Why we don't do what we know we should (and what to do about it) We all know we should eat 5+ a day, push "play" 30 minutes a day and save for our retirement - so why don't we? Some would say we lack motivation, others commitment, but I believe it's much simpler than that.  Basically we make things too hard for ourselves.  It's not easy to eat 5+ servings of fruit and veggies a day when we're surrounded by fatty, sugary convenience food.  It's equally difficult to find 30 minutes for exercising in a busy day.  And saving?  Well, it's hard to save when there are so many things we want to buy NOW! This is not to make excuses and give up on these admirable aspirations.  The purpose of this explanation is to empower you to finally achieve what you desire. So how do some people manage to do it?  If we look closely, people achieve because of two main factors:  Determination Doing what is necessary to succeed   We all know we need to eat healthy but that is not always easy to do     Sometimes our determination isn't strong enough to make it happen- we need another way Regarding determination, most of us don't have an insatiable urge to eat our veggies or a burning desire to save for our retirement.  This makes it difficult to delay gratification and make the hard choices we know we should.  Often willpower and positive thinking are not enough! So what does work? The answer is in the second part of what successful people do.  Success comes from doing what is necessary by working smarter.  We can do this by structuring our lives to make what is necessary, easier to do. Like a river flowing down a mountain, many of us follow the path of least resistance.  We tend to do what is easy, rather than what will help us achieve our goals.  It is important to change our approach to "hard tasks" and work out how to make them easier and more enjoyable. A common "hard task" is exercise, which we often make too difficult - by not making time, picking things we don't really enjoy and setting unrealistic goals.  So, how can exercising be made easy? The secret is to be clever in identifying the easiest way to get something done, and not always rely on determination to soldier through. If you give it some thought you can design a way that suits you best and therefore requires less determination. SIMPLE!  - Follow these three steps: 1. Understand what you want to achieve - the end result (not the "how")   For example, to have more energy to play with my children, to feel more energised, to fit into my old jeans. 2. Find the easy or enjoyable parts  Ask yourself some simple questions: When?  When was the last time I enjoyed exercising?  Try and choose one or two occasions.  Was it the holidays?  Early morning?  Lunchtime?  The weekend? What?  What was I doing?  What was going on?  For example, was I away on holiday?  Was it a social event, competition or class? Where?  Who was I with?  Friends?  Children?  The neighbour's dog?  No-one? Why?  Why was I doing it?  Because someone asked me?  Because I didn't want to let someone else down?  It sounded like fun?  I was training for something?  3. Make the hard things easier Now we have useful information about our exercise - think about how you enjoyed it.  From your answers, identify the enjoyable or easy parts.  For example: When - early morning.  What - social.  Who - a friend.  Where - the park (convenient and beautiful).  Why - did not want to let someone down.    Your summary may sound something like this:  I go walking early in the morning twice a week with a friend.  Morning is a good time, we live near One Tree Hill, which has an unpleasant hill but a beautiful park and my friend is a bit scary so I don't like letting her down.  This may not make me super fit, but it's a big improvement on nothing and the more I do it, the more I feel like trying.  Be kind to yourself and incorporate more of the things you already like into your lifestyle, so "hard" tasks become easy or enjoyable. If you don't know what you like, you can also apply these questions in the negative.  When do you find it hard to exercise or be active?  Where were you?  Who were you with?  When was it?  Why didn't you like it?  Then you know these are parts that make "hard" tasks harder, so they should not be used.  Some people try to fool themselves they can overcome this with willpower, but really they are often setting themselves up to fail and/or simply wasting energy. Basically, we have now designed our own personal exercise system - one that works uniquely for us, and delivers consistent results. You can apply this technique to anything you would like to achieve.  It is too easy to berate ourselves for not achieving what we want because we don't have the willpower.  This is counterproductive.  We can work much smarter, so we don't put as much pressure on ourselves.  Another example is eating habits.  When do you think it is easier to decide to select a healthy option?  When planning the menu or shopping list?  When browsing the aisles feeling peckish?  Or, when you're in MacDonald's starving hungry? As you can see from the diagram, our chances of success decrease the further up the pyramid we go! So, stop making the "hard" things, harder for yourself.  Take some time out to design and implement some simple changes to make the "hard" things easy and life more enjoyable.     First published in the May 2006 HerBusiness magazine. We can help you to achieve improved results in your business by making the hard things easier for you and your team -see our Results Consulting Programme for details.  For more great ideas subscribe to our regular newsletter now Employee Performance Tools River Empowerment Ltd provide the following Employee Performance tools, training and consulting services: Consulting Services   Training             Return to top