8 Steps For A Successful Lifestyle Transformation

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”?

I always ask my clients before beginning any transformation to complete one fundamental exercise, I encourage you to do the same if you are struggling to stay consistent.

Write down on a piece of paper the answer to this question,

"Why now? What's your driver?"

Put all emotions on paper, it may be you are a father that's lacking body confidence and this stops you from taking your kids swimming. It may be that it's affecting your sex life as your body confidence is at an all-time low. Whatever the reason, write it down with meaning!

Now, the most important part. I want you to share this with at least 3 people you spend the most time with and finish off with this statement,

"I share this with you so that you know why I need your support as someone I love and respect. Will you help me and hold me accountable?"

Here you are being vulnerable which is a beautiful quality. Asking for their support and setting your environment and influences up for success.

Let's face it, if your partner orders a takeaway most nights, you are really going to struggle to stick to that healthy meal plan as there is no alignment in the household.

If you've got children, this change is about you being that healthy influence in the household. Someone has to go first and that someone is YOU!

Want to take it one step further? Pull something out of your wardrobe that you are wanting to get back into. Put it somewhere you can see it daily. Attach the piece of paper to it and read it daily. Sounds woo-woo but trust me, it works!

About 90% of all coronary bypass patients have not changed their lifestyles 2 years after their surgery. Why?

Is it because of a lack of motivation? Lack of knowledge? Or is it that they don’t believe that they can change?

We all have something in our lives we would like to change. Most of us have tried, often many times, and “failed”. I want to give you practical ways and tips on how to succeed in all steps of a lifestyle transformation.

Step 1. - Figuring out the problem and your values. What and “why”?

First, you must figure out and recognise the problem. For a thing to turn into a problem, it must cause some kind of inconvenience in our lives.

For example, being overweight. As long as being overweight doesn’t cause us any harm (social, mental or physical) the subconscious doesn’t see a need to use any valuable time or energy to solve the problem.

There must be strong enough stimuli attached to the problem. Most often it is the diagnosis of a new illness, the death of a parent from the same illness, a decline in quality of life, social stigma, or the fear of the future.

Everyone must find the most important “why” - the most important reason why something must be done.?

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Step 2. - Change in mentality; what to do - support the change of the way you think by learning from those who have succeeded

That's why you are reading this right? Now I have your attention, it's time to put it into practice.

Before a big step is taken in a lifestyle change, the subconscious must be made to believe that it is possible.

Most changes are left “stuck” in this step because we do not really believe that we could do it. We imagine the change in our heads; of a big, scary, difficult, and almost impossible challenge.

For our lives to change for the better, we have to be made to believe that it is possible. The best way to do this is to get to know people who have succeeded in the change - either personally or by reading their stories.

“If they could do it, I can do it too!”

is most often a good enough motivation to go to the next step.

Step 3.- Increasing knowledge; what to do - search for more information from different sources.

Before we can successfully start a big change in our lifestyle, we must have enough theoretical information about the subject. Without knowledge, we get stuck in the beginning, and then we lose our motivation and way.

One of the things I do during my Ultimate Accountability sessions is teaching my clients the principles of making lasting change paired with the mental shift to embrace it.

Luckily, information can be obtained in many ways for free, but some sources of information must be taken a bit more sceptically. You can find reliable information.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of BS out there selling you the next magic diet pill or latest sweat pants that help you burn body fat!!

For example - discuss with people who have succeeded, and join communities that are going to give you that confidence and courage to keep striving forwards.

If you want to delve deeper into the subject, buy a book about it or literally read back through the free articles I put out.

Reading always pays off, said J?rn Donner. The problem is that people get stuck in the “paralysis of analysis” and are unable to take the next step.

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Step 4. - replace old habits with new ones.

An excellent book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg highlights how important it is to find new habits to replace old and unwanted ones.

Immediately quitting an old habit hardly ever gives permanent results. We have to analyse openly and reliably the habits which prevent us from reaching a state that we are striving for.

Replacing old habits with new ones is an incremental process and a setback is usually caused by trying too many things at once. Preferably replace 15 minutes of TV with 15 minutes of reading or one cigarette a day with a 5-minute walk.

According to Duhigg, small changes eventually cause big changes in other aspects of life. Small positive results give motivation to us to keep on going and developing. Patience is the key.

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Step 5.- “Failure”

Do you feel that you always fail when you try? Failure is a part of the process.

You must prepare for it. If we avoid it and just concentrate only on success, we burn out and crash.

It is particularly important to accept setbacks and failures beforehand. Because every process of change includes setbacks and outright failures.

Dieters, entrepreneurs, alcoholics, and kids’ parents know it.

Therefore, we should not accept the word “failure” because every error or setback is an experience - a possibility to analyse and learn. It is a part of a change. The road to our goal is not straight. If we accept that, and forgive ourselves, we will rise faster and continue our lifestyle change.

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Step 6.- The change continues; follow key indicators of the change, prioritise.

In the book “High-Performance Habits” Brendon Burchard says that people who monitor their process regularly succeed 2.5 times more likely in their goals. Monitoring motivates them to stay in their goals and prioritise their energy.

"People are remarkably bad at remembering long lists of goals. I learned this at a professional level when trying to get my high-performance coaching clients to stay on track; the longer their lists of to-dos and goals, the more overwhelmed and off-track they got. Clarity comes with simplicity."

I monitor my weight and caloric intake almost every morning because without that I would forget how important of a process it is to me.

The other principle in a continuous successful lifestyle change is prioritising.

It is an outright impossibility for the modern person to fit “all of the important things” in a 16-hour day.

In his book, “The One Thing”, Gary Keller teaches that in every aspect of life one most important thing must be determined that takes all of our attention and time because otherwise, we have a lot of things that are not achievable.

I am not much of an advocate of “a balanced life” since I know how many secondary things must be left undone to achieve goals.

Life is full of cruel prioritising.

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Step 7.- “Failure”; - accept it!

“Failure” again? No, it is not a bad joke or a mistake in the text.

I want to highlight that in all processes of change, everywhere where something better is the goal, “failures” are inevitable. Despite how many times we fall down, we have to get up.

A small amount of obsession is a good thing. Most of us know the feeling of feeling so excited about something that we cannot think about anything else.

I give myself the freedom to obsess about big goals because I know that it will help me through more difficult times. Grant Cardone says in his book “Be Obsessed or Be Average”, that obsession is a necessity if you want big results and otherwise, results are mediocre or nonexistent.

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Step 8.- Permanent change; what to do - develop permanent systems and routines and improve them.

In the book “The Power of Habit” Duhigg tells how habits are formed and how they work.

When you are learning how to drive a car, you must constantly notice the speed, steering wheel, traffic signs, gears, and pedals. After a month or two, these things come automatically. But how?

Our brains learn to move repeating tasks into our subconsciousness so that they do not require constant notice and energy from us. The same happens with lifestyle changes.

Healthy eating, regular exercise and bedtime become automatic after a few months. There are bound to be setbacks, nothing is 100% permanent, but in this step following the habit is already significantly easier.

Success happens every day when you decide to change. And let me remind you of our MotivateME's motto:

Embrace the bumps and fall in love with the journey. The only finishing line is our lifeline and you can significantly increase your time left on this planet by focusing on your health.

I feel this article is the most powerful I've written to date. Comment 'ACTION' if you are going to complete the exercise I set out at the start?