You’ve chosen your small change and you’ve managed to be consistent with it for a few days.  How do you then stretch that out into weeks and months?  When does a change stop being a change and start being the NEW YOU?  That’s me now – I am a person who goes for a walk everyday at lunch-time.

You already know that a big part of the answer to that is to make your small change into a habit so it becomes routine and you do it on auto-pilot.

What can you do to ensure you keep up your small change for long enough for that to happen?

We’ve been through a lot of the habit hints and tips before – attach it to another habit, work out strategies for any obstacles you predict, supportive community.  Have a look at our previous blog posts this month if you missed them.

Lets think for a minute or two about motivation. 

Motivation is the force that makes you want to do what you do.  It can come from within – what’s known as “intrinsic” motivation.  This means you are doing what you are doing for it’s own sake, because you find it satisfying.  Not because anyone has told you too, or because you’re getting paid to do to.  For example, if you have a hobby you really enjoy you will be motivated to do it.  You are more likely to be intrinsically motivated if your goal is achievable and it has personal significance to you, when you are interested in something, or when it gives you satisfaction because you’re helping someone else.

Remind yourself why you are doing what you’re doing as often as you can and focus on how good it has made you feel. Find a way to make it more interesting eg. save your favourite music to listen to while you are doing it.

Extrinsic motivation is when you are motivated by something external/outside of you eg. for example you get out of bed in the morning and go to work because you get paid at the end of the month. Work out a way of rewarding yourself for keeping going with your new habit.

Both types of motivation are useful, people need a balance. Often an event such as death of a relative or a health scare will motivate people to think about their health for a period of time and to consider making changes. Hopefully over that time their internal motivation will grow and as the fear from the health scare wears of they will continue their healthier habits for themselves.

But what happens when you don’t feel you are succeeding?

Don’t be embarrassed, ashamed or guilty if you lose the consistency with your small change.  Remember that none of us are perfect, we will all be there at some stage, it’s part of the journey.  It’s not all over, the important bit is to quickly pick up and get going again where you left off.

Go back and read through the previous articles. Don’t be critical of yourself but think and think again about the triggers that result in your bad habit and what it is about it that is rewarding. Keep reviewing your systems for dealing with these situations and planning how you can improve.

Forget about focusing on the end – focus on the journey and gradually build on what you’re doing. Don’t believe you can only be happy if you are a size 10, it’s not true – be happy where you are and enjoy the process of slowly changing your health for the better.

A gradual change, each time you do your new habit it moves you slightly more in the direction you want to go and turns you slightly more into the person you want to become.


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