BIG QUESTION. I mean if I could give you the answer in a few words, firstly I’d be out of a job and secondly, none of you would be reading this, because you’d already be where you want to be…
The truth about my coaching is that what I’m helping people do is change their behaviours, in all kinds of ways. But our primary focus is always a person. What can we do to empower and improve the person – YOU.
So changing the bad habits that are making you unhealthy and unhappy, is about igniting what’s important to you. It’s about unearthing what your priorities are and appealing to those.
1. Stop following other people’s instructions.
She starts the list of instructions with the headline “don’t follow instructions”. Clever. No really though, stop taking advice from any Tom, Dick or Harry. When you are after the solutions to your problems, be wary of anything that seems too “sexy”, too good to be true, anything that sounds like a miracle short cut. But also be aware of the perspective of the person you’re taking advice from. As a simple example, who would you rather take cycling instruction from: Chris Froome or the man down the road who commutes to the office three times a week? The answer might actually be the latter if your aim is to consistently be able to cycle to work, although if you’re trying to get better and improve your performance ahead of a trip the Pyrenees, it might be better to speak to Froomey! We live in an age where we have an infinite number of choices in terms of which direction we take in life. That’s amazing freedom. But it can also mean we are hampered by distraction. It is often easy to take advice from people who are moving in a different direction to you, simply because society has decided that person is “right”. Think. Is it that they are “right”, or is it simply that they conform to the majority? Does your goal conform in the same way? It may well do, but it might also be that you want to achieve something different. That means you might need to be a little more selective in who’s advice you take.
2. Think about what is important to YOU.
So you’ve decided you know what you want. You need to make sure that is in the forefront of your mind. For example, if you want to improve your health by losing a little weight, is the priority how it looks or how it feels? Is it your future that’s important to you? Likewise, would you actually prefer to suck up the poor health and the shortened lifespan because you like chinese takeaway more than you want to live a long and healthy life?! It seems an odd choice to me, but it’s critical to acknowledge that it is in fact a choice! See above comment about picking your own path and not simply following the crowd.
3. Create the right environment.
Particularly when people are trying to make changes to their health and lifestyle, the sticking point becomes the fact they haven’t backed up their decision to change with practical applications to change the environment they’re in. It’s like deciding you’re going to change from being a rugby player to being an accountant, but trying to work from your laptop, in the rain on the rugby field while there’s a match going on around you. It doesn’t make sense and it certainly will hamper you from completing your office job tasks! If you’re trying to improve your health by focusing on what you’re putting in your mouth, then get rid of the biscuit barrel! Buy the pre-prepared lentil packs for lunches, cut up the fruit and refrigerate for ready made fruit salads, get tupperwares full of trail mix ready to grab for quick on the go lunch box items. Whatever it is you’re trying to achieve, think about what that looks like. Visualise it. Make a mood board. Then write down all those action steps to create that environment, instead of trying to get washboard abs while staring at a packet of pork scratchings daily.
These are just a sample of the the tips that I think are vital to changing behaviours when it comes to health and lifestyle. It’s not sexy, it’s not a shortcut, there’s no miracle cures or “life hacks” here, it’s about slowly changing perspective, slowly making changes and slowly, bit by bit, ticking off the boring stuff.
Being consistently focused on what it is you want to achieve and more importantly, WHY.
If you want to find out a little bit more about your own stumbling blocks and start monitoring your own progress today, go take the Super Human Scorecard and work out where to start on improving your health and lifestyle, today.