Do you treat yourself with curiosity, care & compassion?
When coaching movement we teach core to extremity as an explanation for how most movements start at the centre and radiate out. Think throwing a ball.
That isn't how most of the fitness, health and wellbeing industry tends to work though. They are very much focused on reps and sets, broccoli and chicken. Rarely do you ever hear anyone talking about what shift has to happen at the core, to drive the change. And then what it takes to keep it going when things get busy, boring, scary or hard.
To spark change, you need to become dissatisfied with our status quo. The other side of the coin is wanting something for your future, your ambitions, hopes and dreams. Pain without ambition leads to frustration, feeling stuck and coping mechanisms. Ambition without discomfort will lead to low drive and leads to unrealised dreams and again frustration.
If you're not dissatisfied in some way with your current predicament or your have no ambition or hopes for the future your chances of being successful with any change effort are basically nil. You need both.
Action step:
Take a piece of paper and create a mind map of all the things you don't want. Write that in the middle. Run an imaginary film forward in your mind where you continue on your current trajectory. Consider as many areas of your life as you can. Include your career, family, health, relationships , social life, comfort, pain level, romantic ambitions, social life, confidence or quality of life etc. Think about the habits and behaviours that are not serving you or are going to lead to unhappy consequences or lead to you getting stuck.
Now pick something you want to change. If you're smart, you'll pick something that has a single cause but many downstream effects. For me, fixing my sleep was an example of that.
I now go to bed and get up the same time every night. No phone in the bedroom. In bed by 10pm every night. My alarm goes off at 7am.
Poor sleep and being tired were the start points for some unhealthy behaviours.
Result: Sleep improved, tired grumpiness reduced. Mornings I wake up refreshed, get more done. This led to getting my physical training becoming way more regular. This meant I missed fewer days. My diet improved without really trying too, because of fewer carb cravings. As a result my physical and mental health improved. I'm training more regularly. I am fitter and stronger, healthier and happier.
Photo by <a href="https://buff.ly/3XaVQb9">Jonathan Cosens Photography</a> on <a href="https://buff.ly/3Ms4s8x">Unsplash</a>
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