Fat, fifty and focused on change

Making change stick

In my previous post, I shared with you the journey of my five day fast. With the fast being over, I needed to approach the next phase of my journey in a structured way to ensure that I was able to sustain the momentum. It was too easy to fall back into old habits and continue living the way I have done so in the past. Something else had to change!

Over the course of my life, I have always been interested in self improvement and I have adopted many different strategies. I have also successfully achieved many of the ambitious goals that I have put in place for myself. Putting these two pieces together in a formalized process was the key next step in this new path I was forging.

Enter the journal

One change that I put in place in the early days of the pandemic was waking up early. I have always been a night owl, never wanting the day to end and trying to get the most from my waking hours. Changing to a morning person was hard work as I started at 7AM and worked my way back to 5AM over a few months. During this time, I found myself contemplating what to do with my spare time in the mornings. Exercise , work, read, reflect? Early morning time is the most productive time of day. It is a period of time where you are thinking clearly, you are unencumbered by distractions and your energy is at its peak. Ultimately I realized that I needed a plan. I have always been a list person, keeping lists of to do items and trying my best to complete them. I established a simple template that I would fill in each day to hold myself accountable. More than just a to-do list, this template was a personal management plan for structured improvement. Overall this plan worked well for several months but eventually I slipped back to my old ways and the daily journal went to the wayside.

2022 revision

Here I was in October 2022, having completed my fast and feeling great, but with work to do and in need of a plan. My mind went back to the journal and I realized that I would need a plan that I could stick to. I looked and my original journal and used this as a basis for a new template. This iteration would need to be simple enough to complete in 15-30 minutes each day, yet complex enough to ensure that I stuck to my plan and held myself accountable(through measurable results).

• Daily metrics - Where am I at
• Goals broken down into long term, mid term and short term
• Reflections from the previous day
• A key change that I wanted to focus on
• A healthy habit
• A daily list of action items to complete
• Habit items I am trying to establish- Habits to do every day
• Self affirmation section(added later)
• A thankful section (added later)
• A daily scorecard to track progress

This may seem like a lot, and it is, but many of these items do not change, and the purpose of having them on the list is to reflect on them and keep them at the forefront. Instead of thinking of this in terms of manifestation (I do not believe you can achieve thinks through simple manifestation) , I prefer to use the word focus. More on that word will common upcoming posts!

Putting it all in practice

With the template in place, the only thing left to do was start using it. This required commitment. Any long term change starts with commitment! I had made it through a difficult fast, I felt great, and now I was 100% ready to commit to the next phase. For me, this required having something to strive for. My bike is calling me now, but I promise to get back to this topic shortly.