As promised, here’s a brief update on my progress on practicing new rituals to acquire new healthy habits last week–“Week One” of my Habit Acquisition Process. I’m using the process and tracking tool recommended by the Human Performance Institute to incorporate 10 new rituals in my daily life, ranging from proper nutrition, hydration and sleep, to vigorous exercise six times a week.
This is the same process we use at BUILT TO LEAD–Envision your Dream State, factually assess your Current State, and build a plan of Productive Actions to close the gap between the two. Gather friends around to help, because “together, we improve.”
The reasons I’m doing this in public are: to provide some help for others who want to incorporate positive change into their lives, and this is “best practice” as far as we know; to make some needed changes in my life that, left unchanged, would become a story that would not work for me and my “Dream State” plans; and to ask for accountability partners to help me persist in a 90-day plan to acquire the healthy habits I need to continue to serve my family, friends, and clients for as long as possible with as much high-quality energy as possible.
My Current State is not what I want. I have less structure in my current work compared with the more regular routines of my corporate career that I left two years ago. I have allowed that loss of structure to impede a regular exercise regime. As a result, I’ve gained over 10 pounds of flab in the last year. Since I now work long stretches of the day alone, without the constant meetings I recall from my old job, I move less. I’m often at a computer or on the phone for 2-3 hours of the day, only getting up to head off to occasional client or networking meetings. I had developed carpal tunnel issues in both arms over the last year. My energy levels, while always pretty high, were beginning to noticeably lag late in the day. I was drinking too frequently. Left unchecked, I know I’d end up risking all the health issues associated with too much weight and too little movement.
So, I dreamed a new dream, and am writing a new story, which I shared on this blog on January 3rd.
How did it go last week? I did “okay, not great.” It was relatively easy for me to eat right, drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest in regular doses. No problems there.
I found it more difficult than expected to remember to take work breaks every 90 minutes to get up, stretch, walk a bit, and get the blood flowing during the work day. I found that I often lose track of time while working, and so I have programmed my iTouch alarm to sound every 90 minutes to remind me. Funny how a little thing like that would be tough to do.
As expected, the most difficult thing to schedule and follow through on was the six workouts. I only got in five, and one of those was thanks to the snow we had last Thursday, which I shoveled off our driveway. Even though moving the powdery snow wasn’t very difficult, I did get a good 30-minute workout in, due to the fact that our driveway is over 200 feet long.
One insight I gained that may help others is this: acquiring new habits automatically collides with old ones, and something’s got to give. Plan to develop a “Stop Doing” list of the least useful of those old habits to deliberately make time for the new ones.
In addition, make sure you’re not taking on too much. I started teaching two nights a week last week, and I found that my unfamiliarity with the new patterns of preparation for teaching collided with my intent to hit the gym before each class. Pace yourself as you integrate new rituals into an already busy life.
Finally, I blew it on limiting alcohol to only two drinks max on no more than three nights per week. That proved to be something I’ll still have to work on. My wife and I were at a party followed by a long dinner on Saturday and a couple of extra glasses of wine were too good to pass up. D’oh!
So, don’t beat yourself up for little slips like that. It’s a 12-week process and success doesn’t happen immediately.
Let’s see if things settle into a more stable pattern in Week Two.
Thanks for being my accountability buddies! Join in the process if you want to make some changes together in the next 11 weeks.
BUILT TO LEAD 