Consistently be all or something

One of my goals for 2020 was to improve my running speed and distance so I could consistently run 5km in under 30 minutes and 10km in 60 minutes. I was making progress on the distance achieving 9km which was the longest run I’ve done in years at the beginning of March. 

Then there was a pandemic and even though we were allowed out for 60 minutes of exercise a day, I didn’t feel comfortable doing this so I focused solely on home workouts instead. It did mean my initial goal was put on the backburner but my body was being kept healthy and I was hopeful that when I did return to running my general fitness levels would still be high which would mean I could make progress towards my running goals quickly.

I enjoyed Davina McCall’s Own Your Goals workouts, especially the boxing classes - who knew I had a lot of aggression to work through?! Yoga with Adrienne is also great for my active rest days, but my absolute favourites, and the ones I keep returning to, are the Betty Rocker workouts.

The thing I love is that the workouts are generally between 20 and 40 minutes so I have no excuses for not doing them - finding 20 minutes in the morning to then know I will feel amazing all day is a no brainer for me!

The other thing I love about Betty Rocker is the fitness coaches offer some great advice that works both for the workout and also for life in general. The two that have particularly stuck with me are: “do all or something”, and “be consistent”.

All or something Vs all or nothing

All or something made me really stop and think as I’ve always been an ‘all or nothing’ type of person. I go full out on something or I do nothing. The all or something philosophy though is you can try for all but doing something towards your [fitness] goal will mean you still make progress. This is actually amazing advice as there will be days that things feel more difficult, or you don’t feel that you can commit to a full 30 minute workout, or responding to 20 people in your business, or writing 1,000 words for your book or whatever your daily goal is, but can you do something? Can you do the first third of the workout? Can you respond to 1 person? Can you sit and write for 5 minutes?

As a life coach, I want to hold my clients accountable to their goals and commitments, but also acknowledge how damaging the all or nothing mindset can be. If you believe that to be successful you need to accomplish everything you have set yourself to do in a day/week/month/year, when you see things are slipping or not going to plan you are more than likely to give up. The all or something mindset means you keep the end goal in sight but you also are kinder to yourself so if you don’t feel able to stick to things fully you can still make progress - it may just mean that your timescales get moved out slightly!

Be consistent

This leads very neatly into the other advice that resonated with me and this is staying consistent. Keep doing whatever it is you need to be doing to achieve your goal on the cadence you have set yourself. Betty Rocker, on day 6 of a 30 day challenge explains that you might not be able to see change happening yet in your bodies, but it doesn’t mean your body isn’t changing. By doing the exercises every day your body is becoming stronger, more toned, fitter.

Betty Rocker shares a story of someone who achieves their fitness goal and then just stops - and they then go back to the weight, shape and fitness level they were previously. They saw their fitness goal as something to accomplish rather than to integrate the consistent action [of exercise] into their everyday lives. Although many of your goals may be things that you will accomplish, I think the thing about doing something consistently is you are changing your mindset - you are showing yourself that you are someone who is committed and keeps going towards their goals. It means that even if your goal is something that is accomplished, rather than like fitness which needs to be integrated, it means that you then have the confidence in yourself to consistently strive towards your next goal.

Link this to the all or something way of thinking and it means you can keep showing up and making progress whether it is completing everything (and maybe more) than you had planned, or just doing something - but you are there and you are committed to consistent action-taking to keep that forward momentum. It is why I often will ask clients, what is the one thing you can do today to move you towards your goal? If you can ask yourself this every day and take all or part of that action, you will eventually achieve your desired outcome.

And now restrictions are lifting, I have started running outside and am picking up on my original goal again. Some days I am closer to achieving the time and distance than others but I am showing up consistently and doing all or something so know that I will achieve these running goals [eventually!]