A simple trick you can try now to make life easier
I feel like I’ve started a few of my articles like this, just lately, but what the hell, I’m gonna do it again.
It’s hard being human. And it’s even harder being an adult.
Every single damn day, there’re a huge number of decisions to make, things you can choose to do or not to do, things you can say or not say, and that’s before you even start to think about making your mind up about what you’re going to eat!
Honestly, it’s ruddy exhausting.
(I don’t know if you can tell, but I wrote this article on a Friday afternoon after a busy week!)
As you know, if you’ve read a few of my articles on this platform, you’ll know that I’m all about coming up with little tactics, tricks, tips or hacks if you will, which we can easily put in place to help us to change our mindset, to boost our motivation, to make it easier for us to do things that we often don’t really want to do.
Or rather, those things which push us out of our comfort zones, and so they trigger our resistance, and make us afraid so we procrastinate.
Years and years can pass us by while we stay stuck in that kind of situation, and let’s face it, none of us are getting any younger!
I believe that one of the best things you can do for yourself, to help to increase your chances of success — whatever your chosen endeavours might be — is to be very aware of friction or impediments.
Call them stumbling blocks, if you will. These are the kinds of things which increase the likelihood that your conviction/willpower won’t be strong enough to get whatever it is, done.
What do I mean? Let’s walk through a practical example.
Perhaps you’ve decided that you’re starting to look a little bit doughy around your middle. More importantly than how you look, perhaps you’re not feeling great. Maybe you’re getting towards middle age, and your slightly wonky eating habits are starting to catch up with you.
So, you decide you’re going to start going to the gym, on weekdays. But you have a very busy life, and you know full well that if you try to go after work, at the end of the day, then things such as working later and/or family issues are bound to get in the way. So, you decide that you’re going to get up earlier in the morning and get some exercise in then.
That’s a smart move! If you’ve read this article, then you’ll know that I’m a big advocate of getting a morning routine that works for you in place.
The principle is that taking time for yourself, as early as you can in the day before the rest of the world tries to suck up all of your attention and disrupts your plans can be hugely transformative.
Perhaps you go to bed early, that first Sunday night, full of hope that Monday morning will be the beginning of a new way of life for you.
But when your alarm goes off - maybe an hour earlier than you’re used to - and you somehow manage to drag yourself out of bed, wearily wiping the sleep from your eyes, you then start to hunt around your bedroom for your workout clothes and your gym bag. You’re aghast to realise that while you’ve found your bag, it still contains the last set of workout gear you wore, they smell, and none of your other clothes can immediately be found.
That one impediment, having to try to find clothes to wear and/or pack a bag, could well be enough to make it so that this new habit doesn’t happen, at least not today.
The whole enterprise suddenly feels insurmountable, if not impossible, and you end up getting back in bed and telling yourself it’ll happen tomorrow, for sure. Not the best way to start the week off, and certainly not the way you wanted it to go on Sunday night.
So, what you need to do is to find a way to remove that friction, so that things go as smoothly as possible, and you have few (ideally zero) decisions to make when it’s hardest to make them.
In this instance, my advice would be to get your bag packed the night before. Or lay out what you want to wear on a chair by the side of your bed, pack your work clothes, toiletries and makeup (if applicable) and get into your workout gear as soon as you get out of bed. Then, all you need to do is to wash your face, clean your teeth and take your bag downstairs, and pop it by the front door while you get a coffee and/or something to eat.
See? No friction, no impediments, nothing which could serve as an excuse not to just do the thing you’d planned to do.
You can use this tactic for almost anything, it doesn’t have to be a morning routine. It’s a similar idea to this article, about being a friend today to the you of tomorrow.
A little bit of preparation, when your motivation is high, can enormously increase your chances of success, particularly when you’re trying to do something challenging such as putting a new habit in place.
The kind of challenging activity where the slightest little excuse can be enough of a reason to give up.
So. What do you think?
Does this article give you some ideas about how you might focus more on friction/impediments and work to remove them before they might get in the way of your good intentions?
I’d love to hear them!