Stu: If someone asks me what’s the one thing they should focus on for amazing health, my first response is to always work on that grey matter between your ears! Ultimately, our thoughts drive our actions and I feel it’s super-important to work on our mindset a little each day.
That’s why I was keen to invite Shaun O’Gorman onto our blog. A Police Officer for 13 years, he performed duty in the Covert & Surveillance Unit and he loves moving his body every day. So he’s just the man to talk all about mindset and how we think, so we can crush those bad habits and create long-lasting change forever. Over to Shaun…
How to Create Long-Lasting Change
Bad habits can be hard to break. What is your top tip for clients that are struggling to make the changes they need to, to achieve their health goals?
Shaun: Simply create new habits. That sounds so simple and glib doesn’t it? Stick with me because creating the new habits that make huge changes in your life are easy, the reasons why you don’t want to change can be a bit harder to swallow.
We all live our lives based on what we have learned and experienced in the past and what most of us have learned is “LIFE IS HARD AND TO GET WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IS EVEN HARDER”.
It is true, life can be hard but only when we choose it to be. S@$T HAPPENS in your life, it is how you react to it and what choices you make that determines the real outcome.
| If you WANT different RESULTS, you need to take different action! |
The guys here at 180 Nutrition can offer you the best products, the best education and the best advice, BUT if you’re not REALLY ready to be different, it’s not going to make a difference to you.
Here’s the bad news, only YOU can change your life.
Now here’s the good news, only YOU can change your life.
We make decisions and choices in our lives based on ‘pain aversion’. What this means is we usually take the least painful route when it comes to making decisions and choices. When you go to the refrigerator and are choosing between chocolate cake or fruit, the least painful choice will ultimately win out. If you perceive NOT eating the cake as more painful than eating it, you will eat it. Later on that choice may be more painful but it’s too late then, this is called REGRET ☹.
Don’t Live With Regret
The key to creating new habits and therefore to achieving your health and wellness goals is decide what is more painful and keep reminding yourself of it. If the pain of seeing yourself in the mirror, or the pain you feel stepping on the scales or the pain you feel when you’ve eaten crap is bad enough, you will remember it when it comes to making the choices next time.
The key to creating long-term change in your health and happiness is to make every choice contribute to your long-term goal and plan. Another example, if you go to eat crap food be honest with yourself and admit it is taking you away from your long term goal for being healthy. If you’re still OK with it then go for it, but DO NOT COMPLAIN the next time you look in the mirror or step on the scales etc.
| Your goals are achieved through hundreds of small & consistent choices everyday. |
How do you make the best choices? That is based on how much you think you deserve to reach your goals and have the health and fitness you want. I can tell you from personal experience that when my alarm goes off at 4.30am for training it is far more painful to get myself out of bed and go training then it is to go back to sleep. HOWEVER the pain of regret I suffer for the rest of the day if I make that choice means getting up and training IS THE EASY CHOICE.
Get it? IT’S A CASE OF INSTANT GRATIFICATION VS LONG-TERM SATISFACTION. Which one will you choose?
If you are happy taking the EASY options every time you will end up with the life that no effort and commitment delivers. I suggest that’s probably not what you want. That may even be where you are right now.
GOOD NEWS, the minute you start to make the decisions based on your “LONG-TERM” goals of health and wellbeing you are on the journey and have already achieved great results. One decision to eat fruit instead of cake is a victory to be celebrated. As you string these all together you will be amazed at how quickly you get what you want.
Stu: Help us inspire others! Have you crushed any bad habits and created long lasting change? Or you still struggling to change a few things? We’d love to hear them in the comments below…
About Shaun O’Gorman: Owner and founder of Focus WOD, a company that passionately helps people on their health & fitness journey along with crossfit.
Shaun was a Police K9 Handler for 9 years and also performed duty in the Covert & Surveillance Unit working on large organised crime syndicates. He has been extremely fortunate to encounter a broad range of experiences in his life and all of these have given him the knowledge and experience to take you to the next level and beyond on your Health & Fitness journey.
Stu: Help us inspire others! Have you crushed any bad habits and created long-lasting change? Or you still struggling to change a few things? We’d love to hear them in the comments below…
