Anyone that’s read these blogs that any period of time will know that one of the main thought processes that I like to help people challenge is….
Dichotomous thinking.
All or nothing.
Black or white.
Because life is rarely like that.
It’s usually shades of grey between two extremes, despite what we might tell ourselves.
But the words we use often lead us to think and feel otherwise.
And I came to a realisation the other day about one word that often does this.
Quite an innocuous word that we might not really give much thought to.
“The”.
It’s a word often used to describe things that we are, essentially, not doing.
So, if I’m chatting to a member who hasn’t done any exercise for a number of weeks……..
Or they’ve maybe been eating in a way that’s led them to gain weight……..
Then they might say something like “I just haven’t had time for it”.
“I’ve been too busy”
I’ll ask “Too busy for what?”
And the reply will often start with “the”.
“The Sessions”
“The diet”
“The health eating”
What does “the” actually mean in this case though?
Unless we know how much of something we’ve been too busy to do…….
Then we’ll struggle to know how much we could be doing.
“The” is something vague and unquantifiable………
But probably a very maximal version of it.
It’s a lot of Sessions.
It’s eating like a nutritionist or Olympic athlete.
If we put a definition something then we can just work backwards and decide what we are able to do under the circumstances.
If we’re too busy for three Sessions a week, are we okay to do two?
Or one?
Or a mixture of in-person Sessions and home workouts or other exercise?
Let’s not hide behind the silly excuse that “that’s not worth doing” when it’s clearly is.
Same with the food side.
If we can’t do whatever we think “perfect eating” looks like………
Could we just eat in slight calorie deficit of whatever we were going to eat anyway?
Again, not pretending that that’s not worth doing compared to the massive surplus that we might do otherwise.
The clearer a definition we have of our intended behaviours……..
The easier it is to make those behaviours happen……..
Or, when they genuinely can’t, to still do a version that will take us in the right direction.
Anytime what we’re intending to do starts with “the”, that’s nowhere near clear enough.
Much love,
Jon ‘as mud’ Hall
P.S. If you’d like to be part of a community and a set up where regular exercise and healthy (enough) eating comes surprisingly easily, you can check that out, risk free, at www.myrise.co.uk/apply
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RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
