7 Habits That Changed My Life After 30

What if the habits you build today could completely change the direction of your life after 30? In this episode, I’m sharing the seven habits that transformed my life, from becoming intentional about your future self and celebrating action over outcomes to practicing gratitude, protecting your energy, and prioritizing daily movement and sleep. These simple but powerful shifts will help you build a stronger mindset, become the person you want to be, and create a life you’re proud of. Freedom Live is a 3-day live experience in Austin designed to help you break through what’s keeping you from your next level. Get $100 off your ticket: https://robdial.short.gy/freedomlive The Mindset Mentor™ podcast is designed for anyone desiring motivation, direction, and focus in life. Past guests of The Mindset Mentor include Tony Robbins, Matthew McConaughey, Jay Shetty, Andrew Huberman, Lewis Howes, Gregg Braden, Rich Roll, and Dr. Steven Gundry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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  Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor Podcast. I am your host, Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. And if you want to finish this year strong, join my free three-day challenge, October 27th to 29th, live with me. Here's why. Because most people check out around this time of year. They look at their goals that they've set, they see how far away they are, and then tell themselves that they'll start over again in January. Don't do that. There's still enough time for you to make real progress this year. You just have to use it. Over these three days, I'm going to teach you how to deprogram and reprogram your identity, how to start taking real action, and also how to start changing your brain to the new you. You're going to get a 60-day roadmap for the rest of 2026 and a workbook, so you know exactly what you need to focus on next.

• 2:32Speaker 01

  To join for free, go to finish2026strong.com. Once again, finish2026strong.com, and I'll see you live on the challenge. Today, I'm going to talk about seven habits that changed my life after 30, because you're getting older every single day. But the question is, are you actually getting better? Well, when I turned 30 years old, which is now over a decade ago, that question hit me like a fucking truck. Because I realized that I was getting older, but just because I was getting older didn't mean that I was becoming the person that I wanted to be. And I was in the middle of the biggest life shift that I had ever had. And I needed to look at my life and become very intentional about who I was becoming

• 3:17Speaker 01

  and what I was actually doing with myself and my life. And so I made some very intentional changes about the way that I lived my life. And looking back now, I can tell you that those changes completely shifted the trajectory of my life and where it was headed. And so today, I'm going to show you those seven biggest shifts that I made and how you can actually make them in your life if you want to. So number one was this, I started asking myself, what would the future version of me do right now? And so I have become, over the past decade, a little bit more than a decade, very intentional about where my life is going. I started to actually plan my life out in vivid detail, as if I was writing like a screenplay.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  And I knew in so much detail exactly what is it I wanted. From there, what I needed to figure out is who I needed to be in order to create that life. And so the version of me that needs to create that life, and I became clear on every single detail that I possibly could about the person who created the life that I'm working to build. From everything, from who they are, what they do, what time they wake up, what type of food do they eat, who do they talk to, how do they talk to themselves, how do they talk to their employees? What does an average Tuesday look like for them? What type of husband are they? What type of parent are they? Every single detail that I possibly could. So I built out my life in vivid detail, and then I built out the future version of me in vivid detail.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  And that version of me is now my filter for everything that I do. And so before I make a decision, I just ask myself the question, what would the future version of me do right now? Because that person is my filter. It's essentially like asking myself, is what I'm doing right now getting me closer to or further from my goal? If it is future me and I wouldn't do it, then I don't do it. And so if I'm sitting there and I want to sleep in when my alarm clock is going off, I just take a second and I just say, what would the future version of me do right now? The future version of me would say, get your ass up and do it. Okay, that means that's what I got to do. Oh, I want to skip a workout. What would the future version of me do right now? The future version of me would say, do it. It's going to make you healthier, it's going to make you live longer, it's going to make everything better.

• 5:29Speaker 01

  Okay, well then it's what I got to do. And so what I started doing was I started asking myself the question, what would the future version of me do right now? Okay, that's the first thing. The second thing is I started learning to celebrate the action, not the outcome. For a long time, I worked like towards a goal, towards the outcome, and those are important to know and to have. But in order to achieve something, it really takes three things. It takes direction, it takes action, and it takes time. All I need to do is focus on the direction and focus on the action, right? Am I heading in the right direction? And if I know, of course, like I said just a minute ago, where I'm trying to go, then I can filter through, is this the right action to take?

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Then all I need to do is make sure that I'm taking the right action that's keeping me moving along in the direction that I've actually chosen that I want to go in my life. And then the only thing that I can't control is the time. I am not in control of the time of how long it takes to get to where I want to go. So it's been hard to do, but I have to let go of when the outcome is going to come to me. If I'm trying to create something in my life, I'm not in control of when it is actually here. And the way I like to look at it is this, is like, ever seen a pregnant woman? You would never walk up to a pregnant woman and be like, hey, do you think that you could try to hurry up this process and have that baby in six months? No, that'd be insane. It takes about on average eight to nine months to create a baby.

• 6:55Speaker 01

  And so to get it done in six months, that's insane. Why? Because the creator of this universe decided it's about nine months. And so the creator of this universe has decided what it is that you want is going to take X amount of time. You're not in control of it, I'm in control of it. All you need to do is make sure you're heading in the right direction and you're taking the right action. And just know, and I know, that if I'm heading in the right direction and I'm taking the right action, eventually, what I want and what I'm working towards, I will eventually get. And that's why I decided to start celebrating the action that I'm taking, because the action is the only part that I can really control. So that's number two.

• 7:37Speaker 01

  Number three, a huge thing for me, is not touching my phone in the morning and meditating first. Truthfully, like really, this is something that I practice, I've been doing for years at this point. I do not look at my phone for at least an hour every single morning. That is a non-negotiable. Before I let the world in, I need to focus on myself. I need to focus on filling my cup. I need to make sure that my nervous system is how I want to be before I go into my day. Otherwise, I will just go into what the world wants me to be and what the world wants me to think, or I'll fall back into old patterns that I've been trying to get past. And if you grab your phone first thing in the morning, like, stop looking at your phone in bed.

• 8:22Speaker 01

  Give yourself some time, give your brain, your nervous system, some time to wake up and set the tone of where you're trying to go for the day. If you grab your phone first thing, you're letting everybody else decide how your day starts and who you're going to be. I don't know about you. I want to be in control of who I am, how I act, and how my nervous system feels. And we will Be right back. I used to take a whole bunch of different supplements every day. And honestly, it was a lot to keep track of. Since starting IM8, I've simplified my routine so much. I just have one daily drink and I'm done. The problem with supplements is you think you need a cabinet full of them to feel your best, but you don't. IM8 is the way to simplify your supplement routine once and for all.

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• 11:57Speaker 01

  And so, one of the most important things that you can do is not look at your phone for an hour. Meditate. Decide who you want to be for the day. Set up yourself to fill your cup first, and then, after an hour, two hours, whatever it is for you, look at your phone and go about your day. So that's number three. Number four, have a morning gratitude practice. Right after I meditate, before the phone ever comes out, I do my gratitude practice. And it used to seem super corny to me, where I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna sit there and journal or think about the things that I'm grateful for. I got too much to do, I'm too busy, that's not gonna do anything for me. But I'm being honest with you, this one has absolutely changed my life and my mindset.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  I did an episode on this recently, so you can go back and listen to that if you want to go deeper into it. But here's the thing that I've realized, okay? We all have a negativity bias inside of us. It is how our species survived. We always look for what's wrong. And that is just a protection mechanism that comes from a million to 2 million years ago. It's what kept our species alive. But today, if you don't pay attention, that thing is gonna set you off track and find all of these things that are wrong and negative in your life. And so, I realized one day, if I truly want to be happy, if I truly want to feel good, then I need to start focusing on what is right in my life, instead of what is wrong in my life. Because with the negativity bias, it'll automatically go towards what's wrong.

• 13:24Speaker 01

  And if it's always going towards what's wrong, I'm missing all of the great things in my life. If you just take a second and get out of your own head, you have so much to be grateful for. And we will miss it if we're not actually trying to look for it. And so, a daily morning gratitude practice trains my reticular activating system to focus on what I'm grateful for. And naturally, if I focus on what I'm grateful for, and I tune my reticular activating system towards that, I will find more things to be grateful for. Not because they're magically gonna show up in my life, but because I'm actually searching for them now versus searching for what's wrong. So that's number four. Number five is being intentional about who I spend time with. I will be honest with you.

• 14:09Speaker 01

  Now that I've gotten older, I used to have a much, much larger friend group. And it's not like I kicked people out of my life because I don't love them anymore. It's not like I don't love those people anymore. It's not like I don't see people sometimes that I used to hang out with all of the time. It's just that I have decided to protect my energy and become much more intentional about who I spend my time with and who I allow to influence my thoughts. Because what I have found is that no matter who it is, when you spend time with someone, they influence you in many different ways. They influence your thoughts, they influence your feelings, all of that. And so, I realized that if I wanted to think a certain way, if I want to feel a certain

• 14:50Speaker 01

  way, and if I want to create a specific type of life, I need to be very diligent about who I spend my time with. A lot of people that I have found will just spend time with people because they've always spent time with them. And they feel obligated to spend time with them, and they would feel bad to spend less time with them. But you've got to realize, the people around you are either building you towards the future version of you that you want to be, or they're pulling you back towards the old one. And so, you've got to just look at these people and just really make a true assessment, not by judging people or anything like that, but just get really curious about it. Is this person helping me or hurting me from turning into the person that I want to be to create the life that I want to for myself and my family?

• 15:35Speaker 01

  So that's number five. Number six, this is a big one. Moving my body every single day, no matter what. Listen, it's happening, guys. I'm getting older. And I'm starting to feel like a little bit rustier, like a little bit creakier. If you guys know what I'm talking about, like, things hurt more than they used to. And a trainer of mine years ago, used to always say, motion is lotion. Like, when you have motion and you're moving your body and you're moving your joints and all of that stuff, everything tends to feel a little bit more lubed up. It tends to move easier and it tends to move better. And I personally want to be a grandfather at 70, 75, 80 years old, who's running around and playing sports with his grandkids. I want to be that guy.

• 16:19Speaker 01

  I want to be able to move around and feel like I'm 30 when I'm 70. And so, if I'm going to do that, I need to be working on moving my body now. One thing I really messed up in my twenties was just sitting a lot. Sitting in my car, because I drove a lot for one of the jobs that I had. I would drive two or three hours, sometimes five hours a day, for a job that I had when I was in my early twenties. I sat down at computers all the time, and it started really taking a toll on my body. A lot of us, a lot of you listening to me, spend a lot of time sitting at your computer in the exact same positions. It is terrible for our bodies. And so, listen, this meat soup, this is the only place that we're gonna truly ever inhabit in this lifetime.

• 17:04Speaker 01

  So we need to spend more time moving these amazing bodies of ours that are designed to move. Like, our ancestors didn't just sit under trees all day long, they moved, they hunted, they hang out with each other, they'd go for walks, they'd go hunting, they would be gathering food, they would look for berries, they're always moving. And then I'm sure they would sit down every once in a while, but I'm trying to do more of what our bodies are actually designed to do. So that's number six, and it's really helped me with a lot of body issues and pains and aches that I used to have in the past. And number seven is protecting my sleep like it's the most important thing in my schedule. This one is super important. I am telling you, if I can do it, I will move things in the morning if I get a bad night of sleep, so that I can make sure I get the right amount of sleep.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Sleep should not be something that you do when everything else is done. Like, I have so many people that I know that treat sleep like it's just a thing that they have to do. And treat sleep like, oh gosh, when I get to it, I'll get to it. The people that I have found that tend to be the healthiest and tend to be the most, have the most energy throughout the day and all of that, are the type of people who have a specific time that they wake up and a specific time they go to bed. And it's not the exact same minute every single day, but they have a pretty good idea. And they protect that time like their life depends on it. And when you look at the studies of how important sleep is for your energy, for your life, for your relationships, for all of that stuff, you really realize, like, sleep is not something that we should just eventually get to.

• 18:34Speaker 01

  Sleep is something that we should prioritize over almost everything else in our life. And people who sleep more, live longer. And so, sleep isn't something that you should just be doing, oh, I'll do it whenever I get done. It is the thing that makes everything else better and possible in your life. When you have more energy and you have more, like, vibrancy in your life, everything in your life is better. Your business is better, your relationship is better, your body is better, your energy is better. Everything is better whenever you prioritize your sleep. And so, what I would recommend for you is figure out, first off, number one, how much sleep you actually need, because some people need six hours, some people need seven, some people need nine.

• 19:16Speaker 01

  So, start to do some tests, figure out how much it is that you need, and then find, what is the perfect time for me to fall asleep? What is the perfect time for me to wake up? And then prioritize it like it is the most important thing in your schedule. And so, the seven biggest shifts that I have made since turning 30 years old is, number one, asking myself, what would the future version of me do right now? Number two, celebrating the action that I'm taking, not the outcome that I'm working towards. Number three, not touching my phone in the morning and meditating first. Number four, having a morning gratitude practice right after my meditation. Number five, being very intentional about who I spend time with. Number six, moving my body every single day, no negotiation. Number seven, protecting my sleep like it is the most important thing in my schedule.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it with someone that you know and love. And once again, if you're out there and you're ready to finish this year strong so that you set yourself up for a great 2027, join my free three-day live Finish 2026 Strong Challenge. Once again, all you gotta do is go to finish2026strong.com, register for free, and I'll see you live on the challenge. And with that, I'm gonna leave you the same way I leave you every single episode, making sure your mission to make somebody else's day better. I appreciate you, and I hope that you have an amazing day.

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