How to increase your chances of success when you want to change

As I shared in previous posts, I started focusing on healing myself a few years ago. 

What I mean when I say I started focusing on healing, I am referring to the fact that I CONSCIOUSLY DECIDED to make different choices in my life aligned with my goal of healing my body. 

Until that moment, I wasn't what you would consider “unhealthy”, I used to eat home cooked meals, fresh vegetables, only used olive oil and I didn't eat a lot of sugars because I was never into sweets anyway. I wasn't too big on carbs or ate processed foods, and I was exercising regularly. 

But, once I made the decision to help my body heal, THINGS SHIFTED. 

I went from not paying attention to my meals, to monitor everything about them. Not just the ingredients’quality, but the variety of ingredients, the colors of my veggies, the amount of seafood I eat, the type of oils and fats I had, what type of carbs I would eat, what type of fruits and how much I would have, how much water I drank…

I monitored each meal, what I ate, how it made me feel, my bowel movements, any type of aches and pains, headaches, joint pains, bloating, hunger feelings, blood sugar spikes or drops, energy levels…

I tracked everything in an excel spreadsheet, which I still keep doing five years later.

My eating habits were NO longer UNCONSCIOUS CHOICES.   

But not only my nutrition became my focus. I also started paying attention to the type of exercise I was doing, and how it made me feel, if it was too strenuous or not enough challenging. If it made me feel good after or not, if it drained me or bring me more energy. 

My exercising routine was no longer uninformed. I exercised with a PURPOSE.

Then, it was time to address my resting periods; I started looking into my sleeping habits and my stress load. I looked into meditation and mindfulness and started doing meditation each day in the morning as I woke up. 

I started noticing how much sleep I had, and the quality of the sleep. I started feeling how stress affects me and I started being aware of my triggers and coping mechanisms.

My resting periods were no longer arbitrary. I rested with a GOAL in mind.

As I was addressing all these areas of my life, I also was addressing what to feed my mind with. I stopped watching news as a routine, and only did it once a week. I stopped watching TV each night. I started listening to audiobooks and subscribe to many different podcasts, I started reading a whole bunch more and I started shifting slowly to habits that supported my personal growth and development and allowed me to learn on a continuous basis. 

The external inputs were NO longer RANDOM. I INTENTIONALLY chose what to feed my mind with.

So, where am I going with all this? 

In every single area, whether it is nutrition, fitness, sleep or mindfulness, the main shift happened because I was INTENTIONAL in my purpose. 

I was very CLEAR on what I wanted to get from each area relative to the final goal of improving my health and I made all the choices based on that. 

There was no longer doubt or randomness whenever I had to decide what to eat, or how much sleep should I get or what I would be listening on my way to work. 

It made things a lot SIMPLER.

Now, let me be clear, it made things simpler because there was no doubt on why I was doing something, but it doesn't mean that it was easy. 

It was NOT EASY to change old habits, and start tracking all that I did. 

It was and still is a lot of work. It takes a whole lot of preparation and thinking in advance. 

There is no room for chance whenever I am travelling or thinking about my lunches at work or where to go for dinner if we are going out. It means planning, thinking ahead, searching for ingredients in advance, calling restaurants to see if they can accommodate their menu…

But it is simpler, because I KNOW WHAT I HAVE TO DO. I know what I should eat, and drink, I know I need my meditation time in the morning and how much sleep my body needs and what type of exercise to do. 

Also, it doesn't mean that I am a 100% on point every day. There are days that I don't sleep as much as I need or that I don't do meditation, there are days where I don't go to the gym and days where I drink less water than I should. And there are times on special occasions where I enjoyed a special dessert or meal as a celebration. 

But, again, because I know what my goal is, it is easier to GET BACK on track. 

So, what I want to make you think about is that for anything that you decide to do, you would increase your chances of success if you do it with INTENTION. 

If you have a purpose, if you have a final goal, you’ll be able to set your daily habits aligned with that purpose and you’ll be able to get back on track whenever you slip because you know there is a bigger reason for you to continue moving forward.   

As Simon Sinek said in his book, you need to know your why. 

Having clarity on your why will give you the direction that you should move towards whenever you want to change something. 

As for myself, I am still going along with my purpose of restoring health back to my body, and the great results achieved so far along the way keep me going strong! 

I hope you are able to find your purpose for your own journey, that you can set your intention and move ahead towards it, because it is a very rewarding journey once you decide to LIVE WITH INTENTION!!!

Now, tell me, do you have a goal that keeps you going and growing into a better version of yourself? Have you ever wonder about what goal you should choose? What are some of your purposeful choices that you aligned with your goals? Share below your thoughts and let me know!!

xoxo,

Sofia