Make it 'Non-negotiable'

Key to progressing on your 'health and fitness' journey

Just the other day, I reached out to a client of mine who had taken a break from coming to my fitness classes. She had too much happening in her life and could not find time for training. I connected with her as I wanted to know if she had been able to do something for her ‘health and fitness'. She told me she had not been able to do anything and wanted some guidance on what she could do. While I gave her some suggestions on what she could do, this interaction made me realize, how for a majority of the general population that is not into any kind of sports or athletic activity, it is a challenge to dedicate time to personal health and fitness.

In today's post I will address this with a suggestion. If you are part of that general population then I hope you will take it.

The key to moving forward:

If you want to make consistent progress then make any one activity that you know will improve your health, non-negotiable.

When I look back on my own life, I realize that the one thing I have remained consistent with, is a daily movement practice. Currently I am training with a Coach, but before that I used to create my own training plan. I would have each day's plan written down neatly on a paper, ready to be executed. Getting the day's workout was non-negotiable for me.

Of course, I met with several challenges but I was always determined to overcome them. Among other things I had to train my family members to respect my training time & to not disturb me, & on some days when I didn't particularly feel like doing the routine, I had to get myself to still get it done.

I found this old post of mine that I had put up on Facebook, on trying to get a workout done with constant interruptions from my daughter, who was about 3 years old then. I am sharing this with you so you can empathize with me on the difficulties that come up when one is trying to achieve a goal.

Most days my workouts looked as mentioned in the post below. But not once, did I abandon my routine.

An old post from 2016 :).

Some of you might call me crazy for being so finicky. But being crazy about some things does help. It is this consistency and the attitude of ‘making it happen’ that has helped me immensely to feel great in my body today.

My ask of you:

A new month is round the corner. Just spend some time reflecting on what that non-negotiable activity is going to be for you. You have many years in front of you. And it is never too late to get started with something that will improve your life in the long run.

Choose something. Anything.

It could be a daily 20 minute walk, or getting 7 hours of sleep or having an early dinner. Pick any one and ensure you get it done every single day. It's ok if you miss one day but try not to miss 2 days in a row. Be crazy about getting it done, like I was (and still am) about my daily movement practice.

Let me know in comments or write to me on what your ‘non negotiable activity' is going to be. If you are interested to know about mine then check it out here 🙂

Know that, you will face challenges as you go about trying to achieve your goal. But also know that you can overcome it.