How many times have you started a training program or a diet and within a few weeks (if you last that long), you give up? You’re frustrated once again, annoyed with yourself for giving up and not seeing your goal through to the end. You want to commit but for some reason, your commitment just doesn’t last long enough to make a difference.
Why?
Well, it’s simply because you are human. Yep! Sorry, but some things just need to be accepted. We have to work with what we’ve got.
When we want to achieve something, and it takes longer than we want, we naturally start to lose interest. Our brains (so incredible) are looking for that feeling of satisfaction and when things take a while, even a short while, it is just too long to hold our interest. We want to run that 5km, lose that 5kg or tone those abs now of course, not in 6 months’ time. We think about it, it seems nice and therefore we want it now. When we don’t see results soon enough, our brains start to look for things that are easier, things that give us instant gratification. What this means is that we drift back to what is familiar – familiar = easier. The feeling of comfort with our old ways keeps us from achieving even our most desired wants because that is the way the brain is wired.
The good news? Our brains are not hard wired and can literally change. Yay! How? We make minute (very small) changes over and over again to build habits that enable us to change.
A really simple way of doing this is by something called the one percent rule.
The one percent rule states that small changes repeated consistently over time become big changes. When we focus on changing ourselves or our habits one percent at a time (and please don’t get too caught up with working out what one percent of something is, it just means really small), we don’t have the unrealistic expectation and pressure for quick results. We give ourselves breathing space to change without feeling uncomfortable. It teaches us patience and habit-forming practices which get us the results we want over time. But for this to work we need to accept that change takes time – relax into the idea. Embrace the time we have.
Next time you find yourself frustrated over quitting something you really want to achieve, take a minute to stop and think about what small change you can make that is super easy to implement and can be consistently repeated. One example may be if you want to eat healthier, instead of trying to go cold turkey and cut out all sugar (OMG could you imagine!) start by reducing what you already eat. If you love chocolate at night and you usually eat 3 rows (or a block – no judgement here), reduce it to two rows. If you find that you are not reaching that goal, it means that change is too great. And that is ok. Reduce it by one square instead of the whole row. Any reduction is worth it as long as you can repeat it each time. When your new smaller goal is consistently achieved and ‘easy’, then you can move on to cutting back another square or you may be ready to cut back the entire row. You get the idea. No one can tell you what change is too great. Only you will know. These small changes will bring awareness and habit of reducing the foods you want to cut out making it easier in the longer term to replace those foods all together – if you still want to. It is these small changes over time that help us move away from our current habits and help us create ones that work for us. The beautiful thing with the one percent rule, you can adopt it in all areas of your life.
As time passes let’s enjoy it by slowly changing our habits for long term results. We place so much pressure on ourselves to achieve but are we really missing the point? The more we rush for fast results, the slower we achieve them.
If you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you are done.
James Clear [Atomic Habits]
What will your one percent be? Think about what you would really like to achieve and break it down to little bite sized pieces and remember – this is life. We are here to enjoy the journey, not race through it to the end. With health, be the tortoise. The tortoise wins in the end.
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