When we walk we put one foot in front of the other and we move forward, why don’t we apply this system to other things in our life?
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately about making changes in my life. There are many different ways and different opinions but the articles that I’ve found most helpful are the one’s talking about gradual change. If you’re like me you want to change something in your life immediately and do it going cold turkey, this usual ends in failure. You can do this and will probably succeed for a while but if you move to fast chances are you’ll hit a snag and resort back to your old ways. That’s where the idea of gradual change comes in, taking one step at a time. I’m trying this in my life and have been observing a few things:
- When you change things slowly, the end result seems more attainable I want to lose 90 pounds, whenever I look at that number it seems like I have a better chance of becoming president. Do you have a goal in your life that seems like it’s impossible? I’ve found that breaking it down to smaller amounts and taking it one workout at a time, makes it seem more realistic. I broke it down to 9 pounds a month, which means I can accomplish my goal in 10 months, not bad right?
- Try and build some consistency so it will become a habit– the more you do something and the more consistently you do it, will eventually lead to a daily occurence in your life. We know how this works, let me give you an example from my life: one day I was tired so I decided to stop at a gas station and get a Mountain Dew. I felt the same way the next day so I got one again. You get the picture right? I would then stop for one everyday and more than that, I built it up to where I was getting two a day (now you see how I gained the weight). That also brings me to the next point:
- Once you develop some good habits, build on them– the way my Mountain Dew habit escaladed is also the same way I can escalade good habits like working out. If you want to lose weight and you start to run everyday, you’ll naturally build on that. If you start off running with half a mile, you’ll build that a mile, you know how it goes. Do this with all the things in your life that you want to change for good. None of this can happen if we don’t do the next point:
- Take the first step today- I read an awesome blog post the other day, you can read it here: http://zenhabits.net/tired/. After reading it I decided it was time for the weight loss, so the next day I rediscovered my first love again, running. It felt like torture after not doing it for so long, but afterward I felt so good. Remember how I talked about building? The next day after the run I didn’t get a Mountain Dew and haven’t gotten one since. It will be a long, hard journey but the important thing is that I started it.
So how about you, will you take the first step? I know it looks hard, maybe even impossible to accomplish some of the goals in your life, but they’re only impossible if you don’t take that first step. What do you want to do? Want to lose some weight? Want to get a better job? Want to stop living paycheck to paycheck? You can do all these things and more but you have to take action.
Your call to action: So here we are, the place where the rubber meets the road. It’s time for you to decide, will you keep going down the old path where everything stays the same or will you take the first step down a new path? The new path may seem scary but I promise you it will be worth it at the end!
The questions are simple: what do you want to change in your life? Will you take that first step? Let us know in the comments below:
