The small things really count

“If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way” – Napoleon Hill

Following on from my last blog about consistency, which I got some good feedback from, thanks! I wanted to keep th idea of being consistent going with this topic “the small things really count.”

“Look after the pennies and the pound will look after itself” my Grandmother would often say

This is true in all aspects of life. In the health and fitness world, the idea of ‘perfection’ seems to be a common thing. Perfect sleep, perfect workout, perfect nutrition and I often see people fail because they can’t achieve this level of perfectionism.

In the past I’ve missed 1 workout out of 12 for the week and I’ve seen this as a failure. It’s not realistic to think this way, unless you’re paid as a professional athlete, but even then the plan isn’t always the reality.

Instead, the focus should be on doing the small things right. Break down the bigger picture and find the little things that can be done daily and CONSISTENTLY and keep doing them. The bigger picture maybe to go to the gym everyday but once or twice a week work might get in the way. If you have a daily core routine that takes 15 mins to do at home, then at least you have something that you can fall back on. Additionally, if you’re doing that routine consistently, you’re going to get some big gains over time.

When it comes to nutrition, I like to create habits with my clients. Following macros works for sure, but I don’t think it’s realistic for most people. I also don’t think nutrition has to be that complicated where you have to measure and record all your food and this often causes anxiety.

Instead, creating small daily habits (like drinking 500ml of water and lemon upon waking) will lead to body composition improvements and a healthier lifestyle. These things are really simple and easy to do, and if done consistently they will work. Having the consistent base of small things done right will help to mitigate the odd ‘bad’ meal out.

IT GOES BOTH WAYS

However, the small things also really count on the opposite side. If you always have a beer at night, or you always skip the longer cardio based workouts (or strength workouts for you endurance people), then you’re not going to make the improvements you want. Having small consistent bad habits will hinder you tremendously over time.

Think of small incremental gains over the next 10 years. This could be through loss of body fat, increase of strength, improved cardio or any other health marker. The changes don’t need to be drastic for most people. They need to be small and consistent, things that can be done everyday without thinking too much.

If you want to make drastic changes then that still starts by doing the small things right and building from there.

One brick stood alone does nothing but 10,000 bricks will build you a house!

Thanks for reading

Darren