We’re good at making changes in our life, especially when we have a desire to do so.
It’s not about motivation, it’s about what we tell ourselves – it’s the stories that this is worthwhile rather than why bother, nothing will change.
It’s this change that can stop us from even starting.
We’re told that people who do weight loss programs tend to put back on the weight and in some cases more, after they hit their goal weight – and this can be true, but the research also shows that some people put on no more than 3% of their overall weight loss. Which if you’ve lost 30kgs, that’s about 1kg.
For women that 1kg could be fluid retention when we have our period. It could be some winter weight while we hibernate and it could just be a few crazy stressed out weeks.
Maintenance is all about defending the space.
I liken it to my email.
I can be somewhat anal with email, and possibly (don’t tell anyone) other areas of my life too! What about you?
So when I think about email, I have cleaned out one of my email inboxes – I have 5 in total.
I have one email in that inbox. It relates to my podcast and a future enhancement I want to make, and serves as a reminder – one I’m happy to hold onto at this point (but whilst writing this I’m wondering if I should put that email in my calendar and action it!).
Each day I log into that email box and I ‘defend the space’ – I action, move, delete, unsubscribe, block every other email – no excuses. In essence I give myself 10 minutes (because that’s all I need) and it’s done.
We can defend the space in all areas of our life, and as I said earlier – this is what maintenance is all about.
Think about the things you’ve achieved in your life, the:
- Jobs you’ve done
- Career you’ve created
- Home you’ve saved for
- Meals you’ve cooked
- Sporting achievements you’ve had
- Pool you had built
- Beautiful children you’re raising
- Things you’ve studied
- Relationships and friendships you’ve created
What have you created and achieved in your life?
All these things have required maintenance – you showing up for you.
At no stage have they just ‘happened’ – you’ve had to be there every step of the way.
You’ve defended the space.
So pick an area of your life that you want to shift or change, create your baseline and defend the space.
When I was moving through my post natal depression, I decided that I would walk Monday to Friday. I defended the space. I put it first regardless of what else was happening, because it made me better, and in turn it made everything else better.
Defend your space.
