So often when I approach others about being healthy I am almost instantaneously hit back with reasons being healthy is too hard and un-achievable. I wanted to know why this is always the first response to a change that seems to be a no brainer.
The first thought that comes to mind is the quote from Teddy Roosevelt, "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty..."
But I want to dig deeper into why being healthy is hard and I want to look at one thing in particular that lets everything else fall into place. That piece is HABITS.
I looked up several different ways that habits are built and broken and why change is hard. I came across this video about making and breaking habits and it's AWESOME! I linked it below
This sparked my interest and opened my eyes a little bit to why and how others see habits and of course how I see the simple habits all over my life.
The 3 things that he talks about are SINGAL SPEED, WILLPOWER MUSCLE, AUTOPILOT. He shows pretty good visual explanation of how each of these influences habits in very real ways.
Connecting habits with health, Charles Duhigg wrote a book called "The Power of Habit" where he talks about how our will power is finite.
What does this mean? Well if we try to form too many habits at the same time, or make BIG changes in our lives, our willpower gets tired and we end up not being able to form the habit.
While trying to take on all the new habits associated with healthy living our willpower is spread VERY thin and the likelyhood that we give up is high. Don't get sucked into too many habits at the same time.
He also found that as people strengthened their willpower muscles in one part of their lives - in the gym, or a money management program - that strength spilled over into what they ate or how hard they worked.
So we know that once you can steadily build your willpower, it DOES start to effect all areas of your life.
Here is my lesson for you today. If living healthy feels like too big of a task, I ask you to focus just one ONE aspect until it becomes habit, then move to the next aspect. I have found that this, like goal setting, cuts the image from the massive mountain to the next step and become much more attainable.
What do I think everyone's first step should be? Easy, Join a community of like minded people. This could be a Facebook group, it could be a newsletter HERE (shameless plug), it could be a challenge, it can seriously be anything where you are exposed to more information about health and wellness. Once you are consistently learning about what it means to be healthy, Then it's time to take the next step. That step can be different for everyone! You can take THIS quiz to see where that step should be.
Next time the thought of being healthy makes you feel overwhelmed, remember, all things worth doing are hard, but YOU have the tools to make it easier on yourself.
