“You could just as easily change your life today as any other day. You don’t need to wait for January first.”
-Dan Kennedy
Came across an excellent article in NYMAG called..
How Exercise Shapes You, Far Beyond the Gym
And it delved into a little talked about side effect of building the exercise habit.
It’s what I call carry over.
I convey it to my new clients when we talk about diet.
I say…”Yes in the beginning we’ll focus on diet but the real FOCUS initially will be on you showing up for exercise 2-3 times per week.
Because over time when I’ve seen when you show up consistently the nutrition tends to fall into place.
There’s carry over from showing up to workout.”
The article states..”The side effect is the positive carry over (of regular exercise) to other aspect of habits, behaviors and greater resiliency when facing adversity.”
Pretty heavy and not an easy selling point to tell a new workout person that forming this one habit will greatly enhance your life like no other.
But there it is. The research to prove what we’ve seen in our own lives and the lives of our clients for years.
Building the exercise habit has been clinically proven to improve your entire life.
ONE habit caused this…
“A study published in the British Journalof Health Psychology found that college students who went from not exercising at all to even a modest program (just two to three gym visits per week) reported a decrease in stress, smoking, alcohol and caffeine consumption, an increase in healthy eating and maintenance of household chores, and better spending and study habits. In addition to these real- life improvements, after two months of regular exercise, the students also performed better on laboratory tests of self-control”
The suspicion of researchers is that regular exercise had a “Powerful impact on a persons capacity for self-regulation” meaning greater self control and direction.
The article goes further to explain the Keystone habit that exercise is.
Like when I tell new clients that we’re going to improve their diet and that by showing up consistently to workout, their diet will be easier to modify.
There is very real carry over to other aspects of your habits
The author continues to say…For this reason, the author Charles Duhigg, in his 2012 bestseller The Power of Habit, calls exercise a “keystone habit,” or a change in one area life that brings about positive effects in other areas.
Duhigg says keystone habits are powerful because “they change our sense of self and our sense of what is possible.”
Basically your self perception of “Who you are” and “what you’re capable of” changes for the better.
Your sense of what you can accomplish and your sense of self control are increased.
Over time. Bigger goals, become bigger accomplishments.
I believe we intrinsically know this too.
The number of people that come to me in a transition period in their life is disproportionately high.
When people are about to embark on a new career, they’ve just moved here to a new city, going through a divorce etc…
They’re ready to build this new habit.
And you should too.
So how do you do it?
You start by showing up.
There has to be a first day for everything why not make today the first day for you to build this habit?
You can start today.
Now not later.
Like Dan says you can just as easily change your life today. You don’t have to wait for January 1st.
Click Here to get your own complimentary Fast-Start Consult with me.
We’ll get you a blueprint, a roadmap, and all the accountability, coaching, and support you’ll need to build this keystone habit.
Talk soon.
Dave
P.s.If you’re tired of starting and stopping before you see real results we can help.
Click Here=>Free Consult
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