Coach Will: What is good, and happy 2026. I am so excited for this year. I just, like I said, have a feeling that you're gonna bring a new energy, a new mindset, a fresh perspective, more motivation, more confidence into this new year. And I have a feeling you're gonna actually surprise yourself with what you are gonna accomplish. And so, the fact that you guys are listening in to this, thank you so much.
You're spending, you know, a couple minutes with me on the January, or maybe you're listening to this down the road too. But thanks for thanks for, like, stopping by and and listening to this. It really it really means a lot. And we're gonna dive into today six different micro habits that you can follow in order to make 2026 the best year ever. Obviously, you know, there's more that goes into making a year the best year of your entire life than just like one or two small things.
But the reason I wanna start off 2026 with this content is because most of us believe that we've gotta make these huge drastic changes in order to change our life, in order to grow in our confidence, order to hit these big goals that we have. But in reality, the more that I have, you know, been successful and surrounded myself with successful people, however you want to define success, right, the more I realized that confidence and success comes from stacking really small things. I'm not, bro, I won't even say small things. I'm saying micro things. Like we want to do micro habits that lead to, you know, good feelings.
And so that's what I'm talking about today. We're talking about six of them. The very first one is probably my favorite and I've talked about this quite a few times in certain episodes. But it's one thing that I've been trying to focus on more so in the last couple of weeks than before and that is taking cold showers. And I know what you're thinking.
When I hear cold and shower back to back into, you know, two words next to each other, I'm like, heck no, there's no way that I'm doing that because I like my showers warm. I get cold in the morning, especially in the winter, and I like to be really comfortable, but that's the whole point. What if I told you that the thing that's holding you back so much in school and in sports and in your relationships is the fact that we are too comfortable. So, cold showers or cold plunges or whatever you guys want to do, but cold showers is probably the easiest, most tangible. What it teaches your brain is how to do hard things when you don't feel like it.
Right? How to do hard things when you don't feel like it. And so if you start your day, and I know this sounds like such a life coach y thing, to say, but it really did change my life. I I promise you, this changed my life. When you can start your day with ten seconds of getting outside your comfort zone and doing something difficult when you don't feel like it, you are going to be more likely to do those things throughout the rest of the day.
And so that is the reason why you gotta focus on it and the the reason why it's not just a cold shower that it impacts. It impacts your entire being and your entire day. And when you can start your day doing that, then you're gonna be more likely to do it throughout the day. You're gonna be more likely to do it throughout the week, the month, and of course, in 2026 too. Not to mention it wakes you up.
Okay. It wakes you up. So turn your shower hot like you usually do. And then in the last ten seconds, turn it cold and slowly work your way up to doing like, I don't know, whole entire shower cold. All right.
So that's the very first one. Take cold showers. The second one, this is really important and one that I actually kind of stink at, that's my big intention for 2026 and that is no screens before bed and right after you wake up. So, what I'm kind of calling these in my own life is golden hours, even though it's not an hour, it's like thirty minutes. It's like a golden hour, I guess, throughout the entire day.
So, thirty minutes right when you wake up. I just want you to think about it. What do you usually do right when you wake up? If you're like most people, you pick up your phone and you just start scrolling. Maybe you tell yourself that the blue light helps you wake up, which might actually be true because that's what I tell myself and it is true.
But bro, what we are doing when we do that is we give everybody out there, whether it's people that are rage baiting you on purpose on social media, it could be your friends, it could be your, I don't know, your grandma on Facebook talking politics or spirituality, whatever. You're giving everybody on social media power over your mind in the first thirty minutes. How you start your day in the same way the cold showers start your day for success. If you're starting the day anxious and rage baited, bro, you're gonna go throughout the day feeling anxious and rage baited. You're gonna be mad.
You're not going to start your day with positive vibes. Okay? So, the very first thirty minutes of your day, I mean, you can think about what else is gonna help you, you know, wake up or whatever. But my opinion, if you have your phone on the other side of the room, then it's really hard to start your day scrolling because you're literally, you know, not on your phone when you wake up. But it's also easier to stay off your phone for the thirty minutes before you go to bed, which is the second kind of part to this is put away your phone.
Because when you end that day with other people yapping in your ear and rage baiting you and all this dopamine flooding in from Mr. Beast videos or whatever it is, then you're not gonna sleep very well. Okay? So, sleep is super, super important. Thirty minutes right after you wake up, thirty minutes before you go to bed, micro habit that's gonna lead to the best twenty twenty six of your entire life or I should say best year of your entire life.
The third one, affirm when things go well. Okay? Affirm yourself when things go well. This is something that I haven't really made too many episodes about at all and it's something that I'm realizing has such a huge impact in my confidence with everything. We so often fixate on what's going poorly.
Right? We so often look at all the things that we didn't do well. I talked to a couple of students the other day who took finals in December and they got a 93% or they got a 89% and they are so hyper fixated on the seven or the 11% that they didn't get right. Their parents are too, by the way, so if you're a parent listening to this, like this is also you, that you missed the eighty nine, the 93% that you did get right. And so what does that do for our brain?
Well, we get what we focus on. If we're focused and we're thinking about all the things that we're not doing well, we're going to continue to not do things well or we're gonna continue to hyper fixate on the things that make us feel kinda crappy. But if we get what we focus on, then the opposite obviously also is true. Right? If you're focusing on the 93% that you did do well, then your energy is going to be far more positive, which will breed far better actions, which will lead to better results.
And so you get what you focus on. When things go well, affirm and validate that things are going well. If you get a good grade on a test, I'll just make this super tangible, if you get a good grade on a test, say, I'm really smart, I worked really hard to get this grade on a test, I got a 93%, which means 93% of the questions I got right. Okay? So affirm the things that are going really, really well.
Number four, and this is a really easy one. No, I shouldn't say this is easy. This is very simple, but it's not easy. And that's putting your freaking phone, your dang phone across the room when you're trying to do homework. Y'all would be so amazed at how good you are at time management if you simply put your phone on the other side of the room.
Alright? You don't have a focus problem as much as you have a distraction problem. They're kind of hand in hand or they definitely are hand in hand, but you'd be amazed at how well you can focus if you just simply put your phone on the other side of the room. We in Unstoppable You Coaching, when we're working with, you know, all the students one on one, we make them put it in a box. Like, if you have a box in your house, it could be any type of box.
It could be a drawer. It could be, you know, a cabinet. It can be the glove box in your parents' car, whatever it is, put your phone in that box. And again, you'll be amazed at how well you can focus because when it's not right next to your workspace and your desk, it obviously makes it really hard to scroll. Alright?
So when you make scrolling harder and you create friction, then everything's gonna be easier in life. Alright? So that's like, that's a skill and a practice that I feel like will be beneficial for probably the next a hundred years or whatever it may be. Alright? So, that is number four.
Number five, okay, this is once again to do with school. I promise you I don't just yap on about school in these podcast episodes, Chad, but the fifth one is to check your grades often. And I know this sounds really crazy, and as somebody who did not do very well in school, as somebody who hated, with a passion, checking my grades more often, I would have been very close minded to this. I'm not gonna lie. I would have been very close minded, but I just want you to try this for like a couple of weeks.
Because when you check your grades more often, it's just top of mind. Right? You start to see missing assignments, which I know can make you feel really crappy about yourself. But again, this is just the perspective that we're having in 2026 that yes, you're gonna have missing assignments. You're gonna have tests that you don't do well in.
If you're checking your grades every day, I'm not talking about like two times a week, I'm talking five, six, seven times a week. If you're checking your grades, it's top of mind. When I, kind of, you know, transition from, you know, my college days to being an entrepreneur, I started checking my bank account every single day. And for the last five years of, you know, living, I've been checking my bank account every single day. Not because I'm obsessed with the number in my bank account, but because it just keeps it top of mind of what I'm working towards.
If I'm working towards a specific amount in a bank account or if I'm working towards some, you know, grade or GPA in school, then again, you get what you focus on. If it's top of mind, you're going to be more likely to take those actions that reflect and that, that, align with your goal than if you just forget about your grades or forget about your bank account, you know, for, you know, two or three weeks. Alright. So, that's the fifth micro habit. Again, that takes like four seconds unless WiFi is slow.
Then it might take like ten seconds. But, Chad, you've got like ten seconds that can really set your your your your semester or your year up for success. It doesn't take a lot of time. And then the last one is probably the one that takes the longest amount of time, but I still wanna call it a micro habit, and that is to reflect on Sundays. Okay?
So every Sunday, spend twenty minutes reviewing your week. Ask yourself what went well, what didn't go well, what do I need to do? One thing, I'm not talking 10 things. I'm like, what's one thing that I can do to improve grades, improve my sports results? What's one thing, like one habit or system that I can start doing this week that I didn't do last week or maybe I was inconsistent with last week?
What's one thing that I need to continue doing? Right? So put it, patting yourself on the back and saying, hey, amazing job. I did this last week. I wanna keep doing it this week.
So those are those are some questions. What's going well? What's not going well? What can I start doing? What can I keep doing in order to be, you know, more, you know, more successful version of myself and actually hit the goals that I have for 2026?
Alright? So, those are six different things. The nice thing is you don't need to do all six of them. Dude, you don't even need to do all five of them or five of them. You could only do one or two of these things, and bro, you're gonna have a better 2026.
I promise you. If it's like, if you're like, well, I don't know which ones to do. I'm just gonna pick two of them for you. Okay? So, whoever's listening to this, I'm just gonna pick two of them.
Bro, I think that if you have no screens thirty minutes before and after bed, So, no screens before you fall asleep and no screens right after you wake up. And also, you do your Sunday reflections. Just picking two random ones, okay? Because if you guys have decision fatigue and you're like, bro, I just need you to tell me what to do, do those two things and I promise you, you're gonna have a better 2026. Thanks so much for tuning in everybody.
I hope you guys have the best week. Alright? Go and crush it. And most importantly, just understand, crazy life change does not happen with crazy big actions. Sometimes it does, but those crazy big actions are usually rooted with a bunch of small consistent things.
Love you guys lots. I'll talk to you soon. Peace.
