Whether you are aware of it or not, it IS the little things that add up and contribute to your health. For me, this is waking up early to do some movement that day: Pilates, a satisfying walk, or a HIIT routine. The point of adding little things into your everyday life is to foster consequential benefits for you health that come in bite size pieces.
The trick with achieving any aspiration or goal is to perceive that it is within your grasp. For you to believe that your goal is achievable already progresses it towards completion! There is a simple Japanese philosophy that is related to the principles of Kaizen (the practice of continuous improvement) that helps anyone make their goals attainable.
This philosophy enables you to gain motivation in an instant! Simply by saying to yourself “I will do for 1 minute”. That’s only 60 seconds! Do you want to be a meditation guru? Or learn a language? Perhaps you want to workout more? Instead of setting yourself unattainable goals and trying to stick to an unrealistic routine, simply, do your desired task for ONE MINUTE. Yes, it is that easy. When you become disciplined with your certain task then you can increase the amount of minutes or days a week that you do your task/specified goal.
WHY is this method so effective? Because it allows each task/goal/aspiration to become achievable! I am guilty of creating unrealistic routines that inevitable failed. I would set myself the task to workout for 30minutes five times a week. When I missed one of these workouts I would then make excuses and slack of with what I had initially set out to achieved. As a result of this, I felt terrible about missing one of the workouts and my motivation would depreciate significantly. Consequently, the negative and guilty feelings that coincide with failing goals became so debilitating that I would not seek to attempt that (failed) task again.
As someone who easily procrastinates I have found the truth in feeling successful. Each day, I aim for smaller steps towards my daily goals and feel more successful in that day. By mentally rewarding myself through achieving these smaller tasks and goals I feel more motivated. With simple reflection, it is easy to observe the great impact the little things in life dramatically influence our health. In order to improve there needs to be a number of small steps to be followed resulting in the desired outcome.
Why would I mention motivation, goals, and success when I talk about health? Well, if your parent(s) were anything like mine, I was always being told that the key to life is balance. I am have only just begun to open that door into a ‘balanced lifestyle’. For me, this commences when you DO things in life. And more importantly, focus on the things in life that will enhance your whole hauora (mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and physically). I wanted to outline that simple trick to gain motivation as a reminder to anyone who is like me…..It only takes 60 SECONDS to achieve something in your day that will (little by little) impact on your health and balancing your life. If you don’t take my word for it then you should try it yourself and let me know how you go. I dare ya.
>>Live Simply, Simply Live<<
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