There’s a notion that it takes a certain number of days to create a habit. That notion is false. I can tell you now, if you do something 5 times in the next 100 days it will not become a habit. If you do that thing 100 times then there’s a high chance it will.
Every habit that you’re trying to create needs to come from the idea of changing your identity. The old you didn’t have this habit in their life but the new you does. Changing your identity is a big step and doesn’t happen overnight. There are multiple steps to get there.
So you have the goal to “get in shape”. The overall identity change is to become a healthier person who is fit and active. This kind of person makes good nutrition choices, trains 4-5 days a week and goes to bed early.
Try to do all of that at once and you will almost certainly fail. Not many people can jump in at the deep end and survive.
I see people having the most success by choosing to join a gym as the first step. A lot of other things seem to fall in place once you have your workout routine in order.
So habit #1 could be – attend the gym 3 times a week.
How are we going to make this happen? Having that as the habit we want to start is great but there are a lot of things that may stop us. We have to actually get to the gym. Work or children may take up our gym time. Tiredness may kick in right before you’re supposed to leave.
Make an appointment – it is easy to let yourself down but it’s harder to let someone else down. Book a session with a coach or sign up for a class with a friend. I see very little, if any, “no shows” from people who have booked a session with me but I do see the odd person book but not attend a class. They only made an appointment with themselves which is easier to bail on.
Put it in your calendar and tell anyone who it may affect. If the family knows you’re committed to going to the gym after work then they are expecting you home later.
Pack your bag the night before so there’s one less reason for you to forget or have to rush out in the morning.
All these are great actions to make sure you’re set up for success but we still need to find one more step. We need to find that thing that says ok it’s workout time. When I wake up in the morning I often go straight to the shower and turn the tap on as cold as possible. It’s horrible and I hate it, but for me, that’s my wake up signal and I’m up.
Let’s say you workout early in the morning. Hardly anyone wakes up at 5am and feels raring to go. It’s tough to get up at that time. Your habit of going to the gym 3x per week can be scaled right back to:
“getting out of bed and putting my gym clothes on”.
Once you have those gym clothes on you’re pretty much there. That is the habit you want to create. Let the bigger goal, ie. “get in shape” stem from this one habit change. Get out of bed and put your gym clothes on.
If you go after work it could be – drive straight from the office to the gym. No stops, no distractions.
These will work for most people but you may have another trigger that works for you. Create that tiny little habit and let it have a ripple effect on all the rest.