5.22 // Changing habits, to change my life...

The episode encourages listeners to shift their perspective from traditional New Year’s resolutions to more achievable daily goals. It covers topics like personal and work-related ambitions, the importance of organisation, health management, and the value of self-care in achieving long-term success. 

• Focusing on daily achievable goals instead of rigid resolutions 
• The impact of vague goals on motivation and satisfaction 
• Balancing personal and professional aspirations 
• The significance of organization for productivity 
• Strategies for maintaining health and encouraging positive choices 
• Emphasizing self-care and kindness as keys to success 
• Reflecting on progress and adaptability as part of the journey 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Everyday Goals and Business Plans
• 7:11 Personal Goals and Health Improvements
• 14:58 Personal Growth and Lifestyle Changes

Transcript

Stephen : 0:00

Hello everyone, welcome to well, that's very loud Welcome to Infinite Prattle today. Today I'm going to talk about it's a new year, it's come to the end of the series and I'm going to talk about, like New Year's resolutions, but things to keep every day.

Stephen: 0:13

Really not resolutions, just everyday goals Infinite Drattle, unscripted, unedited prattle on everything hosted by me. Stephen, listen like, share, subscribe and enjoy the show thank you very much for joining me today.

Stephen : 0:42

As usual, ready to prattle on Pepsi Max in hand, still awaiting that sponsorship um, I'll never get it. Will I? I'll never get it, let's. Let's face it. Um, you never know. Be optimistic steven 2025 may bring pepsi max sponsorship. Um, what was I talking about? Oh yes, new year's resolutions is oh, hello. Firstly, especially if it's your first episode. Thank you very much for joining in. I've had a few new followers on Instagram recently, so hopefully they're new listeners or I can entice them to listen.

Stephen : 1:15

Yeah, just, I thought I'd go through like not the usual, like New Year's Resolution stuff, but kind of me and Sarah were talking Sarah's my wife, we were talking about kind of me and Sarah were talking, sarah's my wife. We're talking about kind of new year's resolutions and and I almost don't want to make a new year's resolution I kind of want to make something that's easy, just to follow every day. You know something that is it's kind of a resolution, but things that I can. You know little wins that will end up being big. You know what I mean. Just changing, you know, changing habits to change my life. Oh, there you go. That could be a tagline for something. Maybe that could be the episode. Uh, maybe that could be there. I've forgotten that by the end of recording to make that the episode title. So if that is the episode title, um, congratulate me in the comments.

Stephen : 2:02

Uh, so yeah, I, I never really have new year's resolutions, um, and if I do like, like most people rarely stick to them. I kind of have like a vague one that is easy-ish to follow, generally involves trying to lose some weight or get in shape or improve fitness or travel more. Uh, and, to be fair, that's kind of what it is this year, but it's more to do with. It's more to do with like attaining something every day. So kind of being nice to myself and kind of Sarah's is a bit vague, but I think the vaguer they are, the easier to achieve, so it keeps you driving on. I think sometimes when people, like you know, say like by the end of the year I'm going to have a six-pack, and you know like 30 stone, and I think, well, that's probably gonna take longer than that, you know, fair play if you achieve it. But are you really gonna lose like 15 stone in a year and have a six pack? And you know, I don't know, um, but yeah so.

Stephen : 3:01

So some of my targets, I think, really are just to somewhere based on work, and some are mainly mainly it's personal, because obviously that's kind of where my life is. But unfortunately we live in a we live in a consumer world where we have to go to work and earn money or the majority of us do and so some are work related. So I just wanted to basically tell you my thoughts this on this episode as to what my new year kind of entails, or I hope it will entail. So I'm going to get the first stuff out the way, and that's going to be to with the podcast and my business that I registered for a year ago. Um, I've had no paid business from that. Um, that's a little bit disappointing, but I'm going to try and push that this year. I've not really been making too much of an effort. I've had a couple of quotes done by people or I've done quotes for people. That's how you get business, steven um and they've.

Stephen : 3:55

You know they've not come back me to yet. A couple of them were charities. So, um, I think sometimes, you know they, they don't realize how much things cost or how much time costs for a business, so I don't believe they went anywhere else. That's kind of a good thing that they didn't use me and they didn't go to anyone else. That was undercutting. We never know what this will hold, but I think I'm just going to try and practice my skills in audio engineering. I'm going to try and make some um templated things. So I kind of enjoyed doing the soundscape that I that there's a reason when I really started the business in the first place. I'm trying, I'm going to try and get on some free courses, even some paid courses, and I'm going to try and organize all my audio equipment make make my room really really nice and that's on progress. It always is in progress. I don't know how many times I've mentioned that in this podcast. Um, yeah, I'm gonna try and make some sample stuff. So I'm just gonna record my own sounds, gonna try and make my own library and try, and I'm gonna get sarah maybe to challenge me and come up with like a soundscape to try and do and see if I can go off and achieve that and then basically, you know, produce a little few sample um, sample soundscapes, etc. Just so I can entice people. Um, decks, that was on the show. Um, the voiceover I've been considering maybe doing some voiceover stuff, maybe some voice acting um, not sure how that's going to pan out. I'd like to do some acting in real life as well. So, as long with the band stuff I'd like to, you know, take to stage at some point in 2025. So look into that. Um, I've enjoyed being active in in different things and yeah so.

Stephen : 5:35

So basically, the business stuff, I'm gonna try and ramp up slightly, but not I'm not gonna kill myself to try and do it. You know I've got a full-time job, but my big project commissioned at Christmas, so there's a little bit of heat off me in in the work world as far as the pressures of getting that done. So I'll just move on to another project, but it won't be anywhere near finished normally. Um, so I'm thinking I maybe can focus on my own little business, uh, and just try and create a little portfolio. So that's what I'm going to do there and with the podcast itself, just a part of that business really well, it is part of the business. Um, I'm, I'm, I'm going to definitely push the, the video stuff, um, if it's not podcast episodes, I'm going to do some more vlogs and then hopefully, um, when I get myself organized, it's all going to be part of organizing my shit in my room.

Stephen : 6:25

To be honest, um, it always looks like a disaster area, but we've just had massive wardrobes built so I'm hoping there's a bit of space at the bottom of them so I can I can kind of remove some of the stuff in this room that is just stationary and doesn't do anything at the moment, and then I can. I can then do a bit more work and, um, organizing my stuff. Uh, first, retrievability I've bought some like sliding shelves so I want everything to be on a shelf. Uh, retrievable, so I can just slide the shelf out. Everything's gonna be in like it's, you know, like foam insert trays, so I just grab, grab my gear and I'm gonna have a charging station. It's gonna be cool. When I get it done I'll take some pictures, but I'm hoping it's gonna be pretty cool and it'll look the mutts nuts as they say over here.

Stephen : 7:11

Um, so, yeah, that's kind of like my podcast. You know, what I'm trying also for the podcast is, like you know, get my get my um instagram game and my tiktok game up, um, to try and just get the get the podcast out there a bit more and make a bit more effort in advertising it, doing some voice samples and video samples and clips from the show, just because I am a little bit lazy on that front and I kind of just do the intro bit as the voice. I don't really take anything from the middle bit and I need to do that a lot more to entice people, you know, give them intrigue and maybe think that out and one one. Actually. There's one thing I actually want to run past you guys, regular listeners, so I know I like choose a subject per episode, but what I'm thinking about doing in the off season, when this, when this season, ends, is coming up with a lot of things that I want to talk about, maybe stuff that I want revisit, because I've been feeling that even though I honed the show down to about 20 minutes I know sometimes you run into about 30, but at first it was like up to 30 minutes really and I had the extra speak episodes which were like up to 10, 15 minutes. I kind of want to stick to that 20 minute format. So what I think I'm going to do going forward, and please let me know if you think this is a good idea, because you guys are the ones that are listening to it I think it'll be a good idea for me to get my ideas out and maybe come back and think about stuff and review.

Stephen : 8:35

What I've done is I'm going to pick a topic and I'm just going to probably each episode I will say there's going like one or two topics per episode, but if I don't finish the topic it will roll over into the next episode and then I'll start the topic that came after that but I'll announce another one, you know, and it'll just keep going. So it's like rolling episodes, so it'll be like more episodic than standalone episodes and I just think that might help me a little bit. Rather than try and rush, knowing I've got 20, 25 minutes to fit all this stuff into a subject and going back and forth, it'll allow me to go. You know what. I'll just pick this up next time and if it's five minutes of the next episode, that's all I need, then it's all I need. But if it's. If it's another half an episode or a full episode, then that's what it is and I'll just go through that. So I'll probably just say, right, these are the topics this year and I'll tick them off as I come to them. Let me know if you think that's a good idea. I think that for me will help the show. It might help retention. I think it will help me maybe get to the crux of what I'm trying to say, because I do prattle, I do ramble. That's the show. You get what you came here for, um, but I think it will maybe help assist me in a bit of review, reflection and coming back on and answering some of my own questions from the previous episode as well, um, or it might enable me to get through three short subjects in an episode. So yeah, so then there's.

Stephen : 10:08

So there's like the businessy, podcasty stuff out of the way and with work, there's a few courses I want to go on to. I'm booked on Nebosh, which is a health and safety course. I just want to expand my knowledge and push the boundaries of myself and be a little bit more organised and look after myself a bit more at work as well. I'm pretty good in the job. I've got that I can separate myself stuff out a little bit. Christmas was a bit mad because I was on call and stuff and it kind of throws you out when you're on call for anyone that's done on call it's it's not the best. And I was also doing shift work as well. I've not done that in a couple of years. So doing odd nights was was. It was hard because it was like a night shift, then the day shift shift, then back to a night shift, then a couple of days on call, then back to a night shift. So that wasn't easy. It's never easy when you're used to it, to be fair. So I think I'm just going to try and learn more, keep an open mind, push myself a bit more and try and get some learning done from other departments as well. Try and see if I can go and embed myself with some different departments to see a different world of the railway and not keep myself in my own little cupboarded area. So more personal goals aside from personal job, work, job.

Stephen : 11:33

And is losing weight. And I've said this before, I'm a chunky guy. I've always been a little chunky. I always thought I was fat at college, but I apparently wasn't when you look back at photographs, like I definitely wasn't fat I don't think I didn't have a sick pack by any means, but I always felt like I had a massive fat belly still and I really didn't. You look at pictures of me and I'm like, yeah, you weren't ripped, but you weren't fat dude, like now I'm fat. So I already said, like when I lost all the wedding for the fat, when I lost all the fat for the wedding, should I say I said I wasn't going to put it back on and I kept it off. Quite well, well, put a little bit back on, but it was, it was good. Like Sarah was actually happy I put a bit back on. She thought I'd gone a bit too slim, which I disagreed with. I quite liked how I looked, but uh, she liked me a little bit chunkier. So when I put like about three, about half a stone, three quarters of a stone, back on, she was like no, stay that way, that's cool.

Stephen : 12:26

And then, unfortunately, transferring to this job two and a half years ago, um has just killed me. Like really, um, it's quite a mental job really. Uh, I sit very, very still all day, if I'm honest with you, and a lot of meetings, either in person or on on Microsoft Teams. Uh, other video messaging services are available. Um, and yeah, it's just, I've just been a bit lazy in my personal life doing exercise. Um, with my previous job, even though I'll be sitting down quite a lot, I also moved around quite a lot more as well. Um, it's amazing how much that little bit of walking, that little bit of a little bit of exercise, really really helps out. And I've probably put about I'd hate to say probably about three stone on.

Stephen : 13:21

A lot of my clothes don't fit so I've had to buy new clothes and I hate that. And the reason I hate it is because I hate it, because it's my fault as well. It's like a simple thing like you just don't put stuff on your face or you go for a walk. You know as well. It's like a simple thing like you just don't put stuff in your face or you go for a walk, and you know the little stresses of life and and and stuff with Sarah even sometimes restricts me to do stuff and I'm not I'm not saying that's an excuse or holding it against her, it's just that that's just how life is sometimes. But we both have made the the kind of pledge to be better to ourselves and and not restrict ourselves with food, but just eat, eat better and try not to snack and um, yeah, hopefully, hopefully that'll come out. Um, I don't know. You can hear in the background my dog's barking. That's coming over on the microphone. He's, I'm guessing, someone's delivering something. Can you hear that?

Stephen : 14:09

I don't know. I don't know how well this might, but I've got some, uh, some features to cut noise out. But, uh, I think it might be coming out, I'm not sure. Anyway, um, he hates the postman. I'm guessing it was the postman. Uh, yeah, so we just, we just kind of both made the pledge you know to to get a little bit trimmer.

Stephen : 14:28

I definitely wanted to lose the weight that I've put on. I've got lots of nice clothes on to wear loads of t-shirts that I can't get into anymore. Well, I can get into, but they're very, very tight and I don't like that look. I would like, even when I was slimmer, I would maybe wear a tighter t-shirt Because I was like you know, I am slimmer. I don't feel comfortable enough with it. I still didn't really like it. Um, I do like a little bit of loose fit to my t-shirts and there's quite a few stuff I can't fit into. So I know that's just health reasons as well. You know, obviously I've put three stone on, probably I don't even know, I don't even know how much away. I just know that I've got a beer belly, as they say, or a fat belly, um, and I need to lose that. So that that's. That's a big thing, but again, it's not really a new year's resolution as such. I'm just going to make a daily effort to not snack as much and just be more active. So if that means like walking to work or walking to the shops more, um, taking the dog out more, which will benefit him, um, it's just little things like that and hopefully building on them habits, you know, more and more and more will mean that there's a positive outcome, and that's pretty much sarah said as well. Um, and I'm just gonna be kind of, I'm gonna try and be kinder to myself in the sense of and I hate, I hate that phrase sometimes when people go oh, be kind, look after yourself, blah, blah. But you have to, you know you have to.

Stephen : 15:54

And I have a massive thing about not relaxing when Sarah's here, and this sounds ridiculous. I think I've spoke about it before, but I feel like I can't do the things I want to do when she's in the house. So when she goes away on holiday without me, she's out at work, or even when she's out at work, it doesn't really help me because I know that she's going to come back in or I need to unpick her up and I can't really relax or start a job knowing that there's a time restriction on me. So generally, when she's in hospital even though it's stressful the fact that she's in hospital ill it's the biggest time when I relax because I know that she's not returning home and it's it. There's a time, there's a definite time scale there, because she only goes in for two weeks and that sounds really weird. So I'm gonna try to manage that myself and maybe get some counseling.

Stephen : 16:47

I I I'm not one to consider counseling I. I know people say it helps, but I've never thought it would. But I've got to see if I can manage it myself and if I can't, then I am seriously going to consider it. I get free counselling and stuff through my job, so I'm thinking it's not coming out of my pocket. I'm in a health insurance kind of scheme as well, so I can get free help through that as well. So I'm thinking that that might help me, you know, gather my thoughts and maybe help me in other ways as well. There's definitely something there that probably needs looking at.

Stephen : 17:30

It really does restrict me being creative and getting getting stuff done in general, really, really, really does. I don't know if that's linked to another condition or anything like that. You know I've said before that potentially have autism or adhd is probably the latter um, but there's a really big blocker sometimes and it's generally to do with sarah being in the house or needing me and, um, yeah, I, I need to. I need to address that, either either personally myself trying to do something, um, and being being like trying to be less harsh on myself, or, you know, just just seeking some help. I think, um, anyway, um, another thing I'm trying to do is we're just trying to do more my hobbies kind of links to it. It's just like do my hobbies a bit more, practice, my practice, my hobbies more, um, and hopefully getting this room organized will help that. So there's a big push on that organization side of it and I'm putting these wardrobes when I get them finished I'm still bloody painting them when I get them finished. I think that'll really help, um.

Stephen : 18:39

But you say I'm not really one for new year's resolutions. I'm thinking these things are little things I can do, so I think they're quite reasonable, um, and I don't really want to call them new year's resolutions, it's just things I think I can achieve. Let's say, a daily, a daily achievable thing. So each day I want to be able to say um, I chose not to eat that, or I chose to have an alternative healthy snack, or I did eat healthily today, or I as well, maybe not just, it's an and or it's. I also went for a walk, or I ate that chocolate bar, but I went, I went and did an hour on the excise bike. Uh, because I've cracked that open, that's, that's now in the dining room ready to be used.

Stephen : 19:29

Um, so yeah, I think I think these different things will combine and hopefully each one of them will spur me on for another thing. So you know, my mindset of getting stuff done in the house will give me a positive outlook which will spur me on for another thing. So you know, my mindset of getting stuff done in the house will give me a positive outlook which will make me want to exercise or eat healthy, and eating healthy will make me want to exercise and the exercise I want to make me eat healthy. So it's like a triangle of success. I'm hoping, but I don't know. I don't know. Um, but the white thing definitely has to happen, because it's not good for my health. I know I'm out of breath more. I definitely feel less fit, less flexible. Um yeah, and I'm getting to that age now where I can't afford that. I'm 41 and this is a this is a bad time, probably for being unfit.

Stephen : 20:12

You know, there's a lot of things happening in life with you when you start getting older and I think I've got to accept that now I feel in my brain like I'm still 20, but I'm definitely not um yeah and I think that I think that sums it up.

Stephen : 20:26

Really. I think if I stick to all them things you know, success will happen and, um, we shall see what 2025 comes. Oh, and travel as well. I definitely want to get out there and I'm definitely going to book a few of them holidays that we've been putting off and get them booked in and paid for. Yeah, what's your plans for 2025? Do you believe in New Year's resolutions or do you hold a daily target and try and get that into a habit which becomes part of your life, which is what I'm hoping for? Let me know in the comments and, as always, thank you very much for listening and until next time, keep Prattling.

Stephen: 21:10

You've been listening to Infinite Dreadle. Thanks for listening. If you liked this episode, go back and listen to some others and please continue to listen. Your support is much appreciated. Please like, share, comment and subscribe and I'll speak to you all again soon. Take care, thank you.