ReFitYOU

Rebuild Integrity to Achieve Consistency

In writing my post on Fortune Cookie Wisdom, I realized I’ve totally fell off the integrity wagon. My half marathon training has gone kaput! So I looked at what I did to created my running and weight loss program in the first place so that I can get back to doing exactly what I have said I’m going to do!

On the road to the Half Marathon

How to Rebuild Your Integrity to Achieve Consistency

1. Have a goal with measurable results and milestone markers along the way
2. Start small
3. Schedule it!
4. Get it done first thing
5. Celebrate
6. There is no failure, just messes to clean up

Begin with a goal

I’m training for the MORE Half Marathon in April and once I committed to the run, I needed a running program right? I’ve done 10K, and a half marathon doubles the mileage so I’d need some way to get from Point A to Point B. So I did what I usually do, I asked the Google and found a program I thought would do the job. The problem was I really wasn’t at the right fitness level. This program had me starting off my week with a 8mile run. Heck no! So I limped along, struggling to get those miles in but since I wasn’t quite there yet, I was suffering and skipping runs. Then I hit on the idea of creating my own program from scratch. I had a goal, 13.1  miles, a specific time frame that goal would be achieved in, so I knew how much time I had to get there. So I literally drew myself a map, putting where I am today and where I needed to be on April 25 at the end. Then I marked off each week and each day and now I know exactly what I need to do to get to my goal. If you don’t have a goal, you don’t know where you’re going so you can’t possibly know how to get there. And with weekly and daily milestones, all I have to worry about is one day at a time and be consistent one week at time.

Baby steps

Every single productivity, weight loss and Fitness expert will tell you to start small and build on your progress. I’ve found that building integrity is no different. If you overwhelm yourself with to-dos and tasks and goals, you could very well freak out and get nothing done. Integrity is very much like a muscle. You’ve got to start small and build just like you would on a weight loss plan.

Pencil it in

So you’ve got your road map, your destination and goal set. You know what your milestones are. You know what you have to achieve each week. Now take those weekly actions and put it in your calendar, datebook, smartphone, whatever, at a specific time. Don’t say “I’ll fit in three runs this week”, because Friday will get here and you haven’t run and happy hour will be much more appealing than the treadmill.

Just get it over with already

You scheduled it, now just get it over with already, sheesh. Using the above happy hour predicament, if you got your runs done, achieved your milestones early in the week, you take the stress and pressure off yourself. Then you can go fo bonus runs, feel like you achieved something extra and just kick back and relax and just enjoy what you’ve accomplished.

Celebrate good times, c’mon!

So you got your goal, you got your milestones, you stated small, you scheduled your activities for the week – You did exactly what you said you were going to do. SUCCESS! You have integrity! AWESOME! You just kicked butt in the Integrity Game. Fantastic. Celebrate that sucker like it was going out of style! Put gold star stickers all over your calendar and roadmap. Have a glass of wine. Buy the Glee soundtrack. We are all fantastic at tearing ourselves down and wallowing in our failures. Most of us suck at celebrating our successes.

Just get over it

OK, so it’s the end of the week and you didn’t do what you said you were going to do. You didn’t achieve your milestones. What this means is that you didn’t have integrity this week. What it DOES NOT mean is that you are a bad person. It DOES NOT mean you suck. It just means you didn’t do something. That’s all. Under no circumstances should you use this as evidence that you can’t accomplish your goal. But rather use this as a gift to yourself, take stock of your week and really look at what got in your way. What can you change for next week? What can you realign to help you be successful?Maybe your goal really isn’t that important to you and you need to shift your focus. And do this without drama! You don’t need to beat yourself up over it, just fix it and move on.