How do we get good fitness habits? What are habits? The famous book by Stephen Covey The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People explains in detail how successful people have managed to apply good habits. Covey has 7 principles that he says you need to follow.
The great Internet Business Building entrepreneur Mike Litman gets very passionate when he states “people form habits and habits make fortunes”. Great in the business world, but what about the world of your personal fitness. Ask yourself what are the differences between good business habits and good fitness habits. None in my book, the principles of good business are the same principles of getting and staying in good health.
All through your life people will have told you about your bad habits, about their bad habits about the bad habits of others. It’s relatively easy to spot these bad habits but what about good habits. Does anybody ever come over to you and say that’s a good habit or I have this great habit of… No they don’t. Good habits appear to be the sole domain of the successful and the driven. It’s as if it’s against the law to pinch or copy these good habits, it’s a secret that those who struggle should not have access to. Good habits are there for everybody to tap into. Think about it! Good habits are good otherwise they wood be bad habits. If we recognise this then why don’t we follow them, invite them into our lives and use them as a tool to help us achieve our goals and desires. Most don’t because they think you should just have them and don’t understand that if you make an effort to have them you will cultivate them.
Habits become so when we do them often and often enough so that we do them subconsciously without thinking, both good and bad. Practice some good habits and keep doing them until they become routine. You do the consciously and deliberately, that is you get into the habit of doing them. You don’t have to get deep into the subconscious doing phase. Practice, practice and keep practicing.
Bad habits are often hard to break and equally so it is hard to break a good habit once it is established. In his book the 7 Habits Stephen Covey has as his second core principle “begin with the end in mind by applying imagination and conscience. In a nutshell think what it is that you need to do (use your imagination) and then deliberately start doing it.
The list of good habits is endless because they are personal to you hence the imagination bit, you need to think what is right for you. Here are 2 examples 1/ Make a health food shopping list and stick to it never go to the supermarket without it 2/ Always do one more in your workout or physical activity session, one more rep, one more exercise, one more minute etc
If you can come up with your own 7 habits of effective fitness, write them down and apply them consistently and you will be amazed at how much you can do. The Oxford English dictionary definition is Habit- a settled or regular tendency or practice. Start practicing good habits and become one of the highly effective people.
Mike Stephens (mike@fitkidfinder.com) is a College Lecturer from the UK specialising in Fitness Instruction, Personal Training, Nutrition, Medical Referral Classes and Health Club Management. Good health is the key to a successful, happy and prosperous life His website http://www.fitkidfinder.com/ provides parents with the simple tools to improve their own health, fitness and motivation in order to better "parent" their children towards a new quality of life and the achievement of their goals.
Michael Stephens may be contacted at http://www.fitkidfinder.com/ or mike@fitkidfinder.com
