After writing all these blog posts about habit change it has me thinking about last year when I started falling into a habit that was not in line with my goals that I knew I wanted to change.
It was during the beginning of the Covid-19 situation, and I found that I was starting to skip my workouts more than normal. My whole schedule was thrown off, the gym felt lonely because no one was there so I would just say screw it and go home. I would open a beer and just watch some Netflix, probably due to some deeper emotional stuff going on.
Honestly, I was surprised at how fast it happened.
I think a LOT of us were sliding into not-so-productive behaviors then that weren’t good for you! But if you did, just remember you’re normal. I’m just grateful I realized it before it got out of hand!
Fact: Getting out of that rut was a LOT harder than I expected it to be, and I knew I had to get strategic and tactical about it.
Everything that was going on in my life at that point supported staying in the rut and doubling down … I’m talking about stress, less time on my hands, you name it!
Here’s what I did to kick it:
I KNEW I had to make a radical change to remove the temptation. For me, that meant shaking up my routine by getting really BUSY with something, so there was no time or energy to get seduced back into my rut. I was able to get some physical activity in but more importantly, it helped me deal with all of the mental stress I was struggling with. Plus, I had something to show for it: a new hobby and a great way to clear my head!
In the book Atomic Habits, James Clear writes that one of the best ways to break a habit is to reduce exposure to temptations – removing anything that prompts you to do it.
Then, once those cues are gone, you can reframe your mindset by looking at the benefits of NOT doing the action. For me, that meant substituting other things that gave me tangible results!
It’s a pretty irresistible combo!
Just some food for thought, especially if you have picked up a habit or two over the past few months that you’d like to kick.
