Create your own personal rule book
An exercise to increase self awareness & achieve progress on your health & fitness journey
Last week I spoke about, "beginning your health & fitness journey from a place of love."
If you missed it catch it here: Inside out approach to health and fitness
Infact not just health & fitness, I believe it applies to almost everything in life. Decisions made from a place of love for ourselves are usually joyful. Atleast that's what I have experienced in my life.
In today's post I will explore how you can go about creating your personal rule book that will help you make progress on your health and fitness journey.
So let's get started with the process:
Step 1 : Set some goals
Without a goal you don't have a clue where you are going. So set specific goals that are relevant for you. We won't dig too deep or make our goals SMART* for the sake of this step. I suggest you just identify some areas where you desire to make improvement. For example your goal could be to:
1. Increase protein intake or
2. Eat more vegetables or
3. Get strong or
4. Increase flexibility or
5. Increase mobility or
6. Improve hydration or
7. Experience better quality sleep or
8. Manage stress etc. etc. etc.
Identify these & write them down.
“People with clear written goals, accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without them could ever imagine.” - Brian Tracy
Step 2 : Gain Knowledge
If your goal is to say, lose fat or gain muscle, then you need to know the 'how of it'. So for this step, gather knowledge.
Either do your own research if that's your way or hire a professional to help you.
“When you don't have knowledge, someone could bring you dirt, and you would believe it to be gold.” - I found this quote very profound!
Step 3 : Identify barriers
Drinking enough water or eating enough vegetables to stay healthy might sound simplistic on the surface. But anyone who has tried to adhere to it, knows it's not. We all have our individual barriers (lifestyle or something else) that prevent us from successful execution of our goals.
So identify what those barriers are for you for the particular goal that you are trying to achieve and list them down.
“The process of behaviour change always starts with awareness. You need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.” - James Clear, Atomic Habits
Step 4 : Honour your unique preferences as well as life circumstances
One size does not fit all. What works for your friend may not work for you. Recognise and accept that.
You know your environment and your mental make up best. Honour that as you go about creating goals & trying to achieve them.
“Fall in love with taking care of yourself. Fall in love with the path of deep healing. Fall in love with becoming the best version of yourself but with patience, with compassion and respect for your own journey.” - s mcnutt
Now you are ready to progress to the last & final step of the process.
Step 5 : Create your action plan
Your action plan will address the barriers you identified by spelling out your unique quirks and attitudes that don't serve you in the way of making progress & list out ways to overcome them.
“Knowledge is not enough. We must apply. Willing is not enough. We must do.” - Bruce Lee
I will share with you the contents of two pages from my own personal rule book to give you a sense of how you can go about yours. I like to refer to myself in third person in my book. You can choose a first person narrative if you like. Please note this is my personal note that I am openly sharing with you so as to give you a sense of how to go about this exercise. I hope you will be kind enough to not be judgemental about my notes :-)
So here it goes :
Page 1 :
Goal 1 : Include more protein into daily meals
Step 2: Gain Knowledge
Protein rich sources for Purnima's diet based on her preference :
1. Eggs
2. Cottage cheese
3. Lentils, beans & peas
4. Almonds
5. Pumpkin seeds
6. Soya
7. Rajma
8. Diary - Milk, curd, cheese
9. Protein powder
Step 3 : Identify Barriers
1. Purnima's primarily South Indian diet is Carb dominant and unless she plans she skips getting sufficient protein.
2. She sometimes forgets to soak beans & peas overnight and that affects proper meal plan.
3. Purnima's pantry is sometimes not properly stocked up on eggs, nuts, seeds etc that again makes it difficult for her to meet the RDA* of protein
Step 4 : Creating action steps
It is crucial for Purnima to
A. Pre plan her meal to ensure adequate protein in diet :
She could look at creating a habit of planning the next day's meal in advance & make it part of her winding down routine of the day.
B. She needs to ensure inclusion of one source of protein from the list into each of her meals.
C. She will need to create a habit of regular stock taking of pantry to ensure she is stocked up on protein rich sources for ready consumption.
Page 2
Goal 2 : Get stronger
Step 2 : Gain knowledge
Ways in which Purnima can get stronger :
A. By lifting weights
B. By getting a strength training plan from a trusted authority to follow
Step 3 : Identify Barriers
None as of now
Step 4 : Action step
Purnima needs to
A. Remain consistent with the "strength training plan" she is working with.
B. She needs to maintain a training journal so she can monitor progress and see when she is able to make progression with the plan.
I have a couple of more goals in the area of “health & fitness” and I have done a similar breakdown to help me arrive at an action step. These goals are personal and relevant to me. Your goals should be relevant to you and not be identical to mine. They could be to "reduce junk food consumption" or "eat out less", or anything else.
Choosing your goal should be your first step and following the process will help you arrive at an action step that speaks to "you".
As you begin work on your "personal rule book", you will begin to identify gaps such as gap in knowledge. An awareness of it will help you fill the gaps. You may park some goals for later if you find yourself still gathering knowledge.
You will also come to realise how there are massive lifestyle barriers to achieving certain goals. You may be forced to drop these as they just don't fit into your lifestyle. In some cases you will consciously begin to make changes to your lifestyle so as to realise your desired goal.
Every little work you do towards creating your personal rule book will increase your self awareness.
I hope you will give this exercise a shot 🙂 I love visiting & revisiting my rule book & working with it. I use it not only to break down “health & fitness” related goals but also goals in other areas of my life. I have had many realisations while working with my book.
And I hope you have them too as you begin work on yours. Do write back to share your journey if you feel like it. I would be happy to hear from you ❤️
*SMART - Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time bound
*RDA - Recommended dietary allowance
Thanks for sharing, really insightful and very inspiring personal journal. Hope to be more consistent and follow through small, tony habits this year to move closer to my goals.
I admire your writing ✒️ skills...awesome...! Unlike many bloggers, you don't just do blah blah... You are straight to the point... As far as I remember, I am doing this rule book kind of stuff..like I have the habit of pasting my do and don'ts list in my Almirah every new year since twelfth class.. But I don't respect the after a period of time... Bad me, I literally fail in this just because of my self sympathezing attitude..its just a demonic behaviour of mine... Making me to not to do stuffs saying that you have already worked hard; it's ok to be lazy or junk or whatsoever...
I am like.., I eat or overeat with the background thought process" oh mano, don't do that!" But I continue to do... Similarly for.workouts also....
But after my "" wake up call", there is some change in my list..instead of many "x" marks, I get to see many ✔️ spots...
This rule book is not only applicable for fitness or cooking alone... Anything and everything in our life should have a goal.. Otherwise, we will aimlessly wander with no meaning in our life.