There is a famous saying by Bruce Lee – I fear not the man who has practiced 1000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced 1 kick 10000 times – That is habit right there!
Have you ever wondered - I know what to do to get healthy, one of which is exercising but I never have time to do it! Now I want to break this down and show you how to practically make your dreams into goals and then make it actionable to a point it becomes a habit.
Now the first thing you want to do in turning your desire to get healthy into actionable goals is to ask yourself why?
Why do I want to exercise? Why is it important to me to do this?
Is it somebody else’s dream or yours? Do you actually want to form this habit or is it just wishful thinking that you admire in someone else but do not really know why you should do it?
You need to find strong reasons to support your why because when your why is strong enough your how becomes easy.
The next step is to make it simple. You don’t decide to exercise from today and on the first day you would try to run 10km or exercise for an hour!
Make it simple to action Start with a simple goal. I plan to run round the block, or I plan to exercise for 10 mins every day.
Whatever habit you want to form make your initial plan simple. I have a free guide from walking to running in 5 days with as little as 15 mins each day here.
The third point is to start this new routine at a time of least resistance or distraction. Choose a time of the day when there will be least resistance and when you are most productive. For a busy mum choose the time you will hardly have distractions, and for me when I want to form a new habit, I do it very early in the morning when my kids are still asleep. This is when I am my most productive and the time of least resistance.
Another point is to aim not to miss more than two times in a row. You want to keep the momentum going when you are forming a new routine.
Now you might ask, Sylvia if do everything at a time when there is least resistance or distraction, I will have too many things to schedule at that point! That’s where this last step comes in.
When you are confidence with the habit you are forming and you are already seeing evidence to support your routine example, you are beginning to feel great because of your regular exercise, then will be the time to schedule your new routine to any time in the day. This will be easy to do because you can now see the evidence, your reason plus the evidence becomes higher than any distraction and you are able to work your new habit around other commitments without feeling discouraged.
So I will recap here:
- Know your why
- Make it simple
- Choose a time of least resistance or distraction – a time you will be most productive
- Aim not to miss more than 2 times in a row
- Then when it starts to become a habit, you can schedule it at any time of the day apart from your most productive time.
I am confident that anyone can form a new routine if they really want to. If you struggle with sticking with your actions, reach out to me here, so we can sort this out and you can be well on your way to being the best version of yourself.
Cheers
Sylvia