Do you want to lose weight? Tone your belly? Lose some fat around your arms? Or do you want to simply stop feeling lousy day after day?
No matter what your goal is, the first step is to take a look at your habits. Do your habits line up with that goal that you are trying to reach? This is one of the most important questions that I ask my clients.
This may seem like a simple question, but if you do some digging and become really honest with yourself, you will see that you most likely have some work to do. If your goal is any of those that I listed above, you want to make sure what you are doing on a daily basis will help you reach those goals.
If you are telling yourself and your friends that you want to lose weight, feel better, tone up, etc. and still go through the motions in your workouts, don’t get enough sleep and slip in unhealthy snacks daily, your habits are not aligning with your goals. Remember, your repeated daily actions determine whether or not you will succeed.
WHY Aren’t You Reaching Your Goals?
So why do people so often miss the mark on their goals by not establishing success habits? It is usually because the “why” is not powerful enough.
The ultimate “why” can’t be just anything. You have to dig deep to figure out the real true burning desire and the reason why you want to reach those goals. If it’s just to “get in shape,” that isn’t enough.
Is it your family history that you don’t want to repeat? Do you want to be strong and healthy for your kids? Do you want to overcome the doubters or push past the failures you’ve had in the past?
Figure out that thing that will drive you and get you out of bed when it’s cold, rainy or just way too cozy under those covers. When you have your strong, powerful “why,” all of your habits will start to line up with your true goal.
Creating Habits That Stick
With a strong WHY fueling your motivation and actions, you can create habits that stick. To do so, I like to break the process down into time blocks.
The first step is to sit down and write out 3-4 habits that you want to change. These are going to be the things that are currently getting in your way and slowing you down as you try to reach your goals.
Consider things like:
• lack of sleep
• mindless snacking at work
• stress eating
• not planning for dinner and ending up with delivery pizza
• drinking soda
Write down the 3-4 big changes that you want to make. Each week, you’re going to pick one of those things and then you will write down the action steps that will help you change that bad habit into a good, productive, healthy habit.
For example, if you find yourself drinking 2-3 diet cokes each day, think about why you do it. For most people, it’s not the caffeine. Instead, it’s the fizz or it’s the habit that you just always have a few with your lunch.
Instead of the diet coke, grab seltzer water so you can still enjoy the fizz. Work on that for one week until it becomes part of your daily habit. Then, move onto the next thing you want to change.
Write down the reasons you do that thing, and then come up with the changes you can make around that.
Repeat this cycle until you have all of the limiting habits adjusted. It takes a lot of work and one week won’t completely change your life, but you will be well on your way.
It’s important to remember that if you try to do all things at once and rely on sheer willpower, you will eventually crack. You need to rely on a structured set of tools and skills to create the changes in your life.
I’d love to hear what your top 3 changes are going to be. Leave a comment below.
