Do you want to change your life? Are you feeling stuck? Perhaps you want to become fitter, healthier, maybe lose some weight? Do you want to feel stronger, more vital, more alive? Or do you want to discover “who” you really are and find your inner “bad-ass” who has confidence in themselves no matter what? But you don’t know where to start! There is so much information out there. So many ideas to try out, so many doors in front of you! And you’ve been in this bubble of inertia, facing these options too many times! Healthy habits are key and I’m going to show you how to get started.
I’ve got your back. I’ve been in that eternity of inertia. I know how it feels and I know how to get you from inertia to ACTION. Don’t stop now. You’ll find my 4 tips below…keep reading 😉
1. Understand that your habits are the key to change:
Do you have to think about or convince yourself to brush your teeth twice a day? No! (well I should hope not). That’s because this task has become ingrained into us from an early age, usually through reminders from our parents or guardians and has so become a habit. Technically, a habit is something we do that does not involve any extra mental energy to complete it. IT JUST GETS DONE!
So how do we create healthy habits. We decide on a few key areas of our life that we would like to change. We then formulate 1 new habit for each area. These habits will over time bring you closer to achieving whatever goals you may have buried inside your mind. Some examples might be; drinking a glass of water before each main meal or snack throughout the day, parking as far away as possible from the shops so you get some extra steps in, or taking 3 deep breaths every morning before getting out of bed and thinking of one thing to be grateful for.
These tasks….and they will feel like tasks, will overtime (roughly 21 days) become new habits, which will lead you to success.
2. Recognise that creating new healthy habits WILL feel uncomfortable:
Get this – changing anything in your life is going to feel uncomfortable! As Tony Robbins says: “get comfortable being uncomfortable”. We are put on this world to grow and change and adapt. We have to recognise that to be our best selves, we must get out of our comfort zones and lean into the uncomfortable.
Our brains are wired to keep us safe. How they do this is by constantly monitoring our environment, looking out for perceived threats. When we try to change our environment by introducing a new action, habit or thought process, our brains become hyper vigilant. They see this change as stressful and probably unnecessary. Why can’t we just keep doing what we’ve always done and stay away from danger. You and I both know we can’t live a full and rich life living like that, but our brains don’t!
So, we end up feeling tension, being uneasy and having a strong desire to stay at our familiar status quo. We usually give in this feeling. We drop our anchor, bury our heads and give into the brains signals. Not this time though… you with me??
3. Choose you new healthy habits wisely and implement them one at a time:
Habit stacking is a very valuable skill to learn in life. Habit stacking is when we attach whatever knew skill or task we want to perfect to an already established habit. This stacking process increases the likelihood that we will stick to our goals, as we add habits slowly and consistently over time. For example, we may want to add affirmations into our morning routine so we can stack this healthy habit with our morning coffee. Take a few minutes every morning to physically write down the affirmation you are working on. If you are anything like me, you will nearly always have your morning coffee so you just need to stack a habit onto this.
It’s also essential to plan ahead and set yourself up for success. Perhaps you want to cut out the chocolate bar that you have after lunch everyday, that calls to you from the vending machine. Decide that you will buy your favourite fruit instead, enough for your working week and bring it to work with you.
We are visual creatures so take time to write out in a journal or on a calendar exactly what habit you would like to develop. Feel free to use my free Habit Tracker .Get creative and tick off those days as you follow through on your goals.
Remember, start small, gain momentum, tick off those boxes and then add habits as you gain confidence.
4. Be your own Cheerleader!
Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon. This work of shaping and creating yourself is not easy.
Say you’ve decided to add meditation to your life. You’ve decided that you will meditate for 10 minutes everyday and have only managed to do three days this week. The temptation is to throw in the towel altogether…DON’T! Congratulate yourself on three victories and set your mind to beating this result next week. Maybe you can look at your schedule and find a better time in the day that would suit better.
Positive reinforcement and encouragement (which you have to give yourself) works much better than negative reinforcement and flogging yourself. Be your own best friend when creating these healthy habits. Give yourself the support and positive reinforcement you would give a good friend. You deserve it!
I’d love to hear below in the comments if you’ve any goals that you are working on right now….let me know and perhaps we can support each other.
If any of this resonates with you and you’d like to learn more about taking charge of your nutrition and lifestyle through easy habits, then I have an e-book that’s perfect for you. My guide breaks down the essential habits that are key to creating lasting change in your body, whether that’s fat loss, increasing your energy or just feeling healthier all round. You can visit my shop or click here.
Carol xoxo