How to stick to your plans Part 3

Here is part 3! Click here to see the previous parts in this series. Have you tried any of the previous tips? What works for you?

Here are some more tips. The fourth and last installment will follow in about 2 weeks.

Look ahead

You don't have control over your past failures or successes anymore. If your goal is to improve in the future, the only question is what you do next. So whether you ate healthily or badly at lunch doesn't really matter anymore. What matters is whether you are going to snack before dinner and what you have at dinner. So forget your successes and failures and focus ALL your energy on what you do next.

Think about what works

Einstein once said that "Insanity = doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." By this definition we are often insane when we try and establish good habits. We tell ourselves that we should simply 'try harder'then do the same things as the previous time we tried to change our behaviour. The alternative is to learn what works and to adapt your efforts accordingly.

Some things work in establishing routines and disciplines. Others don't. And this is all highly personal. All of us have discovered that brute will power only gets you so far. So if we are to succeed, we need to think about what helps us to establish disciplines and what breaks them down.

For example, I have tried all sorts of plans to get to my ideal bicycle racing weight  -with varying success. I have now decided to cut bread out of my diet. I will watch the results of this carefully at the scales over the next two weeks. I don't know if this will work, but that is exactly the point - at the end of this experiment I will know if it works.

Reflect on your experiments. Document them. Collect as much information as you can. When do you lapse on your diets? I find that dinner and after dinner poses a particular risk to my eating reforms. My cycling comebacks are at risk when significant non cycling events happen in my life. Spare no efforts in learning about what leads to success or failure.

Approaching this as an experiment also has the fringe benefit of keeping you interested. The focus is away from your willpower and whether you are 'strong' enough to stick with it. Instead the focus is on the experiment and its results. Even if I don't lose weight from this scheme, I am still interested in the results of the experiment. The success/failure model is taken out of the equation.

Reward yourself

I have had a bit of resistance to meditation and retreats for the last while. This last weekend's retreat was particularly hard. But I lasted for the whole thing from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. When I got back home my wife congratulated me with sticking it out. This reminded me to reinforce positive behaviour. Even it is just a mental pat on the back.

I tend to make huge efforts and simply move on when they have been completed. This approach turns life into a list of chores to knock off and ordeals to get through. The alternative is to reward your good behaviour. For one thing it is more fun than punishing your failures.