let's make habits: week 2

First, let me just say how incredibly inspired I am by all of you who are participating in this series. I knew this would motivate me, but I don't think I realized just how much it would actually inspire me. For the first time, I really feel encouraged and held accountable to working out. It's weird because goals that I have related to Maiedae, business, design, art, blogging ... I don't have a hard time accomplishing. But for some reason I've always had a hard time accomplishing my goal for working out. I think it's because the other things, I'm really inspired and motivated to do, but working out has never been that way. I've always known that once I get started, I will find that continued motivation, but I just have always struggled with the first 3-4 weeks... the time that you actually form a habit. But now... I HAVE to do it. Which is wonderful :)

UPDATE

So how did I do this week? Well, I was supposed to do 20-30 minutes of cardio 4 times this week and I'm happy to say I accomplished it! Even though I was tempted to run for those 20-30 minutes, I just did power walking this week because I don't want to start too fast. That's why I usually quit - I tend to lean towards the more ambitious side and then get really upset when I can't handle it. Haha. So, next week I'm supposed to do the same thing but add in weights 2 times. I am going to probably split up the cardio and do power walking 2 times next week and then elliptical or jogging 2 times.

MAKING YOUR GOAL A PRIORITY

When thinking about how to make this goal a priority, I'll tell ya, two things that I've found are: 1) deciding beforehand what time of the day you're going to get it done and blocking that time out and 2) telling yourself it's not an option - that you have to do it. The reason I've found these two things so helpful is that I can so easily talk myself out of something. If I've not made time for it, then I automatically assume it's not that important or can be pushed off to the next day. Or, if I have thought to myself, "We'll see what tomorrow brings... I may not be able to work out. I might not feel like it, so we will play it by ear." No. That never works. Anytime I do the same thing with waking up, I always push it to the last minute. I'll tell myself, "Well, I should wake up at 6:30am... but the latest I can wake up is 8:00am." Yeah. And do I ever wake up at 6:30am when I tell myself that? No. Not once. It doesn't work for me. If I tell myself it's not a priority or a "must do", then I'm going to automatically stack other things as more important in my mind and I just won't get it done. So for me, I go by "No excuses. No options. Make time."

Check out more from this series:

Choosing a Goal (August 10) - Your Goal + the Motivation Behind It

Week 1 (August 17) - Your Schedule and Plan of Action

Week 2 (August 24) - Making Your Goal a Priority

Week 3 (August 31) - Inspiring Yourself and Staying Motivated

Week 4 (September 7) - Evaluating Your Goal and Adjusting

Week 5 (September 14) - Pushing Yourself Through Rough Patches

Week 6 (September 21) - Share Some Photos from Your Experience

Week 7 (September 28) - What You've Learned About Yourself

Week 8 (October 5) - Talk About Your Accomplishments