Why then has this not happened
in about five decades of trying?
First there were kids and all the associated distractions that come with childrearing. Then there were all those years of working. Before I knew it, again my days were not my own because my husband retired and was home all day.
Excuse after excuse.
And of course, if all else fails, I can always blame the weather: too hot, too cold, too icy, too rainy, too windy - it's always something.
I have found and tried several different exercise programs that I do enjoy: Zumba, yoga, Pilates, walking, swimming and, in the old days, horseback riding and aerobics.
What stuck with me for all these years is good old simple walking. It is something I can almost always do no matter what.
But I've never been able to make a routine of it.
Not the kind where I wake up, take a walk before breakfast and begin the day -- no matter how many 21-day periods of doing this I did.
It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I recently opened up my daily Daily Good email to find an article by Gregory Ciotti about baby steps.
Focusing on very small improvements
and itty-bitty increments will expand
to committed patterns of behavior.
For example, he writes about a man who wanted to incorporate going to the gym first thing in the morning, and the man realized the reason he didn't was that it involved going to his closet in another room. The room was cold, so instead he chose to stay in bed.
Using Ciotti's method, he took his first small step by placing his gym clothes and shoes at his bedside. Then his second step was committing to going to the gym for 10 minutes. But it took him 20 minutes to drive there, and he thought, Hey, as long as I'm here, I'll do 30 minutes. And before he knew it, 45 minutes had flown by and he was well on his way to making his daily commitment of gym time stick as a routine.
By making these small steps, people began
to naturally expand their commitment
into something longer or better.
It's been only five months now for me, but I am finding that instead of dreading my daily exercise routine, I have begun to look forward to it.
Getting up and walking first thing in the morning is actually joyous. Since I was already a committed walker, albeit an undisciplined one who could never commit to the same time every day, the time of 30 to 45 minutes is not hard to accomplish. Then the day can unfold in an organic way.
The Ciotti article comes as a welcome inspiration -- and an affirmation of what was being revealed to me.
I'm now more aware and committed to allowing the process of my "baby steps" progress.
Wish me luck!
And let me know if this works for you too!
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