5 Steps To Never Saying “I Know What I Need To Do, I Just Need To Do It…“ Again.

Let me paint what might be a familiar picture.

You’ve decided that you’re ready for change.

Specifically, you want to level up your health and physique. Get a bit leaner, get stronger and all that jazz.

You know the outcome that you’re after and you’re excited to get cracking and start.

You investigate helpful resources, accumulate knowledge and enlist the help of a coach.

But, even though you started out with the best intentions, you’re a month in and the wheels have started to fall off. You can’t quite get your shit together.

You skip workouts, you go to bed late, you choose the drive through instead of the meal prep ready at home.

Does this sound familiar?

Now, granted there are many factors that can be at play here, but I’m going to focus on one. In my opinion, one of the most critical factors.

And that is, that there are benefits you get from staying exactly the same. There are benefits you get from continuing to engage in behaviours that you know do not serve you.

I know this might be hard to swallow and you might be feeling attacked right now. But this is common and likely something that you haven’t even thought about until now.

Some of these benefits might be:

• Staying in your comfort zone of what is familiar behaviour.

• Continuing to engage in the same behaviours as your family or friendship group because: *insert reason* [you don’t want to be the odd one out/you don’t want to cause trouble/ it’s easier].

• Ability to spend more time doing things that provide immediate pleasure.

• Being able to complain and receive sympathy from those around you.

If you’ve identified that this might be you, what can you do about it?

Step 1.

Start by identifying the outcome that is important to you that you can’t quite execute on.

Step 2.

Write down all the benefits that this outcome will bring to you once achieved. This could be things like, confidence, health, strength etc.

Step 3.

Now think about all the benefits you get from staying exactly the same.

You may have to think about this more deeply than Step 2. You may be resistant to the extent of the benefits you derive from staying the same. That’s okay, but only you can identify these points and acknowledge the extent of the benefit you’re gaining. Go deep and write them all down.

Step 4.

Write down all the costs of achieving your outcome. They might include things like: sacrificing time spent with friends, sacrificing comfort and money etc.

Step 5.

Write down all the costs associated with staying in exactly the same position you are in now. The costs of being unable to do what you say you would, the cost of being unable to achieve the outcome that you want.

You’re now cognisant of the rewards you’re getting from not making any changes. This is part of the reason why you’re having trouble executing the plan you know will get you the result you want.

After doing this exercise, you might realise that you aren’t ready to leave behind the old, in favour of the new. If that is so, my hope is that it’s helped you understand why you continue to engage in these behaviours and from there generate compassion for yourself.

On the flip side, this might be the wake up call you need to kick comfort to the curb and do the damn thing.