|
Arete Warriors – spirit, mind, body strong
|
|
|
You need to do less.
For a doer like myself, this sentence is liberating.
It’s permission to sit down. Take a breath. Be satisfied.
But our mission is to reach our full potential in spirit, mind & body.
Doesn’t this mean we have work to do? Mountains to climb? Goals to reach?
Sure. But truly, I want for you real, lasting change. We need to work smart, not hard. And there are truths that we might be ignoring in an effort to look busy.
There are so MANY parts that have to fall in line for us to completely thrive. Our sleep, diet, exercise, stress, thoughts, energy, motivation, etc.
We talked at the start of this year about the domino effect… when dominoes are lined up just so far apart, tipping the first one starts a chain reaction that knocks over all others.
There are many behaviors and habits that can set in motion a lot of other positive (or negative) momentum.
For example, if you’re not getting enough sleep, of COURSE you won’t want to workout. You will also likely make poor food choices throughout the day.
And yell at your kids. 🥴
So if this is the case, getting more sleep would be a smart domino to tip.
Perhaps you’re hormonal, or have a baby with colic, or just love to scroll through your phone until the wee hours of the morning. 🤷🏼♀️
The first step is to find the biggest area of opportunity. (Identify the first domino.)
The second is to break that down into small, manageable bites.
Making a big change is tempting, but biting off more than we can chew is often unsuccessful & leads us back to where we started. 😖
Let’s talk about Habit Creep.
Let’s Prepare – the warm up
Think back to when you were in college, or when you first left home. You likely didn’t have much money so you bought Wet n’ Wild makeup and your clothes from Walmart.
I actually shopped at Goodwill so I’m not judging. Just stick with me.
Eventually you made more money and your taste/shopping habits got equally more expensive. Bit by bit.
When you got a raise, you likely didn’t just increased the amount that went into savings (as my husband would suggest 😜). Most of us just started spending more on eating out, where we stayed when we traveled, etc.
We probably did not even consciously know we were making these little changes, they happened ever so slightly.
Can you think of any good or bad habits that have formed in much the same way?
Did you used to go to bed at 11 every night? And as you got older, you slowly started going to bed earlier and earlier until now you turn into a pumpkin at 9?
You maybe didn’t even set an earlier bed time as a goal. It just happened naturally.
Can you imagine how nice it would be if we could make new healthy, habits this easily?
Research strongly supports taking smaller steps to create permanent change.
In Atomic Habits author James Clear tells the story of a guy who lost a LOT of weight by first establishing the habit of just getting to the gym.
He literally did not allow himself to stay for more than 10 minutes in the beginning. It was the act of getting there that he wanted to create first. Then he slowly started adding 5-10 minutes over time.
Let’s Work – the exercise
A baby doesn’t set out with ambitions to run. They first learn to stand.
Then, it’s a big deal when they take their first steps.
What habit do we need to change, in order for other things to change too? What is your first domino?
Yes, the change won’t happen as FAST maybe, but it has a better shot of being more PERMANENT.
How many times have you tried to tackle the SAME DANG PROBLEM, only to run out of discipline and have to start all over again?
Talk to me. I’d love to hear what your first domino is and I’d be happy to help you figure out how to tip it.
