If you find your progress with any area of healthy living temporarily blocked, try this simple process.
Identify a limiting belief. For example, ‘I don’t have time for exercise’.
Challenge this headline statement by asking yourself as many questions as possible that tackle different parts of the statement. For example;
Have you never had time for exercise?
Have you ever had time for exercise?
Do you currently never have time for exercise?
Will you ever have time for exercise in the future?
If you did have time for exercise, how much time do you need?
If you did have time for exercise, how would you use this time?
In addition to questioning your internal thought patterns, you can also explore how those around you might think in relation to success in this area. There may be strategies for success that you can borrow from others. For this part of the process you could speculate on the belief system that others may work to but, even better, you can ask a few people who’s behaviour and results you might be able to model.
Who do I know who has time to exercise?
How do they manage it?
What can I learn from their approach?
What beliefs do they hold in relation to living an active lifestyle?
All of this analysis will present you with a selection of more positive beliefs to adopt around your attitude to exercise. You can then select which work best for you.
I make time to exercise
I don’t need a lot of time to exercise
I make the most out of small opportunities to exercise
It’s worth creating time to exercise as this always improves my mood
Getting active makes me more effective and saves me time
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