Change is like a muscle.
We live in a society where we trained to be change averse, to be cautious, conservative and to form long lasting habits. Some of these habits are absolutely necessary, some are bad and are best broken.
However, to make those changes, we need to know how and we need to start small and slow.
Just like if you’re obese or quite fat and have not done any exercise for a while, you would start with walking, then longer walks, then jogs and slowly work up to a long run. Going straight from the couch to a long run might be admirable but it would probably cause an immediate injury.
Same with change – unless you’ve been changing yourself on matters small and large for a while – it is best to start with small things, and not too many or too often. Otherwise your set-in-its-ways brain is likely to rebell and your changes will be rolled back and you’ll give up on the whole “new you” forever.
Instead, pick a small thing and start by doing it a little.
For example, if you want to give up dairy – just stop drinking milk, maybe not even completely – just reduce the intake. Gradually work to reduce the consumption of just milk to none. Then butter, then cheese, then products containing it.
The only exception to these are addictions. Those are best broken hard and fast – and for good.
Once you stop, you can use the “just for now, maybe later” trick to keep at it.
Every time you get a craving for a cigarette, alcoholic drink, chocolate – whatever it is you’re addicted to – tell yourself you’re just going to not have it now. Maybe later you will – later in the day, next day, next week. When the next craving comes – same again.
But when it comes to life style changes – starting exercise, time you get up, morning routine, evening routine, nutrition, etc – small steps that gradually increase and finish with 100% is the approach most likely to result in success.
Sometimes 95% is x10 better than 0%, so accept the imperfection and acknowledge the achievement.
The more changes you make, the easier they become.
Once you’ve made 3-4 big changes – exercise, nutrition, etc – you will find that other changes take and bed in faster, are less of a fight and your mind eats them up.
To the point where it turns into a sport and you start to look for what else to change about yourself to make the next improvement – getting excited when you spot the ones which clearly will be a challange.
An important point to remember is that the change is never over and is like a wave – starts small, peaks and then falls off. It’s important to remember that the new habit/behaviour is likely to need some on-going maintenance and a top up from here and there.
Forget to check back from time to time and it could slip or disappear altogether over time little by little.
Mind Iterations 