The Power of Habits: Creating Sustainable Results
It’s so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to fat loss is believing we need to make massive sudden changes - completely overhauling our diet and working out 6 times a week with hours of mind numbing cardio.
We place so much pressure on ourselves to make some earth-shattering improvements that everyone will talk about.
However, what about making a small change that we can easily integrate into our every day? What if we can focus on a few key behaviors or habits that result in making sustainable long-term progress?
I call this being “1 percent better”.
While they may seem to make little difference on any given day, yet they deliver an enormous impact over the course of months and years. Over the course of a year, you’ll become 37 times BETTER by adhering to the one percent rule.
Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.
Making that decision to become 1 percent better or worse seems insignificant within the moment, yet they can deliver an enormous impact over the course of months and years.
With fitness, we know that our habits are important to helping us become the best version of ourselves. Could you imagine how different your body would be over the course of a year if you consistently made small improvements every day? It’s only looking back after two, six, or even 12 months later that the value of good habits and the cost of bad habits become strikingly apparent.
Therefore our success is the product of daily habits - not a spasmodic herculean effort to overhaul everything at once.
Unfortunately, our bodies didn’t receive the memo that we want our know our hard work is resulting in progress. While there are seven highly effective habits to changing your body composition, this is where having a coach to provide the necessary accountability and coaching to keep you on track comes into play.
Outcome Verse Behavior Goals
Hopefully, by now you understand the importance and how powerful habits are in changing your life. Now, how we do translates that power into creating fitness goals?
When it comes to creating fitness goals, it is always better to frame your goals around your behavior (i.e. habits) rather than the outcome (i.e. results).
Let’s clarify this:
Outcome-based goals focus on the end result, like losing 20 pounds, but don’t account for how this happens.
Behavior-based goals are centered on YOUR actions and habits, like tracking your nutrition and/or hitting your protein goal.
Outcome-based goals are extremely difficult to control. Everyone’s bodies respond differently to a new way of eating, exercising, or how much daily stress we are under.
When only focusing on the end results (i.e. the outcome), this can become very unsatisfying or even demoralizing after a few weeks. When you end each day without noticing significant progress, you’ll slowly start playing mind games with yourself. Slowly, you’ll begin to lose momentum, and slowly starting to lose your motivation.
Without your momentum and motivation, you’ll slowly stop taking the necessary actions towards your goals with the end result of reaching a complete halt. After a few weeks, you’ll start again, and the vicious cycle repeats.
By only focusing on the end result (i.e the outcome), this can become very dissatisfied or even demoralizing after a few weeks.
However, when you focus on your behaviors, this shifts our mindset to focus on the things we CAN control (i.e. habits) to become 1 percent better. This allows us to cultivate and maintain our momentum and motivation to stay the course. We start caring less about outcomes and focus more on becoming the best version we can become.
This allows us to focus more on the process and journey. You’ll find it to be more empowering and easier to develop those sustainable habits to keep the weight off. You’ll have a greater sense of satisfaction with building and maintaining your progress.
Remember, it’s our daily actions, behaviors, and habits that are the by-product of our success -not a spasmodic herculean effort to overhaul everything at once.
Two other critical factors to creating sustainable habits??
Accountability
Structure and a clear plan to follow
My online coaching service provides you with both. Together, we’ll create a tailored plan to get you to the physique you’ve always wanted, and expertly guide you through every step of your transformation.