You Become ‘You’

The above quote is a truism that works for any facet of our lives, whether that is regarding our health or our wealth or our relationships. This newsletter isn’t designed to give financial or relationship advice, but sticking very much to my strengths (if you’ll excuse the pun) it is all about dispensing advice around health and fitness.

So, in a similar vein to that ancient philosopher, Aristotle, who said that “We are what we repeatedly do.”, the quote from Jim Rohn reminds us that our habits are key in you becoming ‘You’.

Small daily actions can have a big effect on our health; positive or negative.

This is something that this newsletter has touched on before in previous editions. Doing some form of exercise daily will create positive outcomes for you and your health, while eating a packet of crisps once a day is likely to have negative effects on your body and its metabolism.

We know this. So why do some of us struggle to form the necessary habits that will help us live long and functional lives?

There are many different figures out there for how long it takes to form a habit – anything from a few days to a couple of years – so the jury is out as to how long it can take. But one thing is for sure: the habit won’t start to form if you don’t take action.

And the action needs to be “directed action”. What does that mean?

BJ Fogg, who is an eminent researcher on habits and their formation as well as being adjunct professor at Stanford University and the founder and director of the Stanford Behavior Design Lab, states that for lasting change to happen there are two things that you have to do. You have to help yourself:

• do what you already want to do

• feel successful

Every time someone creates a habit, they do those two things; they do what they already want to do and feel successful doing that. Professor Fogg also thinks along the same lines as me, and that is to start small and then build from there. Going too big too soon will inevitably lead to failure.

So if you want to get healthier, don’t try and change everything at once. Instead, ask yourself, “What do I already want to do that will help me get healthier?”, and then identify what you already want to do. This may be the type of physical activity that you already want to do that will lead to better health. My job as a coach is to help you do that.

And then as you make the small changes, I will do my best to help you feel successful, as that feeling of success is what helps wire in habits, as well as helping keep you motivated. It is in celebrating the small wins (managing to get three workouts in per week for a month or, on a smaller scale, setting a new personal best), that the magic happens, and you become motivated to keep on moving down the path of change.

I love helping clients create the changes that they want. It is what drives me. Seeing the changes, physical and mental, in clients is an awesome thing. And by helping clients change their habits they can become who they want to be. 

If you’d like to change your habits to become fitter, leaner, stronger and healthier click that gold button right underneath this paragraph, and let’s have a sensible chat about how we can work together to get you to where you want to be.