Most people that have dreams and goals never consciously make the decision to get off of the couch and get started in the first place. The fact that you are here, at this very moment reading this article means that you aren’t like most people and you are stepping up in a big, big way. That deserves some recognition and respect right out of the gate! So congrats on taking control of YOUR life and choosing to make this year the best year of your life!
But just saying you are going to do something isn’t always enough. If you don’t have these tips and strategies set in place first and foremost, reaching your ultimate goal of individual success won’t become your reality. These 5 tips are what highly successful people do in order to achieve any goal they want. So grab a cup of your favorite beverage and let’s get started!
1. Progress is greater than perfection
Many people choose to wait until that one perfect moment to get started. Usually it’s the next Monday, after the Holidays, or when work isn’t so busy. But while some periods in our lives aren’t as busy as others, the truth about it is there is no one perfect moment. The best moment to get started is here and now. You may have heard the old Chinese Proverb, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Your health is that tree!
It’s a lot better to start that forward momentum with a little progress now. You don’t have to wait for the perfect timing, nor do you have to be perfect to start. Loving yourself now, embracing the fact that you are enough in this moment, and choosing little daily progress over perfection is the first step in getting started. We’ve all felt that forward momentum we can create just by getting started. Whether it’s cleaning the house or going on a run, getting up off the couch can seem hard at first. But once you get moving, you’re a force to be reckoned with, am I right?
So just remember as you are getting started with this new journey, we all have to learn to crawl before we can walk, walk before we can run, and if I might add, learn to run before we can fly. And by the end of this year, you are going to soar like the superhero that you are! Start with a little progress each day and soon, you’ll look back and realize just how far you’ve actually come. But it starts with taking that first step (or crawl lol).
2. Create Success Habits
John Dryden once said that “we first make our habits, then our habits make us.” How true is that? Creating healthy habits is a shortcut to success. It means we can almost put certain actions in our lives on autopilot to free up, not only more of our time, but more of our willpower, leaving our energy levels higher and our hearts fuller.
Two of the most successful habits that can really set your day up for success are your morning and evening routines. If you talk to anyone that is highly successful, they will tell you that how they start and end their day is one of the major keys to winning.
While many people hear things like “the early bird catches the worm”, I tend to think more people are eager to fine tune what their morning looks like and tend to let their evening routines slip, just like doing one big face plant in their bed and not remembering how they got there. I tend to believe that it’s more about starting the night before, however. Because if you can start with a solid evening routine that gives you that good Vitamin S (good sleep), your morning is going to be that much more powerful. Let’s focus on both of those to set you up for that big win!
Successful evening routine:
There are a few things that you can get in the habit of doing tonight that will ensure a better night’s rest and an even better morning that will follow. If you stick to a routine similar to this, I have no doubt you will be better than who you were yesterday.
It can be easy to keep our work going late into the evening, sacrificing quality time with our family and squandering our quality of sleep. Even if we physically clocked out several hours ago, it’s largely our minds we need to quiet, slow down, and be reminded to be present within the moment. Your schedule may be similar to this or different depending on your uniqueness, but incorporating these tips and tools can be done based off of your own individual schedule.
At around 6pm I like to have all of my work for the day completely done. After that, I cook for my family and spend quality time, being present within my intentions. I like to wash up after dinner and get myself ready for the evening (and because I want to look cool while doing it, this includes throwing on my blue light blocking glasses). By the time 8pm rolls around I usually watch TV with my girlfriend, read a book, or play with my dog, while I’m sippin’ some night time tea. So by 9pm we are almost ready for bed and I just have one more thing to do.
I take 10 minutes and I will quiet my mind by peaceful meditation and what’s called a “brain dump”. The day was long and I have a lot of thoughts circulating through my head. So I sit down, let the thoughts come and go, and write them out on a piece of paper. Sometimes it’s a page full, yet other times it’s only a few lines. Usually this consists of things that I need to do, what I may have put off, or what’s in my heart at the time. This is a surefire way to clear any anxiousness in your mind and heart before you go to bed.
I also write down what I’m grateful for and what my plan of action is for tomorrow. Of course, I don’t always follow this routine perfectly all of the time, but when life presents itself, it’s this success habit that I fall back on to keep me in the right headspace.
Now that it is time for bed, my girlfriend and I always end our night by saying what we are grateful for. And at this point in the evening, since I’ve done all the right things (the environment is cool, the room is dark, the air is clean, my mind is clear, and everything else is done) I might be a little ashamed to admit this now, but sometimes I fall asleep in the middle of our gratitude practice. I’m full of grateful dreams and she’s there waiting on what I’m going to say next. Smh...
While your evening times may look a little different than this, you can still incorporate some of these practices into your nightly routine. Calming your mind, meditation, wearing blue light blocking glasses, and drinking nighttime tea are all great ways to set your morning up for success!
Successful Morning Routine:
Now that you have successfully created healthy evening habits, your morning is going to be a lot greater (and if I might add, one that you will look forward to each day!). You’ll have woken up refreshed, with a full heart, and a clear mind. Many highly successful individuals say that starting their day with gratitude is the best way to start each day. I would agree.
Too often, however, it can be easy to wake up and immediately think about debt or getting our priorities done. And even if that does happen, stop and catch yourself. Remind yourself that you have enough, and more importantly, you are enough.
I do this before I get out of bed each morning. From there I proceed to the bathroom, do my business, wash my face, and take my dog outside just as the sun is rising. The key here is getting sunlight and a little light movement for the first five minutes of your day.
About 15 minutes after waking, I come back to take my “inner bath”. I have a 32oz stainless steel water bottle I fill up with freshly harvested spring water, I add a couple grams of Redmond’s Real Salt, and half a freshly squeezed lemon. I spend about 10 minutes meditating while drinking my water and continue to naturally wake myself up.
From there I like to perform some sort of mobility for about 15 minutes (whether that’s foam roll, light yoga, stretch, rebound, etc.). Then I proceed to the kitchen where I make my fat burning coffee and sit down to journal my thoughts (another brain dump and gratitude) and read something inspiring. I do all of this within the first hour of my day.
While your routine may be similar, or you have different situations in your life, the key to setting yourself up for success are the habits that are involved. Getting sunlight, movement, and water first thing are keys to waking your body up naturally so you’re in that parasympathetic state (the rest and digest system).
Pulling some reading, journaling, and meditation out of your superhero utility belt is also another tool that you can implement to give you that competitive edge.
At this point, you are ready to take on your world. Creating habits such as these will ensure you are setting your day up for success and achieving the goals you will no doubt reach.
3. Surround yourself with content that will feed your why
Having that deep, intrinsic ‘why’ is important for achieving any level of success. While one of the goals you may have is to reach the body image goals that you want, there is so much more to it than that. Who you become in the process, the mindset you build about yourself, and the way you act in your life are also very important results that are going to happen because of this transformation.
And while it is important to have goals you want to achieve within how you look, it’s also important to have a ‘why’ that is deep. When taking on any challenge, there will no doubt be tough moments. But it’s important to remember that they are prerequisites for this journey! You absolutely need to face the tough times in order to grow. But when those times come, no matter how unique they may be to you, falling back on your why is what’s going to help you get back up again.
If your ‘why’ is solely aesthetic, odds are those tough moments are going to outweigh your motivation to keep going. But if your ‘why’ is deeper, more intrinsic like wanting to be there for your daughter’s wedding, your son’s graduation, or simply being the best you that you can be for your loved ones, odds are that is going to ignite your fire brighter than any flame you’ve seen before.
If you’re reading this thinking you don’t have a ‘why’ that deep, I encourage you to take time and spend as long as you need to really dig deep within your heart to find out what it is that you want to do this for. And, don’t get me wrong, it is OK to do this for aesthetics.
It’s 100% OK.
Because if that ‘why’ is strong and you are passionate about what you are doing, then that is enough. Find what matters to you and really have a heart-to-heart with yourself to motivate yourself through this journey.
But what good is a ‘why’ if you’re constantly exposed to an environment that isn’t going to support it? Whether it’s at your job, on your social media, or even in your own home, the environment you’re exposed to can either set yourself up for success or a downward spiral of defeat.
To really ensure you’re staying on track you need to continuously expose yourself to positive stimuli that’s going to support your mission. You can purchase any gym membership or workout plan, but if you come home to an Instagram full of complainers and partiers, where do you think your attention is going to go?
I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but if living your best life and achieving your goals is of the utmost importance to you, then you’ve got to be willing to make room in your life for that growth to happen. And that also means cutting out everyone who no longer serves you in that mission.
It could be friends, coworkers, or even family. But the easiest way to start is by going through social media and simply unfollowing everyone that no longer adds positive value to your life. Start there and work to have those meaningful conversations with those more closely connected to you if need be.
This tip will take some time, but after just a few days to weeks of switching your environment, you can set yourself up for better success and continue to see positive results in your journey.
Enjoying this content?
Join our weekly newsletter to receive exclusive content like the latest articles, episodes, recipes, and access to our Ultimate Autoimmune Reset™!
4. Write down your goals
A study conducted at The Dominican University of California looked at two separate groups of people: achievement rates for people who write down their goals and those who don’t. The results? The individuals who wrote down their goals were 42% more likely to succeed! Just by simply taking two minutes to consciously write down your goals, you automatically increase your chance of success by 42%!
I will take it one step further and say to write it down a few times and put it in places you will see it everyday. I will give you an example. A few years back I had the goal to become a beach lifeguard. While the training and test was rigorous, I knew I needed to be in tip top shape as well as develop the right mindset going into it. Knowing about this study above, I wrote down my goal and plastered it everywhere. I taped it to my bathroom mirror. I used it as a bookmark in my daily personal development readings. I even wrote it on my marker board I had hung on my wall. To me, failure wasn’t an option. I constantly reminded myself each day of what I was fighting for.
Do you want to know what those words were that I wrote down?
They simply said “You are good enough.”
That’s it. I needed to remind myself that I was good enough for anything in my life. And after a year of fighting, I had reached my goal. So I want to remind you that you, too, are good enough. No matter where you are in your journey, or what you hope to achieve, you, my friend, are so much more than good enough!
So take the time to write down your goals and what you want to achieve. Seeing it on paper can invoke emotions and set in motion actions that simply thinking can’t do. So whether you plan to write them in your journal or hang them up around your house, simply write down what you want to achieve and look at them over the next 30 days to keep you motivated!
5. Cultivate Your Calendar
Once you are clear on your ‘why’, now’s your time to develop your plan of action. You’ve been given all you need to be successful. Now is your time to put it all on your calendar and see what it will look like, not just from the day-to-day perspective, but also what it looks like when you zoom out for the entire month.
You don’t need to plan every minute of everyday (unless you’re into that sort of thing like me, then that’s cool too lol). But what you should do is at least have a schedule and a layout of what your days are going to look like for the month. Have your morning and evening routines written in, your workouts scheduled, and what you plan on eating (I like to write down my meals weekly and break each meal down by ingredient and shop on the weekends).
Plan ahead for birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, and anything else that may cause you to slip up throughout this next month. Remember if we fail to plan for success, then we should plan to fail. I don’t want to see anyone not reach their goals because they didn’t plan properly. This is a huge step in the direction of completing any challenge with excellence.
It’s also important to know you won’t be perfect with this, nor should you try to be. Life is going to happen for us during any challenge and things will ultimately give us a little setback, but being flexible and adjusting to what comes our way is key to being successful.
There you have it! These are your 5 tips to help you get started with any health and fitness challenge. Take some time in the next couple of days to really get your mindset right going into your journey. That’s the most important asset you have - your mindset. I have no doubt you will be successful in your program.
If you want a specific, customized, and individualized program for your health goals, sign up for my Ultimate Autoimmune Reset™!
