“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” – Robert Collier

Hopefully this day finds you enjoying a new season and new year! You may be taking in the freshness of what demarcates a new beginning for many, and contemplating what you may like to see in this coming year. As we suggested recently, we also hope you were able to take some time to reflect on the previous year. Maybe you were even able to practice some exercises in awareness and possibly get a jump start on trying out a new healthy habit for a specific wellness or fitness goal. If not- no worries, that is what we will be focusing on here. This can be a daunting one for many of you who have had difficulty with goals in the past or just don’t know where to start. 

Often we see clients make lofty new year’s resolutions that either take on more than they were actually ready for, or they don’t focus enough on the smaller pieces that actually lead to progress while celebrating those smaller achievements along the way. In the end it feels more like floundering or standing still rather than moving forward which then leads many to give up altogether. It can be incredibly frustrating when you don’t know how to get started on something, or what the best course of action may be and this can be demotivating as well. 

In this blog, we intend to provide some key tips on what to do to get things grooving…

There is NO Consensus On What it Takes for a New Habit Other Than TIME and ENERGY

There is no definitive consensus on exactly what, or how long, it takes to seal a new habit or make it a lifestyle. This is quite variable for everyone and also differs depending on the habits, goals, or really anything you hope to make part of your life with eventual ease. You’ll find a lot of the habit formation information will talk about making small moves first and ensuring you commit the time to those actions. It doesn’t have to be anything big; it can be as simple as drinking a full glass of water every morning. Really anything that requires incremental but smaller efforts at first. Whether this is drinking a glass of water when you wake up or something else, setting time aside and making a small effort is what is important to get things rolling.

Your Approach is Key…

How you view and evaluate your goals and progress can make a massive difference in your success. If you focus on the negatives all the time it can be difficult to get anywhere. That said, some focus on the negatives can assist in the learning and growing process. Negative input can trigger a realization for the NEED for CHANGE. But having a growth mindset is VERY important. Understanding that growth takes time and focusing on the process and the lessons (which can have ups and downs) is a big part of staying engaged and continuing to make strides. But make sure you acknowledge the wins along the way too.

Overcomplicating VS Simplifying… “KISS”

We see far too many people take something simple and make it complicated. Have you ever heard the acronym KISS? It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid, but we prefer Keep It SUPER Simple. Why? Because you often need to break things down even more than you may anticipate at first, especially if you are new to something. There is nothing wrong with this and it can be the smartest move you make in ow you approach your goals. If your goal is to get stronger, don’t hyper-focus on your exercise selection and incremental percentage increases as they correspond to your bar velocity and RPE when you have a hard time just making it to the gym regularly and recovering well. Instead, simply focus on what habits can contribute to you making it to the gym the 3-5 days you are trying for.  A great tool for this is making an appointment to block your calendar ahead of time so it can’t be booked over.

Outcome vs Behavior Focus..

As mentioned, you may be too focused on where you want to go (the outcome) rather than on the very specific behaviors (and actions) that will get your there. You might weigh yourself on the scale daily, but not create that same degree of consistency or focus with your nourishment like making proteins and plants the centerpiece of 80% of your meals. Focusing on what you are nourishing your body with at each meal rather than weighing yourself daily can be a far better use of energy and attention since it is the piece that contributes to the goal and not just the goal. Focus on the individual behaviors themselves that lend to your goals and before you know it you will be there.

Actionable Goals With Steps That You Confidently WILL DO… 

Are you creating lofty goals or perhaps ones that are vague? The key may be taking those and morphing them into more concrete, realistic and most importantly DOABLE goals with actions to match. The goals should be something that you can clearly define steps to achieve, and those steps/actions should something you are 9/10 confident you can and WILL do them. They can be simple and tiny too, they don’t need to be complex or hard. If you want to be able to run “really far” for instance, how far do you mean precisely? A mile? A marathon? If it’s a marathon, you now have defined something you can act on and break down. If you want to run a marathon but don’t regularly move or jog, maybe start a 10 minute walk each day. Maybe you work that walk into longer hikes or walks where you jog for pieces and walk in intervals. This is an example and it can go many ways. The key is to define something actionable, break it down, start small and go from there.

Pick ONE THING…

Not 5 or 10 things. You may have the capacity for a few things in your life but we often see that the more things people try to do at once as far as new actions/habits are concerned, the less likely they are to do any of them. It may be a 9/10 you’ll do one very simple habit toward a wellness goal, but once you bring in 3 new ones that may go down to a 3/10 for each. It happens when resources are finite like time and energy. It’s human. So focus on one step at a time and master that before you bring in the next one.

1. Huge wins are nice but focusing on and rewarding SMALL victories keeps you pushing forward. Learning to tie excitement to the process is what leads to the most success. This way even failures along the way can keep you moving forward because you are more invested in the learning and changing process rather than the results or goal that can be farther away. The consensus here is don’t take on monumental sized tasks or goals, but instead focus on very small ones and celebrate the forward progress with these routinely. 

2. Neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to form and be changeable/plastic with regard to its connections/pathways) = Change 

To create change you need to open the window for it to occur and then solidify those changes. For this you need to have FOCUS. For focus you need some norepinephrine (urgency) and acetylcholine (hone in and narrow the spotlight). Think heightened states, getting amped up, arousal. Breathwork focused on taking in more oxygen, movement and stimulants like caffeine can help with this depending on who you are and what you prefer. This heightened state can help you prime the new connection as you practice it. Sometimes this will feel connected but it also may not. What actually helps this change gel is the opposite process- that of parasympathetic engagement (think calming). Breathing exercises focused on longer exhales/sighs (more to come on this), meditative practices, sleep, and anything else that you know may aid in then lowering your heightened state of arousal will help this new change gel. This is why you can have a hard time practicing something in the moment and get it to stick but come back later and find you are able to now do it with more ease. Just like you can’t lift weights 24 hours a day without sleeping and expect to have your tissues heal and get stronger, the rest part after the heightened/arousal part is necessary. 

3. Get some light exposure to your eyes early in the day when the sun is lower on the horizon. Maybe 10-minutes if you can. Don’t stare and blow out your retinas, but get some exposure and maybe even couple it with some movement if possible. This can help get some powerful biological rhythms set in place for your brain and body. Some simple examples would be a quick walk or just some gentle movement in your backyard.

Moving forward for this new year and new goals: make your own, truly define it and think about what it will specifically take to get there and make use of all the guidance above to save a lot of time and frustration. Seriously, after you finish reading this, take 5 minutes to right down what your goal is for this next year, break it down into some small actionable steps to get there, then pick the easiest one of those steps for you and start it today.  Know that the larger goal is achievable, but you need to keep yourself engaged by breaking it down into smaller achievable goals along the way. You can work with our team to help with setting and breaking it down, should you need some extra guidance. This is going to help you get better attuned what your body needs, where you can improve or focus your efforts, and ultimately guide you toward that big goal. Remember, while you’re keeping that eye on the prize it’s important to embrace the growth and learning process, celebrate the small progressive steps when they are made and be flexible to pivot on what that end goal looks like as you take your lessons with you and things change. Creating and practicing healthier habits as we outlined above can be more than just achieving a new year’s resolution goal. The can be a more successful approach to a healthier lifestyle of continual growth.