Progression and action go hand in hand.
Progressing and taking action are the two key components to improving and getting closer to your goals. As well as giving you the ability to make conscious decisions to act on things that are coherent to your aim. But are you in the right place to make those decisions?
This is where the stages of change come into effect:
Precontemplation- During this stage, people don’t consider change. Usually, they are in denial about what situation they are in or the actions needed to be taken for them to to get to a certain goal or destination.
Contemplation- During this stage you become more aware of an issue or problem but you still rationalise your current behaviour and current actions. BUT, you have an active understanding that something needs to change. Many people cycle through this phase and it may take years to move or change.
Preparation/Determination- this is the experimental phase. This is where you will experiment with new ideas and actively evaluate or search new ways to tackle your problem. Whether it is to find a diet to stick to or a program to reach your desired needs, this is the time where most people go back to contemplation or where they solidify their actions to reach the action stage.
Action- this is the clear stage where someone is actively moving towards their goal. Doing the actions needed to return the desired effect. But the key to staying in this stage is positive reinforcement. Rewarding positive behaviour is king for you to be able to stay in this stage.
Maintenance- This is the successful completion of avoiding previous habits and moving onto maintaining positive behaviour to meet the demand of your goal. You can have a wobble, but you are able to get back on track with some simple self-motivation to make a positive choice.
Relapse or Termination- At this point, you feel a sense of failure as well as usually exhibiting self destructive behaviour. Usually reverting back to the contemplation stage.
As you can see it’s not just a case of “getting on with it”. Have a think where you are currently with the actions you're taking towards your goal.
The aim here is to break a task down and figure out its key components. Reducing the size of the final task will allow you not to get overwhelmed with the situation as well as giving you smaller tasks to complete, positively reinforcing your positive action and giving you the nudge to re exhibit this behavior or action more often.
When it comes down to figuring out a road map for someones strength, fitness and wellbeing I focus on the three pillars:
Physical/strength
Nutritional
Spiritual
These all go hand in hand when building a fitter, stronger and healthier individual. The journey you take isn't the accumulation of one action but many actions snowballing together to form a positive action step to produce the results you desire.
Stay strong