What is it that you want to do better or change? Great that is the first step: knowing what you want. For many of us that is the first hurdle to jump, knowing what it is that we want to improve. The harder step, however, is how to get there. Babies don’t just come into the world ready to run the Boston Marathon, there is a gradual process, and our parents were there cheering us on from the first time we rolled over, to pushing up on our hands, to our first time we crawled.
The problem is that there is no one there to cheer us on, encourage us and hold our hands as we take those first hesitant steps. We need to do two things: take those baby steps and, perhaps more importantly celebrate each of those steps, encouraging us to persevere and continue on.
Let’s say you want to exercise and improve your health, great, what is the first step? Start with lacing up your shoes and get out there and go for a simple walk. How far did you walk? Great, make a note of that and try to go further than that point tomorrow. Gee, sounds easy! It is. You just have to start.
One of the biggest problems with exercising is that we don’t see the immediate gain. “I walked to the end of the block and back. Why are my pants still so damn tight? Arrgh, this isn’t working. I quit!”
We all have our cell phones, why not take selfie in front of the mirror and then take another two weeks later? We my not see it at the end of one day, but we might after two weeks. We maybe don’t see it on the scale, but how we look and how we feel.
That is the same with everything we do; don’t expect immediate results, but know that with a little time, we will see the improvements.
This is not just limited to fitness and health, however. This idea of taking periodic self-assessments is key to improvement in anything we try to do. Afraid to speak in public? Work on speaking to yourself in the mirror. Talk to your pet or house plant. Work up, a little bit each day until you become more comfortable.
Remember to celebrate each of your achievements. Reward yourself with something. Maybe not a cupcake to celebrate losing a couple pounds but find something that commemorates what you have done. There is a reason why Alcoholics Anonymous and other programs use coins or chips to celebrate their achievements, it reminds us of what we have done and how far we have come.
As you shed those pounds, keep that one pair of pants that reminds you of where you were, look back on that selfie before you started working out, it gives us a reason to keep going to the end of that next block.
Find a way to celebrate each and every achievement, make sure that it is meaningful to you and that it encourages you to keep taking those baby steps forward.