Getting Your Goals Back on Track

We started this journey off with 100 days left in the year. Have you gotten off track? Have your plans been derailed? If you’re not tackling all the tasks you intended to accomplish by now, it’s OK!! We're human, flawed. As Robert Burns says, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” It's ok to experience mistakes or setbacks so long as you don't let it freeze you in place. There's still 81 days left! That's a ton of time still! Dust yourself off, forgive yourself for the slips and push yourself to get right back on track. If we were perfect, we wouldn't have to push ourselves so hard. Just think, the harder you have to push yourself to achieve your goals, the louder you are going to cheer and celebrate when you accomplish them.

We are creatures of habit. In the book, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

by Charles Dugigg, we learn that habits all function in the same basic way: a cue begins a behavior routine which ends in a reward. Once we understand how habits work, we can learn how to change them or use them to establish new positive  habits in our lives so that we can achieve our goals. We need to train our brains to almost go on autopilot in the direction of our goals. Everyday our brains make decisions on how to do things without much input from us, such as how to walk, talk or reach for a glass. If we had to consciously make decisions about every action we take throughout our day, it would be overwhelming so we need to retrain our brains to form new habits. To do this, we first have to figure out what cues, routines and rewards we get from our habits.

What cues do you have that lead to negative routines? Do you mindlessly eat while watching tv? Do you intend to workout every morning but time gets away from you so you end up not doing anything at all? Do you get tired and hungry after a long day at work so you just go through the nearest drive through to pick up dinner? Do you intend to go to bed at a reasonable hour but end up scrolling Facebook or watching YouTube videos until midnight? We need to recognize these cues, these patterns of behavior and plan new routines so that we can change how we handle these situations.

What tiny steps or changes can you do to set yourself up for success? For instance, you could routinely lay out your gym clothes each night to cue yourself up for working out in the morning. You could get up an hour early everyday and workout first thing so that you aren't having to try to go to the gym after work when you are mentally drained. You can meal prep on the weekends so that you aren't having to cook every night after a long draining day at work. You could set an alarm on your phone at 9 pm to remind you to begin a nightly routine of prepping lunch for tomorrow, lay out your gym clothes, take a nice relaxing bath, leave your phone to charge in another room while you read a book in bed for a few minutes so that your brain realizes that these repeated actions means it's time for bed.

By repeating these new actions over and over, we create and trigger new pathways in our brains that allow us to repeat these actions faster and easier each time until they become a reflex or autopilot item. They become things/habits you just do! Reflexes are triggered by external cues that tells your brain, it's time to do a specific action. By repeating behaviors often enough, they become muscle memory. Muscle memory is when we repeat an action over and over until the brain slowly focuses more energy on the correct action and it's stored in your long-term memory so that behaviors/actions are repeated without ever having to think about it. They just become a natural reaction. It’s a no-brainer, so to speak.

The rewards we receive from accomplishing things kicks in our endorphins, the happiness or accomplished feelings we receive. They motivate us to repeat the routine every time the cue occurs. By building up tiny successes in tiny steps, in one area of your life, the desire to accomplish things will spill over into other areas. Willpower is a muscle that you need to build up just like muscles in your body. Studies have proven if you workout even just once a week, it will help you build up your willpower muscles. That one successful action will cause you to seek out other successes. Persistence is key! Believe in yourself. All habits can be changed!

Remember when you were in school and the teacher would give you a gold star? Oh how that often triggered us to strive for more. Habit Trackers are a way to help our minds track the "chain" or "streak" of days on which we complete the desired habit. Our reluctance to break the chain forms a second level of motivation to help us establish the habit. I keep one in my journal.

So, what habit would most positively benefit your life? What could you do consistently that would help you achieve your goal? When you feel like engaging in the "bad" habit, ask yourself what you get out of the habit beyond the superficial and obvious? Then replace that habit with a new one you desire to do that gives you the same type of reward/outcome/feeling. Do this over and over until it becomes . . . a habit.

#100DaysToGreat #FinishingStrong