On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 equals horrible and 10 equals awesome….
How would you rank your week so far?
Wait a sec, that’s not a very good question since you’re probably wondering, “what am I ranking?“
Great question – let’s try this again.
How would you rank your week in regards to your weekly nutrition and exercise commitments?
How I Rank Myself Weekly
For example, my weekly “can’t miss” nutritional commitments are eat breakfast, drink a minimum of 64 ounces of water, and have lots of veggies at dinner.
My weekly “can’t miss” exercise commitments are workout at the gym Monday thru Friday and then go play beach volleyball on Saturday.
This is the criteria I use to rank how successful my week was from a nutrition and exercise standpoint.
What Criteria Do You Use?
Do you have weekly nutrition and exercise commitments you strive to achieve?
How do you make sure you had a productive week?
If you don’t, consider putting some in place versus just saying to yourself, “I’m going to be healthy this week” or “I’m going to get back at it or back on track.“
What does “getting back at it” mean?
What does “getting back on track” look like?
Is that eating a certain way?
Exercising a certain amount of times per week?
Why Rank Your Week & How Successful It Was?
There’s two reasons why I suggest you set up weekly nutrition and exercise commitments and rank them weekly:
1) What gets measured gets managed
2) Progress = happiness
Whenever we measure something, whether it’s how many days we exercised this week or how many pounds we’ve lost, we are effectively managing the results.
In other words, by me measuring how many days I made it to the gym this week, I am managing my exercise commitment.
Why Does This Matter?
Because I can’t fix what I can’t see.
We can’t manage what we don’t measure.
It’d be like eating all your meals blindfolded if you were trying to lose weight but you weren’t losing any weight and you had no idea what you were eating.
How would you know what to change, what to eat and not eat if you weren’t measuring and managing (seeing) your nutrition (what you were eating)?
The answer is you wouldn’t.
So when we say, “I need to get back on track“…. what does “get back on track” mean?
3 days of exercise per week?
Eating a healthy breakfast every morning?
Going for a 30 minute walk every day at lunch?
Having commitments like these allows us to measure how we’re doing weekly therefore allowing us to manage the results we get.
What gets measured gets managed.
Next Up… Progress!
One of the six basic needs we have as humans is the need for growth, to make progress.
We see this everywhere too.
College football players with their helmets full of stickers.
Why all the stickers?
Why do the players want these stickers and work their tails off at practice for them?
Because each time they receive one it means they did something well, they’re getting better, they’re progressing.
Why do airlines progress us from silver, to gold, to platinum, to double platinum status?
Because the more we fly the more progress we make on our status.
Ever see Boy or Girl Scouts wearing all their badges and displaying them proudly?
It’s a reflection of the progress they’ve made and they’re proud of it.
It Feels Good To Make Progress
When we measure our weekly nutritional and exercise commitments, it gives us an opportunity to manage the results, make changes, make progress the following week, and feel good.
And when it comes to making progress, it’s all about keeping it simple.
For example, if I only got 4 workouts instead of my weekly commitment of 5, to make progress the following week, I will simply look at what prevented me from getting my 5th workout in.
Once I identify this, I’ll decide what to do differently next week to make sure I get it done and make progress from 4 workouts to 5.
Consistent small steps, consistent improvements, consistent progress.
It’s a straight forward basic formula for achieving both health AND happiness.
Progress = happiness.
Let’s Wrap This Up
Here’s the scoop, if you don’t currently have weekly nutrition and exercise commitments to measure and manage, I encourage you to create some soon, like right now.
1) Create nutrition and exercise commitments to strive for weekly
Keep it simple too (4 glasses of water daily, one salad per day, 30 minute walk every morning).
Next, track your progress every week.
2) Track how you’re doing (your progress) with your weekly nutrition and exercise commitments.
If on a 10 scale where 1 equals horrible and 10 equals awesome your week was a 7, think about one thing you could focus on the following week to make that 7 an 8 the following week.
One Thing
Decide on one thing you will focus on and do better the following week and do it.
Mine is I will not begin doing any work for the day without first meditating.
How about you?
What one thing will you focus on next week, do better with, and make progress on?
Identify it.
Commit to it.
Make progress.
You’ll be happier.
Healthier.
And more successful.
You in?
Let’s do this…
Cheers!
Mike
