It’s Not Me. It’s My System.

You fall to the strength of your system.
- James Clear

If you find it hard to get into a good routine and struggling to apply good healthy habits consistently it might be because you haven't built a good enough system.

Goal setting is without question an important process but can sometimes lead to forced habits that are not right for you or that you are not be ready for.

If you intuitively feel this is the case for you consider approaching habit forming in a slightly different way. Start by deciding who you want to become (the identity you want to adopt) and focus your efforts on building a system to get it. Here are 3 ways to help you build a system to adopt a new identity:

Scale Your Habits Down

Do something you want to do and scale it down. For example, workout 4x per week but for 10 minutes not 1 hour. A habit needs to be established before it can be improved. It must be the standard in your life. Don’t aim to find the perfect workout plan from day 1. Scale it down and just get started.

Environment Design

How can you reorganise your home to help encourage healthier habits? Examples could be to hide the treats, make healthier snacks and meals easier to access, make healthy food fast food (prepare in advance and make them readily available to grab)

Find A Tribe

Surround yourself with the people that have the behaviours you desire. I am obviously going to suggest FITISM but really it's just that, a tribe of people that you aspire to be like. This could be a local running group, walking group, a gym etc...

Applying new habits can be really hard so don't beat yourself up if you continue to try and fail. Consider approaching it in a different way. First figure out who you want to become and then build a system to help you become that person.

Hope that helps,

Matt