When embarking on a new behavior change, the biggest mistake I see is when people try to make too big of a change too quickly, rather than focusing on small steps.
Think New Years Resolutions, most of us have some experience with that. Too often people start with a big lofty goal like losing a certain amount of weight and set out with a plan to start a strict diet and exercise daily.
But if they are starting from not exercising at all and eating whatever looks good, it’s usually not sustainable to expect to change everything so drastically and suddenly. A few days or weeks, sure, but that gets exhausting and we end up right back where we started (often with more weight gain, a cruel joke from the universe)!
True long term success is built on small, incremental steps done consistently.
This might sound counter-intuitive, but if you are trying to exercise more, the last thing you should set yourself up for is going from your couch to visiting the gym 6 days per week. If that’s the expectation you set, you may consider yourself a failure if you go 5 times that week.
Even though you weren’t, if you feel like a failure, you can easily get discouraged and quit.
Try this: don’t go to the gym at all. Commit to something super simple like 1 pushup or 1 jumping jack per day. It may sound silly, but that’s also kind of the idea. Make it so small that it’s almost laughable.
After a few days you might do a few more and before you know it you are doing sets of 10+ daily.
Same idea with your diet. If you currently eat fast food 4 times per week, shoot for 3 times this week. If you don’t eat any fresh veggies, start with 1 carrot. Heck, 1 baby carrot!
The idea is to start small and build slowly. Before long you will find yourself eating an entire meal made up of only fresh vegetables and lean protein.
As you start to stack these small changes, one at a time, you will build momentum and start to see the results you desire. Slow and steady – now that is sustainable!
So here’s where the rubber meets the road… what is one small thing you can start with right now?
Think super small. If you are not 100% confident you can achieve that one thing, then it’s too big.
What’s your one small thing for this week?
-J