Building New Habits? Start Ridiculously Small.

It had been years since I'd done any form of exercise. I didn't know where I would end up, but I knew I needed to start.

I committed to running every 3 days.

I started with 6 minutes - 1km - of running every 3 days. After a month of consistent running, I began increasing my distance, and within 2 months, I ran my first ever 5km...

Within 3 months, my first 10km.

Within 9 months, my first 1/2 marathon.

Within a year, I completed my first marathon.

I didn't stop there.

Less than 3 years after my initial commitment, I ran my first 100km ultramarathon.

Today, running still remains one of my most life-giving and insightful practices.

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Imagine setting a goal for yourself, and being able to accomplish it every time. What would that person look like? How would that person feel? What is the path to become this person?

The problem many of us face when we set out to create change within our lives, is losing trust within ourself. Our mind keeps a mental tally of all the things we tell ourselves we're going to do, and either builds up or breaks down trust depending upon the result.

For instance, if out of no where we make the plan to go to the gym for an hour everyday for the next month without any prior consistency in working out, we'll soon find ourselves missing a day, then two, then abandoning the plan all together. Our mind becomes confused and loses trust in our own words when we're unable to stick to them.

This creates a mental narrative along the lines of "I'm incapable", or "It must not be for me" which soon becomes the go-to language we speak to ourselves.

If instead, we initially set the intention to go to the gym, once a week, for 15 minutes, we may not find our physical muscles growing, but we will find our mental muscle growing. This mental muscle is what dictates our sense of character and ability to do hard things.

After a month of weekly 15-minute workouts at the gym, we can very slowly stack more time, more frequency, and eventually expand this into new activities and skills we're looking to develop.

Some people will say, "going to the gym once a week for 15 minutes.. what's the point in that?"

The point is, that when we stick to our plans, we develop confidence - an inner trust that says "I'm capable of doing the things I tell myself to do." From this confidence we begin stacking one success upon another which further ingrains this inner-trust.

The game of developing as a human is all about mindset. Start small, take small steps, and before you know it, you will see astonishing results.