Burn Your Belly Fat - Part 12
Belly Fat Burner #12: Create Rock Solid Habits
The habit you're trying to create dies because of this one pitfall.
Whether you're trying to get in the habit of exercising 4 days a week or eating healthier, this one thing will hit the dreaded reset button.
What is it? If you said consistency, you're right, but there's more to it.
When you miss a day of a habit that you're trying to create, you know what that means? Relax, Im not going to say a slacker. It means you're HUMAN.
Life can get in the way, and it has happened to me more times than I care to admit. Where habits die though is the day AFTER we miss a habit. To put it another way, the day after we miss that workout. Or the day after we fall off the health wagon and eat junk food.
This interferes with your aspirational identity. In other words, the person you're striving to become. This has a profound impact on you psychologically and can single handedly kill a habit.
The best way to keep your aspirational identity alive is to never miss a day twice in a row. Even if it means doing just 2 minutes of the habit. Let me make it more relatable. If you can't do a full workout, ok that's fine.
But do you have 2 minutes to do it?
The point here is that you're trying to cement your habit by keeping your aspirational identity alive. And you keep your aspirational identity alive by committing to your habit, even if it's just for 2 minutes.
Write It Down
Creating a habit starts with a goal and strong reason of why you want to achieve your goal.
The key is that you have to use [ dramatic pause ]……… a pen (dun - dun - dun).
In today’s digital era, the pen has been shoved to the sidelines. It’s not to say we don’t use pens anymore, but many of us don’t have the need to write when we have our keyboards or talk-to-text to do that for us. The act of writing your goal and listing the reasons behind why you want that goal is simple.
The simplicity of this tip is what makes it so great.
On the other hand, most people will have the tendency to ignore this tip because it’s not a fresh, new idea.
Nevertheless, there are several reasons to shut your personal devices, and make room for the almighty pen and paper. Writing with a pen and paper takes your vision and transforms it into a concrete statement. This helps you clarify your thoughts so you can be absolutely clear of what your goal is.
When you leave a goal or an idea in your head, it may seem at the moment you that will never forget it, but chances are you will. Either that, or you won’t have as clear of an understanding as if you wrote it out.
The argument can be made that you can achieve the same thing by typing. While typing is better than leaving your goal stirred in your head, there are several advantages of the old fashion handwritten method.
First, when we use our digital devices, we are more inclined to get side tracked. An email comes in. Then a notification flashes across the screen.
Distractions happen everywhere. However, when we enter the digital realm, it is more prone to happen more frequently as opposed to just sitting down with a pen and paper.
Handwriting minimizes the distractions and gives you one thing to focus on– writing.
Second, there are several brain imaging studies that show, relative to typing, handwriting creates more activity in your brain. More specifically, the studies demonstrated higher engagement in the areas that are responsible for execution, imagery and awareness of actions. [73] This may be due to the fact that you are actively engaging your brain in the process by forming letters and physically moving along with the page.
On the other hand, typing takes little effort. You hit a key and magically the letters pop up on the screen.
Handwriting also stimulates your reticular activating system (RAS). This part of the brain is responsible for grouping and filtering incoming information, and prioritizing what you focus on. [74] This is important because when you write your goal, your RAS picks up on the cues to help you make decisions that will loop back to your goal.
Essentially, you involve more of your subconscious mind to pick up on things that you are working toward. If you haven’t written down any of the items that required your input, I highly suggest you go back and do that now.
As you focus on your habits that build toward your goals, you'll start to see massive progress in your life.
If you want some more help on building everlasting habits, read our comprehensive guide on that here.
