New Year, New You? Did you promise yourself that you would become a completely new version of yourself? Whether that be by losing weight, eating healthier, or focusing more on your wellbeing. How have you been doing so far?
Our clients often find that focusing on smaller steps rather than making massive leaps can be more beneficial in the long run. If you take losing weight for example. Focusing on adding 10 minutes of physical activity to your daily routine is more sustainable than jumping headfirst into going to the gym for an hour every day of the week. Especially if you aren’t a regular gym goer. Your willpower to commit to this major change may be strong for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but after a while, other commitments could get in the way and cause you to revert to your old comfortable routine. Does this sound familiar? It can feel very disheartening to have not been able to keep it up and may make you feel like you can’t change. But don’t give up. There is a way around this!
Research suggests that if you set small goals, or as scientists prefer to call it, proximal goals, over a period of time, it not only helps you make a change, but it also changes the way you view the task. Your change perspective could transform a task from being a tiresome, hourly run. To being a 30-minute get-away, that burns off the day’s stress. Or a short walk to explore nature and take a break from your screens! It transforms into something that makes you happy and feel like you’ve accomplished a goal! When you start achieving these smaller goals, it gives you a sense of achievement, motivating you to stick to this change in the long run!
So maybe rather than waiting and taking a big leap of faith every New Year, you could start off by taking smaller, more reasonable steps every day. Remember, a small change can have a bigger impact on our lives and perspective! To quote Matt Haig’s Midnight Library, “everything we experience is just our perception of it”.
Sign-up to One You for more support on taking smaller steps using this form https://thrivetribe.typeform.com/to/YAENFT5v?typeform-source=oneyou-rbkc-westminster.org.uk. You don’t have to do it alone.
