#128: How You and Your Kids Can Master Skills Over the Summer

What can you really accomplish in just a short summer?

In this bonus episode of Habit Masters, we discuss strategies we're using to teach our kids valuable skills over the summer. We focus on the importance of consistency and daily practice in achieving significant improvements. From personal growth stories like balancing drawing and running, to sharing examples of a Twitch streamer's journey from novice to a skilled artist in 100 days, we dive deep into the benefits of daily habits. We also talk about how we're encouraging our own children to set goals, track their progress, and engage in intentional exercises every day to build discipline and reach their aims. The key takeaway? Small, consistent actions lead to remarkable results. Enjoy this bonus episode!

ACTION STEP FROM THIS EPISODE
Identify one skill you want to improve over the summer and commit to practicing it for just 10 minutes every day.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• 00:24 The Importance of Consistency
• 01:57 The Power of Daily Practice
• 02:52 Inspiring Stories of Growth
• 05:56 Encouraging Kids to Develop Skills
• 06:23 Tracking Progress and Setting Goals
• 10:03 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

• Snag your FREE HABIT TRACKER download here
• For more info on mastering the fundamentals of habits, check out our 7 Day Habit course email us at hello@habitmasters.com if you're planning to take the course and we'll hook you up with a free code.

KICK YOUR WEEK OFF RIGHT!
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE MAGIC MONDAY NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to the Magic Monday newsletter to power up your week with our best tips and tools for crushing your goals.

OUR MISSION
Our mission is to help one million strivers take consistent action on their goals and live a life of greater freedom and contribution.

P.S. If you liked this episode please share the link with a friend who could use it.

Transcript

Jeff Corrigan: 0:00

Welcome back to Habit Masters. I'm Jeff. I'm still Sheldon. And this is Sheldon. We got our names right, at least. And this is the best place to learn how to bridge the gap between where you've been and where you want to go. And this is just a bonus episode of us ideating on a couple of things that we're working with our kids to learn skills over the summer. So I think you're going to enjoy it. Okay, we have come full circle. Like we, it seems like we remind ourselves of this all the time. It's like, whatever makes this easier and more consistent for us, it's going to make a better podcast because they'll have, there will be a podcast number one.

Sheldon Mills: 0:36

Yeah.

Jeff Corrigan: 0:36

And

Sheldon Mills: 0:36

we talk about the ideal and like length format, all this, and we want to get better and I think it should be a continual improvement, but at the end of the day, Like you said, if it means, if it means being short and sweet, but it actually gets out every single week versus longer, more in depth, more quotes and this and that, but it's like once a month,

Jeff Corrigan: 1:01

exactly.

Sheldon Mills: 1:02

Hands down. Consistency.

Jeff Corrigan: 1:04

Yeah. I mean, I'd rather do one five minutes every day than. You know, it's like, Oh, that'd be cool. No, it'd be cool. Maybe we do just like a five minute episode, but let's not, let's not go. Well,

Sheldon Mills: 1:17

I mean, we, we even have good stories. What's the story of the potter. Right. And like, literally this is. This has been tested in pottery classes. You're judged on one final, like best piece versus number of pieces. Right? So literally your grade consists on like the number of pieces versus, and you think that people are just like, Oh, whatever, dah, dah, dah. It's just, all I need is quantity without fail. By the end, the people who had quantity were better and the quality was better than just like the one final perfect piece.

Jeff Corrigan: 1:52

What you're practicing improves, right?

Sheldon Mills: 1:54

What you're practicing improves.

Jeff Corrigan: 1:56

Yeah, exactly what we were talking about today. It's like, first of all, practice it. Secondly, measure it. And without a doubt, you start to see, like, I even see, like, when I was illustrating a lot, you start to get. When I, I say when I was, because there's been a while now that it's been really wonky, but well, the reason why is because I started running again and that was my drawing time. So it was either draw or run. And I was having a race coming up. So running became the priority and I haven't created another time in my schedule. That makes sense. But anyway, as you're doing something like that every day, You start to see where like your weaknesses are like, Oh, I need to, or you start to figure out little things that, Oh, that'll make me faster at this. Or that'll make me better at this. Or, Oh, I should watch a little video on that. And suddenly just with that little practice every day, you see drastic improvements. Like there, I, I was listening to an illustration podcast the other day, we were talking about a guy who was the, one of the Twitch guys, what's that really famous YouTuber's name that was, Like a Twitch guy initially. I don't know. Oh shoot, he's got like green hair. I don't follow

Sheldon Mills: 3:08

Twitch.

Jeff Corrigan: 3:09

I don't either, but I just know his name because I've heard it before. But anyway, he's, he didn't know how to draw at all. And he's like, you know, I've always wanted to like learn how to draw. And so he just did a hundred days of drawing straight. And he posted a YouTube or Twitch about it every day. And he just basically from his terrible, I've never really drawn before other than like circles and, you know, little doodles, to a hundred days later, being really good. Like, significant growth, right? And then he just kept going, he's like, I really love this. Like, he's like, initially I thought, I don't know if I like art, like, I don't know, like, it's really hard. But as I drew it for a hundred days and I said I was committed to a hundred days.

Sheldon Mills: 3:53

Yeah.

Jeff Corrigan: 3:53

At the end of the hundred days, he's like, no, I feel very confident that I can, like, he's got, he's got like perspective in his drawings now and he's drawing like all kinds of, you know, he's just kind of mastering this form and then he kept going and did it for like a year and now he's like, he basically could be a professional illustrator. From nothing, zero, to like semi pro. In a year. It's like, in a hundred days, really, he became a very competent artist.

Sheldon Mills: 4:25

That's the power of consistency. The compound effect.

Jeff Corrigan: 4:30

Yeah. He just did a drawing a day. It's not like he was spending hours and hours and hours on this, and he would just record his whole process, progress, right? That's crazy. And so it always makes me think , the only limitation we have legitimately is, you our own belief. It's like,

Sheldon Mills: 4:48

do we believe

Jeff Corrigan: 4:49

we can do it? And are we committed to doing it? And the moment you say yes to those two questions, yes, I believe it. Yes, I'm committed. You're in. And you only say yes to commitment by doing right. It's like, right. Commitment is doing. It's faith in action.

Sheldon Mills: 5:08

Yeah.

Jeff Corrigan: 5:09

Cause that's belief in commitment. Sum it up into one word. So anyway, it was really cool though. Cause I was like, that's so crazy. And you can go back and watch his whole process. And there's another guy who I've started following his, his email list. And he does a hundred days, ? Like a workshop. It's like a hundred day learn to draw workshop

Sheldon Mills: 5:30

that

Jeff Corrigan: 5:30

you can do with him. And it's essentially the same thing. She's like, It starts from zero and now, I mean, he's a professional artist and he does all kinds of illustrations. And you should see his stuff on Instagram a few years ago to now. It's such a, huge jump in his colors and everything. It's just, I'm like, man, that's amazing. So it doesn't take as long as we think it does. And even going back

Sheldon Mills: 5:53

to this. It just takes daily.

Jeff Corrigan: 5:55

Yeah. It's like, what do you do daily?

Sheldon Mills: 5:59

I'm so excited to share this with my kids, if I'm honest, because it's like, you could change dramatically over the summer, pick something, let's do it. Whatever it is you want to do, I will help you figure out a plan and we'll track it every day. Doesn't need to be long. 10 minutes a day. And by the end of the summer, you'll be amazed.

Jeff Corrigan: 6:20

Yeah, well, my boys, right, just like a month ago,

Sheldon Mills: 6:24

we

Jeff Corrigan: 6:24

had, we put up some like, we, I had them create their own tracking chart, but essentially they have to get 150 points. to go racing at this race place again for Logan's birthday in March, and so the 150 points, but they get five points for a daily fitness. So they go do like a five, a 10 minute fitness video from this get mom, strong lady. So it's not super intense. It's all no, no weights, right? It's all just body exercises, but it's just like getting them core some more core strength because they feel like they can really use that. every area of their life. And so it's like, I just want them in a routine where they're exercising every day. And not, not just like, Oh, I'm out playing and running. And that's, that's great too, but more intentional, like intentional exercise. So I'm like, Hey, you know, and then if they do certain stuff, out of the ordinary, like if they practice for baseball outside of baseball practice, I'll give them five points. So little things they do that are like intentionally deciding to do something, not because they were forced to, not because it was part of the commitment commitment already, but. And so that, and then I'll, I'll let them do if they run with me in the morning, so they've been running with me and they did the Ragnar, you know, both of them ran a leg in the Ragnar, and did really good. Like there was, I was amazed how well they did actually. And it's just, it's been cool to see their progress and they're like, Oh, we're getting closer. I got, I got 80 points. I got a hundred points, you know? And They've all got this thing they're aiming towards because they really want to go do it again, but it's super expensive. And I'm like, I'm not just going to do this willy nilly. Yeah. Like I, like guys, it costs us like 200 bucks to do this last time. So I gave them that. And now they've been like, Oh yeah, let's do an exercise video today. And they're reminding each other and they've become like kind of accountability partners. And it's been so fun to watch just their excitement and progress and then watching them see their trackers go up and get super stoked. Yeah. And then time like sometimes there'll be like five days that go by when they don't do it. And they're like, Oh no, I made any progress. Like, yeah, gotta keep going. Yeah. It's like, you know, we're going to get there if you don't keep going. Anyway, it's, I mean, this is funny cause it's like, they're living it. Right. Yeah. I just like, it's been a fun way to show them that process. And I'm looking at what we're talking about the last couple of weeks. I'm like, this is exactly what they're doing.

Sheldon Mills: 8:50

Yep. I'm jazz now. I need to, I think you need to track it. Progress, baby. I need to talk to my kids about it. Cause we've been talking about. summer and what do we want to do and what do we want to accomplish and mostly fun stuff. But at the end of the day, like all my kids are pretty driven, especially if I help them. You know what I mean? It's like the vision, give them some vision. They have goals. They, they do, they have goals. So yeah.

Jeff Corrigan: 9:12

And that's why I tell my boys, I'm like, what's, what skill do you want to learn this summer? Spend five minutes a day, right. Learning it or researching it. Or it could be more than five minutes, but you know, at least like Parker, I've been trying to get him better at pitching. So if he pitches with me. It was like that guy that we were talking about. He's like a hundred shots on goal, right? Last episode, a hundred shots on goal every day. And you'll get a college scholarship, full ride to any school you want. I'm like, that really is all it takes. You know, a sketch a day, a paragraph a day, I don't mean a page a day, I don't know, like that guy who was writing on his lunch break. 15, 20 minutes a day. And then he wrote over six years, wrote 15 books and became a professional author. Like, okay. I, we talk about this a lot. I would say like, this is back, right? We come full circle.

Sheldon Mills: 10:09

The compound effect, the power of daily, simple, small things.

Jeff Corrigan: 10:14

Yes. It goes back to that girl. In that thing. I was like, you want it all right now, but that's not how it works. If you want to become a very competent mechanic, as far as like fixing your own car goes, you got to start every day doing something. Work on a car daily.

Sheldon Mills: 10:31

You should post this. Post what? This is like a bonus episode.

Jeff Corrigan: 10:36

Yeah, bonus episode. I

Sheldon Mills: 10:38

love it. Okay. I got to run it because I want to hear this and I want to listen to it with my kids. And then we're going to talk about it.

Jeff Corrigan: 10:45

Okay, done. All right. Well, if you liked this episode, go share it sounds

Sheldon Mills: 10:53

like when it's just Jeff and I like bouncing off each other. It's a little chaotic, but

Jeff Corrigan: 10:57

yeah. Yeah. We're just ideating here. So if you loved this episode, share with a friend.

Sheldon Mills: 11:01

Is that a word? Jump on board.

Jeff Corrigan: 11:03

Did

Sheldon Mills: 11:04

we create that? Ideating. We've said that a lot.

Jeff Corrigan: 11:06

I think it is idea. Ideating. Ideating or brain whatever, brainstorming, bouncing ideas off each other. I think it is, right? It's gotta be, I don't know how to pronounce. Oh yes it is. Maybe I'm messing it up. I

Sheldon Mills: 11:18

definition of ideating. Present part school of ideate.

Jeff Corrigan: 11:21

Yes.

Sheldon Mills: 11:22

Okay. I just don dunno doing English language that well. Alright,

Jeff Corrigan: 11:27

well maybe if you started to learn a word today, you a word today.

Sheldon Mills: 11:33

Recording the computer. We were doing like a word a day for a little while with the kids. And my oldest was in, I think, priesthood and a church in class and it was asked a question and the word was yonker. Yeah, Yonker. Yonker is like for a young man or whatever. And he was like, Oh, well, when he was a, a wee Yonker, and then made the whole class like bust up. Right. Cause it's a funny word, but I was proud of him for just like taking something he'd learned. You know, we talked about it as a family and he learned it, he'd incorporated it and it was, it was just funny.

Jeff Corrigan: 12:12

A young man, a yonker. Yeah, a yonker. It's like old English slang. Just a wee

Sheldon Mills: 12:19

yonker. Anyway, okay.