“EVEN THE SMALLEST DROP OF WATER SENDS RIPPLES THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE OCEAN.”
~CLARITYPILL
In 3 STEPS TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT , I talk about how we have to consistently practice any change you want to make in yourself so that it can become a habit. When you want to make a change in your life, you generally tell yourself something like, “Okay, starting tomorrow I am going begin working out everyday”. When you tell yourself this, in that instance in time, you’re motivated to workout. In that instance in time, you’re determined to reach your goal of bettering yourself physically and mentally. Though you may have trouble sticking with that goal because you’re not always motivated and determined every second of your life.
You might ask yourself, so if I can’t always stay motivated and determined about my goal, how can I reach it? How can I form a habit such that I can reach my goal?
The answer lies in two fundamental factors that are often forgotten when forming new habits is in concern.
BREAKING YOUR GOAL DOWN INTO A SERIES OF SMALLER TASKS
Let us take the example of forming the habit of working out on a daily basis again. Now you already know where you want to be. Since working out or daily physical exercise improves your mental state as well as your physical state, you essentially want to transform yourself.
Some external changes may come easy, but internal changes are harder and transformation of yourself is a HUGE TASK! You must break it down and take baby steps!
In order to transform yourself, you must make exercising a habit and in order to increase your chances of making it a habit, you can break the task of working out into smaller units of work.
For example, instead of spending an hour in traffic just to get to the gym and then forcing yourself to spend an hour there before spending more time in traffic to get back home so you can take a shower and get ready for your workday, you might begin with a simple 5-minute cardio exercise in the comfort of your home.
There are several key benefits to this.
- It keeps you motivated because by the time you spend time getting to the gym, you might have lost your motivation to workout.
- It saves time! Your most precious resource.
- It gives you a sense of accomplishment in just 5 minutes! It’s important to keep progressing towards your goal as it can help you stay consistent.
CHANGING YOUR MINDSET
Mindset is a critical factor in every moment of our lives. Even that may be an understatement. Your mindset dictates how you perceive every single moment of your life. Think of your mindset as a pair of sunglasses through which you see.
For example, let’s say it’s several days after your first workout and because your muscles are not used to a higher level of physical stress, you’re very sore.
Now you can think to yourself “Man, this sucks! I’m so sore that every time I move my arm, it hurts.” OR you can think “Wow, this is great! I know that my effort is already paying off because by working out, I have broken down my muscles and not they will heal and be stronger.”
How we view our experiences is dictated by how we perceive them! So change out those sunglasses!
Similarly, you must not look at working out daily as an addition to your daily routine. By thinking that you have an additional task in your morning routine, you’re going to program your brain into thinking that it has more work to do! Your brain is programmed to be efficient and it will resist if unless you trick it into thinking that it really doesn’t have any extra work to do!
You can do this by thinking that your small 5-minute workout is not an addition to your routine, but a part of it. Tie your 5-minute workout with another morning task like stretching and yawning when you get out of bed. You might stretch, yawn and walk to your bathroom in the morning yet your brain doesn’t resist this as it’s become a part of a routine.
Instead of stretch and yawn, think of it as stretch, yawn, and a 5-minute cardio workout!
Your 5-minute workout is small enough on the time scale that it can be tied to any of your daily activities and that will make it much easier to do instead of spending 45-60 minutes every morning working out!
CONCLUSION
Breaking your goal down into smaller tasks or smaller goals and changing the way you view the work required to form habits can have a huge impact in helping you stay dedicated in forming habits. Small changes add up and this is true for everything in life. If you get overwhelmed, break it down and take baby steps!
