Matt Pincus and I recently did a podcast episode about both of our top 3 habits that help make us successful in climbing and in life in general. In preparation for that episode, I wrote down some things and ended up writing out my top 5 habits for success in climbing and life, and I thought I’d share them here.

I recently read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear and, while it’s a really good book and I gleaned some things from it, I also realized that my habits are (humbly) already pretty good. This has been by necessity because there were years of my life when my habits were not good at all. That led me to experience extreme anxiety, depression, a lack of motivation, and terrible self-care, which amounted to poor health, complete apathy about climbing, failure in my business, and really hard times in my relationships.

That just got personal really fast!

But all of that is to say that I understand quite intimately what it feels like to be unsuccessful in my own life, and I had to make a lot of changes in my habits and mindset to get to where I am now, which is generally content and feeling pretty successful most of the time.

Everyone has their own definition of “success” and I’m going to define what that means to me below. I’m absolutely not saying I’m the most successful person or that I’m amazing, but I do find that these habits really help me to show up as my best self most days.

So here goes…

5 Habits That Make Me Happy and Successful

First of all, everyone has their own definition of success. Here’s how I define it for myself:

• Mental Health
  • not depressed, anxious, generally motivated, not experiencing too much shame, feeling grateful, excited about the future, and content with what I have right now, sleeping well, eating well, taking care of myself

• Physical Health
  • going to the gym every other day or every few days, going outside walking and hiking most days, weight lifting, dealing with the various health issues I have (migraines, digestive issues) in a proactive way and not getting too defeatist about them, eating well, cooking for myself most of the time and getting enough food and balanced macros almost every meal of every day

• Work
  • making enough money to support myself and contribute substantially to our household finances, doing work that helps others, feeling satisfied by my work, not doing things I hate doing (and am not good at), being productive, feeling proud of the work I produce

• Climbing
  • following my flow of engagement with climbing, going outside only when I feel motivated to do so, staying consistent in the gym, pushing myself hard regularly (but not too often), making sure I’m having fun and enjoying myself while also chasing dreams

• Relationships
  • being present, patient, and loving with my husband, staying in regular contact with my close friends and family, spending time with people in person often enough that I feel close with them and not so often that I feel overwhelmed, being kind to people in general

• Learning
  • It’s important for me to learn about new things, follow little obsessions I get, and stay excited about the world. If I’m in a learning mood, I know I’m doing something right with the other parts of my life.

Now that that’s defined, here are the habits that help keep me feeling all of the above on a regular basis.

Habit #1 – Get Enough Sleep

This seems really obvious, but the worst times of my life have been when I wasn’t sleeping enough. My health goes to shit, my mental health goes to shit, I can’t focus on work, I’m grumpy with people, I have tons of anxiety and depression, my climbing is terrible and I’m unmotivated. Sleep is tied with food and water as my number one priority.

When I get enough sleep, I have plenty of energy, my mood is generally really stable, I’m confident, able to deal with stress, and I’m motivated to do all the things I have to do to make my life good.

I try to go to bed between 9:30 and 10pm every night, and I’ve made my schedule so that I can wake up whenever my body is ready to wake up. That means I’m normally in bed for around 9 hours and according to my Whoop, I get around 7-8 hours of sleep each night. More would be better, but I’m also super into being awake and productive, so I’m doing the best I can with this. I sleep with a Snooze sound machine in a very dark, cold room, and it’s pretty quiet around my house. I don’t use blackout blinds everywhere because I find that it makes it hard to wake up in the morning when I do, but it stays dark enough for long enough.

I also try to read before bed every night, which makes me feel tired and helps me sleep more deeply. I don’t drink water after like 8pm usually, so that I don’t have to get up too often to go to the bathroom, and I’ve invested in really comfortable beds, bedding, and pillows so being in bed is amazing.

Habit #2 – Eat Well All Day Every Day

I’ve learned over many years doing many experiments that I need meat or fish, vegetables, starch, and fat 4 times per day. If you’ve ever been around me when I’m eating, you know that my diet is weird (I’m told this over and over). But I honestly don’t care what people think of the way I eat because if I do it well, I feel really great.

I am extremely consistent with my diet – not because of any philosophies or values about what the “right” foods are, but because if I eat what my body wants me to eat, I’m a better human and I enjoy my life a lot more.

I know about how many calories make me feel good at each meal, and I just eat basically the same things all the time, switching out proteins and vegetables and starches. I know that if I eat certain foods, I don’t feel good physically, and that affects my entire well-being, so I just don’t (almost) ever eat those foods. I don’t have time to feel uncomfortable.

And for the record, I get my meats from small operations that use regenerative farming and ranching methods. I’m very concerned about the welfare of animals and the environment, and as a person who can physically tolerate only animal sources of protein, this is really important to me.

Habit #3 – Have a (Mostly) Set Schedule

This is something I just started doing, and it’s been completely life changing. I don’t know why I didn’t do it 10 years ago. As a business owner I can really do whatever I want with my schedule, and I can give myself as much freedom as I want. As a person who loves freedom over all other things, it’s very tempting to give myself ALL OF THE FREEDOM ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Which means I got really lazy with work recently.

I felt unmotivated to work, overwhelmed with how much stuff I had to do, especially as a business owner who has a million different kinds of things to do, and I just wanted to burn it all down there for a minute. So I did some life coaching around this, made some tough decision, and now, I know exactly what I’m doing Monday through Friday and for how long I’m doing it. I have tasks set out for myself on each day, and I plan things out weeks and months in advance so I know what I need to be working on at any given time.

However, even though it seems rigid, it’s also fluid because on most days I can choose from a few different timeframes to be working in, which means I can go to the reservoir with my dog in the morning if it’s really hot out that day or I can go with her in the afternoon after work if I want. So I still have some flexibility and freedom and I know I’m getting everything done that I need to do.

The schedule allows me to feel more in control of my life and not always swayed by my every impulse. I know when I have time to work, do chores, errands, be with my dog, hang out with my husband, go climbing, be with friends, eat, and sleep. It’s incredibly relieving honestly. I’m way more productive now.

Habit #4 – Vary My Workouts in the Gym

I get bored easily, so I try to do different things in the gym on sort of a rotation. It’s kind of just a natural logical progression type of thing that I do and have done for a long time, and I think it keeps me pretty fit (for me).

Some days I’ll go into the gym and do laps, so doubles or triples. Sometimes they’re hard and sometimes they’re easy (so sometimes I’m working endurance and sometimes power endurance or whatever).

Some days I’ll just go in and project routes, and sometimes I’ll go and project or do quick sends on the Moonboard. I go to the gym like every other day and sometimes take 2 days off, so I’m in there regularly, but just doing different stuff so I stay motivated.

And sometimes I just don’t feel like going for a week (or a month), so I don’t. I just listen to what my body wants, and it allows me to go out and send 13- without too much trouble when I get psyched to go climbing outside. This system is FUN for me. I LOVE going climbing almost every time. It gives me life, and if I had a set schedule all the time, doing really similar things all the time, it would not be fun. I might be stronger than I am if I had a better training schedule, but it wouldn’t be as enjoyable to me and I wouldn’t have kept doing it for 25 years.

Habit #5 – Try Very Hard to Have a Growth Mindset

For a long time I believed in my core that I was only respectable or likable if I climbed “hard” and made lots of money. Those are extremely nebulous definitions – “hard” and “lots.” So I was always beating myself up to climb harder and make more money. And I thought those things should not be hard for me. I was almost always focused on the end goal.

When I truly realized I’m not owed anything in life or climbing, and that my value as a person is not tied to how hard I climb or how much money I make, it allowed me to take the pressure off myself and care a little less about the end goals. Or at least have less shame about everything.

In the past couple years I’ve really started embracing process goals and not expecting anything of myself. I just know that I’m doing the best that I can in any given moment, given the resources I have, who I am, and the circumstances I’m in.

So for instance, in climbing, I focus on smaller goals than just sending a lot of the time now, and grades are not as important to me anymore. I have a 5.12a project in the gym right now that I’ve tried like 4 times and haven’t sent. Normally I onsight 12-‘s and project 12+ and 13- in the gym, but this 12- is way out of my wheelhouse – slopers, big moves, lots of weirdness and not a single crimp. In the past I would’ve tried it, not sent it, and moved on because I didn’t want to deal with the failure of it all.

But now, I’m taking it as a challenge to get better at slopers, big moves, and weirdness so I can be a better climber. Like a mastery type thing. Before it was just numbers and now I just want to be a better climber. It’s really amazing. No shame, just fun. (Update, I sent the 12-! Which was really fun, but working on it and making incremental progress with an open mind was honestly more fun than sending it.)

So those are some of my habits that help make ME successful by my definition of success. It’s taken me years to set up consistent systems in my life that work. You probably have wonderful systems, too, and I’d love to hear about them in the comments. What makes you successful?

I’m now offering Life Coaching consultations to climbers, meaning I help you create habits of your own that lead you to success in your own life. I’d love to work with you, and you can find out more about my services here.

>>>Build Your Own Great Habits with Life Coaching