Plan To Succeed

When it comes to integrating positive lifestyle changes, it's necessary to create a plan of action. All too often, people focus only on the end results without having a specific and detailed plan on how to get those results. “I’ll just eat better”, and, “I’ll just exercise more” oversimplifies the process and doesn’t produce many success stories.

At the start of your plan, ask yourself, "What behaviors do I want to be doing consistently?" It's very common that many of the behaviors we want to adopt are outside our comfort zones and can make us feel like, "I can't do that, I'm not able to,” or "I'm not the type of person who does that.”

Here's a client story that illustrates the importance of this topic. When I began working with Ann, she was at a place in her life where she knew some lifestyle changes were necessary in order for her to lose some weight, feel healthy, and feel good about herself. At that time, Ann drank four to six sodas a day and had been doing so for years. Despite knowing this habit wasn't at all good for her and was keeping her from getting healthier, she didn't feel the least bit comfortable giving up her sodas.

It was clear she was feeling stress over this issue, so I asked her, "When you picture yourself living at your best, your most healthy, happy and balanced, how many sodas are you drinking each week?" She thought for a moment and answered, "two or three.” To this I replied, "Obviously cutting down your sodas is an area you want to address and feel confident in doing. Realistically, what can you see yourself doing over the course of the next seven days that will baby step you toward that reduction?" For the next week, Ann replaced one soda and exchanged it with one glass of sparkling water. Building on this approach and her growing confidence, she systematically set and achieved soda reduction goals, and today she’s down to just one can a day, a far cry from the 25-40 sodas per week.

After determining what your desired behaviors are, you then set a one week, realistic "baby step" goal that will get you started in that direction and that you feel highly confident in achieving. Had I told Ann that in order to reach her goals, she would need to cut out all sodas and drink eight glasses of water a day, she'd have lost any hope for success, and I probably would have lost a client. Those achievable baby-steps toward healthy lifestyle habits are easier to build on and give you the feeling of, "Yes, I can do this.”