Know what I’m bad at?
Making good goals that I can stick to.
I always set out with the best of intentions. I tell myself “This time I’ll start eating well and KEEP eating well” or “This time, I’ll definitely stick to the awesome work out plan I made for myself.”
Somehow, every time I convince myself it’s true too!
How are we able to do that? Lie to ourselves?
I’m usually all gung-ho for about a week or two…
Then, slowly, I skip a workout here, or indulge in a bag of chips there (especially sea salt and cracked pepper, mmm!).
Then one day becomes two, two becomes three, and before you know it, I’m right back where I started.
I can’t blame anyone but myself. It’s not like anyone else is trying to sabotage me.
The only thing I’ve consistently kept up with is yoga every Wednesday night. And you know what? I feel AWESOME afterwards. You would think that on the other days when I should be working out I’d remember how great I feel on Wednesdays after class and that would give me some motivation. But it doesn’t.
So, in short, I’ve got to develop some longer-lasting willpower.
How to do it? No idea. Maybe I’ll try tomorrow.
You said it: you stick to things that give PLEASURE ! so good habits should be fun, enjoyable, shared with friends, easy, spontaneous, natural to your style, your passions
Want to stick to healthy eating ? : allow you to eat anything even junk, ships or chocolate, just control portions and compensate the next meal or next day …more to come in my next blog post..shhhtt it is not ready yet but you gave me some inspiration here, Thanks
In my experience, it seems that we lie to ourselves because it’s counter-productive not to. For instance, if you dreamed up a workout plan and immediately thought “I’ll never do this”–well, as honest as it might be, you wouldn’t get much done. Lying to yourself at least gets you started, right?
But is it even fair to call it “lying to yourself”? It isn’t a lie until you give up, right? So next time you catch yourself slipping you can think to yourself “this bag of chips is the lie.” The person eating the chips is not who you are, they are a manifestation of the lie, right? The solution I’ve used might seem harsh, but it works for me sometimes: punish yourself for slipping. Feel bad about slipping. Think about it, dwell on it, embrace it. Acknowledge that at the moment you slip, you are becoming someone who you don’t want to be.
If you think of the pre-slip person as the person who you had become, the post-slip person is not the “real” you. You didn’t lie to yourself at the outset because you succeeded (at least for a little bit). You’re lying to yourself at the end if you think that it was inevitable that you would break the good habit, or that you were never the person who kept up with it.
If you really want, I bet there’s a super-sweet guy out there that would let you borrow his audiobooks on discipline. Perhaps he has confronted the same issue as you!
I make lists and post them! When I exercise or need to, I make a list and write down exactly when and what I am going to do. (run 3 miles, 6 AM) I then look at it each day and look one day ahead. That gives me all day to look ahead and get ready. Then when I go to bed, I lay out my clothes, set my alarm and I am ready in the AM. No excuses looking for clothes in the morning or guessing how far I have to go.
Another way to stick with it is to have someone else hold you accountable. Exercise with a friend. Even if I don’t want to run 3 miles at 6 AM, I know my friend is there, outside on the corner, waiting for me! Very powerful stuff!
Good luck!