Some are small and some life changing. Some move us upwards, some down.
Have you ever thought about where the word comes
from?
It's root lies in the past tense of the latin word decidere, which means 'to cut off'
When we really decide to do something or make a change, we cut off ALL other choices and routes e.g. deciding to stop eating refined
carbohydrates should mean that we cut off our past choices involving eating sugar.
A real decision should be stuck to or it is reduced to an empty promise...and could end up another 'should':
- I SHOULD run more
- I SHOULD have gone for that promotion
- I SHOULD have eaten healthier
Anyone else have any shoulds?
I know I certainly do.
When I made the decision to quit smoking, alcohol and eating junk food I really went to town on the
emotion. I dug deep and got really upset with how my past wrong decisions had made unfit and overweight. My new decision to take the first step on the journey was a success because I stuck to it because I knew it was then or never.
I told everyone what I was doing, the more I put it out there the more traction I got. This is proven to work, it is called social support and comes in many
forms from having a PT...to your spouse, or friends supporting you.
This wasn't the first time I had tried to get myself healthy, and I honestly believe all the failed attempts previous added determination to my resolve this time round. I got angry.
A decision needs to also be specific i.e. I will hit the gym 3 times a
week, I won't smoke another cigarette.
Deciding to get fit is great but too generic...in fact is it really a decision?
The more emotion you add to your decisions the more likely you are to make proper ones, not just dreams or wishes.
When a new client joins us it is inspiring when it is clear that they have made a real decision to make a change. Without fail these decisions are underpinned with an emotional reason. Sometimes it is a medical intervention, or can also be simply a realisation of where they are heading on current trajectory.
Some powerful questions and thoughts are below...can they help you make a decision?
Not an easy read I know, however sometimes we need a bit of pain to spur us into action:
- How will you tell your kids that you have the big C?
- How would it feel to have your parents
watch you die before them?
- How will it feel to have to buy a mobility scooter way before your peers?
- Healthy food may have the answer to dementia, are you going to take a chance and hope they find a cure before you get it or give your body the best chance?
- How will it feel to have someone wash you?
- How will it feel to walk around with an oxygen tank because of emphysema?
- The health service should be there as a last resort, could you do better with your nutrition and activity and reduce the need for drugs in a few years?
- How many of your current health worries could be reduced or cleared if you followed your Doctors advice to the letter?
Cheerful huh? Remember: Your WHY should make you CRY
It is this kind of emotion we need to muster up to make a decision stick! It is not all unicorns and rainbows in PT!
I'll leave you with this fact. The compliance of following a course of
medication in the USA is only approximately 75%. That means 25% of the population DECIDE to suffer on with whatever it is that afflicts rather than take a course of drugs that could reduce the pain or even cure them (or hopefully they just forget!).
If something as easy as taking a pill 2/3 times a day has a low
compliance rate then it no wonder eating healthy, moving lots, putting in some serious effort in the gym is really hard.
Could you upgrade your efforts by making real decisions?
Hit reply and tell me what you have decided...put it out there
:-D
Decide to thrive,
J
