During a big change in your life, you can sometimes run, emotionally, off of the snowball effect that tends to onset, usually, around the three week mark. This is how long it takes an average person to build new neural pathways in her brain. This is true for me, and I have always heard that it takes an average person 21 to break an old, or start a new habit. By this time, if you stuck to your plan 100%, you should be kickin ass and making it look easy. This state of being is known by many names, but I've always called it....... SUPER DEDICATION MODE, or SDM (Not really. I don't have an acronym for my "the zone".)
Every time I've ever been in super dedication mode, I was on my A game in everything I did. In the gym, I'd workout twice as hard, I would get A's in school, and do better in life, generally. I don't know how I manage to lose that after I have it. Some people, you can see have it all the time, others will never experience the power of the 100.
I'm sure that I am actually smarter while in it, my mind is strong and positive, I tend to be a great deal more confident. I don’t second-guess myself and I've noticed that I’m more happy and, seemingly, lucky.
Now, the question would be, “How you obtain this level of peak performance and maintain a high level throughout the rest of your life?” One thing that has helped me through my addictions and troubles, is challenging myself to be better every day, and then auditing myself honestly each night. So, by waking up and thinking of how I will improve myself today, preparing and planning, taking action, and then finally measuring the results is a great place to start. This process is easy, and fun. Gamifying habit breaking is a must. Finding your own little advantages to breaking a nasty habit or forming a positive one is the backbone of the topic for this month, so it can’t be that easy.
No. In fact making a habit change, or, much more difficult, an addiction change, is just that: difficult. I want to remind you that anything worth doing is difficult. The more difficult, the better the reward for succeeding at it will be. The most difficult part may be over for a lot of you, if you have stuck with your New Year’s resolution. If you have, then you have almost created the habit, or broken it. You are much less likely to revert back to your unwanted behavior or lack thereof, so give yourself a pat on the back, just don’t take a break at this crucial time.
Breaks are hard to avoid, but you must keep in mind what goes on during a break. I can tell you that in my life, I’ve hit SDM twice. Both times it was punctuated by a break. These punctuations, in my case have lasted years. I just wonder where I’d be had I not taken the break. My advice for this is to make a written list of what may happen during your break, and if you can somehow continue your routine, possibly in a less functional manner, to decrease the likelihood of slipping back into the old habit and out of the zone.
During my time in the Army, I had a friend who introduced me to working out in a gym. He was my personal trainer, nutritionist and coach. He helped me reach a level I had not ever gotten close to prior to that. We worked out together for about six months and I was looking forward to time off and visit back home. I worked out harder and longer, ate better and even set my alarm to wake up in the middle of the night and drink a protein shake.
Once I got home and showed off to all my friends; which is one of the main reasons that I wanted to get fit in the first place, I felt like I didn’t have anything to work towards anymore. When I returned, I stopped going to gym altogether. Had I written out a list of anticipated obstacles for my upcoming visit and return to base, I would have been prepared to deal with them.
I have one other example that is so similar to the last one that there isn’t much of a reason to mention it. I know once I hit Super Dedication Mode again, within a couple of months, I will do what I can to keep it.
I hope you learn from my mistakes and prepare for unavoidable hiatuses in your life by preparing to maintain your mindset.
Anyone has the ability to make any change in their life as they see fit. The know-how is a different story. I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but I welcome comments and nuggets of wisdom for keeping yourself in the zone, in the comments section below.
Update on my New Year’s Resolutions:
I am completely failing at the main one: quitting smoking. I don’t want to talk about it. I will give another update soon and I’ll discuss the reasons for my failure.
I am happy to report that I have been working out on the planned schedule and doing cardio above what I had planned. I am eating right (for my diet) which means eating lots of protein all day, and lots of carbs in the morning.
I will keep you posted and with better news of my main resolution. Just because, I have given in several times, doesn't mean that I’m not closer to my goal than I was on the quit date and I must keep trying and not let myself get any leeway as far as allowing myself to smoke without getting disturbed about it. I know I will win this. A positive attitude is kindergarten for making change.
Thanks for reading and leave a comment. Let us know how you’re doing. It doesn’t have to be a NY resolution. It can be a today resolution. Make a commitment here and hold yourself accountable.
