Hard Changes

Reflecting on the changes I’ve made in my life, I see now that some changes have been easier than others.

One of the easy changes that I made was to drink less Coke. I used to be extremely addicted to Coca Cola and could consume up to twenty cans per month. One day, six years ago, I decided to make a change after taking some advice from my health coach. Surprisingly, stopping my Coke habit was easy. After making up my mind, I did not drink a single drop of Coke for a month. Now, I only drink one or two cans a month, as a treat.

However, it took me twelve years to be able to exercise frequently. I often went without a single exercise session over the course of a year!

My first attempt at this change was at the age of twenty. I joined an aerobic class and stopped after one month.

My second attempt was better, but occurred five years later. It lasted around two to three months.

The third attempt occurred three years later, at age 27, and it lasted the longest period: four to five months.

After my third attempt, I got very frustrated. I found it very annoying that I couldn’t change a simple habit, even after trying for so many years. Make no mistake: I was fully persuaded that physical exercise was important, but I never managed to sustain the habit.

One day, a voice in my head told me that I should connect with myself to figure out the root cause of my failure in this area.

Armed with this idea, I decided to see my performance coach in order to gain more clarity. After a couple of sessions and after trying a handful of different approaches, I figured out that the root cause of my failure lay in one of my beliefs. In my mind, I associated physical exercise with waste! By spending time on exercise, I was not spending time on my mind. I formed this belief when I was in secondary school. At the time, I frequently observed that academic success always garnered a lot of praise, respect, and rewards; meanwhile, success in physical domains like sports achieved nothing — in Vietnamese society, no one cared. And if you know me from a previous blog post, you would know that I value recognition very much.

After I discovered this link between my belief and my inability to form this habit, I created a strategy to cope with both. And so now, I have kept up a regular exercise schedule for more than two months. I am rather hopeful that I would be able to keep it going.

How about you?

Do you have any hard changes you’d like to make in your life?

What do you think might get in your way to prevent that change from happening? And what are you going to do about it?