In the habit

I am, in many ways, an extremely lazy person.  Left to myself, I might not ever get off the couch.  So how is it that I manage to exercise every day?  I make it easier to exercise than not to exercise.

 

Spoiler alert:  there is some work involved, but it’s mostly at the beginning.

 

What I do, and what I encourage my clients to do, is to make a habit of exercising.  Habits take some work to establish, but once they are there, we can rely on them to keep us on track.  I don’t have to think about exercising; I wake up and do it as part of my morning routine, just the same way I brush my teeth and eat breakfast.

 

The work of building a habit is mostly research on what works for us.  I am one of those annoying morning people.  If I want to make sure something gets done, I schedule it for the morning.  I’m also a person who loves to check things off of lists, so I have a workout sheet that allows me to do that.  I keep the list in a specific place, so I don’t have to run around looking for it when it’s time to work out.  I am particularly lucky in that I wear workout clothes all the time, but for those of us who don’t have that luxury, prepping our gym bags ahead of time as part of our routine is helpful.

 

Another tool to use when we are in the process of building a habit is accountability.  This can be as simple as the aforementioned list.  However, some of us benefit from having an accountability buddy, whether that person is just someone to tell we’ve done our workout or someone who shows up and does it with us.  Sometimes our commitment to showing up for other people is easier to honor than showing up for our own good.

 

We can tell a habit is a real one if we skip doing it and feel weird.  How weird does it feel to forget to brush our teeth?  When skipping a workout feels like that, we know we’ve been successful.

 

We can do it.