Pete’s Blog – February 2021
Welcome to my first blog entry of 2021. The beginning of a New Year, especially this year, is a brief moment in time for all of us to look forward with optimism to taking on new challenges, the hope of a better year than the one just completed and the opportunity to set or refine our personal goals.
With respect to our personal health, two of the key variables over which we have complete control is how much we move each day and the food we consume.
A positive mindset applied to each of these can make a big difference to our overall health and well-being. I am sure that most of you by now have read the little words of wisdom we have put up on the mirrors in the gym. This month I would like to explore the concepts that underpin the phrase that is on the mirror beside the Cross-trainer which says:
“Motivation is what gets you started, Habit is what keeps you going”
As we move forward into 2021, developing good habits is probably more important to helping you develop a positive mindset with regards to our personal health, than focusing on achieving a number of discreet goals.
The latest book I am reading is titled “Atomic Habits”, written by James Clear and published in 2018 by Random House. This book looks at the importance of focusing on and developing good habits and the process involved in developing them.
Over the next couple of Blogs I will delve deeper into the processes that help us to develop a healthier lifestyle and how to continue to refine these habits. For now I would like to outline a brief summary of the book. This may encourage some of you to buy the book and put into practice some of the very practical advice offered by the book’s author.
The process of habit forming can be classified into 4 steps:
cue, craving, response and reward
How to create better habits
Make it Obvious Eg. if you want to exercise more, simply put your workout clothes and trainers out the night before so you can see them when you wake up or pack a bag with your gym gear and put it beside your door so you can take it work with you if you prefer to exercise at lunchtime or the end of the day
Make it Attractive – If we make a habit of something we look forward to, we are more likely to follow through.
Eg. You could lie on the floor and do 20 – 30mins of rolling and stretching while watching TV in the evening, or you could listen to your favourite podcast or music while you walk or run, or use your exercise bike, or even watch your favourite Netflix show while you run on your treadmill.
Make it Easy – The key to mastering any habit is to make it as easy as possible to do and then simply do it, Eg. instead of saying I need to do 30mins of stretching, you could instead say to yourself “ take our my roller and put it on the floor in front of the TV”
Make it Satisfying – If an experience isn’t satisfying, it may not be repeated.
While many people believe that making big changes is the key to success, it’s the small things we do each day that have the biggest impact on our lives. The key is to make tiny changes to your behaviour, that when repeated over and over will become habits that lead to big results
Focus on the journey it takes to get there rather than the end goal
Results in life are a measure of habits
A person’s health is a measure of their daily habits of diet and exercise
Bad habits can affect us just as easily as easily as a good habit can build us up
If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.
I would like to finish this months blog by including a Latin phrase - Nunc Coepi (“Now I Begin”) This phrase is a rallying cry to treat each moment with the reverence of a fresh start. Developing good habits usually takes time but if you keep making the effort to work on small positive changes every day, you will very quickly have the system in place to allow you to lead a healthy, active life.