There’s a certain magic in fresh starts, and we love a new week, month or year to give us a big motivational boost. They’re a great prompt to start a new habit and create a change.
But the ideal time to start implementing healthy habits isn’t much to do with the calendar as it is your actual day to day schedule...
Question:
Are you more likely to stick to new habits when life is busy, or when you have free time?
Answer:
When you’re busy.
I know, you think I’m mad. You fell off track when you got busy before, right? How are you more likely to stick to something if you have less time to do it?
Because if you learnt to keep up a habit when you’re busy, then you can find a way to keep it up always.
• Starting when you’re busy gets those hurdles out of the way early on.
• It gives you chance to develop time management tactics at the beginning.
• Your fresh motivation makes you more able to practice strengthening your discipline.
• It teaches you how to overcome in the beginning what may send you off track later.
• It fills you with greater confidence that you have the tools to know how to keep it up.
How to do it?
Of course we naturally want to start our new diet on a Monday when we’ve had the weekend to food shop, or head to the gym on our day off work. But change doesn’t happen when we treat making effort like a free-time hobby.
Change happens when we make effort a priority and commitment every day, week, and month, no matter what.
So open your calendar now for the next 7 days and schedule yourself 3-5 workout sessions.
Then open up your notepad and plan 5 healthy meals you can prep for the days ahead.
Don’t wait for a new week or your day off.
If you can do it now, then you always can.
The best tip for anyones fitness journey I can give, is to create the action plan for when things get hard and to practice it.
This is exactly that, and why a regular busy schedule is the best time to start making an effort, especially whilst you have that extra boost “fresh start” motivation to help you commit.
When you wait for life to get easier, slower, and better before you start, your journey only becomes harder and tougher as time goes on.
Do you know that feeling? You’re already feeling a bit burnt out, life is overwhelming, and you’ve no tactics in place for how to keep it up - so you just give up and start again later (when life is easier)?
Start when your busy and practice making it work. Find your coping mechanism and iron out the creases whilst you’re fresh and motivated, and then you’ll have a much smoother journey and less bumps in the road.
Start when you're busy
That’s the sweet spot.
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