Typically the new comes with New Year’s resolutions and although I believe that you don’t need to wait until the new year to get started on those resolutions or goals I know that some people prefer to start with a clean slate. Because of that today I want to share my 5 tips for building confidence in your health and fitness routine.
Starting on a health and fitness journey can be a challenge but if you can start in a way that sets you up for small successes you will be able to build confidence in that routine and continue to build on it in the months and years that follow.
Find Enjoyment in Your Routine
Start by finding enjoyment in whatever your health and fitness routine is going to be. Yes, believe it or not you need to enjoy what you are doing. When you find health and fitness behaviours that you enjoy and begin implementing them into your routine you are much more likely to stick with them. When you stick with these behaviours over longer periods of time you will help yourself increase your confidence in making these lifestyle changes. This will lead you to make more changes over time and continue to build on any changes you are making.
Start Small
Often when someone decides they want to make some health and fitness changes they decide to clean out their pantry’s completely or they are going to start working out 6 days a week when they haven’t been training at all. Although on the surface this may seem like the fastest way to get to your goals it often isn’t realistic and isn’t setting you up for success. Starting with small changes that you will actually be consistent with will help you build long-terms sustainable changes that you can carry forward into your life.
Track your Health & Fitness Habits
Although this may seem like a simple thing tracking your habits over time can help you build confidence. When you see yourself being successful over long periods of time you will gain the confidence you are looking for that will motivate you to continue to make changes. There are many different ways you can track your habits. Some people prefer a journal or a planner of some kind that they write in, but there are also a wide variety of apps out there nowadays as well that you can use as well. Often these involve inputting your habits into the app and then you just need to check them off as you complete them. Depending on what habits you are looking to achieve your fitness wearables can be used to track your habits as well. I use an Apple Watch and it tracks my movement, workouts and more throughout the day. I’m able to put different habit tracking apps on my watch as well to track things like sleep, water intake and more. As you look at your habits over longer periods of time and see that you are being successful with them your confidence will rise and you will want to push yourself further so start tracking your habits today, no matter how small they are.
Confidence Test
When setting a new habit or goal it’s important to put it to the confidence test. This is a simple question you can ask yourself to see if the habit you’ve set it realistic and achievable for you.
“On a scale of 1-10 how confident am I that I can complete this habit each day over the next 2 weeks?”
If your answer to this question isn’t at least an 8/10 then you need to pair the goal back a little bit. Try making the goal a bit simpler and then ask yourself the question again. Continue with this process until you get an an answer of 8/10 or higher. This will ensure that your goal is actually achievable for you and goal achievement increases your confidence in your health and fitness routine overall.
Revise When Needed
Don’t be afraid to revisit and change those goals up. You may take yourself through the confidence test and get yourself that 8/10 answer only to find a couple of weeks later that what you had set was in fact too much. Don’t sweat it, just ensure that you allow yourself to make changes and revise where needed. It’s important to allow yourself to modify in order to achieve your goals. Remember that achieving success builds confidence and it will continue to do so. If you find you’re not achieving the goals or tasks you are setting for yourself allow yourself to revise them so that you are able to. This is not a failure, but an adjustment to allow you to continue to build confidence over the long term. And confidence breeds success.
As we head into 2022, if you are setting big goals for the year remember this. Small steps and putting one foot in front of the other will help you build success in the long run…it may not look like much now…but 365 days from now those small steps will add up to big goals! Happy New Year…and let’s head into 2022 with a strong mindset!
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