Mindful in 5 Podcast

Success Stacking for Professional Growth

• Spiwe Jefferson • Season 5 • Episode 162

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Learn more lessons from Barry in Mindful in 5!

Your career is the sum of your daily habits. The question is — are yours leading you forward or keeping you stuck in routines that don’t support your growth?

The key to success isn't drastic change or simply willpower, but rather small, intentional actions that have a big impact over time. This is called success stacking, and it's the foundation for building lasting habits in a way that feels natural, sustainable, and easy to integrate into your daily routine. In this episode, we break down the four steps to success stacking and explore how this low-pressure technique can help you stay consistent and mindful without the overwhelm.

Tune in to learn this positive approach to forming habits that stick!


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Spiwe Jefferson:

Welcome to Mindful in 5, where busy professionals find your peaceful oasis to thrive in complex work environments. I am Spiwe Jefferson, attorney, certified mindfulness practitioner and author of the Mindful in 5 book series, here to guide you to a clearer, softer and more supported life. Join me and your fellow mindful ninjas as we explore science-backed mindfulness strategies for successful leaders that you can implement, starting with just five minutes a day. Elevate your work, empower your life, work higher, live stronger. Let's go. Do you find your professional routines clouded by inefficiency, yearning for a clearer path to growth and success? A lack of intentional habits can dim the joyful light of your career progress, leaving you feeling unsupported and disconnected from your true potential.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Today, our topic is habits for professional growth, Success stacking for better growth. By now, you may have abandoned the great intentions you started your new year with, so let's see if we can revisit your habits and bring a clearer, more peaceful approach to your daily work life. Bring a clearer, more peaceful approach to your daily work life. How can we resurrect those abandoned habits, or at least the abandoned ideas for all the good habits that you thought you were going to implement in 2025? And, like the kids in this season's imagery, I invite you to come at it with a beginner's mind, just like when you were a kid Curious, trusting, authentic, creative, resilient and optimistic. Now imagine transforming your workday with purposeful routines that move you towards your career goals and, in fact, your goals in general, with clarity and focus. By cultivating the right habits, you can accelerate your professional development with cheerful determination and clear focus.

Spiwe Jefferson:

So let's explore a calming technique I call success stacking, and here's how it works. This is step one Identify one small high-impact action you can do daily to improve some aspect of your skills or effectiveness, approaching it with peaceful intention. It doesn't have to be new, it can be something you already do daily, but you're doing it with intention. Next step two commit to doing your action each day, embracing it with joyful consistency. Step three once this becomes automatic, gently add another action, building your stack with clear purpose. And then, step four continue stacking these small habits over time, celebrating each addition with cheerful recognition.

Spiwe Jefferson:

How about that and the focus on cheeriness? Frankly, is because so often we judge ourselves and we beat ourselves up for all the things that we feel we're not doing or not doing correctly. I shouldn't have said this, I shouldn't have done that. Oh, I wish I had done that. Why? I am terrible, I have abandoned my resolutions already. Whatever those things are, those negative messages that you say to yourself.

Spiwe Jefferson:

The idea, as you're recommitting to a new way of setting these habits, is don't look back and beat yourself up over the things that may have failed. As long as there is breath in your body, there is an opportunity for you to pick up where you left off, or just pick up again and get started. So that actually flows into my definition of mindfulness, which is that mindfulness is about being present in the moment, without judgment and without being overwhelmed by what's happening around you. And so that whole judgment piece, especially the way we judge ourselves, can sometimes be really harsh. And so, as you're going through this process, try replacing that sense of self-judgment with just being peaceful, being cheerful, allowing yourself to be optimistic about your effort this time. And if it's not successful, well, you just pick yourself up and you keep trying until it is. And so that takes us to step number four. Just continue stacking these small habits over time, celebrating each addition with cheerful recognition. And so here is an example of what this might look like.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Let's take Barry Miles, busy attorney from the Mindful in 5 book, barry took the first step, which was to decide that he was going to give himself 30 minutes of time to reflect and journal every morning. He has found that it allows him to plan and execute his days better. He is calmer and more intentional in how he shows up for his team and he is a lot less frazzled when unexpected issues come up each day. So that is his why. For his step one, he identifies waking up 30 minutes earlier than his usual time as the thing he wants to do daily. He usually wakes up at six, so now he wants to wake up at 530. That's his high-impact action that he can do every day to improve each day. For step two, he commits to doing it each day by setting his alarm and getting out of bed at that time. Well, he quickly realizes that he can't stay up late and get up at 5.30 and be his best. So, even though he made his action automatic by setting his daily alarm clock in order to feel refreshed and ready in the morning, he stacks his 5.30 am new wake-up time by moving his bedtime up by 30 minutes the night before, which buys him the additional 30 minutes of sleep that he needs. He will have to train his body to sleep earlier, and this is not going to be automatic, but the more he does it and the more consistently he does it, the easier it will become. So for step four, he also adds a wind-down bedtime routine that includes turning off his electronic gadgets one hour before bedtime and preparing for bed so that his body more easily acclimates to sleep. This small changes approach is validated by studies showing that minor behavioral adjustments, like in Barry's case, waking up 30 minutes earlier are more sustainable than drastic overhauls.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Habit automatically develops over time, with studies indicating that habits can take 18 to 254 days to form. So, depending on what habit you are trying to develop and how much of a leap it is from your existing behaviors, don't be discouraged. Consistency, not perfection, is the key. James Clear, author of the book Atomic Habits, developed the concept of habit stacking. Developed the concept of habit stacking. Part of the premise of habit stacking is that linking new habits to established routines exploits the brain's basal ganglia, which automates repeated actions. In our example, barry's bedtime routine turning off those gadgets one hour before sleep builds on his existing habit of adjusting his wake-up time, creating this chain of automatic behaviors.

Spiwe Jefferson:

And also those of you who have been mindful ninjas for a while and following the mindful in five approach. What you know and what I say is that part of the reason, for example, you want to set up your morning meditation habit or centering habit at the same time and in the same way and meditate in the same spot in your home every day, is because when you start to build that habit, that muscle, your body will automatically start to get into that peaceful space whenever you get into that spot, because that is what you use that spot for all the time. Likewise, if you get into the same bedtime routine, as you start to do those activities, whatever they are, maybe you brush your teeth, you turn off your phone and maybe, instead of turning it off completely, you start playing like really slow and soothing music. Or maybe you have a podcast you like to listen to. There are lots of podcasts you can listen to that have bedtime routines and when you start making that a habit, your body will automatically start to calm down and that makes it easier for you to fall asleep.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Research shows that this incremental approach to habit formation is highly effective for creating lasting change, fostering a more peaceful and supported professional journey change fostering a more peaceful and supported professional journey. My personal morning routine is so well established that it feels really weird if I try to skip a step. So even if I'm running late, I will still take at least five minutes for my centering time, because if I don't I just feel kind of off kilter for the rest of the time and for the rest of my day. And I know it's because I didn't take that five minutes and for me it's usually more like 30 minutes to just center myself.

Spiwe Jefferson:

So here is a hopefully thought-provoking perspective for your week. Your career is the sum of your daily habits, each one a joyful step towards your clearer, brighter future. And in fact your whole life is the sum of your daily habits. So whether you're trying to set up better habits for your workday, or for your day at home, or for your physical health or anything else, just remember that one little habit that you set up at a time can make a monumental difference over a period of practice. So for this week I invite you to choose one professional skill that you want to improve and apply the success stacking technique. So here is one hopefully thought-provoking perspective. Your career is the sum of your daily habits, each one a joyful step towards your clearer, brighter future. In fact, that is true of any aspect of your life. Your whole life is the sum of your daily habits. So whether you're trying to change some aspect of your workday or your physical health, or how you show up at home, whatever it is, just remember that the daily habits that you set up, one small step at a time, can make a monumental difference in what your life looks like at the beginning and then at the end of this year. So for this week, I invite you to choose one skill that you want to improve and apply the success stacking technique. Notice how the small commitment brings what is hopefully a softer, more supported energy to your daily work.

Spiwe Jefferson:

Pick up your copy of either the Mindful Invite book and journal or the God Lovers edition and journal from , and use the learnings from Barry's journey through his dark dawn and day season to fuel your own mindfulness journey. Click the link in the show notes to pick up your copy and start setting yourself up for clearer, more joyful success. Just remember that your growth, whether it's professional or personal, isn't about dramatic changes but about consistent, intentional actions approached with positive energy. By focusing on habits, you are investing in your long-term career success with clarity and focus. May your professional journey be filled with peaceful growth and joyful progress. Until next week, this is Spiwe saying be mindful and be well.

James@DiscovertheVoice:

Thank you for listening to Mindful in 5. If you enjoyed it, share it with a friend, follow and rate it on your favorite podcast platform. Pick up your signed copy of the book and journal from spiwejefferson. com, or unsigned copies from Amazon, barnes, noble or wherever you get your books. Visit to download sample chapters of the book, watch videos and become a mindful ninja. Join us on the LinkedIn Mindful in 5 group and share your thoughts. Until next time, be mindful and be well.