on my phone for five minutes because that's how long I like it to brew for now when those five minutes Jim I don't go on email I don't go on Instagram I don't scroll the news right in the five minutes whilst I'm waiting for the coffee I do a strength workout in my pajamas right now this is really important why do I do it in my pajamas well I've made it about as easy as possible right I'm in my kitchen I've just I've come down I'm in my pajamas I've got a dumbbell and a kettlebell sitting in my kitchen now sometimes it's body weight sometimes I just do some a few exercises with a kettlebell but before you know it five minutes is up then I put them down and I'm rewarded with my beautiful hot cup of coffee right so why does that work well number one I've made it easy now you've got to make it easy because you know one of the problems that I've seen this with patients over and over again we overly rely on motivation right now motivation is important and I know in your book Limitless you talk about motivation it's one of your M's right so I get that but I'm I think we overly rely on motivation and the scientific research shows us that motivation never stays up forever right that you know BJ calls it the motivation wave right motivation comes up motivation goes down so here's hit the reality that most people I don't think are applying in their life if you make something difficult to do you will do it when your motivation is high okay what's the example of this new year right people wake up on New Year's Day and they decide this year is going to be different this year I'm gonna go spinning four times a week right and they do it for two weeks or three weeks they they actually get it done but then three weeks in something happens Works busy you know in the UK it's raining or it's cold it's dark and you just can't be bothered because it's an hour's spinning class so before you know it the start of February it's something you used to do so the problem is is that you do the behavior when motivations high but when motivations low if the behavior is difficult you don't end up doing it but if you make the behavior easy to do you'll do it when your motivation's high you'll also do it when your motivation's low so the reason I do a five minute workout is because I can never say to myself you'd out of time for five minutes so that's why that's one of the reasons that habit has stuck now for almost four years I've made it easy so that's rule number one rule number two is where do you put that behavior that you want into your life a lot of people don't give this much thought they just say I won't want to work out I want to meditate okay great that's a great intention there's all kinds of benefits for our brains when we do that but they don't think specifically about where am I going to put this in my life now any Behavior we do needs a trigger right any Behavior needs a trigger so a trigger could be on memory right I could remember hey you know I I had a message with Jim a few weeks ago we said on this day we were going to get together and record right memory works it just happens to be the most unreliable trigger that there is so I don't rely on my memory for important things like meeting you on my podcast Studio most people listening don't they have their Google Calendar or it will be written down schedule the important things in their life right so memories are triggered just very unreliable so what's a better trigger than memory a better trigger would be some sort of post it down like a Post-It note on your fridge or a notification on your phone saying hey in an hour's time you've got to meet Jim right that also works but the very best trigger for a behavior as evidenced by the scientific research on Behavior change is when you stick that new behavior on to an existing habit right so your audience may have heard you talk about this before because it works right an existing habit is something you are automatically doing without much conscious thoughts like making coffee like making coffee right so in the morning I don't need a notification to remind me to make coffee I don't need my assistant to phone me at 5 30 or 6 AM say hey wrong and don't forget to make your coffee I don't need my wife to remind me no it's a habit I'm gonna do that so therefore not only am I going to do it I'm gonna enjoy it right so therefore by sticking my workouts onto my coffee habits it happens that's why it happens Monday to Sunday because I don't miss a day on drinking my coffee it's part of my morning routine I love the ritual around it it's quiet time for me so I've made it easy again I don't have to wear any special sports gear I don't need to put on my running shorts I do it in my pajamas what else have I done to make it easy I've I've set my environment up to help me so I used to do just body weight but then a few years ago I put a kettlebell and a dumbbell in the kitchen and I remember my wife and I had a conversation she said are you gonna leave this stuff out in the kitchen can't we just put it in the cupboard or put it in the garage and we actually had a conversation I said hey babe listen if I put that in the cupboards or put it in the garage I'm not going to use it but if it's in the kitchen I'm going to use it all the time and again it's one of those things out of sight is out of mind even if I pick up the weight just to move it out the way so I can get to my coffee by having it there I'm also visually triggering myself each morning to not forget to do it do you have too much to read but too little time are your shelves full of books that you haven't read yet and become shelf help not self-help and that's why I created the quick reading course 15 minutes a day 21 days will absolutely transform your life just go to quickbrain.com forward slash reading use the code podcast 15 and you'll get instant access so it's very simple but let's be really clear about this how many people listening to your show gym know that moving their bodies doing some sort of strength training is going to help their brain it's going to improve blood flow it's going to improve circulation it's going to enhance the release of bdnf brain derived neurotrophic facts I know you've spoken about that many times in the past right yes I hope all of our listeners know all that right so they know that but some of them despite knowing that won't be moving as much as they want so I think oh man I didn't get my movement in today right I want to oh I I hear yeah I've just heard the latest research we start losing muscle mass as soon as we hit 30 our muscle mass starts to go down each year we know that the amount of lean muscle mass we have is one of the main predictors of our longevity right and our health as we get older yet despite knowing that they're still think about strength training as something they're going to do in the future when the time is right when they've got time you know when when somehow miraculously things change when the kids are always in bed on time the email inbox is not going to overflow you know it ain't gonna happen right so go back to your original question is it realistic to change your life in five minutes well I would say yes because I've done this thousands of times with my patients what I've seen what works and what doesn't work you know it's over two decades now that I've been in practice so I've seen tens of thousands of patients and I've seen very few people in my experience managed to turn their lives around completely overnight like very few completely do an overhaul where I'm gonna go and hours jogging every day 20 minutes of meditation every day I've rarely seen it happen the only time I've seen it happen Jim is when there's been a significant life experience you know something like a job loss or there's been a death or someone's girlfriend or boyfriend has split up with them you know something really big and emotional that has caused them to change everything sure you can change your life overnight when that happens but apart from that I just haven't seen it that much I've seen that these small changes actually the ones that add up so in my life as a busy doctor as a busy father as a busy son right as a busy husband I haven't missed a five minute strength workout a day so that means what does that mean that means in a week I'm doing minimum 35 minutes of strength training right and multiply that over four years that's a lot of strength training right but I don't need motivation I've set up a system whereby it happens now the beautiful thing about five minutes is that you know sure some later it'll be four minutes right but on some days I'll have time I'll be feeling good it will be 10 minutes right but the requirement to myself is that I at least do something whilst my coffee is brewing and then you know BJ talks about rewarding yourself for these behaviors well I get the beautiful reward of a hot cup of coffee the way I want it and then I continue my morning routine but just one more thing Jim on that which I really want people to understand is business big business understand the rules of behavior change right they understand it and they apply it so when Amazon went to one click ordering right and I think that was about 10 years ago now estimates say their profits went up by 300 million dollars a year right now why is that well think back to before one click ordering what did you have to do you you scanned you you chose what you wanted then you have to go to a next screen and in the next screen you have to you know confirm a few more things then the next one you type in your car details and the next one you finally place order right three or four steps that you have to take before you can place the order each step is an opportunity to pull out or to procrastinate and not make that order make that purchase they make it easy before you've blinked now before you can click you've got something arriving that evening yes right so Amazon use it I'm not having a go at them right they're a business they're doing what they need to do to maximize profits right Netflix and YouTube why does one video or one episode go into the next episode they understand Behavior change they understand that if at the end of that episode if before you've decided it's midnight I need to go to bed now you know I've got work tomorrow morning I need to get my sleep it's good for my brain If whilst you're trying to make that decision they have sucked you into the next one they know you're going to stay watching so the point I'm trying to make is business knows how to use these rules to get you to buy more or consume more but humans when it comes to making positive lifestyle Behavior choices for ourselves we don't apply those rules we think it's got to be a 30 minute meditation session it's got to be one hour of yoga we think five minutes can't make a difference but it absolutely can and hopefully that's just one of many examples I love it and that's a mindset shift as well you know that belief it's a lie that change can't happen or consistent again happen in just a handful of minutes you know I do believe that if they're using willpower and they're persistent maybe they could achieve it but if they're consistent then they get to keep it yeah and the thing is it's not that that's the only thing I do sometimes I will have a longer workout later on in the day or go for a run but for me those are optional extras yeah these five minute habits just like brushing my teeth it's not optional it happens seven days a week that strength workout happens seven days a week and I know whoever's listening to this and they feel they're too busy to work out right I have adopted this approach with hundreds if not thousands of my patients and I've seen over and over again for the busiest people this works really really well so it's not like I'm not saying don't do anything else anything else is you know it's it's an optional extra but just like I brush my teeth every day I do a strength workout every day now there's two other things I do as part of my morning routine now why do I do it in the morning I share the philosophy that you share I think which is the start of the day and the end of the day are really really important so if we start the day allowing the world to dictate what we think what we do then I think it's no wonder that we end up in a reactive State there's no wonder we end up doing things that we never wanted to do yeah we don't realize I think many of us don't realize how important those opening minutes of the day are again for people who say they're busy right or maybe share a story in a minute about one of my patients who was a single mother I think she had two kids from recollection she would always be rushing around but I helped her create a five minute morning routine that worked for her that really helped lower her stress levels and then reduced how many skin outbreaks she was getting because I strongly felt that stress was driving a lot of her skin problems and so I have this little framework for a morning routine that maybe I'll share with you audience yeah let's do it again you know maybe it sounds ironic as a daughter I don't like giving set prescriptions to people because I understand we're all different we all have different preferences we all have had different experiences with different lifestyle behaviors we all have different cultural backgrounds so I like to create Frameworks that people can then personalize for themselves so the framework I use to create my morning read scene that I use with my patients to help them create theirs is what I call the three M's okay the first term is mindfulness the second m is movement and the third m is mindset right so let's start with the first down mindfulness some form of activity that you enjoy that's going to help you be more mindful okay so it could be meditation it could be breath work it could be journaling if you want like something some form of mindful practice now for me at the moment it's breath work right so I'll get up now I'm early to bed and early to rise that's a choice I've made particularly since I've had children because I realized very early on into my career as a father that I'm a better human being I'm a better dad I'm a better husband I'm a better doctor when I've had time to myself each morning before the family are up and about you know I think there's some self-awareness there that I've learned that I function better when I get up early and have time to myself so I always get up early these days it's about 4 30 or 5. again I'm not saying people have to do this I don't use an alarm clock I naturally wake up then and so I'll come downstairs and I'll do some breath work now I am at a point in my life where I do have a bit more time so it is more than five minutes now for me but it wasn't for many years it was just five minutes and I want to make sure people understand that because you can get benefit in probably less than five minutes even so let's say it was five minutes of breath work okay and there's many practices out there but breathing practice I love is something that I call the three four five breath where you breathe in for three you hold for four and you breathe out for five okay the three four five breath any time that your out breath is longer than your in-breath you help to switch off the sympathetic part of the nervous system the the kind of stress State and you help to promote the parasympathetic State the relaxation States right there's a million breath practices out there you don't have to do this one but for many years this is what I did okay people should find the ones that they enjoy that work for them so the first m is mindfulness right so you choose a practice the second m is movement right so I just shared already my five minute movement practice whilst my coffee is brewing right so I've done my breath work in the living room it comes to the kitchen and make my coffee do my workout whilst the coffee's brewing and then that leaves me nicely onto the third M which is mindset or mindset means for me you could do affirmations if you want but what I like doing I like you I'm a big fan of reading I like to read a positive or an uplifting or a thought-provoking book first thing in the morning so I've I've got the reward of my nice cup of black coffee that I've made the way I like it I've always got three or four books kicking around my kitchen and my living room because I don't want procrastination I don't want to come down in the morning and go oh where are the books or which one shall I read today you know like I said with Amazon and the order every decision you have to make right it's a reason to procrastinate it's a reason to pull out so I've made the choice um to read something and this happens every day this happens seven days a week right again I've automated it I've automated it so I don't need to think and that's why it happens every day so again I I'd encourage people to if they find it useful and of course some people it's not going to resonate with them but for people who do give it a try try that 3M practice in the morning see if you can personalize it for yourself and just to close the loop on that 42 I think she was 42 year old single mother who said she didn't have time I taught her the three M's you know what she did she did one minute a three four five breathing so that was for her for her mind she did two minutes of yoga she just chose some of her favorite moves two minutes of yoga and then for the final mindset she did two minutes of affirmations that was it five minutes total five minutes total right and what that did is it showed her how she could feel she she never knew she didn't experience that feeling of calm and control and she did that first thing in the morning five minutes skin got better stress started going down and a few months later she then expanded that into I think 20 minutes 25 minutes so the reason five minutes are so powerful a it works in and of itself but once you realize how good you can feel with five minute practices very quickly you want more right so you naturally start to do more so yeah I I you know coming back to your first question can you change your life in five minutes absolutely yeah here that's positive proof of it well let's you want to challenge people who are listening or watching this right now what can they do what do you want to challenge them about maybe make a post they could uh tag you they could tag me in it and share what they do yeah you know the first thing I ask them to reflect on is because people who listen to your show Jim are going to be very motivated in general I would say they're wanting to make changes positive changes in our life right so I want everyone listening to think back now and go what was the behavior I tried to bring into my life that I wasn't able to make stick and then think about those two rules that I've just outlined number one you got to make it easy number two you've got to stick onto an existing helmet I bet that the majority of people who weren't able to make that behavior stick were not following at least one of those rules of course not in every case but in most cases I found they made the behavior too hard or they hadn't been intentional about where to put it so first of all reflect on that and then I guess the challenge would be you know what's one thing right let's not make it difficult yeah right there's all kinds of Lifestyle behaviors you're going to hear about on this podcast on Instagram what on social media the problem is we've got too much information these days it's like I need to do yoga and pilates and martial arts and this you can't do it all right pick one thing and apply those two rules break it down to something really really simple and intentionally stick it onto an existing habit maybe borrow my five minute kitchen workout if you want right if you want to it's there's a you want to see what I do there's a video on YouTube called five minute kitchen workout rights but it doesn't matter what you do do your favorite moves whatever it is it doesn't matter and then you know maybe tag you and me on social media let us know what you're doing I love it that's all you have to do and it's just one more thing Jim I just want to say for people who are skeptical about five minutes I spoke to an amazing psychotherapist on my show called Julia Samuel once and she said to me wrong in your book for your bastion5 actually saved one of my patients lives I said what do you mean Julia she said I had a patient who was really bad suicidal in a really really dark place everything felt too much for that individual and I gave them your book and I said just pick one thing and she said it was unbelievable because actually by making it so simple he actually started to do them right he started off with five minutes and you know bit by bit he made other changes and now now he's doing very well yeah right but that was really profound for me because I knew five minutes worked because I've seen it over and over again with myself and my patients but when Julia told me that about one of her suicidal patients I just want to share that because I know someone listening will know someone who is not doing well so please do share those techniques and principles with them it really doesn't need to be hard I love that yeah it could be easy and it can be very doable it's it's interesting I never reflected on this but my when my father comes to visit um you know I'm gonna keep our relationship flourishing and and it's also our health and active we get on table tennis as soon as he comes in he's the trigger for me and we catch up uh because I might have been traveling I don't see him because as often as I like and we just hit back and forth he's the one that taught me Rocket Sports uh you know very early on but you know you could have a conversation and you and I have talked about how it's great uh it's a great way of improving your brain power as well your brain health and so but he did and then I catch up we do it maybe five minutes you know and then we have a very substantial catch up and it means everything everyone get your copy of feel better in five and how can people get the book or how can people stay in touch with you although the book's available you know everywhere all the usual places so if they're interested show you can pick it up and uh whichever country you're in yeah and so they're saying it so to me like become pretty active on social media I guess Instagram would be the main place and you know my podcast is one of the main things I do and I love doing my podcast it's called feel better live more on all the usual podcast platforms and of course on YouTube and your Instagram is what at doctor chatterjeeva so that's d-r-c-h-a-t-t-e-r-j-e-e awesome we'll put all those links to your books to your podcast uh and more at the show notes always at jimquick.com forward slash notes and I want to thank you for joining us for this special podcast oh thank you I I appreciate not only what you do but also the manner in which you do it it means a lot you know you're you're an Unstoppable force of of Nature and inspiring Force for good so thank thank you thanks Jim so everyone uh tune in make sure you subscribe get your copies of the books I always recommend people get three copies of a book one for yourself and two to gift out to others and until our next episode be Limitless [Music]

Channel: Jim Kwik

Views: 199,140

Keywords: Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, feel better in 5 minutes, kwik brain, jim kwik, jim kwik podcast, change your life, simple habits, behavior change

Id: mdOsmLAiDss

Length: 31min 3sec (1863 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023