THE ACTION HABIT: 6 WAYS TO MOVE FROM DECIDING TO DOING

We often think it’s motivation we need to kickstart our fitness and health journeys. In fact, before motivation comes action. We need to force ourselves to take action – no matter how small that action may be – before the motivation and drive to continue kicks in.

I believe that the more time we allow ourselves to think, the less likely we are to take action, as we allow fear to creep in, or we start convincing ourselves we can wait another day. So, instead, try to focus on more doing, less thinking. It takes time to change your mindset, but once you stop thinking about whether you’re going to go for that walk, you’ll already be getting your shoes on and moving out the door – and asking yourself ‘why have I waited so long to do this?’

Here’s some definitions, so we’re on the same page:

What is motivation?

 noun

1. a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.

"escape can be a strong motivation for travel"

What is action?

noun

1. the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim.

"ending child labour will require action on many levels"

My top tip before you start is to get real with what you want and why you want it, to help give you clarity around the reasons why you should be taking more action.

• Get clarity – What is it that I want? Who am I, what are my values, and who do I want to be? What would the person that I want to be do in this situation?

• What’s your why? Your purpose? This is your driving force, your passion, what is going to keep you turning up when your days are going great and when your days are hard.

• Create a plan – build routines around your lifestyle and what works best for you. I.e. if you prefer working out in the morning, don’t leave your workouts until the end of the day.

• The ‘5 Minute Rule’ – What’s one thing that you can do every day that only takes 5 minutes and will get you closer to your goal (it doesn’t matter how small this is).

Check out these six ways to help you move from deciding, dithering, procrastinating, saying no, to actually doing it! These are simple, direct, and to the point to move you away from overthinking.

1. Stop, get up, and do it. Turn yourself into a doer.

Instead of procrastinating and pushing that task (that you’re going to have to do anyway!) to another day, just do it now.

 Task: Show me that you can do it – let’s see you do 10 Squats – let’s go! Action right this minute.

2. Stop overthinking things. When we overthink things, we start to get paralysis of analysis. 

The classic definition of overthinking is “to think about something too much or for too long”. While it’s human nature to think things through (and some things do require more thought), if it’s a decision to go for a walk or not go for a walk, stop thinking and start doing.

You could try giving yourself a 30-second window of thinking and then act accordingly – less time to dwell and more trust your gut instinct!

3. Take continuous action. Once you get started, continue to take action.

Make the time in your schedule to keep repeating the skill or task until it becomes a habit and ritual in your day-to-day life. Keep turning up no matter what!

4. Use your action to overcome fear.

Usually we pre-interpret feelings and as a result bring unnecessary emotions before we action a task, making it seem more difficult than it actually is. That is the onset of fear and self-doubt. 

So, use action to move past the fear and do it. Sometimes I can take weeks to do the simplest of admin tasks, then when it comes to doing it I realise it only takes a few minutes but I spent all of this time pushing it back.

5. Focus on the present.

Focus on nothing but the task in hand: be in the moment, don’t worry what you have to be doing next. Acknowledge how it makes you feel – what do you like, what don’t you like, does it make you feel good that you’ve now done it?

Forget the what ifs, the buts – enjoy every single part of the journey.

6. Eliminate the distractions.

Stop looking at your phone. The following really help me, but you can find your own tricks to take action:

1. Music – always gets me in the mood ahead of a workout

2. If you’re sitting down and don’t want to exercise, get off your seat and do 10 squats again to get that heart rate going

3. Switch the TV off – the longer you stay there the less likely you’re going to get up and move

The key for you now is to take one thing that you’ve learnt from this and put it into action. Do whatever you need to implement it and start today, no matter how small.