Do The Opposite.
Most people are living the same as they did last year. The more things change, the more people stay the same. I remember going to a gym I hadn’t been to in almost four years. I saw the same people, doing the same exercises. There were a few outliers, a woman that got in incredible shape, but for the majority, everyone was just as I left. Some were strangely in worse shape but that’s understandable when you realize we are only getting older and slower by the day.
Same day, different year.
I personally despise routine. If you wanted to kill me, it’d very difficult. I rarely go to the same restaurants, coffee shops, or drive the same routes to work. I have three gym memberships. I purposely push against my days blurring together. I don’t want my current Tuesday to feel like last Thursday.
Why? It’s easy to get stuck in our ways. I want to stay flexible. The chains of habit are too light to feel until they are too heavy to be broken.
You may hate change, most of us do, but if your current days are leading you to a less than desirable lifestyle, it’s a simple fix: do the opposite.
Fat? Stop eating garbage. Fill your refrigerator with better food.
Tired? Stop watching tv or screwing around on your phone. Go to bed earlier.
Broke? Stop spending money and save.
That’s the surface layer, I know, and it’s deeper than that but simply put: stop doing stupid shit.
The best advice is so simple we often ignore it.
When you go against what you’ve been doing, it‘ll be painful and difficult. That’s why so many quit. You’ve built up a comfort and familiarity around your habits. You only truly change when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of making the change itself.
When I stopped smoking cigarettes last month, I had the “instinct” to grab for one on my break in the kitchen. I reminded myself that I didn’t have this desire before I started and that it wasn’t real.
Keep pushing.
