It's January 1st, 2024, and we're diving into strategies that go beyond breaking free from porn; they set the foundation for a year of real growth, success, and happiness.
In this episode, I'm sharing seven essential habits that will not only aid in your journey to becoming porn-free but will also empower you to live your best life. Whether you're here for tips on overcoming addiction, seeking a deeper understanding of the struggle, or just looking for inspiration, this episode has something for everyone.
Before we delve into the content, I share some exciting life updates. Unhooked recently hit a significant milestone – 100,000 downloads! A massive thank you to all of you who have supported the podcast. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving a 5-star review, anonymously if you prefer, to help us reach even more listeners.
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ABOUT JEREMY LIPKOWTZ
JEREMY IS A MEDITATION TEACHER, LIFE COACH, AND DIGITAL HABITS EXPERT WHO WORKS WITH ENTREPRENEURS, EXECUTIVES, AND LEADERS.
Jeremy overcame addiction, shame, self-judgement, and depression in his early twenties with the help of mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness not only helped him let go of destructive behaviors, it also allowed him to connect with deeper meaning and purpose in his life.
For the past 10 years Jeremy has been teaching mindfulness and emotional intelligence practices at universities, recovery centers, and companies throughout Asia and the US. He holds a Bachelors and Master’s degree in Genetics and Genomics, and spent several years at Duke University working towards a PhD in Genetics & Systems Biology before he turned full-time to teaching mindfulness.
Jeremy is also an ICF certified Executive Coach. As a former scientist and academic, Jeremy has a great passion for bringing his EI based coaching skills into the corporate and professional world. He realizes how powerful & transformative these practices can be for skeptics and senior-level managers. He is known for his calm and grounded demeanor, his expertise in habits and high-performance, and his compassionate approach to transformation.
Coaching Certifications
* CPCC, Co-Active Training Institute
* ICF Member
* ACC International Coaching Federation
Jeremy is a Certified Teacher with the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence program initially developed at Google. He also spent time living and training as a fully-ordained Buddhist monk in Myanmar. He now combines his science-based expertise with a hunger for personal development to help others discipline their minds and achieve genuine inner- peace and fulfillment.
You're listening to unhooked. On today's episode seven habits to becoming unstoppable this year. Becoming porn free and making this your best year ever. So stay tuned.
So hello, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of unhooked. Welcome to a new year. It is January 1st, 2024. And I am thrilled to kick off the year today with a special episode, that's all about making 2020 for your best year ever. On today's episode, I'm going to share seven things that will not only help you become porn free, but will also really set the foundation for a life of growth. And success and real happiness. So, whether you are here because you want tips on breaking free from porn. Or you're here because you want to understand this addiction. For a loved one or you're here just because you find these episodes helpful in general. This episode will help you regardless. Before we dive into the content for today. A few life updates. First, we just reached a huge milestone here on unhooked. Breaking the 100,000 downloads mark for the podcast. So a huge, huge, thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, who has left reviews. Shared the podcast, all of that means so, so much. And on that note. As always, if you want to support this podcast, please go and leave us a five star review on your platform of choice. And you can do this anonymously.
So if that's an issue for you, if you don't want people seeing your name attached to this podcast, You can always leave an anonymous review. And it really does help the algorithms spread this podcast even further. So, if you can leave a review or share the podcast, you have my gratitude. Other life updates.
I'm still here in Cape town. I'll be here another month or so before flying back to Bali. I'm absolutely loving the city, the nature hiking. The good weather, the good people. It's really a wonderful place to be. So that's it for the updates now onto the content for today. Seven habits to help you become unstoppable this year. Becoming porn-free and making this your best year yet.
Habit number one is to get clear on what's actually most important. The first key to becoming unstoppable is about getting clear on what's important for you. We often hear about setting goals for the new year making new year's resolutions. But it is crucial. It is a central. To make sure that you're setting goals in the right direction. Remember, it's not just about the distance or about how fast you run it's about the direction and the destination. So to take some time and really figure out are you working on the things that are going to bring you real fulfillment? Are you working on things that are actually going to make you happy? And once you find out what it is, that's important to you to become ruthless about carving out time for that and to really make sure you're prioritizing the things that are most important. So for example, Last year in 2023, maybe you had been unconsciously prioritizing things that don't truly matter. For example, prioritizing getting more likes on Instagram. Working longer hours. Pleasing everyone. These are things that you might not actually want to be prioritizing. So this habit is about making sure you are actually taking the time to figure out the destination. Stephen Covey says, start with the end in mind. So this will require some journaling.
Some self-reflection. Solitude is helpful for this maybe time away. Ways that you can get a new perspective and really just, you know, check in with yourself and saying, okay, what's important to me this year. For myself, I realized more time in nature. You know, I want to be going on more hikes, more time under the sun. Actually getting away from the city and the hustle and bustle of daily life. So that's something that's important for me that I want to spend more time doing. So that is the first habit to becoming unstoppable. Is actually just defining what unstoppable is.
What's going to bring you happiness. Habit number two is to say goodbye to what's holding you back. There is a quote that I love from Tony Morrison. In a book that she wrote and it goes something like this. Can't nobody fly with all that shit. Want to fly. You got to give up the shit that weighs you down. A lot of the time, what is holding us back is stuff like our own bad habits, our own unhealthy relationships. Things that we are allowing into our lives. And part of growing is shedding your old skin. Sometimes this means doing the unpleasant work of letting go of things we don't want to. So it might be a relationship that is toxic. Could be a friendship that is draining or introducing you into some bad habits or bad environments. It could be a business that is going nowhere and just taking away your time and energy. Might be a habit that is keeping you in your comfort zone. Or certain types of food or substances that you can't control yourself around. So this habit is about being ruthless about saying goodbye to what no longer serves you. Saying goodbye to the things that are weighing you down and holding you back. Of course an important caveat here, especially around relationships and friendships. You can't just cut out every friendship.
The moment it becomes challenging. You need to actually know that, you know, friendships relationships are give and take. And so knowing when is the right time to pull the plug on a relationship that takes some wisdom you have to check in with yourself? Is it. Something that's salvageable, it's at something that is a give and take, and you can support them during some times that are challenging and, and vice versa.
They support you. But if it's a relationship that is constantly draining and is only holding you down. To visit that and really check in, is this something that I should say goodbye to. So saying goodbye to relationships. Good-bye to habit, goodbye to substances. For myself, you know, I'm really looking at my relationship with sugar.
Sugar is one of the addictions. One of the substances that it really does feel like I have an unhealthy relationship with still, and it's something I'm revisiting this year and saying, okay, how do I want my relationship with this substance to be. And maybe it means saying goodbye to it altogether. So that is habit.
Number two. Habit number three, embrace discomfort, and develop a growth mindset. One of the most powerful things you can do for your growth is to embrace discomfort. You see, we don't like discomfort, whether it's physical, mental, or emotional. Because we don't know how to deal with discomfort. We run away from it. We escape into numbing out behaviors, where we stay in our comfort zone. So, for example, with porn, we don't like the discomfort of feeling aroused and not being able to do anything about it. We don't like the discomfort of boredom. We don't like the discomfort of overwhelm or anxiety.
And so we reach out to this numbing behavior at this escapism. And yet uncomfortable moments are where we often find our true strength. Being able to sit with discomfort is actually the secret to massive success and the secret to addiction recovery. If you don't know how to be with discomfort, Practicing your recovery is going to be very challenging.
If not impossible. So if you grow this muscle, this muscle of equanimity. This muscle of being with things that you don't like. It will have massive effects on your life. Massive positive effects. Some ways that you can do this are any ways that you can intentionally experience discomfort and practice being with it patiently. So ice baths, exercise sauna. You know, getting outside your comfort zone. Taking a risk, getting uncomfortable. Expressing yourself can also be a form of practicing discomfort. You know, it takes courage to express yourself. The other aspect of this embracing discomfort is developing a growth mindset. You know, this is a powerful concept that again, can contribute significantly to your resilience and your growth. The basic concept here is to find the places where you're saying I can't. Or I'm not good at. And then add a, yet onto the end of that sentence. So, if you say I can't sing. To change it to, I can't sing yet. If you say I'm not good at rock climbing. You can say I'm not good at rock climbing yet.
The key here is to understand that with time. And work and patience and perseverance, you can become better at things. So that is a growth mindset. That is another part of this habit. That's going to help you become unstoppable in 2024.
The next habit that is so important is training your mind. If you want to be unstoppable this year, you have to address one of the biggest obstacles to your growth. Which is your own unruly mind, your own mind that is out of control. In a lot of ways. A good metaphor for your mind is that your mind is like an operating system. And unfortunately it is a very buggy operating system. You click on one application and it opens up a different one. You turned down the volume and it increases the screen brightness. You try to open a paint application and instead it opens up YouTube and searches for a YouTube video from when you were 10 years old. All the ways that your mind is unruly and out of control. And if you want success, you have to be able to have a mind that is more in control. A mind that is working correctly. So, what does this actually look like in the mind?
What is the buggy side of the operating system? Things like lust, craving, fear, anxiety, anger. Self-doubt judgment. These are all mental toxins. That ruin your quality of life and they prevent you from living your best life. So, if you want to be unstoppable, you have to train the mind. And cultivate inner strength.
And this is what mindfulness and meditation are all about. Taking time for yourself to practice these, these tools of meditation, mindfulness, mental training. It is a game changer. for enhancing your focus, your emotional wellbeing, and just strengthening your mind. So training your mind again is another one of the important habits. For becoming unstoppable.
The next habit is to take care of your physical health exercise, sleep nutrition. In some ways, it's almost annoying to say this. It sounds like if a first grader were to write this episode and they say, okay, what are the habits that are going to help you be unstoppable? It's it's almost trite. It's almost simplistic, but honestly it can't be stressed enough.
You have to take care of the foundations, which is your physical health. You have to exercise, get your sleep and eat well, you know, it. You have to take care of your body. Just imagine trying to be successful in life, but you're feeding yourself junk food. You're not sleeping well, and you're not moving your body and getting exercise. It's a recipe for disaster. You will have a machine that is rusty. And broken and doesn't run smoothly. And that's not going to be able to take you anyway, if you're, if you're trying to take a cross country journey. And you're in a car that is never gone into the shop.
It has tires that are about to blow it. You know, no oil in the tank. It's not going to get you where you want to go. And we know that mental and physical health are also deeply connected. So the more physical health you have, it contributes to your mental health, and it's not just, you know, how happy you are and how content you are.
It's also your ability to focus. Your sense of confidence and your ability to take risks. All the ways that this is interconnected. So you have to prioritize your health in the pursuit of being your best self. The key foundations here, the three pillars. Again, exercise, sleep and nutrition. So that is the next habit.
The sixth habit is to surround yourself with good people.
This is a habit that is going to support you in making this your best year ever. There's a quote that is often used that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And I love this quote because it. It's so insightful. You. Just to recognize who are you spending your time with, who you keeping in your life?
Because whether you like it or not, you are picking up on their habits, their behaviors. Their mindsets. And so the more that you can surround yourself with good people. The more it's going to benefit your life. Similar to this is to hole is to choose people, to surround yourself with who support you in your goals and hold you accountable.
So not just people who are. You know, good cheerleaders, but also people who are able to call you out on your bullshit. You know, overcoming challenges. Accomplishing your goals, setting new habits. It's not easy, but if you have a solid support system, if you have accountability, you are going to set yourself up for success. In my life, some of the relationships that I value the most. Or the ones who call me out on my bullshit. The ones who hold me to a higher standard. So, this is one of those habits that is going to support you in becoming your best self this year. Finally the last habit. Is cultivating contentment and gratitude for what you already have. You know, the most important aspect of having a great year is actually being able to appreciate it and enjoy it. No matter how successful you become, no matter how shredded you get in the gym, no matter how much money you make, how many friends you have, none of it will matter if you don't know how to appreciate it. If you don't know how to be grateful for what you have, you will feel poor your entire life. So a few mental traits that you can cultivate for this. One is contentment. This is that quality of feeling like what you have is enough. You know, That the watch you have is enough that the phone you have is enough that the amount in your bank account is enough. That your partner is enough that you are enough. Contentment is so important.
It's. It's the antithesis of addiction. Addiction is saying. I don't have enough. I need this other thing. This other thing that I don't have in order to be happy. Contentment is saying. What I have right now is good enough. Gratitude is also important. Appreciation for what you have, you know, actually just saying. Thank you to the universe to God, whatever you believe in. Just saying thank you.
And appreciating what you have. Similar to this is joy. You. It just being happy to be alive. Being happy to get to experience the good that's in your world. These are some of the qualities that will support you in becoming unstoppable, because we need joy. We need gratitude. We need contentment. To appreciate the things we have in our life. Part of this also is not forgetting to celebrate the small victories and the milestones along your journey. You know, recognize and acknowledge your achievements, no matter how small they might seem. This will help you build confidence and motivation to continue on the path of recovery. And on the path of becoming a better human being. Each step forward is a reason to celebrate.
So there you have it, a roadmap for becoming unstoppable in 20 24 7 habits that will help you in your journey. I hope these insights and strategies. We'll help you make this your best year ever. And just remember you have the strength within you to live the life you deserve. You just have to keep working on it and never give up on yourself. As always thank you for tuning in.
If you found value in today's episode, please do share it with someone who might need this encouragement. There's someone out there who you think could use. A little bit of motivation or encouragement. Please go ahead and send them this episode. So that's it for today, signing off from Cape town, South Africa. Catch you guys on the next episode.