Changing Habits
Have you ever known someone to change something about their life? Maybe a job, breaking an addiction, losing weight, moving to a new state, etc.
Most of the time, changes are complex. Sometimes, they are easy. Every time it looks, it seems more accessible to the person watching than the person doing it.
When you are trying to make a change, it may feel like an uphill battle that continues to grow. It seems to be a never-ending road to make it to your goal. You are sweating, feeling beat up, and doing everything you can to continue putting one foot in front of the other.
That same road to another person looks like you are going down the hill in a beautiful sports car with the breeze lightly blowing through your hair and a gentle and flawless ease to your movements.
We all wish making changes felt like what it looks like. But it’s not; it needs to be complicated. Changing will always be challenging. The challenge helps give you the tools to overcome any other obstacles that get in your way. It helps give you the confidence to keep going.
The good news is that you can make those changes slightly more straightforward.
The way to do that?
Change your lifestyle.
If you are trying to change but consistently fighting through it, you will always be tired and more challenging to win.
When you have to move to a new state, you decide. Pack your things. And go.
This way, you can entirely change your lifestyle. You are all in.
If you move to a different state, only pack your toothbrush. It would make life challenging to prepare for work in the morning. You would get up, brush your teeth, then drive across state lines to get dressed, only to move back across state lines to go to work.
That doesn’t make much sense. You have to change your lifestyle entirely. Go all in.
To make any other change easier. You have to do the same.
Want to eat healthier? Add good foods to your shopping cart and leave the junk food on the shelves. If you don’t have high-sugar foods at home, you won’t be able to eat them.
Decide to do something. Please do it. And don’t look back. It will be harder to keep moving forward every time you look back.
Consistency For Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Ask yourself for every decision you make if it aligns with your goals.
Start with a tiny thing you know you can do every day. Do that thing for a week, consistently. Then do it another week. Then again. Consistency is the key to getting what you want. Keep doing it, and it will become part of your lifestyle.
Slowly add to it. It could be more of the same or something completely different, but it still puts you on track to reaching your goals.
You have to want it. You have to put in the work. The consistency of One step forward and Two steps back is not changing your lifestyle – it’s fighting the change.
Sometimes, falling back happens, but your lifestyle doesn’t have to revert to your old lifestyle just because it does.
And the question about a decision lining up with your goals, the answer doesn’t have to be yes every time. Life is about balance. Being aware of that will still keep you on track. But you cannot continue to make choices that align with your previous lifestyle and expect the new one, the better one, to come about still.
You have to practice the change to make the change. And it is hard work. But it won’t last forever. It will get easier when you stop fighting the lifestyle change and live it. Dive in and don’t look back.