New Year’s is long gone, and I expect that a lot of people’s resolve on holding up to their resolutions has also been forgotten by now. We have the greatest of intentions, but then we give up on our promises.
Why is that?
When I watch TV and see the various diet plans during commercials, I find my answer. Pictures of slim men and women promise how they lost so many pounds and feel great. Often these diet plans come with purchasing special food. The thin actors smile and talk about how easy it is just to eat while losing weight.
And then I ask out loud: “What happens when you stop buying the special meals?”
People put the weight back on.
We cannot live our lives always on a diet. It’s not how our brain works.
But we can take small steps each day to help orient us in the right direction. I read a book recently that mentioned a man who wanted to go to the gym and exercise. He had promised himself that he would lose weight but didn’t know how to begin. So for two weeks straight, he drove 20 minutes to the gym, stayed there and exercised for 5 minutes, and then came home.
Might sound odd, but he had a method to why he did that.
He knew that if he made an effort for two weeks straight to ingrain the habit of going to the gym and eased into it, that he would more readily accept the change in his life. His plan worked and he gradually increased his time in the gym.
We can take that same idea and apply it to our lives.
Small changes, over time, can lead to significant changes.
A few years back I read Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, and that got me thinking about why I have certain habits and how to change the ones that aren’t good for me (my weakness is late-night snacking right before bed).
My first therapist told me many moons ago that our habits fall into patterns like the grooves on a vinyl album. We need to retrain our brains to make new habits, and it takes time to do that. When we’re in a stressful situation, our fall back habit might be to act a certain way. But we don’t always have to respond the same way. We can train ourselves to act differently.
Knowledge is power. It might sound like a corny quote, but I ascribe to that belief.
The more we know about ourselves, how our brain works, and who we are, the more we can take small steps to make big changes in our lives.
The first step: Knowledge.
Observe what your habits are: How you interact with people, what your quirks are, and decide what you’d like to change.
Instead of jumping right in, read about habits. Duhigg's book is a good start.
Taking control of our lives and starting out on a new path is exhilarating though it can be frightening too.
The beauty of it all is that we only need to take one step at a time.
Like what you’ve read? Be sure to check out my other posts in my Let Go and Be Free blog.