Change Your Habits, Change Your Life

Self-discipline and motivation are limited resources.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, or eat better, or maybe work harder towards a promotion, you know that all too well. 

There are only so many times you can pass on free pizza.

Self-discipline and motivation are excellent tools, don’t get me wrong! But they are tools to help you begin on a new road. They are the spark, the small kindling for the fire, not the wood.

Habits are the wood.

Awesome firewood upon which you can make s'mores.

Think about it: How many things do you do on a daily basis purely out of habit? Check Facebook every 15 minutes? Pick up your phone and browse Instagram? Have a glass of wine (or two) as soon as you get home from work? 

These are not things you consciously have to think about; they just happen, and they happen every single day. Habitually. As if they have become part of the framework of your life, even a part of your own identity.

So you know you have this power to create bad habits. But what about good ones?

Wouldn’t it be great to go to the gym, not even having thought about it as a “big deal”? To eat a salad every day because that’s just what you’ve always done? To read a novel, or inspirational business book every night before bed instead of blindly reaching for the TV remote?

Of course it’d be great, but maybe right now it sounds unrealistic. But it’s not. I do these things every day, and have done them for years. Motivation got me to do them, and habits made me continue.

How To Create A Habit

Baby steps are key here. Baby steps and a Nike-inspired “Just do it” attitude.

Let’s say you want to go to the gym every day for four days in a row. The first step is to lay out your gym clothes. That’s it. For the first two or three days, you don’t even have to put them on. But you must lay them out, and lay them out at the time you would be able to go to the gym.

The next couple of days, put your gym clothes on.

The next few days, drive to the gym. Again, you don’t have to work out. I just want you to drive there in your gym clothes.

After three days of this, go into the gym, and walk on the treadmill for 5 minutes. 5 minutes, that’s it. Then you can leave. Do that for another three days.

At this point, you’re probably not even thinking about laying out your gym clothes. It’s no longer something you have to remember. It just is. And that, my friends, it how we create a habit. 

Tips and Tricks

-I sleep in my gym clothes, so when I wake up, I have no excuse not to go to the gym.

-Create a schedule. I go to the gym, without fail, every other day. I feel strange if I don’t. 

-Whatever you’re trying to accomplish, make it impossible to ignore. Put your book on your pillow so you have to move it if you want to sleep. Set a timer on your phone that goes off every hour to remind you to get up and walk around. 

-If you’re trying to eat healthier, make a habit of prepping your food on Sundays. Hard-boil a dozen eggs, cook up 5 chicken breasts and a cup of brown rice, and bake some sweet potatoes. When you’re prepared, it’s easier to continue. 

-If you find yourself slipping out of your habit, then it’s time to tap back into that motivation. Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. What is the end goal? (You did create goals, right? And write them down?)

Your habits become who you are. Stop being potato chips in front of bad late night television. 

Be healthy. Be well-read. Be successful. It takes just as much time to use 16 waking hours wisely as it does to mindlessly waste them away.

Want me to address a topic you’re struggling with? Leave me a comment, or email me at katy.widmer3@gmail.com

Lift. Eat. Love. Repeat.