Atomic Habits and Movement
Little things can go a long way when trying to build good movement habits. But of course it requires patience!
By Garrett de Jong, D.C.
We all have goals that seem never to happen. Many of them are movement related. Despite our best intentions most of them don’t stick, while our bad habits seem to stick around like a bad tattoo. I recently read Atomic Habits by James Clear and although I won’t go into a full review, I do want to share with you a few important things.
A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic. Building good habits may take time initially but eventually gives you time! They are formed by actions that compound over time. You may not notice any changes until a threshold is reached. I see this all the time as a therapist and coach! (See graph below). It’s the delayed gratification of fitness, recovering from injury, losing weight, eating healthy, reaching your goals.
A habit is a behavior that has been repeated enough times to become automatic.
Habits form the base of our identity. And our identity feeds our habits! Identify the type of person you want to become in order to build good habits. Trying to build a habit that doesn’t fit with your identity is bound to fail. Your identity determines your process which will likely determine your outcomes (see pic below).
Lastly, don’t set goals. Instead build your environment! Goals require willpower and willpower is bound to fail eventually (most likely with you’ve got a work deadline, are hungry, and your fridge stopped working!). If you live in an environment where you have no choice but to do certain behaviours, willpower is redundant. For example, not owning a car so you need to walk/bike, not having junk food in the house, having a dog to walk, having a social network that exercises etc. You can get creative, every little thing counts! It’s not about how bad you want it, it’s about how bad your environment requires it!
I love hearing stories of how people are build movement habits and environments that promote movement. Feel free to share your stories with me 🙂
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