Five Things You Can Easily Do Today To Get You Closer To Your Goal
We often put off making changes to our wellbeing because we are waiting for the ‘perfect’ time to do so.
“I’ll start eating more healthily when I have finished all the cake in the cupboard”
“I’ll start doing some mindfulness when the house is quieter”
“I’ll start exercising when I lose some weight”
“I’ll rest when I’ve done everything on my to-do-list”
The truth is the only time we have to do anything is right now, and the sooner we get started the better. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us.
We often put things off in this way because the overall goal feels overwhelming. It is easier to keep coming up with excuses not to start in the first place. The journey ahead seems long, the sacrifices it entails too hard to bear, or we just aren’t sure of what steps we need to take to get there.
Take drinking more water as an example. If you currently only drink other things like tea or coffee or forget to drink at all most of the time, then aiming for 2 litres of water a day seems daunting and is frankly unrealistic in the short term. Your system will struggle to process such a sudden increase in hydration, and you’ll spend all your time running to the loo. Or you’ll only manage 1 litre and then beat yourself up for not achieving your goal.
Similarly, if you would like to start a regular mindfulness practice then aiming to get up at 5am and meditate for 30 minutes every day – well I bet you won’t make it past day two even if you manage to crawl out of your nice warm bed at least once. I know I certainly wouldn’t!
The key is to just start…right here, right now and where you are! It might be messy and imperfect, but any action is better than no action at all.
Identify what it is ‘you’ want to achieve for your wellbeing. (Not what someone else or society thinks you should change).
Identify one small step you can do easily and consistently starting today to move you closer to that goal (drink one glass of water, take three deep mindful breaths etc or book that appointment)
Create a visual or audible reminder to nudge you to do it (place a glass next to your desk, a reminder on your phone or screenshot this article as your screen background)
Do that one small thing now.
Keep doing it the next day and the next or the next month and the next until you don’t even have to think about it.
Once you’ve established your new positive habit then you can choose to increase the amount or frequency as appropriate to move you even closer to your goal. Imperfect but consistent action is what will get you there in the end.
“A journey of a 1000 miles starts with just one step.”
There are other things you can put in place to ensure you remain on track like having an accountability buddy, having a deep understanding of ‘why’ you really want to reach this particular goal to keep you motivated, as well as having strategies in place to deal with any challenges that come up before they actually do. If you think you could benefit from having this extra support in place, then why not book a free discovery call either in person or virtually via Zoom
To discuss how I can support you one-to-one and make that change really happen this time 😊.
What are you waiting for?