Okay. So last week's blog posting resonated with you, and now you desire to make the lifestyle change that will help you get to where you want to be in life. The problem is, however, that you've already attempted this a couple of times and just weren't successful in your attempt to change. Sure, you did okay for a week or two but as soon as something didn't work out perfectly, you were back in the throws of doing the same things you told yourself you would never do again. So how do you make a commitment to change your lifestyle and follow through with it? While the answer isn't easy, it is very simple. There are three things that you must do to be able to increase your chances of creating the new you without looking up six months from now and kicking yourself for being the same person you were when the year started.
I. Start small
This is often the biggest mistake I see a lot of people make initially. They are all excited about this new lifestyle that they are going to live and are pumped up on "dreamer's inertia" that they commit themselves to things that individuals who have been living a ideal lifestyle for years couldn't commit to, much less a novice who is fighting years and years of bad habits. You see this when people commit to going to the gym seven days a week for two hours or only having lettuce and water for lunch each day. The problem with these decisions is that they are often not sustainable and ask too much of someone too quickly to be successful. In relation to the exercising goal, when you ask yourself to make such a high level commitment, you increase your chances of hurting yourself (something that would totally hinder your ability to continue) or you downplay the significance of missing a day because you committed to so many. When you don't feel bad for missing one day, you have a tendency to rationalize missing two, and then the next thing you know, you haven't been to the gym in three weeks. By starting small, you allow your body the chance to build up its discipline slowly over time. For example, instead of saying you will go every day, why not just commit to making it three days a week for 30 minutes? That's a GREAT start if you haven't been going to the gym at all before. In relation to a new diet, why not just start by cutting out sodas, fried foods, or breads? You can start there and then work your way up as your body gets used to it and your mind slowly becomes more disciplined over time. Once you've seen some results from these changes, this often is the impetus you need to continue your lifestyle change and eliminate/change something else that will lead to a better overall you.
II. Don't set yourself up for failure
This is one that I think hurts the majority of people when they start out. You have to know yourself and how much will power you truly have. If you know that your will power is not strong, you CANNOT put yourself in situations in which you are tempted to do something that takes away from your commitments. Tiger Woods was an admitted sex addict. It wouldn't been very wise for him to put himself in a situation with any single, "willing" ladies for any length of time, as he was working through his recovery to get better. Once he reached a point of strength, then perhaps that was a different story, but until then, he had to be careful with where he was and whom he was with at all times. You can compare this to your daily activities to commit to your change. If you know that when you drink a fair amount of alcohol, you have a tendency to eat bad, you need to make sure that you either A. begin to incorporate drinking less into your lifestyle change or B. make sure there is no bad food around when you are drinking excessively (maybe by only drinking at your house where there are healthy things for you to munch on). If you know that it is hard for you to resist McDonald's french fries, going there with a friend for lunch, claiming that you are only going to get a "salad" may not be the best idea. Staying at the office or choosing another place that wouldn't be so tempting would probably be the better choice. The important thing to remember, however, is that this should generally only be temporary as you work to increase your self-discipline "muscle" to be able to withstand these temptations over time. With time, someone can put a cheeseburger and fries right under your nose and you would be able to look at your body and remember where you came from and abstain with NO problem. Until you get there, however, it would be wise to stay as far away as possible.
III. Track your success
This is probably one of the most important things for you to do. The famous saying goes, "What gets measured, gets done." To make sure you are consistently receiving the positive reinforcement you need to be successful in the long run, you need to track your "wins" and celebrate them each time. If you committed to the gym for three days, track how many days you go and how many consecutive weeks you made it to feel a sense of accomplishment. If you said you weren't going to eat fried foods any more, track how long you have gone without eating any. Next, you can couple this with whatever attached goal you may have had (saving money, losing weight, etc.) and identify the improvements that have taken place in that area of your life. Don't get discouraged if you don't see results too quickly. This is what often deters people, and they slowly begin backsliding to the person they were before. Life is a marathon and, as all great marathoners know, if you begin life at a sprint's pace, you may get to the 1st mile marker much faster, but you're not going to have the energy to finish the race. Make your journey a marathon by slowly committing to incremental improvements and watch the change in you occur, as you don't let up on them for anything.
Aristotle wrote "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." By following the three tenets of a lifestyle change outlined above, you are creating the "little" habits that can be a big difference to change your life forever. And while no one said that it would be easy to accomplish, the question is, if there are people in the world who are considered excellent and great at what they do, then WHY NOT you as well?
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech (Graduate in May! - Whoop Whoop!). You can follow his daily quotes of inspiration and motivation on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIN
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