Forming New Habits
Habit forming is one of the hardest things to get right. It takes time, effort, organisation and most importantly consistency! What tends to happen is something will trigger you, for this blog we are using training and lifestyle based habits. You might see a picture you don’t like, you can’t get in to your favourite trousers or maybe you can’t chase after your kids as well as you used to and you think… RIGHT!! That’s it!!
That’s the ‘cue’ phase it is the starting point of all habits, from there you have to embed something in your ‘routine’ that will get you closer to your ultimate goal, if you make this as easy as possible to succeed then you will get the ‘reward’.
What tends to happen is most people will go too big with a habit, for example ‘I want to go to the gym 3 times a week’ when at the minute they aren’t going at all. That might be what you end up with but is it really where you should start?
This habit is too broad, and there are too many aspects that will make you miss or fail. That will carry with it a negative association and therefore you are more likely to give up.
So lets work out the best way to form this habit…
What gym are you going to? Be specific, find out the gym that works best for you factor in location, level of support, environment etc.
When am I going to go? this is the tricky bit, Mike Tyson famously said ‘everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth’. Things happen and plans change but for you to make going to the gym a habit you must put aside the amount of time you need to be successful. We recommend 2 sessions ideally. So carve out 2 hours from the 168 available hours each week and make them a non negotiable. Speak to people you live with, family and friends make sure they know that if they want you to do something that those 2 hours are non negotiable. Be selfish.
Make your trip to the gym as easy as possible. Take your gym stuff with you to work, join a gym you basically pass during a daily drive (school run, commute etc), get a training partner to help keep you accountable or better still invest in a personal trainer.
Have a training plan. Having a structured training plan based around your goals will make your gym sessions more enjoyable as you will see progress along the way. Maybe an extra rep or an extra 5kg here and there, these are the types of rewards you need to build a positive association with what you are trying to achieve.
I realise that those steps are geared towards going to the gym (this is a gym blog after all), here are the steps you need to follow for any habit.
Be specific - place, time, frequency.
Be realistic - start small and build up
Start with the end in mind - It’s good to have big goals but break them down in to steps and always follow number 1!
So with these points our original habit would go from ‘I want to go to the gym 3 times a week’ to ‘I am going to go to Chaos Coaching (for example, lol!) on Monday at 6pm and Thursday at 10am). Once you build your timetable with the 2 non negotiable gym visits in you will start to create consistency and this will form a habit.
I can’t stress how important it is that you become selfish with your chosen slots, how much time do you give to other people? Family, friends, work etc. Take time for you, it is a must! The longer you leave it the harder it will become, for you to be at your best for the people around you, you have to look after yourself.
Be aware of the difference between a habit and a goal. A goal might be what you want to achieve but it will be the habits that get you there.
