Hi, this is Monique Rhodes. Welcome to the In Your Right Mind podcast, where we’re learning how to be happier by working with our minds. If you'd like to know more about what I teach, I'd love for you to visit iintendtobehappy.com and let's get you started on a path to greater happiness.
There's something I consistently teach my students that is truly powerful, and I want to talk to you about it today.
It’s the radical idea of choosing one habit you want to shift—just one—and devoting an entire year to it. Not because it's trendy, or because it’s something to check off at the start of the year, but because it honors a deep truth: transformation requires consistency.
Every year, I choose one habit I want to change. Just one. And that single choice, followed by daily commitment, doesn’t just shape my behavior—it reshapes my identity. It helps me reclaim a part of myself I may have let drift away. It clears space in my mind and spirit for the life I'm truly here to live.
So I want to ask you one simple, powerful question:
What single habit, if you implemented it consistently for the rest of this year, would transform your life the most?
Sit with that. Because that habit is the key, not just to a better routine, but to a deeper version of who you're becoming.
We live in a culture that sells excess as transformation. More hacks, more goals, more change. But the average self-improvement plan is bloated and unsustainable. I have students trying to do everything at once—change their diet, journal, exercise, start a side hustle, write a book, fix their relationships, clear their inboxes. It doesn’t work. They get overwhelmed and burnt out. And when that happens, they start believing they’re the problem.
But it was never them. It was the weight of too much, too fast.
One habit, done with care, cuts through all that. Because it forces you to slow down. It asks you to choose what truly matters, and it teaches you to go deep instead of wide. And going deep is where real change lives.
When you commit to a single habit—really commit—you begin to see everything differently.
Let’s say your habit is daily movement. You’ll start noticing the excuses your mind gives you to skip it. You’ll hear the inner critic saying it’s not worth doing unless it’s perfect. You’ll feel the tension between comfort and growth, between who you’ve been and who you’re becoming.
In this way, the habit becomes more than a goal—it becomes a mirror. It reveals your patterns, exposes your resistance, and teaches you about your resilience. You’ll see your capacity to self-sabotage, but also your capacity to stay. To recommit. To forgive yourself and begin again, over and over, until the habit stops being a decision and starts becoming who you are.
That’s the gift of long devotion: identity transformation.
So how do you choose the habit?
Start with what you long for. Start with the version of yourself you’re craving to meet. Do you want to feel grounded? Joyful? Present? Creative?
And don’t pick a habit to fix what’s wrong with you. Choose one that calls forward what’s already waiting inside.
If you want more peace, your habit might be practicing the 10 Minute Mind every day.
If you want more creativity, it might be writing a paragraph each day.
If you want more connection, it could be texting someone you love each morning.
The habit shouldn’t feel punishing. It should feel like a homecoming.
Because the best habits aren’t about self-control. They’re about self-remembrance.
They bring you back to yourself.
In The Happiness Baseline, the first thing I teach is gratitude. Not because it’s easy, but because it’s foundational. Gratitude trains the mind to stop scanning for lack and start scanning for abundance. And unless that habit is in place, all the other changes will feel hollow.
I see this over and over. People say they want to be happier, but they’re carrying an unconscious story that they can’t be. Not yet. Not until life changes. Not until the past is fixed or the future is sorted.
Gratitude interrupts that story.
Gratitude says, “Look again.”
It reorients your mind. It lifts you out of complaint. It strengthens your nervous system. It opens your heart.
It’s a small practice with enormous returns. It proves that what you focus on, you feel. What you repeat becomes your emotional home.
This is why habit work is so powerful.
You don’t just become someone who writes or meditates or walks.
You become someone who knows how to train their mind in a different direction.
A lot of the people I work with say they struggle with discipline. But most of the time, they’re really struggling with belief. They don’t believe they can change. They don’t believe it will matter. They don’t believe they’ll stick with it.
I always say, I’m not an Einstein. What I’ve managed to do in my life isn’t because I’m super smart. It’s because I’ve experimented. I haven’t waited for inspiration or the perfect moment. I’ve just gone and tried things.
Because evidence builds belief.
Every time you show up, you’re telling your brain a new story about who you are. And eventually, that story takes root.
You stop needing motivation. You stop bargaining with yourself.
You become the kind of person who just does the thing.
That kind of self-trust, that kind of alignment—it changes your life from the inside out.
When you stick with one thing long enough, something shifts. Not just in the habit, but in you. And you realize you don’t need the chaos of trying to change everything at once. You realize that showing up for yourself is a form of love. And you realize that slow change isn’t less powerful—it’s more powerful. Because it’s sustainable.
This is why one habit can transform not just your year, but your future.
Because once you’ve learned how to integrate one small, meaningful change, you know how to integrate the next. And the next. And the next. It’s like learning the rhythm of your own becoming.
If you’re thinking, “I’ve tried this before. I never stick with anything,”
Let that voice speak—and then let it go.
You’re not a failure. You’re not broken. You’re certainly not too late.
You’re standing at the edge of something real.
You’re being invited to build a life rooted in small, sacred choices.
You’re being invited to trust that slow, intentional transformation is still transformation.
You’re being invited to believe that your future is shaped by what you practice, not what you wish.
So let yourself choose one thing.
One small daily act of alignment.
One practice that makes you proud.
One shift that whispers, This is who I am now.
Let this year—these next twelve months—be the time you become, not by changing everything, but by committing to something.
The simplest habits, done with devotion, are what make the most extraordinary lives.
So ask yourself:
What single habit, if implemented consistently for the rest of this year, would transform your life the most?
Write it down. Begin today.
Let this be the year you don’t just think about becoming—you practice it.
One choice at a time.
One breath at a time.
One brave, quiet moment at a time.
Because one habit, when tended to with love, has the power to change everything—including you.
I hope this has been helpful.
As always, be kind.
Take care.
Go gently in the world.
