I’ve been coaching for over 13 years: tens of thousands of hours of working with individuals and groups, of goal setting and conversation, of helping people of all different levels.
Here’s what I know: very few people are confused about whether or not they should exercise. Very few people are confused about whether or not they should watch what they eat and drink. Very few people are confused about the value of good sleep and stress management.
So how come everyone isn’t fit and healthy and happy and well-rested?
It’s not because they don’t know the destination.
It’s because they don’t know how to get there. They need a roadmap. And the chances are really good that they need a different roadmap than any other person. Because we really are all unique and beautiful snowflakes.
We build the roadmap with habits. Not motivation. Maybe not even discipline, though both of those help. But with habits. Things we can do nearly without thinking.
Does it take discipline or motivation for me to set my alarm before I go to bed? Of course not. I just do it every night because I do it every night. It’s a habit. I don’t even think about it.
So how do you start new habits? How do you begin plotting the journey on that roadmap so you can get to your destination? By making those new habits as easy as possible. (That’s the whole logic behind our Bare Minimum Mondays posts – finding easy habits)
Is getting in 3 workouts per week more effective for building fitness than 2? Probably. But 2 is better than 1. And 1 is infinitely better than 0. And even doing 10 squats, on Mondays before your first workday of the week, is infinitely better than doing nothing.
The biggest mistake I see is setting the bar too high. It becomes easy to be super gung ho for 3 or 4 weeks and then the pace of this radical change in lifestyle becomes unsustainable. What I’ve seen work way better is to start with such a low bar that it seems almost not worth doing.
Is 10 squats, once a week, going to get you off of your blood pressure medication? Almost certainly not. But that’s not the point. The point is to make exercise a habit. When you can do 10 squats, once a week, without it being a big deal, then you can start doing it twice a week, or three times a week. Or you can increase that 10 squats to 20. Or you can make it a 5 minute walk. The point is not to get to the finish line, it’s to step off the starting line.
Make it easy to do consistently. Make it easy to start. And then, slowly and easily, just keep going. A teeny, tiny, little bit at a time. And if you need help, just ask.