Today’s thought comes from the Chinese philosopher Laozi-“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”
The point is that if we focus on the thousand miles, we get intimidated and never start. However, a single step is pretty easy to take and when we focus on that we actually get started making change.
So how does this carryover to health and wellness? If you want to make some big changes to your fitness, it can be intimidating to think of all the work in front of you and this may keep you from starting. We call these big changes Everest or Outcome Goals. No one decides to climb Mount Everest and then does it the next month. It’s a goal, but there are a lot of sub-goals, or training, that someone needs to do before they take on Everest. We call these “Process Goals” and the idea is that these process goals become habits that help you make progress on your outcome goals. Let’s look at a common weight loss example. If I need to lose 80 pounds, that is going to take a lot of change and isn’t going to happen overnight. Even if I do start, with such a big goal I may become demoralized after 3 months if I’ve lost 20 pounds. A 20 pound loss in 3 months is amazing, but since I still have 60 pounds to go, it’s easy to lose motivation. However, if I set process goals for myself of exercising 5 days per week and eating 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day, and these become habits, now I feel empowered by my new lifestyle. After 3 months I’ve lost the same 20 pounds, but my focus is on how much I’ve already changed, not on how far I still need to go.
Take a minute to look up, look at the thousand miles and envision what will happen when you get there. Then drop your head and take that first step!
