Taking One Habit at a Time makes Life much easier than Looking at the End Result.
Our habits did not come to be all at once. They were built day by day and year by year. Have you ever found yourself opening the refrigerator without even thinking or being hungry and ended up picking something to eat?
Seventy percent of our daily activity is done automatically without us putting much effort. What are your habits 95% of the time? What is it that you do daily, to improve or sabotage your health, is it eating out, or when you are sad, or is it lack of exercise? Make an observation of what is it that you do daily to help or hurt your health. Our problem is not what we do 5% of the time, our challenge is what we do 95% of the time.
Unlocking our best health will be a combination of many habits that are build gradually, as getting daily physical activity, eat foods that heal and not harm us, having healthy foods at home, take 1-2 min to log the food you eat before or after your meal, start reading labels and ingredients, be around people that are health conscious, drink daily 64oz of water, sleep well, plan your cooking and some… We need to build our habits on our level exactly where we are.
I hope you decide to build a new habit that will set you up for long term success!
While you are on this journey to achieve better health, decide to honor your word, and the promise to yourself, the same way as you would honor the word and promise of the most important person in your life; since guess what… you are that MOST IMPORTANT person!
It is hard to wake up one morning and plan to lose 7 pounds for that week, run a marathon, do the full split, and have six-pack abs, ohh yeah baby, that is quite a productive week. Setting a goal of running 1 mile daily as a new runner versus 6 miles daily increases the chance that you will succeed in holding that goal longer. Goals need to be very personal to the person who sets them!
No matter what habit or addiction we decide to change, we will find ourselves missing it and might feel very uncomfortable and wanting our old patterns back. We are creatures of habits, and that is why we gravitate toward the places and patterns of old behavior that make us comfortable. So it makes sense that for a time, you will feel a fair amount of discomfort. When we establish healthier patterns, yearning, and desire for the old ones will disappear. Eventually, we will reach for the things that are good for us, but the only way to get to this new place is to endure a time of difficulty.
Every successful person has daily habits that they often use unconsciously. These new habits might be radical in the beginning but will become effortless for us too. But until then, we need to promise ourselves to implement what we planned the night before, even though at the moment that we are supposed to take action, our head will be chasing us around with all kinds of ideas that sabotage us from taking actions.
If it doesn’t work for you where you are in life right now, you will not do it. Do one small thing at a time. Maybe exercise for 10 minutes, have the right supportive people, continue making one healthy choice as a start, and you will feel inspired to go higher. Please shrink it to a habit that you can do daily and keep track of it. It will become easier if it is done every day.
Once our body and health are gone, everything else is gone, especially from our point of view. Whether we are on this earth or not, life will go on. We have been given the most magical, stupendous, perfect, unbelievable mysterious, powerful body to use. We might as well grab this opportunity and enjoy this journey to build habits that empower us. Our bodies are not our enemies, so please treat your body with care and give it the support it deserves.
This is a guest post by Besa Martini, Health & Life Coach. Knowledge is power, and she has studied nutrition under several doctors and biomedical researchers that are leading the way in prevention and, in some cases, the reversal of common chronic diseases. Studies show a clear link between the food we eat and our health. She became very interested in nutrition and the effect that has on the human body after reading “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. and his son Thomas M. Campbell, MD. She is here to help you elevate your health and life by adopting a plant-based diet and improving lifestyle.
You can also check out her website.
