I constantly ask myself as a coach why is it that some clients succeed beyond what they set out to achieve where others struggle each day just to accomplish the most basic healthy behaviour.
What is it that separates the two and how can I teach each client what it will take for them to succeed beyond what they are currently achieving?
The following are the four most common behaviours that my more successful clients do on a consistent basis. Read each one and see how you can adopt them to the best of your ability.
1. Always Be Prepared
Life doesn’t always work out the way we want it to. My clients who are succeeding accept this and have planned for any eventuality. It might be they are held up at work one day and can’t get to the gym for a workout, so they have a simple home based workout planned, which requires no equipment and takes as long as the time they can give to it.
They understand, it is the consistency of doing a workout every day that makes them successful, not what they do, how long they do it for, or where they do it. Just doing something is the key.
It could be they are in a day long meeting, with limited nutrition choices. Knowing that this was going to happen, allows them to plan ahead. They either bring their own food, or the days leading up to the meeting they make sure their nutrition is the best it can be, knowing that for one day they will be forced to eat differently.
The key is to create a forward planning behaviour that will help you make a challenging situation more manageable and less likely to throw you off course.
Behaviour: Set yourself a daily and weekly plan on how you will achieve what you want and overcome things out of your control.
2. Remind Yourself Why
The only reason you will plan ahead and change your life accordingly is if you have a strong reason for doing so.
Clients who continually see improvement are the ones with a strong desire to do so. Improving your health long-term doesn’t come from the latest and most popular diets or exercise craze. It comes from a strong reason and purpose for doing the right things over and over again.
My clients who see the best results are continually reminding themselves what they want to achieve from following the right habits and behaviours. They review what they want and what they are currently doing to achieve it. If what they are doing is not producing the results they want, then they change what they are doing.
Behaviour: Each day remind yourself what it is you want from having good health, then review at the end of each day and week what actions you performed to achieve that goal.
3. Be Honest
One of the most important behaviours of successful people is that they are honest about why they have the results they have.
There are two ways to look at why you are where you are. You are either responsible for the results you are achieving or it is the result of external influences.
When you start truly believing that only you are responsible for what you achieve, will you start to see what it is you need to do to achieve a different result.
My clients who are achieving the results they want accept that it is what they do that decides their success or not. When they start relying on others for their success then their results are out of their control and in the hands of someone else. That is not to say everyone needs help from others to achieve the best results, but they know it is ultimately down to them to accomplish what they want.
For example, we can get help from loved ones when it comes to eating better, but if we eat the wrong foods for the outcome we want, then it is ourselves that decided that, not someone else. We are not prisoners to other peoples wants and desires.
Behaviour: At the end of each day ask honestly if you did the best you could have, and what could you, not anyone else, done better.
4. Accept Failure As Positive Feedback
In the words of Stephen Covey ‘Don’t see failure, only feedback’.
Most people take the belief that failing is something that should be avoided. It is a negative that highlights what we did wrong.
Successful people accept that failing is part of the journey to getting what they are striving for. That you can’t be successful without experiencing a set back or two along the way.
Clients of mine who see continued progress, accept failure, as they see every bump in the road as learning something new and how best to overcome this hurdle. Where other clients believe that they are unable to move forward due to their inability to apply the changes necessary and that failing reinforces their belief. It is the difference in belief which separates my clients succeeding or not.
Behaviour: Look at each failure as something new that you have learned. Then use what you have learned to work out what you need to do to move forward.
The above behaviours are not the only ones needed to be successful in achieving a lifetime of good health, but they are the cornerstone that other behaviours build on.
Master these on a daily basis and smaller behaviours will be easier to implement and follow.
Chris, myHealthCoach