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

Can you

change

your

life

in five

minutes

? Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is the host of one of my favorite health shows. Big companies understand the rules of behavior, they

change

why they understand them and apply them, but once you realize how good you can feel with five

minutes

. very quick minute practices want more welcome back to the quick brain podcast I'm

your

host and your brain coach quick Jim and uh the topic we're going to talk about today is how to feel better in five minutes this could also be how to have a brain better in five minutes because I think you know I feel better we're talking about mental health which starts with brain health and we definitely have an expert here on his podcast Studio Dr.

Rangan Chatterjee it's so good to be here with you. the presenter of one of my favorite health shows, he is the biggest in the UK and all over Europe, he has written five best selling books and I want to talk about here, I have a couple here, I have a happy mind, a happy

life

, which was really good and this thing I haven't actually read is feeling better in five more thirty-five minute tips to lose weight improve sleep and move more thanks for being on the show Jen. I'm very excited, it's exciting to meet him. Over the past few hours, I've really enjoyed our chats on my podcast and I'm a big fan of your work.

Yes, this was a long time coming. We've been talking about doing each other's shows for quite a few years. Yes, I'm glad, thank you. You, it's so so now that we're in your studio and we've been learning about the power of our own brains, you know, and maintaining good mental health, and I wanted to have you on my show because you've been on our team, uh. bucket list to have you on the show when you wrote uh feel better in five it's that realistic like you're a busy man right, you have your business, you have your family well, we talked about juggling and we're all juggling you know what you're doing and it's really possible to isolate five minutes and how and for happiness and health yeah 100 look, it sounds a bit like a trick, isn't it five minutes?

But if I think about my own life and how I've managed to take care of my brain, my body, my heart while being, you know, married, two young kids, a busy job, as well as my job as a doctor, you know, I write a book at the same time. year, I host a podcast. I have also worried for many years. for my elderly parents, so I understand what it feels like to be busy, but I have always found a way to take care of myself through that busyness and one of the things that I always found with patients is that they will always tell me bad and 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 know that if we brush our teeth for two minutes in the morning and two minutes at night, which I hope everyone listening to the show right now does. Yes, please do it. We know that four minutes a day of brushing your teeth will generally maintain your dental hygiene for life. Sure they'll get a checkup and it might need a little polishing and cleaning, whatever, but generally what we don't do is go, oh, I'm too busy on Monday. You know, I don't have time to brush.

Work busy. I have to choose. the kids get up on Tuesday Wednesday, we don't do that and then we go, oh, the weekend on Sunday, I'm going to do a deep cleaning of my teeth for an hour, we don't do that, you know, anyone who's listening now You know what that sounds like. It's ridiculous, though, when it comes to behavioral changes for our health and our brain, right? We make it too hard, we make it too hard. People think that five minutes is not enough so they stop doing anything that might help them and that's why they try.

There is nothing wrong with taking a one-hour walk on the weekend or a one-hour yoga session, but in my opinion it is not a substitute for daily practices that can help you and these practices do not need to take a lot of time, just as than brushing teeth. I take four minutes a day. I do strength training every day. I haven't missed a day for maybe three or four years and I would say it has nothing to do with motivation, it's because I have applied the principles of behavior change in my life, and many times we don't follow those principles, those rules. when it comes to ourselves, so I will first explain the behavior.

How do I do this right? I have a morning routine. which you can maybe get into if you want, but one component of that morning routine is a five-minute strength workout, so how do I do it right? There are two rules of behavior change, I mean, in the book there are my six rules, but the two rules that I think I would love to share with people are number one, you have to make it easy, yeah, sure, so, what? why should you make it easy? You know that you and I are good friends with Professor BJ Fogg, you know?

The world's leading experts and behavior change from Stanford. We had a great talk a few years ago because the really cool thing about our conversation was that the things I had discovered through seeing patients, he discovered through research, so our conversations together were beautiful. It was kind of a meeting of my clinical experience and BJ's scientific research and we basically came to the same conclusion that these small habits done consistently are the way most people make changes correctly, so the reason The reason I do my training every day is because it is not just one. An hour workout is not a 30 minute workout, it's five minutes even on my busiest days.

I can't say I don't have time, I do have five minutes, so what do I do? One of the things I do in my morning routine is I go into my kitchen and now I make coffee. I am very particular about the way I prepare coffee. I like the ritual around it. I like a specific type of coffee, so I pull out my French press. I weigh my coffee, I pour it in water and I set 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 use email, I don't go on Instagram, I don't watch the news directly in the five minutes while I wait for coffee I do strength training in my pajamas right now this is very important why do I do it in my pajamas?

Well I've made it as easy as possible right now I'm in my kitchen I just came down I'm in my pajamas I have a dumbbell and a kettlebell in my kitchen now sometimes it's body weight sometimes I just do some exercises with a kettlebell but first before you realize five Minutes are up, I leave them and am rewarded with my beautiful hot cup of coffee. So why does it work well? Number one. I've made it easy, now you have to make it easy because you know one of the Problems that I have seen with patients over and over again, we rely too much 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, so I understand, but I think.

We rely too much on motivation and scientific research shows us that motivation never stays high forever. Well, you know, BJ calls it the wave of motivation. The right motivation arises. Low motivation. So here we run into the reality that most people I don't think are applying. their lives, if you do something difficult to do, you will do it when your motivation is high, okay? What is the example of this new year? People wake up on New Year's Day and they decide this year is going to be different this year I'm going to tour four times a week and they do it for two or three weeks and they really do it, but then three weeks in, Something happens.

Work busy, you know, in the UK it's raining or cold, it's dark and you just can't. Don't worry because it's a one-hour spin class, so before you know it, in early February, it's something you used to do, so the problem is that you do the behavior when motivation is high, but when motivation is low, if the behavior is difficult, you don't finish. "You stop doing it, but if you make the behavior easy to do, you will do it when your motivation is high and you will also do it when your motivation is low, so the reason I do a five-minute workout is because I can never telling myself, "I ran out of time for five minutes, so that's one of the reasons the habit has stuck 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 in your life? In life, many people don't think much, they just say: I don't want to exercise. I want to meditate. Okay, great, great intention. There are all kinds of benefits for our brain when we do it, but they don't. I think specifically about where I'm going to put this in my life now. Any behavior we do needs a trigger. Any behavior needs a trigger. Therefore, a trigger could be in memory. I can remember. Hey you know?

I had a message with Jim a few weeks ago. Some time ago we said that on this day we were going to gather and record the correct memory. It turns out that it's the least reliable trigger there is, so I don't trust my memory for important things like meeting you on my podcast Studio, most people. Listening, don't you have your Google Calendar or will it be written down? Time the important things in your life correctly so that memories are triggered very unreliably. So what's a better trigger than memory? A better trigger would be some type of post like a sticky note on your refrigerator or a notification on your phone that says, "Hey, you have to meet with Jim in an hour," that works too, but the best trigger for a behavior , as scientific research on behavior change shows, is when you attach that new behavior to an existing habit so that your audience has heard you talk about it before because it works well.

An existing habit is something you are doing automatically without much conscious thought, like making coffee so in the morning. I don't need a notification to remind me to make coffee. I don't need my assistant to call me at 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. m. Say hello badly and don't forget to prepare your coffee. I don't need my wife to remind me. no, it's a habit, I will do it, so not only will I do it, but I will enjoy it well, therefore, by combining my workouts with my coffee habits, it happens, that's why it happens from Monday to Sunday, because I don't let I don't drink coffee for even a day, it's part of my morning routine.

I love the ritual that surrounds it. It's a quiet time for me, so I've made it easy again. I don't have to use any special sports equipment. I don't need to. I put on my running shorts. I do it in pajamas. What else have I done to make it easier? I've set up my environment to help me, so I used to do just body weight, but a few years ago I put a kettlebell and a dumbbell in the kitchen and I remember my wife and I had a conversation and she said, are you going to leave this stuff on? the kitchen?

Can't we just put them in the closet or garage? And we actually had a conversation I said hey babe listen if I put that in the closets or I 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 off-the-shelf things. sight is out of mind, even if I lift the weight just to move it so I can drink my coffee by having it there, I'm also activating myself visually every morning so I don't forget to do it, do you have? too much to read but too little time, your shelves are filled with books you haven't read yet and they become help, not self-help, and that's why I created the speed reading course, 15 minutes a day, 21 days, will transform absolutely your life.

Go to Quickbrain.com to read the slash, use the code podcast 15 and you'll get instant access, so it's very simple, but let's be very clear about this. How many people who listen to your gym program know that moving your body does some type of strength training? It's going to help your brain It's going to improve blood flow It's going to improve circulation It's going to improve the release of bdnf brain-derived neurotrophic facts I know you've talked about that many times in the past, yes, I hope all of our listeners know that. all good so they know, but some of them, despite knowing that, won't move as much as they want, so I guess oh man, I didn't get my move right today.

I want oh, I heard, yeah. I just heard the latest research: we start losing muscle mass as soon as we hit 30, our muscle mass starts to decrease every year. We know that the amount of lean muscle mass we have is one of the main predictors of our longevity and our health. We still get older even though we know they still think of strength training as something they are going to do in the future when the time is right when they have time you know when when somehow miraculously things change when the kids are always on the bed on time the trayemail inbox is not going to overflow you know it's not going to happen well so go back to your original question is it realistic to change your life in five minutes?

Well, I would say yes because I have done this thousands of times with my patients I have seen what works and what doesn't work. You know, I've been in practice for over two decades, so I've seen tens of thousands of patients and I've seen very few people. In my experience, I managed to change their lives completely overnight, as very few do a complete overhaul where I'm going to go and run for hours every day, 20 minutes of meditation every day. I've rarely seen it happen, the only time I've seen it. It happens Jim is when there has been a major life experience, you know, something like losing a job or there has been a death or someone's girlfriend or boyfriend has broken 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 other than that, I haven't seen much of it. I have seen that these small changes are actually what add up. my life as a busy doctor as a busy father as a busy son as a busy husband I haven't missed a single five minute strength workout a day so that means what does it mean? That means that in a week I am doing a minimum of 35 minutes. "There's a lot of strength training and multiply it over four years, that's a lot of strength training, but I don't need motivation.

I've created a system by which it happens now. The beautiful thing about five minutes is that you know for sure that something later happens". It'll be four minutes, but some days I'll have time, I'll feel good, it'll be 10 minutes, but the requirement for me is that I at least do something while the coffee is brewing and then you know, BJ talks about rewarding yourself for these behaviors, well, I get the beautiful reward of a cup of coffee hot the way I want and then I continue with my morning routine, but just one more thing, Jim, what I really want people to understand is that big business understands the rules of behavior they change and they understand it and they apply it so when Amazon did one click ordering and I think that was about 10 years ago now estimates say their profits are up by $300 million a year at this point why is that so?

Back to before you click to order What did you have to do? You scanned, you chose what you wanted, then you have to go to the next screen and on the next screen you have to confirm a few more things and then on to the next one. Write your car details and next finally place the order successfully. Three or four steps you need to follow before you can place your order. Each step is an opportunity to retreat or procrastinate and not make that request. Make the purchase they make. it's easy before you've blinked now before you can click you have something coming that night yeah right so Amazon uses it.

I'm not going to try, right, they are a business and they are doing what they have to do. To maximize profits, Netflix and YouTube, why does a video or episode go to the next episode? They understand the change in behavior, they understand that if at the end of that episode, if you decided earlier that it was midnight, I need to go to bed, you know. I have work tomorrow morning. I need to sleep, it's good for my brain. If while you're trying to make that decision they've sucked you into the next one, they know you're going to be staring, so the point is, I'm trying to get the business to know how to use these rules to get you to buy more or consume more, but humans, When it comes to making positive lifestyle choices, we don't apply those rules, we think it has to be a 30 minute time frame. meditation session has to be an hour of yoga we believe five minutes can't make a difference but it absolutely can and I hope it's just one of many examples.

I love it and that is also a change of mentality. You know, that belief is a lie. Change cannot happen or happen again consistently in just a few minutes. You know, I think if they use willpower and are persistent, maybe they can achieve it, but if they are consistent, then they can maintain it, yes. and the thing is, it's not like that's the only thing I do, sometimes I do a longer workout later in the day or go for a run, but for me those are optional extras, yeah, these five minute habits, like brushing Teeth are not optional.

It happens seven days a week, that strength training happens seven days a week and I know whoever is listening to this feels like he's too busy to exercise properly. I've taken this approach with hundreds, if not thousands, of my patients and I've seen time and time again for the busiest people, this works very, very well, so it's not like I'm saying not to do anything else, you know. , it's an optional extra, but just like me I brush my teeth every day. a strength workout every day now there are two other things that 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 what is the beginning and the end of the day. really very important, so if we start the day allowing the world to dictate what we think and what we do, then I think it's no wonder we end up in a reactive state, no wonder we end up doing things we never wanted to do, Yeah. I don't realize I think a lot of us don't realize how important those first few minutes of the day are for people who say they're busy or maybe share a story in a minute about one of my patients who was a single mother.

I think she had two kids, as I remember, she was always on the run, but I helped her create a five-minute morning routine that worked for her and really helped her reduce her stress levels and then reduced the number of skin breakouts that she had. I had because I felt strongly that stress was causing a lot of your skin problems, so I have this little framework for a morning routine that you might share with your audience. Yes, let's do it again. Maybe it sounds ironic as a daughter. I don't like giving set. prescriptions to people because I understand that we are all different, we all have different preferences, we have all had different experiences with different lifestyles, we all have different cultural backgrounds, so I like to create frameworks that people can then personalize, so the framework that I use to create my morning reading 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 right mindset, so let's start with the first mindfulness. some form of activity that you enjoy that will help you be more mindful, okay, so it could be meditation, it could be breath work, it could be journaling, if you want something like some form of mindful practice, now for me, in this Moment, it's breath work, right?

So I'll get up now. I go to bed early and get up early. That's a choice I've made especially since having children, because very early in my career as a parent I realized that I am a better human being. Being that I'm a better father, I'm a better husband, I'm a better doctor when I have time to myself every morning before the family gets up and, you know, I think there's a certain self-awareness that I have. I 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 around 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, so I'll go down and do some breathing. I'm at a point in my life now where I have a little more time, so it's more like five minutes for me now, but it wasn't like that. For many years it was just five minutes and I want to make sure people understand that because you can get benefits in probably less than five minutes, still let's say it was five minutes of breath work, okay and there are a lot of practices out there, but practice of breathing.

I love it's something I call the three four five breath where you inhale for three, hold for four and exhale for five. Well, the three four five breath, whenever your exhale is longer than your inhalation, you help turn off the sympathetic part of the nervous system, the stress type of state, and you help promote the parasympathetic state, the relaxation states. There are a million breathing practices out there, you don't have to do this one, but for many years this is what I did well, people should find the ones that they like and that work for them, so the first m is mindfulness , so you choose a practice, the second m is movement, so I already shared my five minute movement practice while my coffee brews.

I've done my breath work in the living room, I go to the kitchen and make my coffee, I do my exercise while the coffee is brewing and then that leaves me on the third M, which is mindset or mindset means that for me you could do affirmations if you want, but what I like to do, I like, I'm a big fan of reading. I like to read a positive, uplifting or thought-provoking book first thing in the morning, so I'm rewarded with my nice cup of black coffee that I've brewed just the way I like it. I always have three or four books hanging around in my kitchen and living room because I don't want to procrastinate.

I don't want to go down in the morning. and see, oh, where are the books or which one should I read today? You know, like I said with Amazon and decluttering, every decision that you have to make right is a reason to procrastinate, it's a reason to quit, so I made the decision um read something and this happens every day this happens all seven days. of the week 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 would encourage people if they find it useful and of course some people it won't resonate but for people who try it, try that 3M practice in the morning and see if you can personalize it for yourself and just come full circle on that 42.

I think I was a 42-year-old single mom who said she didn't have time. I taught her the three M's, you know what she did, she did one minute, three, four, five breathing, so that was for her, for her mind, she did two minutes of yoga, she just picked some of her favorite moves, two minutes. of yoga and then for the final mindset, she did two minutes of affirmations, that was, five minutes total, five minutes total, and what that did is it showed her how she could feel that she never knew that she didn't experience that feeling. of calm and control and he did that first thing in the morning, five minutes, the skin improved, the stress started to go down and a few months later he extended it to I think 20 minutes, 25 minutes, so the reason is five.

Minutes are so powerful that they work on their own, but once you realize how good you can feel with five minute practices very quickly, you want more, so you naturally start doing more, so yeah, you know. , going back to your first question, can you? change your life in five minutes absolutely yes, this is proof positive of that. Well, we're going to want to challenge the 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 tag you. You could tag me and share what you do.

Yeah, you know, the first thing I ask you to think about is because the people who listen to your show, Jim, are going to be very motivated in general. I would say they want to make changes. positive changes in our lives, so I want everyone listening to think now and reflect on what was the behavior that I tried to bring into my life that I couldn't maintain and then think about those two rules that I just described. number one, you have to make it easy number two, you have to stick to an existing helmet. I bet most of the people who couldn't maintain that behavior weren't following at least one of those rules, of course, not in all cases, but in most cases I found that they made the behavior too difficult. or they hadn't been intentional about where to put it, so think about that first and then I guess the challenge would be knowing what the right thing to do is, let's not do it.

It's hard, yeah, sure, there's all kinds of lifestyle behaviors that you'll hear about in this podcast on Instagram. On social media, the problem is that we have too much information these days. It's like I have to do yoga, pilates and martial arts. and you can't do this well, pick one thing and apply those two rules, break it down into something really very simple and intentionally stick it to an existing habit, maybe borrow my five minute cooking workout if you want, if you want, there's a you want to see what I do there's a video on YouTube called five minute cooking workout rights, but no matter what you do, do your favorite moves, whatever it is, it doesn't matter and then you know, maybe tag us yourself and to me. on social media tell us what you are doing.

I love it, that's all you have to do and it's just one more thing, Jim, justI want to tell people who are skeptical. In five minutes I spoke to an amazing psychotherapist on my show named Julia Samuel once and she told me bad in your book for your bastion5 she actually she saved the life of one of my patients. I said, what do you mean? Julia, she said that she had a patient who was very bad, suicidal in a very, very dark place, it all felt too much. for that person and I gave them her book and told her to pick just one thing and she said it was amazing because actually by making it so simple she started doing them right, she started with five minutes and little by little she got it done. other changes and now she is doing very well, yes, of course, but that was very profound for me because I knew that five minutes worked because I have seen it over and over again with myself and with my patients, but when Julia told me that about a of his suicidal ideas. patients, I just want to share that because I know that anyone listening will know someone who isn't doing well, so please share those techniques and principles with them, it really doesn't have to be difficult.

I love it, yes it could be easy and it can. be very doable, it's interesting, I never reflected on this, but when my father comes to visit, you know, I'm going to keep our relationship flourishing and it's also our health and activity, we practice table tennis as soon as he comes in. the trigger for me and we catch up, uh, because he might have been traveling, I don't see him because as often as I want and we just hit each other back and forth, he's the one who taught me Rocket Sports, you know that from the beginning , but you know you can have a conversation and you and I have talked about how great it is, it's a great way to improve your brain power and your brain health, but he did it 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 that everyone gets their copy of feel better in five and how can people get the book or how can people people keep in touch with you, although The book is available, you know all the usual places, so if they are interested, show them that you can pick it up and, in whatever country you are in, yes, and that's why they tell me, I guess I will become quite active on social media. Instagram would be the main place and you know my podcast is one of the main things that I do and I love doing my podcast.

It's called Feel Better, Live Longer on all the usual podcast platforms and of course on YouTube and your Instagram is what Doctor Chatterjeeva has. 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 in your podcast uh and more in the show notes always on jimquick.com slash notes and I want to thank you for joining us on this special podcast oh thank you I appreciate it. not just what you do but how you do it means a lot you know you are an unstoppable force of nature and an inspiring force for good so thank you thank you thank you Jim so everyone tune in make sure. you subscribe and get your copies of the books.

I always recommend that people get three copies of a book, one for yourself and two to give to others and until our next episode it will be unlimited.