Spring into Spring with one step at a time

by | Apr 27, 2022 | Blog, News | 0 comments

This is an outline image of a girl. It is drawn with one single line creating all of the details for her face and body. She is also shown with a butterfly on her nose. Suggesting that spring is on its way.

Are you ready to Spring into Spring?

Shall we? Dare we? Can we?  Spring is a time to get things going for summer and a great time to reflect on last year’s steps and how to move these on.  Let’s do it! Let’s make this time of year BE the CHANGE. Let’s get healthy and well for Summer this Spring.  How? – well by establishing some personally designed, key healthy habits.  The key to all change is action and the key to action is habit creation.  It’s not motivation.  I do hope this blog does act as a ‘spark’ for you to start, as I nudge and suggest a few concepts that I have found essential to getting our SPRING ON! Habits take on average 66 days to begin to take hold, some longer some quicker.  The common similarity is that they are repeated over and over and ‘programmed’ in.  We are all a bunch of habits. Good and bad for health. We can all create habits as we all have and are already making them so it’s not that we can’t do it. I often reflect that back when I am with someone that states “I can’t keep to a habit” and highlight they already are doing it they just aren’t doing the ones they want!  Healthy habits, we all know they’re good for us and we all know they’d probably make a difference, but if your anything like me or many of the clients I work with they can become almost an enigma.

This an image of a girl with dark hair walking through a field of yellow flowers. She is looking directly at the camera. She is wearing a white dress. Looking back over her shoulder and smiling.

How can we make what appears so simple to do, simple and done!? Spring into Action!

This is an image of text on a blackboard. The text it written with white chalk. The text says get it done. The O in done a has been replaced with a pocket stop watch.

The truth is our body LOVES the small steps over time and really struggles with the huge ones taken rapidly, even at the time they may be thrilling and get results, they often do not last for life. I’m sure you’ve done it too!  Gone for that long-promised gym session crushing for a week or so, or doing challenging mountain walk, a crash diet, a huge list of DIY or gardening must do’s all at once, only to find the next day or day or two later after a few days on the trot that our body responds with a message to approach these activities in a different way! 

You can learn how to take small and progressive steps here:

Meditation the calm amid the chaos

 

Goals, Goals, Goals?  The truth is it’s not about the goal scored – that’s the destination!

This is an image of 5 piles of coins. Each one has a small green plant growing out of the top of the coins. Use Spring as an opportunity to regroup and plan for the future.

We ache, we feel over tired, we can feel stiff, and our joints are sore, we find we are overwhelmed or simply aware we’ve ‘over done it’.  So, maybe then we rest, or we stop, and the chain of activity is broken before its really begun.  And you may manage a couple of weeks at this intensity and even get the fast results, and I know how that feels it’s great! But only too often something knocks us off and we stop. The wiring is not quite there, not quite embedded.  “All or nothing” prevails. Small steps on the other hand are not attached to these kickbacks from the body and mind and we find these easier, however the trouble with this approach is the time taken to gain and reap the rewards of staying consistent with them is not as thrilling, because it takes time to develop. 

We ache, we feel over tired, we can feel stiff, and our joints are sore, we find we are overwhelmed or simply aware we’ve ‘over done it’.  So, maybe then we rest, or we stop, and the chain of activity is broken before its really begun.  And you may manage a couple of weeks at this intensity and even get the fast results, and I know how that feels it’s great! But only too often something knocks us off and we stop. The wiring is not quite there, not quite embedded.  “All or nothing” prevails. Small steps on the other hand are not attached to these kickbacks from the body and mind and we find these easier, however the trouble with this approach is the time taken to gain and reap the rewards of staying consistent with them is not as thrilling, because it takes time to develop. 

Also, it’s important to know, from the evidence and from those that have led the way to where we want to go, is that the habits we decide to install are going to create the health and wellness goals we want! For example, spending your time creating a habit of bouncing on the trampoline each day won’t get you fast to where you want to be if what you want is to run faster. If may help but it won’t be the most effective route. You need to spend time building the habit of running and on the exercises that have been shown to help you run faster. Be the tortoise!  Slow and sure wins the race. We need to handle delayed gratification and create that belief that each, and every step counts. The truth about habits is that the slight edge approach works – easy to do easy not to do and taking us up the curve of reaching our destination or away from it. 

This spring let’s reframe goal setting and instead say our goals are the small steps themselves and not the destination, that’ll come [and will be inevitable] with these steps taken one after the other. A footballer won’t score a goal without all the little repetitive steps taken day after day and month after month to hone their skills and a writer won’t write a book without one word written one at a time day after day, we all function in the same way. The destination, and these steps taken:

  • need to be the right for you
  • ones you want to take [& you enjoy them] 
  • you ready to take them

The good news is that small steps are easy to do and WILL end up getting you to the place you wish to be if they stay relevant and effective to your desired outcome. 

An image of a boy standing on top of a hill silhouetted by the sun. He is holding a flag, signifying that he has create and made his spring goals.

Let the Healthy Habits begin!

Steps to get you skipping and springing along:

  • Know where you are going – what’s your destination? Write it down, make it real in black and white – ideally with a pen. Make it visual. Create a vision board. Be bold and be brave. Use imagination and aim high. The worse thing that can happen is that you miss, and you’ll be higher than if no goal had been set!
  • Know where you are now – be kind to yourself. Be honest. Has your pattern of habit making been more of an all or nothing and if you fail you stop? Can you take time out to ponder on what is really happening and where the moments of change can occur?
  • Set a priority. If anything, where true it’s not about time – we all have the same 24 hours in a day and we all end up in different places even if our starting place is very similar to another. The difference between us in fact almost all the time in terms of habits is that our priority is different.
  • Get yourself up to the top of your priorities – what I mean is you and your health and wellbeing need to become non-negotiable. Without you there is no need to prioritise. You are worth it.
This is an image of a girl running. She looks like she is on a mountain. She is wearing a gray top and black running trousers and black trainers and sneakers. She is listening to her headphones. She looks like is having a great time in the spring sunshine.
  • Now go to the destination… sit with it for a moment. Sit and absorb the place in this destination you are, what is it you are doing, how are you feeling, where are you and how does this look like? Now ask yourself from that position, what were the steps you took to get there? And now ask what was the very FIRST step you took?
  • Describe in detail what the next step is – what do you need to make it happen? What can you do to make it EASY to do? Make it shorter, nearer. Get the stuff needed to do it accessible. 
  • Now plan it in, schedule it in your week. Get it ON the calendar,
  • Make it visible – create a vision board or get a symbol that reminds you. This could be a phone reminder, a quote on your screensaver, an object, a fridge magnet – whatever works – get it in front of you daily. 
  • Share it, accountability is powerful. Be sure to share with someone that wants you to succeed. 
  • Track it, journal it, photo it. Make it a living breathing thing. Absorb it. 
  • Celebrate every little step
  • Reflect and repeat and remember; the goal is NOT the destination – it’s the STEPS.

So, tell me, what is your destination this year?  Is it a physical or mental one, do you want to create something, do something, be something?    What will be your very first step this Spring?    Whatever it is take it now, repeat, repeat, repeat, check in every so often to review and adjust plan if needed and then step again repeat, repeat, repeat!

If there is anything you have read anything within this article that you are struggling with please don’t hesitate to contact me. Enjoy your day, look after your body, look after your family and remember you are all a tribe!

 

Bye for Now Sue x

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