How To Pace Yourself For Lifelong Habit Changes — The 70% Mindset

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Excerpt: How to stay consistent with lifestyle change? Most people fail because of their pace. Learn how to pace yourself for lifelong habit changes.

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Introduction:  Need. Results. NOW!

Staying consistent with a lifestyle change or healthy habit over the long run can be very difficult.  How many times have you started a new workout routine that you said you would be 100% committed to no matter what—only to find yourself quitting it a few months later? Or jumped on the latest dieting trend and decided you were going to follow it, ‘to the tee‘ so that you could get maximum results? Or set a new goal of reading for a half hour every day which never lasted?

Too many to count?  Yup, me too.  

One reason I believe so many people don’t see their lifestyle changes through to the end is that they start too fast and forget to pace themselves for what they’re committing themselves to. Here’s what I mean: When a new goal is set the motivation levels are usually high and when motivation levels are high, energy, self-control, spirit, and discipline are high as well—and when everything is feeling good and you’re motivated to succeed at 100%, you usually push forward and take action at 100%. 

But, then the question quickly becomes, how long can 100% max effort really last? This is a lifestyle change we’re talking about. You wouldn’t start a marathon running at your 100% max speed would you? So why would you do that for a change that’s supposed to last you for life? Sounds like a marathon to me.

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How To Pace Yourself For Lifelong Habit Changes — The 70% Mindset

This has been one of the most successful mindset mastery techniques that I have ever adopted when it comes to committing to long-term goals. Here’s how it works: instead of starting out your new journey at a full on 100% sprint where the focus is on covering as much ground as fast as possible—start it at 70% and focus on finding your rhythm and pace so that you can see the race through to the end.

This way, when it comes to your goals, you can start out at 70% the first week and stay at around 70% throughout your journey. Far better than starting out at 100% the first week, and letting yourself slowly gas out to the point of quitting a few short weeks later.

Remember, fatigue is a natural phenomenon that is just as real for the mind and spirit as it is for the body—plan ahead for it!

Here are some examples of the 70% mindset in action:

• When you go to the gym, instead of lifting to your max—you lift to 70% of your max. Or instead of running to the point of sheer exhaustion, run until you’re 70% of the way there.
• If you’re following new eating patterns, maybe try following 100% of the dietary guidelines—70% of the time. Or maybe just keep everything with your diet the same and focus on incorporating 70% more of a certain food group.
• If you’re working on your spiritual growth, maybe try meditating/ reading/ writing/ etc. for a shorter period of time than you have tried to in the past—getting only to about 70% of your attention limits.

The beautiful thing about 70% is that it leaves you feeling accomplished—but wanting more. And staying ‘hungry’ is absolutely essential for long-term success.

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But Wait, There’s More!

Another great benefit of adopting this mindset is that it significantly decreases the amount of resistance you might feel prior to going to the gym or the kitchen. If you know that you’re going to have to put in 100% max effort before going into a workout, it’s probably going to be a lot harder to get there than if you were going to train with the mindset of only hitting your 70% best.

If you know that you won’t have to eat the exact same bland and boring thing you ate yesterday so that you can stay 100% committed to your guidelines, you’ll start to loosen up around the kitchen and start to make allies with healthy foods.

Will you see massive results in record time?! Probably not. And that’s okay! It’s all about the marginal gains and becoming comfortable with long term goals that are worth achieving. Pace yourself for the whole marathon—not 40 meters of it. Time for the final piece to the puzzle. Now that you’re ready to start out at pace…

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Brace Yourself Because You Know This Day Is Coming.

You realize that there is going to be a day when you won’t want to go to the gym, right? …Or a day when you really won’t feel like writing or doing your work? …Or a day when instead of reading that book you’re going to want to watch TV, check Facebook, read e-mail, or do pretty much anything else, right?

I think we have all been there before and are very familiar with the feelings of laziness, procrastination, and boredom. So why not plan ahead for those days, now, so that when you’re feeling low, like procrastinating, and/or bored you have a plan? Sounds like a successful initiative to me.

Think about it. We all pretty much know what it takes to be healthy and fit—good eating and exercise habits are about as close to a magic potion as it gets. So, what’s the difference between a person who is healthy and fit and a person who is not?

I believe that it all boils down to how they handle the following situation: what they decide to do when they are feeling unmotivated, tired, and lazy.

The choices that are made in that situation are absolutely pivotal not only for their health and fitness goal success, but for their ‘success’ in life in general. Do you suppose a person who successfully pursues and achieves their goals skips? Or comes up with excuses? Or, instead, goes on Facebook and checks their social media updates? I think not.

You see, the choices that need to be made, almost always, are obvious: like eating an apple versus eating a cookie or working out versus checking e-mail. It’s the action taking and follow-through that’s the hard part.

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Here’s what I did to make it easier:

I came up with an action plan for the days when I know I’m going to be feeling low, unmotivated, tired, lazy, etc. When it comes to working out, if I’m feeling low in any way, I decided I’m going to show up at the time I had blocked for working out and literally sit on the training room floor for the entire time. That’s my action plan.

When it comes to reading, I’m going to sit at my desk and stare at the cover of a book for the entire time block. When it comes to writing, I’m going to stare at a blank computer screen for the entire time block. And maybe… Just maybe… I’ll find inspiration to stretch a little, lift a little, read a little, or write a little… But I won’t have any expectations and I know that I’ll be mentally prepared to literally just sit for the hour.

You see, I decided to do this because there’s something greater at stake here beyond just missing ‘one personal development session’—you risk losing the whole habit all together. What makes a habit a habit is the consistency of the behavior. And showing up, in my opinion, is 80% of the battle and therefore 80% of the success.

As soon as you open the door, ‘that one time’ because you weren’t feeling motivated or energized, you will have made it that much easier for it to be opened again, for more of the same, in the future. But if you plan ahead and follow a course of action on the days when you’re feeling unmotivated, tired, and lazy and are able to strengthen the habit, your long term success will be far more secured.

Anybody can do the work when they’re motivated, energized, and eager—it’s what you do when you’re the opposite of that that makes ALL of the difference.

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