Stability: Stop Allowing External Circumstances to Affect Your Behavior
Do you ever consider how external circumstances affect your mood and thus your behavior? When the weather changes suddenly or your schedule tightens up, it is normal to experience a shift in mood.
This shift in mood can influence behavior, especially when you do not have a specific plan in place to stay on track.
Whether you like it or not, wellness behaviors need to be the norm, and not the exception.
For many who struggle with weight loss or health related problems, this pattern is all too familiar.
They treat wellness behaviors as a task they must do to get over the hump.
That is to say, they will do them in protest, just to get the desired outcome, THEN they can return to living just like they are now.
You may think that is not an accurate depiction, but think about it.
How many people go on diets, cheat on diets, and go off diets, only to start again later.
The same goes for exercise.
As long as you see it as a temporary task, to reach a desired outcome, you will never stick to it.
This lack of stability makes it an optional activity, not a routine part of your lifestyle.
In order to achieve lasting wellness, there needs to be a shift in mindset from sprint, to marathon.
This mental shift creates a positive behavioral mindset.
Temporary plans can be easily influenced by how you feel, the weather, or other external circumstances, but tasks associated with a deeper purpose become part of your regular routine and therefore are less subject to circumstantial changes.
The people that are healthy and fit well beyond middle age (Fit-Boomers) did not get there from hit and miss attempts to be healthier.
To achieve good physical condition as you age, you must have a regular wellness regimen that is part of your lifestyle.
These Fit-Boomers create time for exercise and nutrition on a regular schedule.
It has become just something they do and part of who they are.
This adoption of marathon thinking means you do not start out like the rabbit, in the tortoise and the hare.
You approach wellness from the turtle's perspective.
Slow and steady will always win the race, after short and speedy takes a break.
Those all out efforts lead to a routine that the majority of people will not wish to maintain for a lifetime.
In fact, that severity is what causes many to say, "The heck with it!" Consider where you are now in your physical fitness and nutrition efforts and create a regular plan that builds slow and steady to a maintainable regimen.
Will you see results as fast? No, but you will be more likely to maintain them for the long haul.
That is the message that needs to be absorbed.
Ask yourself, "What efforts toward wellness am I willing to stick to forever?" Then begin today, working toward those efforts.
Notice I did not say, "start there.
" By building up your endurance and building on your successes, you will be more likely to create a healthy lifestyle.
Again, traditionally this group goes about it backwards.
They start out going way above and beyond what they would be willing to stick to for the long run and then, give up before ever developing any long-term habits.
The effort has become a negative mental image.
When you create a negative association with a word, activity, or behavior, it makes it much more difficult to overcome.
The turtle power approach is slower, but stable and years from now, you will still be on the right path.
The rabbit approach leaves you subject to circumstance and will have you starting and stopping again and again, which is a pattern that many yo-yo dieters find themselves in.
So if you are fed up with trying to be healthy, stop trying so hard! In summary, think turtle.
Know where you want to be in your health and fitness status and start making small sustainable changes that will build life-long habits.
When you reach your goal, you will then have a personal wellness routine that you do as part of your lifestyle.
Be cautious not to look so far ahead, that you become overwhelmed.
Keep your eyes on the prize at hand.
Then when you look back, you will be able to see your steady progress.
Create stable lifetime habits, not short-term diets, and you will finally find the wellness to enjoy the life you have.
This shift in mood can influence behavior, especially when you do not have a specific plan in place to stay on track.
Whether you like it or not, wellness behaviors need to be the norm, and not the exception.
For many who struggle with weight loss or health related problems, this pattern is all too familiar.
They treat wellness behaviors as a task they must do to get over the hump.
That is to say, they will do them in protest, just to get the desired outcome, THEN they can return to living just like they are now.
You may think that is not an accurate depiction, but think about it.
How many people go on diets, cheat on diets, and go off diets, only to start again later.
The same goes for exercise.
As long as you see it as a temporary task, to reach a desired outcome, you will never stick to it.
This lack of stability makes it an optional activity, not a routine part of your lifestyle.
In order to achieve lasting wellness, there needs to be a shift in mindset from sprint, to marathon.
This mental shift creates a positive behavioral mindset.
Temporary plans can be easily influenced by how you feel, the weather, or other external circumstances, but tasks associated with a deeper purpose become part of your regular routine and therefore are less subject to circumstantial changes.
The people that are healthy and fit well beyond middle age (Fit-Boomers) did not get there from hit and miss attempts to be healthier.
To achieve good physical condition as you age, you must have a regular wellness regimen that is part of your lifestyle.
These Fit-Boomers create time for exercise and nutrition on a regular schedule.
It has become just something they do and part of who they are.
This adoption of marathon thinking means you do not start out like the rabbit, in the tortoise and the hare.
You approach wellness from the turtle's perspective.
Slow and steady will always win the race, after short and speedy takes a break.
Those all out efforts lead to a routine that the majority of people will not wish to maintain for a lifetime.
In fact, that severity is what causes many to say, "The heck with it!" Consider where you are now in your physical fitness and nutrition efforts and create a regular plan that builds slow and steady to a maintainable regimen.
Will you see results as fast? No, but you will be more likely to maintain them for the long haul.
That is the message that needs to be absorbed.
Ask yourself, "What efforts toward wellness am I willing to stick to forever?" Then begin today, working toward those efforts.
Notice I did not say, "start there.
" By building up your endurance and building on your successes, you will be more likely to create a healthy lifestyle.
Again, traditionally this group goes about it backwards.
They start out going way above and beyond what they would be willing to stick to for the long run and then, give up before ever developing any long-term habits.
The effort has become a negative mental image.
When you create a negative association with a word, activity, or behavior, it makes it much more difficult to overcome.
The turtle power approach is slower, but stable and years from now, you will still be on the right path.
The rabbit approach leaves you subject to circumstance and will have you starting and stopping again and again, which is a pattern that many yo-yo dieters find themselves in.
So if you are fed up with trying to be healthy, stop trying so hard! In summary, think turtle.
Know where you want to be in your health and fitness status and start making small sustainable changes that will build life-long habits.
When you reach your goal, you will then have a personal wellness routine that you do as part of your lifestyle.
Be cautious not to look so far ahead, that you become overwhelmed.
Keep your eyes on the prize at hand.
Then when you look back, you will be able to see your steady progress.
Create stable lifetime habits, not short-term diets, and you will finally find the wellness to enjoy the life you have.
