I Build Habits that Empower My Progress

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "I Build Habits that Empower My Progress"

Podcast: Mantra with Jemma Sbeg
Episode Host: Jemma Sbeg (OpenMind)
Date: August 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of Mantra centers on the transformative power of intentional habit-building, introducing the weekly mantra: "I build habits that empower my progress." Host Jemma Sbeg breaks down what it really means to integrate empowering habits into daily life, the psychology behind small consistent actions, and how listeners can tailor their routines to nurture growth aligned with personal values—rather than external pressures or fleeting motivation. Through insights, personal experiences, and actionable prompts, Jemma guides her audience toward habits that foster meaningful, sustainable progress.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Defining Empowering Habits

• Habits reflect values and shape identity.
  • [03:32] Jemma emphasizes, “Your habits are your life in motion. They are the small daily decisions that become the architecture of your reality.”
• Habits are not just tasks; they reveal motivation, passions, and future direction.

2. Dispelling the Myth of Dramatic Change

• Change is often misunderstood as requiring grand gestures or sudden transformation.
• Action bias (favoring big, visible acts) can distract from the subtlety and sustainability of small steps.
• [05:34] “Real lasting change... usually doesn’t come from one major massive decision. It comes from dozens of tiny repeated ones.”

3. Tiny Habits and Microhabits

• Drawing on BJ Fogg’s concept of “tiny habits” and recent trends around “microhabits”:
  • Small actions—like one minute of deep breathing or writing two sentences daily—reduce resistance and support consistency.
• [06:57] “Microhabits are too small to say no to. And once we’ve started, we often do more than we originally intended to.”

4. Self-Trust Over Perfection

• Habit-building is undermined by self-doubt. The cornerstone is self-trust: the belief in one’s ability to follow through.
• Jemma argues self-trust is more critical than consistency:
  • [09:01] “Self trust, you know, in my mind, is just foundational to habit formation and no one really talks about... I actually think it’s more important than consistency or perfection, because it is where those things come from.”

5. Habits as Votes for Future Self

• Each microhabit is a “vote” for the person you want to become.
• Habits are most sustainable and rewarding when they reinforce an identity you are proud of.
• [10:28] “What kind of person am I voting for right now? What kind of person do I want to become?”

6. Selecting Empowering vs. “Should” Habits

• Not all habits are equally meaningful—some are adopted from social pressure or trends, ultimately leaving us unfulfilled.
  • [11:41] “When we choose habits just because we feel like we should... these might eventually feel quite hollow, feel quite burdensome.”
• Empowering habits are rooted in personal relevance, not comparison.

7. Practical Self-Inquiry for Habit Selection

• Before adopting new routines, Jemma suggests reflective questions:
  • “What kind of life am I trying to create?”
  • “What elements of that life are most important to me?”
  • “What really matters to me right now?”
• Reverse-engineer habits from a clear vision of your authentic desires.

8. Sustainability and Flexibility as Core Principles

• Empowering habits are realistic, adaptable, and energy-appropriate.
• Rigid, joyless routines are likely to be abandoned.
  • [13:49] “A habit is not empowering if it requires you to constantly override your body, shame yourself into action, or if it requires you to sacrifice your peace...”

9. Habits Should Enhance the Journey

• The best habits enrich life and provide happiness or pride on the journey—not just at the end goal.
• Alignment is more valuable than mere progress.
• [14:36] “A habit that moves you forward whilst also helping you feel more like yourself each day is a great habit.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Habits Reflecting Values:
  • “If you want to know how someone will live their life, all you need to do is look at their habits.” — Jemma, [03:32]
• On Microhabits Bypassing Resistance:
  • “Microhabits are too small to say no to.” — Jemma, [06:57]
• On Self-Trust:
  • “I actually think it’s more important than consistency or perfection, because it is where those things come from.” — Jemma, [09:20]
• On the Purpose of Habits:
  • “Instead of seeing habits as chores or checklists, we do begin to see them as something that is a meaningful choice, that shapes who we are becoming...” — Jemma, [10:49]
• On Sustainable Change:
  • “Empowering habits... are not rigid rules, they are supportive rhythms that you can kind of float into.” — Jemma, [13:56]

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Personal Reflections & Real-Life Example

1. Climbing Big Mountains with Small Steps

• Jemma shares a vivid metaphor:
  • [17:09] “If you put someone... in front of a 14,000 foot mountain and said, okay, you need to climb that, the majority of people are going to be like, absolutely not... But if you say all I need you to do is walk for 500 meters, then you get a break... Well, pretty soon you’re at the summit.”

2. Current Habit Experiments

• For professional life: batching calls and meetings to minimize overwhelm.
• For health: training for a half marathon, built on incremental, manageable running goals starting with short, approachable runs.
• [18:03] “Some of the habits that I’m focusing on at the moment have to do with work things... But the biggest habits I’ve been focused on are really building towards quite a big goal that I have for the next year, which is running a half marathon.”

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [03:32] — Mantra introduction & defining habits
• [05:34] — Action bias & myth of sudden transformation
• [06:57] — Microhabits and their psychological power
• [09:01] — The role of self-trust in sticking to habits
• [11:41] — Differentiating empowering habits from “should” habits
• [13:49] — Sustainability and empowerment in selection
• [14:36] — Enjoyment and alignment in daily routines
• [17:09] — Personal analogies and current practices

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Listener Takeaways

• Lasting progress is built from small, meaningful actions—consistently, with intention.
• Habits should match personal desires, not just external expectations.
• Self-trust is the foundation: Start with habits small enough to guarantee success.
• Enrich your journey; let each habit feel like a step toward the person you wish to become.

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End of summary.

Transcript

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This is Open Mind. Welcome to a brand new week.

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Here is your mantra I build habits that empower my progress. I'm Jemma Speg and every Monday I give you a simple but powerful phrase to consider and bring into your life. A philosophy to guide you in the week ahead and hopefully even beyond. In each episode we unpack what our Mantra really means, how it has shown up in my life, and how you can bring it into yours with journal prompts and a weekly challenge to help you take this mantra and put it into action at Open Mind. We value your support, so please make sure to share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review and follow Mantra to help others discover the show. For more exclusive content, monthly bonus episodes, early access and ad free listening, join our Open Mind plus community on Apple Podcasts. Each month I also get the opportunity to respond to your questions and comments in a bonus episode. So leave a comment on this episode or DM me on Instagram troopenmind Stick around. We'll be right back after this short pause.

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Okay, let's get right into it. It is time for this week's mantra. I build habits that empower my progress. I love this mantra. They say, you know, if you want to know how someone will live their life, all you need to do is look at their habits. Someone's habits will tell you not just about how they spend their days, but their values, how motivated they are, their passions, their dream, their greater vision for their life. And it is also, in many ways, a predictor of our success. Here's the truth. Your habits are your life in motion. They are the small daily decisions that become the architecture of your reality. You don't just become a writer because you write a book. You become a writer because you write a little bit every day. You don't just become fit from one workout, you become fit and healthy because movement becomes part of how you live. You don't build confidence overnight. You're not just a confident person from birth. You build it by repeatedly doing hard things, showing up for yourself, proving that you can trust your own follow through. We often think that change has to be this big dramatic thing because we've been conditioned to associate transformation with very grand cinematic moments. The kind of before and after glow ups. The overnight successes like the sudden breakthroughs, that's all we see. But in psychology, this is actually known as action bias, which is our tendency to favor dramatic gestures over subtle shifts because they feel more productive or impressive. The problem is these big changes that we so love to see and love to celebrate. They often rely on bursts of motivation which are fleeting. Real lasting change, though that maybe isn't as recognizable but is just as powerful, usually doesn't come from one major massive decision. It comes from dozens of tiny repeated ones. Psychologist BJ Fogg refers to these as tiny habits. This is the idea that the best way to build long lasting behavior is really just to start small and then let momentum take over. Another term for them that you may have heard recently is microhabits. Again, microhabits are small, simple actions that are so easy and manageable they require little to no motivation to complete. They are the tiniest building blocks of behavior change doing one minute of deep breathing, writing just two sentences a day, standing up and stretching for 30 seconds on their own seems very insignificant. But the real power of these things lies in consistency and momentum. Microhabits, they're so powerful psychologically, emotionally, even physically, because they bypass, I think, the biggest barrier to change, which is internal resistance. When something feels too big or time consuming, we procrastinate. But microhabits are too small to say no to. And once we've started, we often do more than we originally intended to. They also help reinforce identity. If you stretch every day, even for one minute, you start to see yourself as someone who takes care of their body. If you write a page each week for a book or just for your own pleasure, you start to see yourself as someone who is a writer. Over time, you know, these tiny actions compound and they create really meaningful progress. Also, without the burnout, without the pressure of huge lifestyle overhauls, they act as like these tiny votes of confidence in yourself that's also incredibly important to their success. I think what's so hard about changing our life is that we often don't trust ourselves to do it. When we first begin, there's a part of us that just has a lot of doubts. We don't have those experiences or data points of really having pushed ourselves hard in the past to know what we're capable of. So when setbacks occur, when something rocks the boat, we just abandon ship. Self trust, you know, in my mind, it's just foundational to habit formation and no one really talks about might sound controversial, but I actually think it's more important than consistency or perfection, because it is where those things come from. It's the belief that you'll do what you say you will, not just once, but over time. And if you don't have that belief that in your own promises to yourself and your ability to follow through with them, what's the point of even starting? You have no commitment, not just to anyone outside of you, but to the person who's going to benefit the most from this change. When we trust ourselves, though, we are more likely to set realistic goals. We are more likely to show up consistently. We are also more likely to, I think, recover from setbacks with compassion rather than criticism. It creates a feedback loop. Right? You know, the more we follow through, even in small ways, the more we reinforce our identity as someone who is dependable, who is disciplined, who is capable of growth. That's why, again, you need to start small. I also think this mindset shift of seeing small microhabits as A vote of confidence for the future version of ourselves really shifts us from being driven by impulse or routine, which some parts of that are very important. But instead of that, we become and we are driven by intention. Instead of seeing habits as chores or checklists, we do begin to see them as something that is a meaningful choice, that shapes who we are becoming, that are linked to our identity. And it also creates purpose in actions that can often be quite mundane. You know, the rough thing about habits is they are so small. It's so easy to abandon them because they don't feel significant. But when we see them as this intentional thing that we are doing to carve out our reality and to reinforce our identity, they feel less like something we can give up on. I think it also helps us break the all or nothing trap, because no single habit makes or breaks us. They don't feel like the stakes are that high, but each one does contribute to the direction we're heading in. It helps us kind of start asking ourselves not do I feel like doing this today? But what kind of person am I voting for right now? What kind of person do I want to become? And what's going to be required intentionally to do that? With that in mind, what habits do we choose to focus on to begin with? Specifically, which habits are empowering and which ones are somewhat unnecessary? Which ones do we maybe need to skip? This may come as a shock considering what a fan of habits we seem to be. But not all habits are created equal. Some are rooted in, I would say, genuine self alignment, whilst others are driven by pressure. They're driven by comparison, they're driven by guilt, something that I think is a lot more common these days. And surprise, surprise, these things are not sustainable. When we choose habits just because we feel like we should, like waking up at 5am because someone else swears it changes your life, or journaling daily just because it's trendy, not because we're actually getting anything out of it. These might eventually feel quite hollow, feel quite burdensome. That's because they don't connect to our deeper values or goals. They connect to someone else's goals. And who cares about their goals? They're not personally relevant to us. We're not going to invest in them to choose habits that truly empower our progress. We need to start with self inquiry. What kind of life am I trying to create? What elements of that life are most important to me? What really matters to me right now? What kind of person do I want to become? Not in someone else's eyes, but my own what is a life I don't want to give up on? From there, we kind of reverse engineer the habits that will support that vision, but you have to have that vision very clear in your mind before you can begin. For example, if you really value creativity, the habit of writing for five minutes a day, or sketching for five minutes a day, or doing a creative activity once or twice a week instead of watching tv, that's going to feel deeply nourishing. If you're focused on emotional well being, a nightly check in or gentle movement practice actually might do more for you than a rigid gym routine ever could. Another key consideration here is sustainability. Empowering habits are the ones you can actually live with, not just achieve for a week and then abandon and then also feel like a failure. They need to fit into our lifestyle and work with, not against, our energy, our needs, our abilities and our context. A habit is not empowering if it requires you to constantly override your body, shame yourself into action, or if it requires you to sacrifice your peace and make life intrinsically less joyful or just more stressful. Empowering habits, they're flexible, they're responsive, they are not rigid rules, they are supportive rhythms that you can kind of float into. Finally, the best habits are the ones that don't just get you somewhere, they actually let you enjoy the journey. And that's kind of what we were speaking about before, but it's something we kind of forget and yet it's so crucial to this process. A habit that moves you forward whilst also helping you feel more like yourself each day is a great habit. A habit that lets you get more from your life is a great habit. A habit that makes you happy, brings you peace, brings you simplicity, makes you feel proud. That is not just progress. Again, that is alignment. That is empowering. I hope this really helps us realize that building habits, it's not just about willpower. It's not just about what everyone else is saying is important for you to do. You need to be clear on what you want and why and the healthiest way to get you there before starting the smallest way to start moving. Otherwise you will just face more barriers than you need to. When we understand what we're truly working towards, it becomes a lot easier to notice which really teeny tiny actions are aligned and which ones aren't. Okay, we are going to take a short break, but when we come back, I want to share how this has shown up in my own life. So please stick around. We'll be right back after this short break.

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Now that we've looked at the meaning behind today's mantra, I build habits that empower my progress. It's time to get personal and share some of my own insights and reflections about this phrase. All right, I'm a habit addict. I'm just going to say that I love a habit. I stack them, I pair them, I change them up, I collect them. Because even if a habit doesn't always stick forever, I know that doing small things will always get me Somewhere faster than inconsistent big efforts. And it makes it easier to feel like something is possible versus when you're just like staring down a big goal thinking how the heck am I going to achieve this? I always think about it like this. If you put someone, anyone in front of a 14,000 foot mountain and said, okay, you need to climb that, the majority of people are going to be like, absolutely not. I don't think I can do that. I don't want to do that. This is impossible for me. It's going to take ages. I don't see this as being worthwhile and they're not going to do it. But if you say all I need you to do is walk for 500 meters, then you get a break. Hey, do you want to walk 500 more meters? Here's a break. 500 more. 500 more. Well, pretty soon you're at the summit. I know it's a silly analogy, but it's the same way with life. Microhabits are the 100 meter, 400 meter, 800 meter increments that we need to climb the 14,000 foot mountain. Some of the habits that I'm focusing on at the moment have to do with work things. That's a big area for me at the moment. Taking my calls, taking my meetings at the same time every week. So I am not overwhelmed by managing my diary. Helpful, sustainable, important. But the biggest habits I've been focused on are really building towards quite a big goal that I have for the next year, which is running a half marathon. Listen to me right now when I tell you I never in my wildest dreams thought I was going to be someone who ran. But I think like last November. Yeah, November 2024, I was on this walk in Centennial park, which if you are from Sydney, you know is the most beautiful park in the world. I'm not accepting arguments on that at this moment. It's so beautiful. And I was going for this walk with my boyfriend and I ran into my friend Sarah and she was running and she was like, do you want to just join me for a little bit? And I was like, yeah, okay, I've got nothing to lose. I can run for like a kilometer. And so I joined her and it was so refreshing and I don't know what it was because I've tried so many times in the past to run and I think I've always gotten to like 3,5k mark and just been like, no, I don't want to do this anymore. But I.