Monday, May 14, 2012

Motivating Monday: May 14, 2012: Making Habits Stick

Hi Everyone!

Happy Monday to ya!

I have decided to kick off each week with a motivational piece. I'd like to call it Motivating Monday, because if you are anything like me, you need a swift kick in the girdle right about now. Speaking of starting (and more importantly keeping up with) a new habit,today I want to talk about Habits. (Love the segue?) I'd like to focus on what happens once you make the change in habits, maintaining them.



With any lifestyle change, there is always the fear in the back of one's mind (or at least I have felt this way) in which certain questions begin to surface. Questions like 
  • How long will this last?
  • How long can I keep this up?
  • Why should I even do this? It's never gonna last.
Changing your lifestyle to the improvement of your overall health and well-being is a very important step. It is too important to start this battle without the proper tools in this arsenal. And if you have ever tried to change anything in your life, you know that it is a battle.

So you have started working out, and/or you have started making changes to your diet, but you haven't committed fully, as you don't want to start anything that you won't see through. What can you do to make these newly formed changes stick?

Here are a couple of ideas. See how these hit you:

  1.  Establish Importance: Why are you making this change? Are you doing this for yourself? Or are you doing this for someone else? If you are not doing this ultimately for yourself, chances are, you won't stick with it for the long haul. Ultimately, you must have your own conscious buy-in for any new changes to become a long-term way of life.
  2.  Do It For A Month: Got 30 days? Experts say that 30 days of consistent behavior is all that is needed to see a real change in habits. Does 30 days seem too much to reach for?
  3. Take It One Day At A Time: I once saw the movie "28 Days" with Sandra Bullock. Her character sarcastically attacked the notion, saying " You know, I mean, "one day at a time." What is that? I mean, like two, three days at a time is an option?" We obviously know that it's not an option, but doesn't always stop us from acting as if it were. Focus on today and tomorrow will follow.
  4. Start Simple. We as humans, often tend to bite off a bigger piece than we can safely chew. This is why Mondays never work. How many times have you said to yourself, "On Monday, I'm going on a diet", or "On Monday, I'm going to the gym six days a week." That's unrealistic and ultimately, you are setting yourself up for failure. Take small steps. Park further from the store, or take the stairs instead of the elevator. I'm not saying not to be aggressive, but I am saying that you should start with manageable pieces. Rome wasn't built in a day, and chances are that this extra 20 or more pounds you carry didn't show up overnight.
  5. Allow Yourself to Fail: Now, this may sound a bit counter productive,but it's an important step in making a change in your life. Accepting your own imperfections will ultimately help you to succeed in making a change. YOU ARE NOT PERFECT. YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES. It's how you move past these mistakes that will ultimately determine your success. No one will ever understand you like you do, so learn to live within your own skin.
These are just a few suggestion. We are each wired a bit differently, so how things work for you may or may not be the same for me. Trial and error is key in this process. Trying new things always has it's risks. but more often than not, the rewards are so worth it.

If you would like more tips on making new habits stick, then check out this article.

Until next time, 

Keep doing what you're doing, and if that doesn't work, try something ELSE!

Brandi:)

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