Sipping coffee the other morning, staring at the clouds as they greeted the morning sun, I thought about how organically the world cycles itself. (Coach Will here).
How normal it is for natural phenomena--sunrises, weather patterns, etc.--to recur. And in comparison, I thought about how challenging that basic recursion is for us humans to harness as habits.
'Habits' sure is a buzz-word, but actually putting them into practice is no small thing. For how routine we humans are (like all of nature), it is odd how difficult it is to make that routine work for us.
As a fitness coach, I came into the industry thinking that habits were simple. Just identify your goals, then start working toward your goals, every day, and voila--you have better habits.
Not so fast, junior.
The more people I worked with, the more reasons I heard for why habits weren't sticking: work issues, shifts in energy-levels, or--the dark-horse--people got bored with them.
So when we started the Fitness Alchemists, I realized we needed to take a different approach.
We're NOT going to tell you to dream about your goals first. Goals are fine, and when clearly defined and meaningful for someone, can be a huge boost (especially as the going gets tough).
But grasping for some goal-ish target to try to jump start your habit-engine just doesn't work. Instead, we will tell you to start by tuning in--to your body, your needs, and your natural daily/weekly rhythms.
We do this simply because flashy (but meaningless) goals tend to outshine the most important tool you can wield: a perception of your own experience.
The first step to truly great habits is very often the act of simply realizing where--and how--you are right now.
You can try this right now if you like.
Close your eyes, and notice one part of your physical reality: the itch behind your ear, the twinkling lights behind your eyelids, the pressure of your butt on your chair.
Really try it. Settle in and take a few slow breaths. I'll wait.
That little moment is like a gap in a curtain, allowing you for just a second to start to notice what's really going on behind the fog of your brain's chatter. And if you can find a way to add this practice of observing--even 1 min/day--to your daily mix, you are adding the most powerful foundational habit of them all: honest self-assessment.
In our experience, building a truly useful habit never happens through forcing great acts of will power, but rather by noticing the cycles of your life right now, and starting to shift them, through careful selection, in the direction that serves you better.
Once you start trusting your ability to observe, then you can start naming what you find. Identify the stuff that serves you, and see how you can make that happen more easily. How can you bolster the actions that feel good and propel you forward?
Identify the stuff that drags you down, and find ways to let that drop away. Are you doing it because you "should", but has no connection to what really matters for you? You'll know if you're honest with yourself.
Perceive, Identify, Fortify (the good stuff).
That's it. Pretty soon, you have side-stepped your way into a cycle of living that works for and with you, and isn't some huge obstacle that you'll "fix" with better habits. And while big changes do take time, little shifts now provide the right context for wider and grander habits to flower later.
And I'm convinced it all starts with tuning in.
So here's your magic formula for building life-changing habits, again... **Perceive, Identify, Fortify (the good stuff). **
Go harness the weather patterns of your life, Coach Will