The Steps That Really Count

We are what we repeatedly do, and we get what we repeat.

There’s no magic wand or secret recipe for sustaining a healthy lifestyle.

Consistency might not be flashy, but it is the foundation of meaningful change.

By focusing on manageable, incremental steps, you set yourself up for long-term success and create a balanced, healthier way of living that becomes a natural part of your everyday routine.

Unlike drastic transformations, which often impose unrealistic demands that are hard to maintain, gradual progress helps you to foster lasting habits. Your body and mind have the time to adapt in a way that is much more stable and long lasting.

Small victories reinforce your commitment and add up to big results over time, fueling confidence and motivation which become self-perpetuating with each positive step towards your goal.

Think of your progress towards a goal as though you were growing a tree.

You start by planting a seed, making sure that you’ve chosen an area with rich soil to nourish it. This is like setting up your own environment for success.

You care for that seed daily with simple actions like making sure it gets enough water.

Initially you won’t see any external progress, but underground the seed is starting to branch out and grow roots. The more time these roots have to take hold, the stronger and more resilient the tree will be.

Over time the tree grows, but you don’t really notice the change from day to day. It’s only when you look back at photos of when you first planted it, or one day realise that it’s now taller than you are, that you can really appreciate the progress.

Practical Applications

Establish, Then Improve

A useful strategy for working towards a goal is to ‘normalise before you optimise’. In a nutshell, this means consistently doing the easiest version of your desired new behaviour, rather than trying to be perfect from the outset.

The activity or behaviour that you’re trying to establish is more likely to stick if you can make it a regular part of your routine, with few interruptions. For this to happen, what you’re doing needs to be simple enough that you can do it repeatedly without a great deal of effort.

The key is to always stay below the point where it feels like work. It’s far better to do a little less than you hoped than to do nothing at all because the task in front of you feels overwhelming.

We’ve spoken about taking figurative steps towards your goal, so let’s use literal steps as an example of what we mean.

You’ve probably heard at one point or another that 10,000 steps is a good daily target. For some people it certainly might be, but what if you’re currently only getting 3,000 steps a day due to a sedentary job, injury or other reasons? 3,000 to 10,000 is a mighty big change.

But what about 3,000 to 4,000? That’s probably an additional 10 minutes of walking. For someone not currently doing any walking at all, 10 minutes is probably feasible and won’t feel too much like work.

Over time those 10 minutes might stretch out to 20, or 30 or more, if and when other changes come into play, like picking up a sport with friends once a week. Now we’re up to 6,000 steps a day, achieved in a way that didn’t feel like a complete upheaval of your lifestyle and habits.

Sustainable long-term success is the product of consistent, often unfashionable daily practices, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations.

So find what works for you, and aim to do it as regularly as possible.

Thanks for reading!