Steps of Change
Look through the headlines of any pop culture or lifestyle-based news site or online magazine and they are all promising a version of the same thing: look better, feel better and get the body you want — quickly! They offer a one-size-fits all answer, a bit unique from the competitors, with the declaration that this is the best way, wrapped in their own version of a promise. The ‘best diet’ may be a little different for each, or the ‘fastest way to torch calories’ may not be exactly the same, but there is a version of it there. After all, people care about these things.
Rather than worrying about finding the perfect diet, or the best exercise routine however, what if we instead worried about how we can establish consistency? It doesn’t matter the the diet or exercise program, results happen from consistency: show up again and again, every day, and sooner or later something happens.
Nobody really likes to talk about this part, because it’s not sexy or fun, doesn’t happen quickly and takes some hard work and practice. It doesn’t happen automatically or by itself — especially if it is related to an activity that is new or difficult. But it’s the underpinning foundation of so many of the promises we chase — healthier lifestyle, fitness routine, body shape, aesthetic goals. What would happen if you just did the same thing every day for several days in a row?
I always use running as an example, as it is the thing I am most familiar with. I have been running for 22 years. Not sometimes in those years, or off and on in those years, but truly consistently, every day, month after month for over two decades. I remember a block of time in 2017 that I spent sitting on a bike trainer, pounding out hours each day in lieu of running as I nursed a foot injury. Later in 2021, there was a stress reaction, a consequence of too much mileage too fast as I was building up my weekly volume. It left me back on the trainer and in the pool for 6 weeks — but those were the longest stints running left my life.
If anything, my running volume has only increased since those original early years. I have a far better understanding and foundational knowledge of the sport now than Idid when I started. My time committed to running is different, my goals are definitely different and I have a lot more patience for the process. But I didn’t start running marathons in 2012 thinking that I could break 3 hours right away; or jump into trail running 5 years later and expect to be good at it. But I did just keep doing it.
I put together a body of work, day after day of showing up and grinding out miles, watching incremental success and planting the seed that left me hungry to chase more. In 2023, I ran a sub 3, 2:58:43, brazened across the clock as I crossed the line. I was proud, but I knew how I got there. It wasn’t by accident or on hope or on a 12-week training plan; it was on years of practice, consistency and showing up.
It’s cliché, but the best exercise, diet or lifestyle is the one you will do. It is admirable to want to make a change in your life to help improve your health or to feel better about an aspect of your wellbeing or livelihood. The point of difference however is in the one you choose, and then how you execute the change so that it becomes a success, not another to add to your previous pile of flops. With a measured and intentional plan, you can be the facilitator of a successful step by step plan you can sustain.
Step 1: Identify the reason for change
Identifying the desire to change is a first step towards success. Whenever we decide to change, it falls somewhere on a change scale model, and this often dictates how likely it is that we will follow through and reach success (Bunton). With that in mind, one of the main drivers of this success is the reason behind the desire for change. What is the main reason you want to make a change? Broad, vague answers such as ‘because it’s good for my health,’ are not enough, and often intrinsic motivators are more effective than extrinsic. It needs to be more specific and cohesive, something that leads to tangible or measureable outcomes.
For example, starting running to ‘get fitter,’ is too generalised and leaves too much of a gap for things to unravel. Is fit when you can run 1 km? When you are doing it every day? When you have lost a certain amount of weight or can run a certain race? These reasons are too vague to generate change, and leading to inconclusive results with no clear defined outcome. Choosing an intrinsically driven reason that is specific and exact is more likely to lead to success, as well as be easier to monitor for ongoing progress. Framed with this lens, ‘get fitter,’ becomes a ‘become fit enough to do a 10k weekend run on the trails.’ This reason is more intrinsically driven — the desire to be out on the trails for your personal enjoyment and mental health — as well as far more measurable.
Step 2: Identify a realistic plan
Sticking with the previous example, a realistic solution is likely not to run every day for the next 30 days and be fit enough by day 31 for the 10k run. It would be difficult to time manage that increase in running, as well as present an increased risk for injury. That said, there are a lot of factors which determine what a realistic plan may look like, including time availability, family or work commitments, previous running history and base starting point, proximity, and access just to name a few. Considering a plan for moving forward needs to account for these individualised factors. Start by making a list of the potential hurdles — or the hurdles you have encountered in the past — that may inhibit forward progress and keep these restrictions in mind when you are generating your steps to start. Setting up a plan that accounts for the hurdles from the beginning is a good way to reduce the chance that they will occur, fostering further success in your plan.
Step 3: Generate action steps
Taking the above plan and hurdles, you can turn it into action. This involves both action steps to start and action steps to continue. Starting is always the hardest part. Our brain will pull out a myriad of excuses to find the path of least resistance, convincing you that it is the right option. Combatting these requires you to have a series of pre-planned solutions to all the excuses and hurdles that will arise and to have a press and play plan that requires no thought or decisions.
Start by selecting a specific day and time when you want to begin. This doesn’t have to stay permanent but for the first few weeks of looking to develop the habit, consistency around a time and day(s) will help reinforce it. Next, still focusing on the run example, decide all the logistics around executing a run, including things like having clothes to run in, knowing where your running shoes are, a route to run if it needs to be planned, and what your first run session is going to look like. We have all been in the position where every intention to start was sidelined by the process of deciding where to run and not being able to find the other running shoe!
Finally, set a reminder on your phone for 15 minutes before your start to get ready. If you know there are any other hurdles that are likely to come up for you, pre-plan what you are going to do about them ahead of time. This includes things like unforeseen work interruptions, children to account for, travelling, and managing family schedules.
Once you have a starting plan, put together a continuing plan. What is likely to come up in the future that will be the cause for you to get two weeks in and quit? What life events or activities are coming up that will disrupt your routine? And what has happened in the past that has caused you to not be able to see the plan through? Now that you have started, evaluate whether the original plan seems sustainable or needs to be modified — it is better to do only 1 or 2 days per week consistently than plan to do four days per week and have to stop because it is too much.
The final piece of a continuing plan however, is to set up a series of if then scenarios. Think about past experiences that have led to you being unable to sustain or complete the goal you are currently going after. For example, if it is unexpected meetings at work or short-notice changes to your schedule, is there a proactive preventative solution? Sure things come up and plans change unexpectedly, but having a contingency plan in place to support those changes as often as possible is important, in contrast to always writing it off because something came up. The prioritisation of the sessions doesn’t mean they have no flexibility, it just means they are important enough that you always find a place for them and make them happen.
Step 4: Continue
It sounds obvious, but stringing together enough days of your activity is crucial to understanding what it might look like if anything needs to be changed; you have to continue long enough to be able to monitor and measure progress and to gauge whether you have achieved success. Part of this is defining success — the habit formation is one component, but clarity on what the end outcome looks like is also important. Avoiding the glamorised version of success, marked by a happy ending and a shiny finish line, what constitutes success? What are the intermediate steps on the way that might mark the right path and act as guideposts to fill in as stepwise goals en route to achieving the larger end goal? There is no right or wrong, but taking some time to define them in the early stages, as well as understand what it means to achieve them is crucial in avoiding distractions along the way, averting unnecessary interferences.
Step 5: Modify, manipulate or manage
Contrary to what you may see, the first time you start something isn’t always an outstanding victory. It will take some time to fall into a rhythm with your routine, to find out what does and doesn’t work and what needs to be tweaked to fit better into your schedule. Enter into the process unattached to the first plan, only committed to making it happen. This means that when the need arises to make changes and modify, you will be willing to do so and able to pivot quickly without letting it be too much of a disruption. The end goal is to make the process as easy as possible, eliminating all the potential hurdles that may arise now — and in the future — which may inhibit you from being able to continue.
Step 6: Make a Change
Only after you have completed all of the above and given your plan a valiant effort can you decide that it isn’t working for you and that you need to quit and try something different. It’s okay to quit when something truly isn’t working or you have found out it isn’t the right way to get to what you want. Don’t be afraid to quit! Quitting is the wrong answer when you haven’t given something a proper effort or let it have a fair chance of success. The only way forward is through, and all the outcomes of the best things are hard; quitting is not okay when it is the easy way out and you aren’t willing to get uncomfortable on your way to achieving something hard. But when you have given all of these things a chance, put all your pieces into play and still know that this isn’t the right thing, quitting has a place.
As a running coach and Pilates teacher, I have many examples of people who walk through my doors or show up in my inbox wanting the quick answer to the long problem. They want the results from Pilates or running within a few months that I and some other clients have achieved over years. They want the aesthetics of someone who has a consistent regular practice, years in the making, in just the next few weeks. It’s not that you can’t have that, it’s that you have been sold inaccurate information about how to get it. You have been sold images and stories that unfortunately do not belong together, and that when you pull back the curtain and dig a little deeper, are the three-year body of work, not the overnight success.
References
Bunton, R., Baldwin, S., Flynn, D., & Whitelaw, S. (2000). The ‘stages of change’model in health promotion: science and ideology. Critical Public Health, 10(1), 55–70.