Are you stopping yourself from living your healthiest life because you think it’s too hard? Or worried that it will take too long? Often, when we think of achieving success at changing our bodies, changing our lifestyle, we can feel overwhelmed by the massive job we think it is. Our minds can be our own worst enemy with this: we can make it out to be bigger than it really needs to be. What if I told you that your success actually depended on something very tiny? The truth is there are just three critical steps to unlocking sustainable change for good - and they are achievable and doable for everyone! 

How Can I Create Lasting Change?

If you are asking yourself, “So how do I make the changes? How do I get from where I am now to where I want to be?” First, know that you aren’t alone. It seems huge sometimes, right? As a coach, I have heard stories of discouragement and frustration from women around having lost the weight, then gaining it back - plus some, or not being successful on the plan they were trying to follow. Or maybe they achieved success, but only for a few weeks, and it wasn’t sustainable. 

The most important take away I want you to remember is that fast doesn't last. If you're doing something to change your body or lifestyle, and it is meant to be fast, you are not going to keep it. You won't maintain it. It’s not sustainable. And it will eventually rebound - possibly even more than you originally lost. 

The Three Critical Steps to Unlocking Sustainable Change for Good! 

The key to sustainable change is consistent incremental changes. That means little tiny steps or little tiny things done over and over and over and over until you get there. 

That's it. That's the magic formula. 

1. Awareness of the need for change. 

The problem is when we start our journeys we have clearly in sight where we want to go. Most of the time, we know that we need to do something. My clients often tell me, “I know what I know that I need to do, I just can't do it.” Or maybe they just aren’t doing it for whatever reason. Either way, they are in a place where they know change needs to happen. Their lifestyle isn't working and their body isn't happy. 

Believe it or not, if you are in this place, you have already marked off the first step in unlocking sustainable change for good. You may know you need to eat well, you may know you need to exercise, and you may know you need to hydrate. 

Awareness, the first step, is a great start. But do you know how to do it for your body? And are you doing it for your body is the bigger question. Sometimes I have clients share with me that they are doing all the right things, but aren't seeing results so they are tempted to quit.

2. Taking the first tiny step. 

The next step is doing the thing. Oftentimes, there's a good sized gap in there. You know what you need to do? Now you need to do it. How do you bridge the gap?

This phase often involves a lot of learning and experimentation and practice. Many people might encounter frustration here because of the time it takes and because of the numerous opportunities to give up. One way to shorten that gap and bring yourself closer to being the person who does that on a regular basis is to have a system in place. 

This works for meal prepping, cooking healthy meals, tracking your food, exercising regularly, or whatever. The way to bridge the gap from knowing that you need to do it to actually doing it is having some steps to follow every day. These steps are little and incremental - not giant steps.  So if you are talking about exercising, you might start with making a point to stand up and take a few extra steps throughout the day, then maybe committing to a 30 minute walk, and so on. You wouldn’t go from a Netflix binging couch potato to signing up to run a marathon or completing a 90 minute HIIT circuit your first go. Focus on little steps.

Once you have the system. You just keep ticking off the boxes till you get there. 

3. Continue to close the gap. 

In time, you're doing the all the things: you're eating healthy, eating clean, exercising regularly. It’s all really good stuff! But you're still not where you want to be in terms of your health. There are still more changes you need to make happen. How do I get there? How do I get from doing all the things to having it actually work?

The last step is being the person who eats healthily, being the person who regularly exercises, being the person who does those things, just because that's who you are. And the way you get to that, is, again, little steps. 

Let’s do a little visualization exercise: I want you to imagine an actual gap, like between two rocks, for example. You might put a plank of wood across so that you can get from one to the other. But do you leap from one end to the other? No, you take little tiny steps across, so that you don't lose your balance and fall. 

Your change in your lifestyle has to be like walking across that gap. If you try to take a big jump, if you try to make a massive drastic change, you're going to lose your balance, you're going to fall back. And you have to start over again. If you take your time, and you take little consistent steps across the bridge, you will get to where you want to be. And you'll be there. You won't fall back.

That's when you're being that person. 

That is when you are a healthy person.

You are a person who enjoys and chooses exercise regularly. 

You are the kind of person who doesn't even have to think about making healthy choices because it's just what you do. 

When you're still in the doing phase. You're still reminding yourself, 'Oh yeah, I have to do that today. I have to make sure I get to the gym, I have to make sure I plan out my food. I have to make sure I do these things.' When you become that person. It's automatic. It just happens. It's just who you are. As much as it is automatic that you get up and brush your teeth every day. It just becomes part of your lifestyle. 

That is the key to unlocking sustainable change for good. That's how you do it, and it stays forever. Bonus: as you create changes in one area of your life, it ripples into other areas as well and your whole life improves.

Now you got to go do it. Go bridge those gaps. If you need help bridging the gaps or if you need the system, schedule a discovery call with me.