Week three of the Stay at the Top Summer Reset mini series is about simplifying.
This time of year often triggers big plans and long lists of things to change. While it can feel motivating, it usually creates overwhelm before the year has even begun.
In this episode, I introduce the concept of the domino habit. The one habit that, when done consistently, makes everything else feel easier. It is not about doing more. It is about identifying what carries the most weight for you right now.
This episode will help you cut through the noise and focus on what actually moves the needle.
In this episode I share:
- Why the new year, new me mindset often backfires
- The difference between reflection and unrealistic goal setting
- What a domino habit actually is
- Why small, repeatable habits outperform big plans
- Examples of common domino habits for energy and focus
- Why your domino habit needs to work wherever you are
- The importance of having a plan B domino habit
- How domino habits evolve across seasons of life
- How to apply this concept beyond health into work, relationships and finances
- Why momentum matters more than motivation
Key Quotes
“The domino habit is the one action that makes everything else feel easier.”
“When that first domino falls, the rest follow more effortlessly.”
“Effortless comes from momentum, not willpower.”
Episode Resources
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=en
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess Spendlove (00:07.042)
Welcome back to week three of the summer reset mini series. This is the time of year where it’s so easy to slip into the new year, new me mindset. Suddenly you’re thinking about the 28 things that you want to change across your health, your relationships, your finances, your career and anything else. And on paper, this all sounds great. But in reality, this is the fastest way to overwhelm yourself before the year even begins.
Now, what I personally love about this season is it gives us the space and it gives you a prompt to reflect and to look ahead, especially if you don’t pause like this very often across the year. But we need to approach this time of year with a bit of realism. This isn’t about you needing or wanting to become a new version of yourself. But what it can be is about you shifting to find a few things so you feel different next year.
This is exactly where we left off in last week’s episode. And so if you haven’t listened to that one yet, I would encourage you to go back, listen to the three questions that you can reflect on that are going to help you reset and move ahead in a way that you want from a place of how do you want to feel and what are the behaviors that underpin that to help you show up like that. Now, one of the core concepts that I teach in my work is the idea of the domino habit.
When I normally speak about this, it is generally from a lens of health and or performance. I’m sure it makes sense before I even explain it if you haven’t heard me talk about it before. But the concept of the domino habit is what is the single habit that sets your entire day up? This is about the action that creates change for how you want to feel.
So specifically, this is the one action that makes everything else more predictable, more stable, and more effortless. When that first domino falls, the rest follow more effortlessly because momentum builds. The way that you feel off the back of that is you feel more grounded, more in control, more capable, more consistent. But when you miss that, what happens is the whole day feels heavier,
Jess Spendlove (02:31.574)
and harder and it requires more effort and more bandwidth than there needs to be.
So for many of the types of people that I interact with and work with one-on-one or that I interact with in speaking where I share some of these concepts, these are people like executives, leaders, athletes. And often the domino habit that comes up is something in the way of either a protein-based breakfast, it might be a walk or some movement with some sun on their eyes.
It might be starting their day with some water or electrolytes. I’ve had quite a few people that have sat in recent sessions with me across the year from a few different YPO chapters, tell me that adding electrolytes and the brand that I like and I’m involved with, which I feel I need to have that disclaimer is Hyro. So starting their day with electrolytes and then having their coffee has been a game changer for their energy.
And this has been something that they’ve sustained even when they’ve gone overseas, which I love that. That is what the domino habit is meant to be. It is meant to be something that you can integrate wherever you are. And if you can’t integrate your domino habit, then you have a plan B domino habit. Another few domino habits that have come up in talks. One lady told me it’s having a coffee with a colleague.
when she gets to work at the start of the day. And this colleague is also a friend. Or it might be a 10 minute journaling or planning ritual. So that might, one of those things I’ve mentioned might be what your domino habit is. I really encourage you to reflect on it. And as I said, you it doesn’t have to be a set and forget. None of this is ever set and forget. It is what is the domino habit for me right now?
Jess Spendlove (04:22.4)
And then that may evolve as the year changes or something shifts or as you embed that you might move on to the next domino habit that is the thing that’s going to take everything to the next level. But the key is that it’s small, it’s repeatable and it’s foundational. But it is incredibly powerful because this habit changes how you feel and how you show up.
Jess Spendlove (04:49.982)
And if you want to take this method or this tool beyond your health, start thinking about, what is the domino habit that can exist for your relationship or for your work and your career or for your finances or for any other area you might be wanting to focus on as we move into 2026? Because if you try to change 28 things in six different categories or areas all at once,
you won’t build momentum anywhere. You can’t, you are spreading yourself too thin. But if you choose one domino per area, or even more preferably, one domino habit at a time, you create a pattern that you can build on. And this is what we want. We want effortless, we want an operating system, and we want to leverage the momentum and energy that we’re building.
from consistently knocking that domino habit in the direction that we want. And so this week, your job is simple. Ask yourself, what is the one domino habit that if I did it consistently would make everything else in my day or my life run more effortlessly? And the answer to that question, well, that’s your domino habit. Start there.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week. I’ll be back again next week with another mini episode in the Reset Summer Series. I will see you all then.