Big Little Practice #2: 7 “Big Little Practices” That Will Transform Your Health
Over the next several weeks, I’m sharing one “Big Little Practice” that you can begin doing that will completely transform your health over time, because, as my mentor used to tell me, “The little things are the big things.”
Last week, I talked about building on your strengths, rather than trying to fix your weaknesses.
This was Big Little Practice #1.
Today, let’s get into Big Little Practice #2.
Big Little Practice #2: Focus on Small Changes Over Time
Today, I want to expound on Big Little Practice #1 a bit by sharing the importance of making small changes rather than huge overhauls.
I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many midlife women – all are wonderful and delightful in their own ways and each have their unique strengths.
Many of my clients are also ambitious and successful career women, often putting more attention on their professional life than their health over the past few decades.
When they reach their midlife years, they reach out to me for help.
I’ve found that many of these women want to approach our work together as ambitiously as they do their professional work – they’re ready to get right into it and do what they have to do to live a healthier life.
The enthusiasm and energy that they now want to put on their health and self-care is awesome, however, they often expect to make huge changes that yield huge results, and the sooner all this happens, the better.
As appealing as this may sound, especially in our instant gratification culture, health simply doesn’t work that way.
Think of how a crash diet works – you make a huge change at once – completely overhaul what you eat (or don’t eat), keep it up for a few weeks, realize it’s way too hard to keep up, quit, and a month later you find yourself back at square one, only 5 pounds heavier than when you started.
Again, when it comes to your health, huge changes made all at once are too hard and therefore don’t last.
Sure, the possibilities of what could be are exciting at first and the motivation gets you going at the beginning, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone tell me about the $4,000 treadmill or elliptical they bought that they haven’t stepped on in years or the 12 months of unlimited yoga sessions they purchased and never kept up.
As a health and wellness coach, these are the stories that break my heart.
Someone has a defining moment and is ready and motivated to make a healthy change in their life, but they lack the support, guidance, and accountability that a coach like myself offers to walk alongside them every step of the way.
Look, change, in and of itself, is hard already.
Big, massive overhauls are simply setting yourself up for failure.
So, what do you do if you’re ready to make a healthy change in your life?
Well, of course, I’m going to recommend getting a coach like myself who is trained to help people through this process of change.
But if you can’t or don’t want to for whatever reason, then you must understand that living a healthy life is all about having healthy habits.
Healthy habit building is all about making small changes (like building on your strengths which I talked about last week), and most of all, being patient, especially when you don’t see results immediately or fast enough for your liking.
Of course, we all want to see positive change quickly, but trusting the process is key to your transformation.
The reason small changes work is because they’re realistic and manageable.
As a result, you’re able to keep them up and they end up becoming a good habit.
In other words, small healthy changes compound over time and become healthy habits.
Healthy habits become a healthy and happy lifestyle and that’s why focusing on small changes over time is Big Little Practice #2.
Your call-to-action this week is to let go of all the times you went on a crash diet that didn’t work out or forgive yourself for the money you spent and lost on pursuing a “quick transformation.”
Be gentle and kind to yourself as you realize that living a healthy life is going to take time and trial and error.
Most of all, realize that patience and persistence are going to be your best friends, not your enemies on this journey.
Embrace them both.
Finally, remember, you don’t have to go this alone.
There are trained and experienced professionals like myself out there who do this for a living and are waiting for you to reach out for help.
Until next week, remember, the little things are the big things.
It’s your turn to take care of you,
It’s Your Turn to Take Care of You!
Book a time to tell me where you are and where you want to be.
Here’s how I’ve helped other women like yourself.
