“We are mere bundles of habits.”

– William James

“We are mere bundles of habits.”

– William James

My two-year-old son, Ace, is a pattern machine. When he finishes dinner, he says, “bath.” When we change him into his PJ’s he says, “read.” If my wife’s phone rings, he yells, “JuJu! (his aunt’s name)” If anything ever goes wrong, he says, “Oh, sorry Daddy.” When he sees my wife getting ready to go out, he says, “Mommy cuuuuute.” And any time he sees his mother or I exercising, he says, “push-ups.”

In fact, something about me doing dishes always cues him to come grab my hand and take me to the same spot where he does push-ups, down dogs, jumps, and other moves. Dishes now take awhile. Every part of Ace’s world is a habit loop. Cue-routine-reward.

This is all adorable. The mind of a toddler—how sweet and simple. But, you and I are just the same.

• When your phone vibrates, what do you do?
• When you are driving and you see red lights, what do you do?
• When you smell and see tasty food, what sensations arise?
• When you drop a glass and it breaks, what do you say? What immediate response does your body have?

Patterns aren’t just isolated responses either. One pattern leads to the next. They create a trajectory. Making the bed often precludes a morning Netflix show and prompts you to begin the day’s tasks.

Exercise leads to more productivity, more energy, better nutrition, and more confidence throughout the day—these powerful dominoes are known as keystone habits. They amplify how effective you are in a day. Actions can spur a negative cycle as well. You get cut off in traffic and the next thing you know you’re arguing with your wife about the thermostat.

For some reason today is the day to address her temperature sensitivity. Likewise, if you wake to a new Netflix series or to video games, Uber Eats and pizza rolls might be in your future. Actions create a trajectory. This is why so much is made about successful people’s morning routines.

The Core Habits

In our ebook, The Essential Guide to Self-Mastery, and in all work at Inspired Human Development, Justin Lind and I advocate three core habits: exercise, meditation/gratitude, and education.

While there are other patterns I find invaluable, these three change your mentality and amplify impact more than any others. They are the core habits for prompting a life well-lived. And, as famed wrestler and coach Dan Gable said, “If it is important, do it every day.”

One workout won’t do much. On your fourth attempt at meditating, you might be more frustrated than in the first. Reading for self-development only once a week is like 86% less effective than reading every day.

For these habits to truly work their magic and create a series of chain reactions outside of their narrow lanes there must be a daily commitment. But adopting three new daily habits might be a bit much to bite off in one sitting. If you are looking for one place to start, it is the chief habit: daily exercise.

Say you don’t buy it. Working out a few days a week is sufficient for your health. After all, you should only workout three or four days a week, right? I’ll get back to this question, but first let’s look at another.

Why daily? Other than the fact that you want the positive ripple effect of powerful action every day, this goes back to the very core of how habits work. Habits are reinforced through daily action and weakened by altering patterns. The best way to set a habit is to do it every day. Days off, reinforce the habits patterns of inaction. Over time, these can lead you to quit.

For example, I used to take a cold shower every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I hated it and, despite my many reasons for wanting to engage in this practice, I eventually quit altogether. When I decided, again, that cold showers were a worthy pursuit, I knew I had to make them a daily discipline. Since that decision, I’ve taken a cold shower every day for over 3-months. There is no wiggle room. No switching to tomorrow. I just do it.

As I’ve written before: “By consistently facing physical resistance, we gain the confidence to enter the resistance that permeates every other meaningful life endeavor. The opposite is also true. Every time you skip a workout, you subconsciously excuse the pattern of avoiding resistance throughout life.”

This is why you exercise every day. It is the best way to create a habit that you maintain. And the best time is first thing in the morning. Habits are made up of a cue, a routine, and a reward. Waking is the most consistent cue that there is. If you don’t wake up, you have big problems.

Furthermore, moving right away rips the Band-Aid off, training willpower and activating positive momentum first thing in the morning. Thus, waking to a consistent movement practice is the essential habit.

You could just do ten-minutes and then workout later depending on the day of the week, or get it all done right there. It doesn’t have to be long, or extremely strenuous—just consistent. Once planned, it is as simple as deciding to always follow through. As I tell myself, 99% is a wimp.

Daily Movement Is Critical

Now, we have to address the elephant in the room. Science. General adaptations syndrome. It isn’t a good idea to crush yourself every day of the week. The body needs to face resistance and then an appropriate period of recovery in order to grow resilient. But this view of training is clouded by our modern world and its industrialized, compartmentalized view of training.

Humans move every day. Throughout history, humans have experienced tremendous physical vigor through daily movement. They ran climbed, carried, and moved earth, at varying levels of intensity, every single day.

All that activity didn’t impede their progress but actually promoted it. Relatively low-intensity movement promotes recovery. I say relatively because we are all at different levels and our threshold for volume will grow over time.

Strength legend, Pavel Tsatsouline, has helped many people build exceptional strength and fitness through an approach he calls, “grease the groove” training. Put simply, he recommends training every day while never approaching failure or extremes.

His Easy Strength and Kettlebell Simple and Sinister programs demonstrate how effective this can be. He does advocate occasional gut-checks, but these are easily handled by a system that isn’t overdrawn.

Grease the groove training is phenomenal for habit building. By lowering the barrier to entry it makes the habit of fitness more likely to become deeply rooted. We’ve all watched as people’s best intentions to go to fitness classes after work are slowly eroded by exhaustion and erratic evening schedules. Morning daily movement removes these obstacles.

Even among those most successful exercisers who choose to go hard three or four times a week, most are actually doing some form of exercise every day. They are going on walks, stretching, rolling, practicing yoga, and using other recovery modalities on off days. Fitness has crossed over to passion so they put in more time per session, but the reality remains, they too build the daily habit.

My own workouts shift in volume and intensity depending on the day of the week. I hardly ever do my main workout during my morning movement routine. But regardless of the day, I wake to a movement flow and then do a 10-minute calisthenics strength-endurance routine. Movement is essential. It should be done, daily.

Add Daily Movement

For anyone who is looking to start adding exercise to their lifestyle, looking for more consistency in their exercise, or for those who just wants more energy and productivity out of their days, I strongly recommend starting with a modest daily investment first thing each morning.

This process is forever sustainable and can be scaled to every level, need, and lifestyle. It precludes burn-out, allows for variation, and ensures a chain reaction of personal empowerment and growth.

Your habits define your actions in the long-term. Thus, you should define what actions are most important and do them habitually. No habit has more positive ripple effect than a daily movement practice.

The post Preserve the Habit at All Costs: Why You Should Work Out Every Day appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Fads drive the fitness industry. Calorie counting is repackaged in a million different ways from point systems to color-coded portion control containers. If not tracking calories, you are probably either going vegan or diving into the new carnivore diet (yes, this is actually a thing). Everyone is always searching for the newest thing—with the quickest results. In this crowded space, only the extremes seem to break through.

Fitness programs are called Insanity or Shortcut to Shred. Competitive types are checking fitness technology to tell them whether or not they feel up to a hard workout. “I feel great but my HRV is a little lower than I expected.” Amid all this noise, we often overlook what works best. It’s too simple. Too obvious. I’m glad you are losing weight by eating only meat, but I’m fairly certain the results won’t be negated by adding broccoli and carrots.

The most sustainable, sensible, and successful lifestyle habits aren’t always sexy, but they work. With that being said, below are my top 10 most transformational healthy lifestyle habits—the force multipliers that tend to amplify every area of life. See how many you do and consider adopting one.

Disclaimer: Exercise is by far the most important, transformational lifestyle habit there is. It leads to positive changes across every arena of life. Thus, I’ve thrown out the broad habit of “exercise” from this list entirely. It’s just too easy. To make things interesting, however, I do consider some specific types of exercise, as below.

10. Transform Your Lifestyle by Running

There are those who will say running is somehow unnatural, overly strenuous for the body, and bad for your health. A fan of Christopher McDougall’s Born to Run, I could not disagree more. Humans have run long distances for millennia. We once chased gazelle down by pushing them to sheer exhaustion. There is no more accessible exercise modality.

It is true that running is not the best way to burn fat or train the cardiovascular system. Running, alone, does not sufficiently build the muscle and range of motion most essential to our aging and thriving.

Even more, it has a high injury rate, but this is mostly a consequence of living chair bound lives on overly mattressed shoes. Particularly when balanced by other training, running a couple of miles is a skill we should all hone from time to time. It would be a shame to lose this essential human capability.

9. Transform Your Lifestyle by Mindfulness Training

This involves meditation and elements of yoga. I know most people are sick of hearing about the benefits of meditation, but, it is the essential antidote to the whack-a-mole pace of 21st-century living.

It is by no means a magic bullet, yet daily mindfulness training does far more than just relieving stress. It rewires the brain to promote greater focus, patience, control, and emotional well-being.

More than that it trains you to notice thoughts without being at their mercy. For anyone wanting to master themselves and, by default, their own life, meditation is essential. This is why it is one of IHD’s Three Core Habits.

8. Transform Your Lifestyle by Walking

Walking is something almost all of us can do and benefit from. For the most untrained it’s the first step (no pun intended) to improving physical health and for the most trained it is phenomenal recovery. You could think of this as a way into meditation and calming the mind or just a necessary reprieve from sedentary indoor living.

We all need sunlight and exposure to the elements regardless of whether the temperatures are ideal. It’s great thinking time or a wonderful activity for connecting with loved ones. For those who want to take it to the next level, hike the hills. Now that’s a workout.

7. Transform Your Lifestyle with Water

Our bodies and minds don’t work optimally when we are dehydrated. Drinking more water (and maybe only water) helps everything from headaches to constipation. Even more, we tend to consume far more unnecessary calories when we aren’t drinking enough water. Often we think we are hungry when we are thirsty.

But don’t drink just anything. Those liquid calories add up quickly while doing less for satiety than food. I don’t want to lose you completely. Sprinkle in an occasional alcoholic beverage or two, but other than these occasional treats and black coffee or tea, you’d do well to eliminate all beverages that aren’t just water.

6. Transform Your Lifestyle with Resistance Training

Resistance training is awesome. It raises your metabolism, increases bone density, improves posture, brings you through full ranges of motion, and makes you capable of living fully.

You could take strength training to an extreme where it started to pull you away from other healthy practices, but for most people, it is one of the healthiest lifestyle practices one could adopt. It is truly a microcosm for all of life. Start by learning how to execute fundamental movement patterns: squat, hinge, push, pull, and carry.

5. Transform Your Lifestyle by Commuting by Bike or Foot

No stressful traffic. Exposure to the elements. Interaction with your local environment. Daily exercise. Lower transportation costs. What isn’t to like about using human muscle for the bulk of your locomotive needs?

This practice signals a commitment to living your healthy values that goes far beyond any one-hour practice. That is why I believe these last habits are a notch above the previous five. It’s the difference between taking your vitamins and getting all the necessary vitamins and minerals from balanced, awesome nutrition.

Nothing compares to living your value for health twenty-four hours a day. That is why author of Blue Zones, Dan Buettner contends that:

Photography by Bev Childress of Fort Worth, Texas

“The world’s longest lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons, or join gyms. Instead they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.”

4. Transform Your Lifestyle with an Active, Rewarding Profession

In the same vein as number five, having an active profession takes movement and incorporates it into your entire day. The hour at the gym is a great first step, but it can’t entirely undue a cubicle-ridden life, seated in office chairs while hunched over a screen. Even more, the stress of work and work commutes are a real killer.

Any occupation that doesn’t exacerbate these killers is a great thing. Any occupation that is full of purpose and community will go a long way to promote mental health and the conditions where physical health can thrive. Work is a large part of our life, so we should choose wisely.

3. Transform Your Lifestyle by Cutting Out Added Sugars

In the Western Diet, sugar is everywhere and it is added to everything. Processed foods are full of added sugar and it is hell on waistlines and minds. That’s why the WHO now recommends getting 5% or fewer of your daily calories from added sugars.

Cutting them out completely leads people to eat far more whole, naturally occurring foods. This tends to create wonderful nutrition habits. It is one simple change that is easy to follow after just a little planning. Still, I recommend allowing yourself to break these rules once a week. When indulgences are controlled, they become truly wonderful.

2. Transform Your Lifestyle with a Consistent Sleep Schedule

Adequate sleep regulates our hormones, rejuvenates our bodies, consolidates memories, and boosts our immune system. Poor sleep leaves us feeling sluggish, moody, and at greater risk for depression, stroke, heart disease, and diabetes.

Even more, if you are well-rested you are far more likely to make good nutrition choices and lead an active day. Conventional wisdom tells us that adults need 7-9 hours of sleep tonight, but few take any measures to achieve this.

Here are my suggestions:

• Go to sleep at a consistent time each night.
• Create a consistent wind-down routine, 30-60 minutes before bed.
• No phone or TV in the bedroom—get an old fashioned alarm clock
• If you can’t fall asleep after about 30-minutes, get up and do something that makes you tired.
• Apply meditation principles at bedtime.

1. Transform Your Lifestyle with a Health-Conscious Community

This last one is the hardest to accomplish, but the most transformative. We are communal creatures who tend to take on the practices of the group around us. If the norms are to sit staring at spreadsheets, scanning social media in free moments, and eating fast food for lunch every day, then you are likely to take on these patterns.

This is normal. There are careers, sub-cultures, and cities where healthy living is far more common, however. Whether we live in an active community or just find a tribe of active mavericks in our community, integrating your health and wellness into your social life will satisfy a deep need for connection, while making healthy habits an easier, more natural extension of daily living.

Take What’s Useful

As with any top ten list, personal bias and inherent broad generalizations guarantee imperfection. I encourage you to question the order and what might have been left off.

At the very least I hope these give a different perspective on health and the way we choose to live our lives. If this list has you inspired to adopt new practices, I recommend focusing on one or two new habits at a time. Slow and steady always wins.

For more help creating the ability to act in more constructive ways, check out my e-book, The Essential Guide to Self-Mastery. Remember, life is to short to be normal.

The post 10 Transformational Habits That Really Force a Change appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The intent of this article is threefold:

A new year equals a new you, right? Well, not exactly. According to Forbes writer Dan Diamond, nearly forty percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but only eight percent of Americans are successful at achieving or keeping those resolutions.

The intent of this article is threefold:

1. To understand why New Year’s resolutions fail and avoid making resolution mistakes.
2. To understand the mindset necessary to successfully achieve your resolution.
3. To implement the steps needed to be part of the eight percent who reach their New Year’s goals.

A Brief History of Resolutions

You can blame the whole thing on the Romans. New Year’s resolutions date back to 153 B.C., when Janus, a mythical king of early Rome, was placed at the head of the calendar. Janus’ two faces could look back on past events and forward to the future.

A bust of the Roman god of transitions, Janus

King Janus soon became the symbol for resolutions and many Romans used this time of year to seek forgiveness from their enemies (for past events) and exchange gifts (for future goodwill).

Over time, this practice transformed into making personal reflections on the past and changing personal behaviors to positively affect the future.

Waiting to Change Until the New Year

According to John Norcross, a researcher for the Journal of Clinical Psychology, the most popular New Year’s resolutions are weight loss, exercise, quitting smoking, better money management, and debt reduction.

All good resolutions, but why wait until January first to implement the change?

“Reset your thought process, remind yourself why you made the resolution, change the behavior or habit, and consider what you have to gain by achieving your goal.”

Timothy Pychyl, a psychology professor at Carleton University, stated that resolutions are a form of “cultural procrastination,” as well as an attempt to reinvent oneself. By waiting for January, people excuse their yearlong behaviors and habits and allow the reinvention to wait until the New Year.

RELATED: A New Kind of Resolution for 2015

Why Do People Fail to Keep Resolutions?

Psychologists have discovered the excuse of “I have no will power” is just that – an excuse.

In a study conducted by Stanford University, psychologists gauged whether or not people believed they had willpower and then tried to convince people the opposite of what they believed. Those who believed they had will power had to be convinced they did not, and those who believed they did not have will power had to be convinced they did.

“Setbacks happen. While the above steps and recommendations sound easy, remember only eight percent of people attain their resolutions. Be flexible and keep trying.”

The researchers found the person’s original mindset overrode all attempts of psychologists to convince him or her otherwise. So, a person stating he or she has will power has already set the stage for successfully achieving a resolution.

Conversely, a person stating he or she has no will power has already made the excuse and laid the foundation for failure.

Similarly, psychology professor Peter Herman expresses his resolution theory as the “false hope syndrome.” Meaning, the resolution is unrealistic and beyond the person’s emotional, spiritual, physical, or mental ability. Again, the person is mentally setting the foundation for failure, as the goal is beyond the person’s capability.

If the resolution is not founded in a person’s positive sense of self, then the resolution will not work.

RELATED: The 3-Step Way to Create Lasting Habits

The Science of Habit and Change

According to neuroscientists Antonio Damasio and Joseph LeDoux and psychotherapist Stephen Hayes, habitual behavior is created by thinking patterns that create neural pathways and the automatic fallback response for a person’s behavior or thinking pattern when faced with a choice or decision.

Change requires creating new neural pathways for new thinking. Recent neuroscience research shows the brain works in a protective way and is resistant to change. The research further shows any goals that require substantial behavioral or thinking pattern changes will automatically be resisted.

The brain is wired to seek rewards and avoid pain, discomfort, and fear. When fear of failure invades a person’s mindset, the person becomes demotivated, triggering an automatic response to return to known behaviors and thought patterns. This is how resolutions fail.

RELATED: 10 Pointers for Making More Powerful Resolutions

Making resolutions work means changing behaviors and habits, but the brain needs to be rewired first. Prior to changing a behavior or habit, you must first change the thought process regarding your behavior or habit. According to Dalasi, LeDoux, and Hayes, you can take the following steps to help change behaviors and habits:

1. Focus your thinking on new behaviors and thought patterns. You have to create new neural pathways in your brain to change habits.
2. Focus on the present. What can you do today, right now, to help achieve your goal?
3. Be mindful. Become physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally aware of your inner self as each external event happens, rather than living in the past or future.

As our mindset changes, and as we begin to change our behaviors and habits, we can think about our resolutions and goals. How can you positively attain the changes you seek in your life?

“If the resolution is not founded in a person’s positive sense of self, then the resolution will not work.”

• Be specific about your resolution. Make realistic, measurable goals, and write them down.
• Limit the number of resolutions you make.
• Post your list in a visible place to serve as a reminder and to encourage yourself.
• Enlist the support of your friends and family.
• Take action immediately. Make appointments with a doctor, dietitian, or counselor. Sign up for a gym membership or buy any necessary equipment.
• Practice the new behaviors that will encourage your success. Want to stop smoking? Don’t hang out in smoking areas. Want to eat healthy? Don’t bring desserts, junk food, candy, or ice cream into the house.
• Seek a support group. Limit your exposure to people likely to encourage resolution breaking. Surround yourself with good, supportive friends, not people who sabotage or belittle your efforts.
• Set incremental goals and reward yourself for partial successes. Ran your first 5K? Treat yourself to a new fitness outfit. Lost the first five pounds? Celebrate with a massage.
• Substitute a good habit for the bad one you want to break. If your goal is to eat less junk food, find a healthy food you love. If you want to spend more time with your family, establish a special time during the week when everyone is together.

THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT: The 7 Best Apps for Changing Your Fitness Habits

Improve Your Flexibility

Setbacks happen. While the above steps and recommendations sound easy, remember only eight percent of people attain their resolutions.

Be flexible and keep trying. Rewrite your resolutions or break your resolution down into smaller steps. Look at your setback as a learning process, rather than a failure, in reaching your goals.

Reset your thought process, remind yourself why you made the resolution, change the behavior or habit, and consider what you have to gain by achieving your goal.

Be that eight percent that succeeds in reaching your New Year’s resolution. Happy New Year!

References:

1. Diamond, Dan. “Just 8% of People Achieve Their New Year’s Resolution. Here’s How They Did it”. Accessed December 16, 2014. 

2. Gordon, Marilyn. “Train Your Brain To Let Go Of Habits – 10 Methods For Creating New Neural Pathways”. Accessed December 16, 2014.

3. “Why Do People Make New Year’s Resolutions?” Accessed December 16, 2014. 

4. Williams, Ray B. “Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail,” Accessed December 15, 2014. 5. Williams, Ray B. “Why Setting Goals Can Do More Harm Than Good,” Accessed December 15, 2014.

Photo 1 courtesy of Wikipedia.

Photos 2, 3, and 4 courtesy of Shutterstock.

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