What would it look like for you to change just 1% of your daily habits, behaviours or thoughts?
What’s the impact of a tiny 1% change?
If you were flying an aeroplane and you flew off course by just 1%, there is a great chance you’d end up on another continent, let alone anywhere near the place you intended to be.
The same thing goes for your health habits. If you change just 1% of your behavior, it can add up to big results.
So think about this as we collectively isolate to slow down the spread of the Coronavirus and we are forced to re-evaluate our priorities…
What would changing just 1% of your daily habits do to your chances of being affected by the Coronavirus? I am guessing you would be in a stronger position to fight it and win. Or at least come away only slightly bruised. Which is also a win in my books.
I have been reading a bit more since I decided to stop seeing clients until the pandemic is over and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson is quickly becoming one of my favourite books. It’s about the idea of making small changes to get big results and I am totally on board with that.
In fact, making small changes is what I advise my clients to do, especially those who need a complete overhaul of their unhealthy habits and lifestyle choices. If you make too many changes all at once you quickly risk running into overwhelm and then give up. Whereas when you change one habit at the time it’s easier to adopt it and you will quickly become used to it.
There are no neutral choices in life.
Every choice you make every day either puts you on the curve of achieving your goals and finding success or sends you further away from the goal.
Every choice you make every day in the kitchen or at the grocery store determines whether you will be in a stronger position to remain unaffected by CoVid-19 or puts you at risk of becoming ill, potentially in a serious manner. Why would anyone do the latter?!
Every choice you make every day when it comes to moving and exercising will either increase your chances of getting the fit body you want or reduce them significantly. The choices you make in this respect will also determine whether you will be able to stay calmer during the CoVid-19 storm or be gripped by high stress levels.
Small changes that give big results
But what does 1% change look like?
It could be sleeping 1% longer each night… that’s just 5 extra minutes! If you knew the horror story that goes on inside your body when you don’t get enough sleep you would make sure that you increase that time by 1 hr each day, not just 5 minutes. But an extra 5 minutes is nothing and easier to accommodate. Do yourself a huge favour and do this starting from tonight.
1% change could also be eating half a cookie instead of the entire box although it, like me, you have a natural tendency towards overeating you may want to apply the 1% change in reverse… eat half a cookie short of a whole box to start with and progressively eat less each day until you learn to control yourself and just have one or two. But you see the difference that eating half a cookie less each time makes over time?
It could also look like adding 1 minute of high intensity cardio to the end of your workout, the much dreaded finishers. But look at it like this: if you normally tend towards slow and steady resistance based workouts adding just 1 minute of high intensity cardio, i.e. 60 seconds of star jumps or running on the spot, will improve your cardiovascular fitness and increase fat burning. If you are not used to it 1 minute of cardio feels like 1 hour, but I promise you that it will soon not be enough. So you add another 30 seconds and then you add another 30 seconds. And so on until you are happy to do at least 5 minutes.
And if you are getting back into reading you can start off for the time equivalent to 1% of your day. That’s 14.4 minutes btw… that’s a fraction of the time it takes you to scroll mindlessly through your Facebook feed learning nothing by fake facts or how many things your friend’s cat pushed off the table. Unless you scroll through my Facebook page, in which case you will learn how to make fitness and weight loss easy 😉
Do you see how it works?
Once the 1% becomes a habit, you add another 1% change somewhere else, and then another…
Soon you’ve changed your entire life by 1%. And now you can start changing it all over by another 1%.
Before you know it, you are living a bigger, more vibrant, more inspired life!
It’s the things that are easy to do but also easy not to do that make all the difference.
I’d love to know what 1% change you could commit to making today!
Let me know in the comments below! ????
Great post, Cristina. To be honest, getting to stay at home has meant far more home cooking – that has got to be more healthy!
It is indeed, once you get into the habit it will be difficult NOT to do it because you will soon notice a difference in how you feel. 🙂 thank you!!
Sleeping an hour longer feels so much better. Getting out in fresh air for 10minutes instead of 5. Combined, they’ve wiped out my migraines – yay!!
Great post, easy to understand ?
Thank you Shan, much appreciated. ???
This is an excellent post Cristina. I’m amazed at the difference 1% can make to our lives. I plan to start commenting 1% more to see what happens, starting with your blog! Keep well, Alice
Thank you Alice, it’s all about the little things that make a huge difference. ?