Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

Speaking from experience, I know it can feel so good to develop a grand plan to change a lifestyle habit. Perhaps that plan might be to exercise each day, or cut out carbs, or meditating for an hour daily. After all, we know there are pretty clear-cut things we could change that would be good for our well-being - we just have to make them happen. To even come up with the plan to make these types of changes can in itself feel like an accomplishment!

See if the following description of this process resonates for you... So maybe you make a plan and go all-in with it - setting up rules and intentions for that healthy change. For a while, you might enjoy the success from following the plan, but then something comes up, the plan starts to become inconvenient and the plan goes awry. Then you start being critical of yourself for "failing," lose motivation, quit completely and wait for the next burst of inspiration to make another plan. Sound familiar? Now if you are the rare individual who has taken this approach and been able to stick with a healthy habit, I applaud you and you can probably skip this rest of this article. But for those of us who tend to bite off a bit more than we can chew, read on.

Let's be frank here. Abruptly developing a whole new way of living isn't likely to stick. It's too much too fast. It takes time for our brains to incorporate a behaviour as a habit and adjust our lives to help the habit fit into it. While all that is going on, you're spending far more energy than usual being intentional, because every day is a choice to keep that plan going. That's the bad news.

The good news is there's a different approach you can take, but it might be a bit less satisfying of a plan...

Start off small. Just like someone entering a gym for the first time shouldn't go to the heaviest weights and expect to avoid injury, don't expect yourself to do significant feats right off the hop and expect them to be sustainable.

This means make a reasonable goal that suits your life. The best plan is the one you can stick with, so think about what you could actually stick with. Instead of abandoning carbs, maybe just ensure you're adding some extra veggies into your meals. Instead of a daily exercise regime, start with 3 days per week and go from there. Rather than meditating for an hour, maybe start with 10 minutes.

When goals feel more manageable, you can stick with them for a longer time period. If you stick with them for a longer time, you'll be building them into habits and you'll be reinforced by the positive results you'll experience. Once it's firmly established as a habit in your life, then you can pick the next baby step forward to work on.

As I'd mentioned, making this plan might feel less satisfying than a grand plan would be. It's less exciting, less impressive and less sexy on paper to have such a "moderate" goal. However, I promise you that in the long run, accomplishing your goals is far more satisfying than an unmet grand plan.