I was a young naïve 18 year-old sitting in the Lord Burleigh pub. Eight pints down in a heavy drinking session debate raged on with friends on who believed they could become world champion at darts. My Nokia 3310 roared on the table interrupting a heated discussion. I answered with an ‘‘ello governor!’. It was Manny from the club. A few guys had pulled out of the end of year tour to Portugal and they needed a reserve. “All you have to do is pack your rugby bag and make the bus by 3am”. I had developed the habit of necking my remaining pint which later that morning I would regret. What was to happen in the proceeding four days is best left up to your imagination…
One habit I formed when I was on my gap year was the ability to drink Guinness. The ability is not really the habit but it was the trigger for frequently visiting the pub and drinking far beyond the point of healthy. Nothing to be proud of but the newly formed habit of drinking frequently resulted in an extra 10kgs of fat, a feeling of fatigue, slowness and a slight breathlessness when exercising. Ok so maybe when I was younger I was a little proud of the fact I could once drink 10 pints of Guinness and still walk home.
When I returned to New Zealand from my gap year I was to start my first year on a Rugby scholarship at Lincoln University. If they had have known the condition I was in and how I felt before training, the scholarship would have been revoked. Looking into the mirror upon my return I had one of those moments. As Richard Roll explains in his book Finding Ultra, moments that need to be respected and seized at all costs. For they just don’t come around that often, if ever. The moment I decided to ditch the Guinness and hit the ground running. I started small with 1-2km but chipped away at my extra layers of insolation. Did I have the motivation to train every day, no but did I wait for it no. I identified what I wanted and found huge leverage on myself to take action even when my mind continued to say “just take a break today, she’ll be right”.
Habits sometimes serve us and sometimes they destroy us. To overcome or change a habit we need to start my identifying the current reality. Ask ourselves better questions and be prepared to be honest, brutally honest. Here are a few questions you can start with regards to changing a habit. Take out a pen and paper and see what is revealed;
How long have you been thinking about changing one of your habits?
What impact is it having on you physically or emotionally?
How committed are you to changing your habit?
First we need to identify our current reality. Really dig deep into it and defined it. Awareness and desire to change is the first step. Then we need to explore the alternatives. What are some of the possible paths you could take from here? How do you feel about this? What are your other options? Are you really committed to changing? What do you desire most?
After awareness and knowing we need to change direction toward our vision, we need to then take immediate action. Take advantage of the leverage you have already created. Make the first action step, even if it is the smallest thing like writing down the desired change. Taking small actions consistently overtime will help create the new wiring.
What is one thing you could do today to move your new habit forward?
What do you see when you have achieved or established your new habit?
Creating new habits takes time and consistent action. To be successful we must understand that we are not getting rid of the current wiring we are more focused on establishing new wiring overtop. If you want to go to bed earlier in an effort to optimising your sleep then finding our own strategy will be far more effective than someone telling you what to do. I have recently made a conscious decision to optimise my own sleep and establish the new habit. With your permission I will share what I have been doing, it may or may not work for you. Because I wear my Garmin watch all the time I have set an alarm at 9.30pm as a reminder to head off to bed. I have then used an IF/THEN plan – (Learnings from the Neuroleadership Institute). If my alarm goes off then I stop any late night work and switch off all devices. If I switch off all of my devices for the night then I will start my bedtime routine.
The first couple of days went well but on the fourth day I completely blanked my alarm clock and finished watching the end of my film. Having reflected on this action the next day I cancelled my Netflix account. Seems a bit extreme but through awareness I had prioritised my sleep over my Netflix account. I told myself that I could start my account at anytime again in the future but I was just prioritising my sleep right now.
Has my new habit been established yet? The simple answer is no. However I am still working at it and have celebrated some small wins along the way. I keep a record of the new habit forming by placing a big green tick in my calendar when I am in bed between 9.30pm and 10pm. I have consistently gone to bed for 15 nights in the row and the streak in my calendar is motivating me not to break it. Layering that with a restricted intake of caffeine and Guinness I have seen an increase of time in REM sleep measured on my watch (deep sleep). I am recovering faster from my training runs and I can remember more.
If you would like to discuss your habits, send us a message or contact us here.