The Hartford Small Business Insurance knows that running a small business is a big-time commitment. So this holiday season, they're celebrating hard-working small business owners with a chance to go to I Heart Radio Jingle Ball in Miami on December 16th. Nominate yourself or another small business owner for a chance to win a trip for two.

Includes airfare, two-night hotel, tickets to the show, plus $1,000 in spending cash. For official rules and entry information, visit IHeartRadio.com/SmallBusiness. Hey, Radicals. Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance Podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host. A different episode of the show today. We're going to again call this a coaching call instead of the normal long format of the show.

Enjoying some time at home and still want to make sure you have something to listen to as regularly as possible, but not able to get the full show out to you today. I want to talk with you about a little coaching tip and ask you about your habits. Most specifically, your littlest habits.

Something I think about. I'm not necessarily great at this. I work at it. But like anybody, I've got some things I'm really good at and some things I'm really bad at. But I think it's worth focusing for a couple minutes on the discussion of little habits. My question for you to consider today is what are the little habits that are going to help you to consistently move toward your goals?

Or if you want to phrase it a different way, is there a little habit that would help you to maintain the lifestyle that you want to live? Or is there a small habit that you could research and institute into your life that would consistently move you forward? You can phrase it any way you want.

Figure out the best way to ask yourself the question that's going to stimulate your thinking. But the point is the same. Oftentimes, there are some very little things that you can do that might make a profound difference in your life long term. I've heard it said – I think it was Brian Tracy.

I have no idea of the citation on it. But I've heard it said that 95% of your results come from your habits or 95% of your success comes from your habits. Something along those lines. The point is habits influence a lot. There are all kinds of little habits that we can systematically identify and focus on to integrate and implement into our life that will make a huge difference.

Let me give you a few that are things that I think about. I'm good at some of these and again not good at others. You figure out what they are for yours. I was thinking about the little habit of flossing your teeth. From time to time, I have a little bit of sensitivity in my gums.

I hate it when that happens because it always reminds me of, "Wait a second. Am I doing a good job of flossing my teeth?" Something as simple as brushing and flossing my teeth a couple of times a day can make a big difference and it has made a big difference in my dental health.

That difference in my dental health will make a big difference in number one, my quality of life. I don't know about you all but dealing with tooth pain and tooth problems is no fun. I assume most of you would agree with me on that. It will also help others of my goals.

It's hard to be a media savvy person if I've got a broken down mouth full of empty mouth with half my teeth missing because they all got pulled. It will make a big difference in my financial life. Cavities are expensive and cavities can develop into other things that are worse.

All of it comes down to regular simple dental care, brushing my teeth and flossing them. As Jim Rohn used to say, "There are many things that are easy to do but the problem is they're also easy not to do." As I was thinking about the chain of circumstances that can flow from a little habit like ignoring the brushing and flossing of my teeth, I realized that has a huge impact.

That's something that I need to give attention to. Now the cool thing is at least with that one for me, most habits you can look at them and say, "Is there a smart way that I can do this that's going to make it easier?" So for example, when I identified that one, I thought, "What could I do to make things a little bit simpler?" Well, many of you probably heard a little trick where some of the people that write books about habits talk about just set a goal of flossing one tooth and it's so easy you're going to do it and you're going to wind up flossing more.

Go ahead and do that if you want. I don't do that. What I focused on was making sure that I had those little one-handed flossers in my car. That way, whenever I get in the car and I want to drive somewhere and much of the time I'm driving alone and maybe it's a little rude to floss my teeth with someone in the car with me, but I'll confess I've done it, I just grab a little flosser and kind of floss my teeth real quick.

So I've taken something that I'm used to doing driving and I've added multiple benefits to it and I can just help make sure my teeth are in good shape. Now that works for me. Apply it to your own situation however you want, but it's just a very little habit that can make a big difference.

Most of my goals and most of your goals are going to have some simple things that if you just do these simple things on a consistent basis, they're going to move you substantially towards your goals. For example, one of my goals is to have a passionate marriage with my wife that's filled with love.

That's one of my goals. Now that's not a smart goal. It's not specific. It's not measurable. I don't have a metric for that. I've never been able to figure one out. But I look constantly and say, "What are some of the simple things that I can do that will help maintain and build a consistent marriage, a consistently passionate marriage?" So one habit that I've been working hard on over the last few months is a simple habit of daily tea time with my wife.

Now in this phase, I work from home, but that has pros and cons. It's nice to be close, but it's also a challenge because what happens is when I'm in work mode, I'm not really connecting with my wife. And so she was feeling a little bit ignored. She was feeling like, "Well, I try to respect you when you're trying to work, but then I don't really know how to deal with that." And so putting in place a simple habit of making sure we get the kids to bed early, as early as possible, 7, 7:30, and then immediately we sit down and we have tea together.

Nothing on, no podcasts on, no TV on, none of that stuff. We sit down and have tea. And then trying to make sure that we consistently do that on a daily basis with very few exceptions, that habit over time has reaped great benefits so far and I believe will continue to reap great benefits.

Because what often happens in relationships is that people in the relationship don't actually connect regularly on a deeper level. And so the simple habit of kids are in bed, immediately I start the tea while I'm doing the dishes, start the tea water, sit down, boom, there's a triggering event, kids are in bed, sit down, drink tea, talk, communicate, share.

That helps to build. Now, there are other habits as well. Other things, for example, the amount of hugs that you give your spouse. This has been a weakness for me. I'm not necessarily a huggy person, but I realized, "Hey, I need to do more hugging, more simple, consistent, non-sexual hugs." So I'm working to build that habit.

For some time I tracked it and said, "Okay, here, I'm gonna track that." But just a simple little habit, often taking time to hug my wife. Another habit I've shared on the show, never, with the exception of if we're on a long road trip, we never play anything in the car.

No music, no podcast, no audio books, unless we're on a long road trip and we've talked for a little while already. Anytime we're in the car, that's talk time. And by having a silent car, it naturally fills up with conversation. And even if it doesn't fill up with conversation, we can sit companionably and hold hands.

Or having the habit of opening the car door, little things like that. Those old-fashioned chivalrous gestures of pulling out a chair. Just putting them in place as a habit, identifying them, practicing them, and then implementing them over time, they make a huge difference. I don't mean to belabor the point on building a marriage that's filled with romance and passion, but it's something that's common to many of us.

Some of you put in place a habit of date night or a habit of once a quarter taking a three-day weekend away. Or once a year taking a side for a couple of nights for a special retreat. Whatever it is that you want to apply to your situation, I'm not setting any rules on you, but I'd encourage you figure out what are the little habits that you can put in place.

Not all of you who are listening are going to be able to this year establish once a quarter we go away for a three-day weekend. But all of you listening could establish your version of a tea time. Simple to do, but also simple not to do. Profound cumulative effect over time, but easy to ignore.

Every goal that you have has something small that could either help you or derail you. Every single one. Flipping on the TV when you walk in the house derails you. Walking in and spending time immediately on conversation helps you. Buying something to eat at the gas station or at the stopping for fast food derails you financially and derails your waistline.

Having healthy snacks in the car so that you don't have to do that helps you financially. Now, filter this through whatever your situation looks like. My challenge to you today is there a simple small habit that you could establish in your life? The simpler the better, the easier the better, but could you identify something that you're doing or that you could do that is hurting you or that is helping you or that could help you or that could hurt you?

Think those things through and over time I think you'll see more and more. There are so many different things that impact our lives and once you start looking for them you'll see more and more and more of them. I've just shared a few that are meaningful to me. That's it for today's show.

I wish you a wonderful day and I wish you happy happening. Talk with you soon. Hey parents, join the LA Kings on Saturday, November 25th for an unforgettable kids day presented by Pear Deck. Family fun, giveaways and exciting Kings hockey awaits. Get your tickets now at lakings.com/promotions and create lasting memories with your little ones.