Examine Your Habits

By Stephen Smith

Are you happy with your life at the moment? Do you feel there are areas where you can make improvements? What about your body? Are you satisfied with your current physical condition?

If you feel certain areas of your life need to be improved and you are willing to honestly evaluate your current situation, improvement can be easily achieved by following a few simple steps.

First of all, you must realise that the habits you have had in the past are what have resulted in your current situation. For every cause there is an effect or for every action there is a result. The saying, 'As you sow so shall you reap' holds true with regards to our habits. Habits are simply actions that are taken on a consistent basis to produce a result.

As far as our bodies are concerned, the past habits we have created regarding exercise, nutrition and supplementation have contributed to the current state of our bodies. If we create the habit of going straight home after work and not going to the gym to do a workout, the result will be that our muscles will atrophy, our metabolism will slow down and our body fat will likely increase. Additionally, if we make a habit of eating fast food every day, we are likely to find it very difficult to stay lean. This does not mean of course, that if we miss one workout or eat fast food once per week that we won't achieve our goal. Only an action performed consistently over time will produce a substantial result. Achieving a physical change is therefore simply a matter of changing your habits. Examine your current habits and decide which ones have stopped you from achieving your physical goals in the past. Changing these habits means changing your consistent actions and changing your actions means changing your beliefs and attitudes. Accordingly, the first step on the road to physical change is an examination and adjustment of your beliefs and attitudes.

Beliefs and attitude.

In examining our beliefs concerning physical change, we must first know whether what we believe is right or wrong and the only way to do this is through education. There are many sources from which to obtain the information we require including, personal experience, the experience of others, books, seminars and formal education. The unfortunate fact is however, that there is so much conflicting information in every aspect of the fitness industry. Often you can find that seeking information can leave you more confused than before you started looking!

Take the area of nutrition for example. There is probably no other field of endeavour where so much confusion exists! Some 'experts' recommend high carb, moderate protein and low-fat eating, others suggest low carb, high protein and moderate fat diets. Some tell you not to combine protein and carbs in the same meal, other say always have them together. Who do you believe? You can read countless books on nutrition written by equally qualified experts that totally contradict each other, so what should you do? The best way to ensure you get the right information is to look for people who have achieved the result you desire. Perhaps it is a bodybuilder who has achieved an awesome level of muscularity or maybe it is someone who has boundless energy and vibrancy; whatever it is you want, find the person or people who have already achieved it and ask them how they did it!

Once you have acquired the knowledge to achieve the physical changes you desire, you must then examine your attitude. Your attitude incorporates your level of desire and motivation to achieve the outcome. Even with all the knowledge required to get the changes you desire, without motivation, the knowledge is useless.

Your level of motivation determines what you are willing to do to achieve your goal and also what obstacles you are willing to overcome. Without a high level of motivation it is highly likely that you will not have the discipline to perform the consistent actions or create the necessary habits in order to help you achieve your goal. It is also likely that you will stop striving to achieve your goal whenever any hardship or difficultly is faced.

There a number of ways to increase your level of motivation. First of all consider your reasons for wanting to change. That can give you the 'why' to change and with a strong enough 'why' you can endure almost any 'how'. Also, consider the benefits of making the changes and creating new habits. Think about how great you will feel, how good you will look and how happy you will be. Then consider the negative effects of not changing your current habits, how will that affect you? Keep your reasons for changing, the benefits of changing and also the negative effects of not changing at the front of your mind constantly. In fact, a good habit to create immediately is to think deeply about these 3 areas every morning and every night. The stronger they are re-inforced in your mind, the stronger your motivation will be. A good point to remember is that the things that are common sense aren't always common practice, motivation makes the difference.

Consistent actions.

As was mentioned previously with regards to changing your body composition, single actions don't produce results. Performing a single workout won't automatically give you the body you desire just like eating one healthy meal won't give you boundless energy. However, if you string a number of consistent actions together, the results can be quite outstanding in a short period of time. Just like the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step or an expert in any field of endeavour results from just a small amount of practice or study every day, changes in your body result from performing simple actions or disciplines over a period of time. Consistent actions, the actions that form habits, result from knowing what to do or 'education' combined with the desire to do what is necessary or 'motivation'.

Once you know what to do to get the results you want and you have the motivation to apply the knowledge you have acquired, creating habits is easy. Decide exactly what actions you need to taken on a daily basis in the areas of nutrition, exercise and supplementation, generate the level of motivation required, take action and then watch your body change. You will be amazed at how quickly things will happen if you have the discipline to stay focused on your goals and consistently do what is necessary. Good luck!