We want amazing results, like yesterday, and we don’t want to have to put in too much effort or change things too much. It’s human nature, and nothing to be ashamed of. We just need to be aware of our propensity to be tempted to go down a road that ultimately won’t lead us to lasting success.
One of those things is making the mistake of unnecessarily complicating things. Even when we think we’re making things simple and easy, we’re really not. We forget all the little steps that go into building healthy habits in the pursuit of rapid results and in “all-in” approach.
If it were really as simple as “eat healthier,” we would be doing it already. So why can’t we actually follow through? It’s because there are a dozens of steps and behaviors that go into that broad goal.
Even if we break it down to “eat a healthy breakfast,” there’s still the matter of adjusting what time we wake up to allow for time to prepare and eat the meal, grocery shopping for healthier foods, there’s planning what to eat and maybe looking up recipes online, and the actual time, energy, and motivation to prepare the breakfast.
And then what happens when you oversleep or hit the snooze button one too many times? Or when you Just. Don’t. Want. To? Or your kid tells you about the book report he forgot that’s due today and the permission slip that you need to sign but don’t know where it is??? Life happens.
See how a seemingly simple goal of eating a healthy breakfast everyday can be a tall order?
We see these amazing 90-day transformations in the media and think that it’s way easier and simpler than it really is. It’s not merely wanting it bad enough; it’s being strategic and methodical about building the habits that set us up for success. And these habits are made up of small individual behaviors done consistently, day in and day out, week after week after week.
So when I say, start small, I mean really small. Ridiculously small. So easy that you are pretty much 100% confident you can do it every single day. So easy that you think, what’s the point?
The point is that not only do you need the momentum of those small wins, but you also need to be doing the behavior daily in order to make it a habit. It’s extremely difficult to make a habit out of something you do every once in a while. And it does add up over time.
And are you more motivated by rocking at something or sucking at it? Willpower and “really wanting it” can only last so long, so you need to have rock solid habits to back you up when the going gets tough. And it will. A lot.
So start at Step 1, not Step 23.
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”