If you are stuck in a place where you are unhappy with your health or weight but just can’t seem to get going enough to do anything about it or can’t stick to anything long enough, this is for you.
The hardest part about making change is getting started. Or is it?
How many times have you started something then stopped? Surely if starting was the hardest part and you overcame it, it would be plain sailing from there? Not true.
How many times have you berated yourself for not being motivated, called yourself useless or lazy, told yourself exercise just isn’t for you?
The good news is, the problem isn’t you.
Motivation doesn’t just appear. You aren’t useless or lazy. You just haven’t created the habit of being active and the reason you start an activity and stop, is simply because your focus is on the wrong goal.
The wrong goal being something that is not attainable in the short term, so the ability to reach it quickly and realistically is impossible.
How do we fix this? We simply need to flick the switch.
Maybe you are looking straight to your end goal and the road there is so long, it would take a momentous effort to reach it so it’s easier to choose your short-term comforts over your long-term wellbeing?
The problem of course, is that the longer you leave it, the further away that goal gets. Imagine a pile of ironing, overflowing from the laundry basket. It takes so much more motivation and effort to begin to tackle it, it’s easier to put the basket in another room and close the door. Out of sight out of mind.
But how would you feel if you only had 1 item in your basket? Would you feel more inclined to iron it? Would it seem so much less of a chore?
Apply this analogy to your health, weight or wellbeing goal and you’ll see that the more you focus on the end goal, the harder it is to find the motivation to do anything about it as it just seems so far away.
Maybe it’s time to flick the switch?
If you can flick the switch in your head and switch off those thoughts, you can change everything.
Let’s be honest (and maybe a little brutal), if you can’t motivate yourself to start or can’t stick to your plan, then you are never going to get there anyway – so forget it. Stop focusing on it. It’s not working for you.
Flick the switch in your head away from your end goal. Flick it towards doing one thing that will make you feel better about yourself.
Do that one thing. Do it once in a week. That’s all you need to do.
If it’s a walk, an exercise class, a swim – do it & do it for one reason only – to feel better about yourself and keep reminding yourself that that is the only reason you are doing it.
Do it again the second week then aim in the third week to do it twice that week – each time, for the same reason.
Don’t stand in your own way by thinking you need to look a certain way before you do anything active. If we had £1 for every time we’ve heard women say “I’ll start when I’ve lost some weight” we would be incredibly rich!
As Nike say, just do it and as we say, just show up as you are.
This is your new short-term goal, to do one thing twice each week that will make you feel better about yourself.
If you can do one thing, two or maybe three times a week, and savour how good it made you feel (maybe not at the time but afterwards!) you will begin to feel differently about yourself.
Slowly but surely, your self-appreciation will grow. Your negative inner voice will pipe down. You’ll begin to feel a little happier, your mood will improve & your hormones will be more balanced.
Each time you do your “one thing” remind yourself you are doing it for you. Your time spend on you to make you feel better – that’s all, no long end goal in sight – just the short-term goal of feeling better about yourself.
After a few weeks, you will begin to notice a change. You’ll begin to value the efforts you’ve been making. You’ll feel proud of yourself, and you’ll notice that you begin to make better choices regarding food & your lifestyle.
Your new short-term goal of doing one thing to make yourself feel better will begin to override your old short-term comforts and the result of all of this?
You’ll slowly begin to creep closer to your end goal.
