It’s easy to practice good habits when everything’s going swimmingly.

Exercising consistently in good weather and thinking positively when handling curve-balls become like falling off a log.

However, life isn’t always textbook. Or ‘fair’.

The weather might not cooperate.  We might get stuck in critical thinking.  It might feel gnarly.

So, what to do when doing what we know we need to? (for example taking that brisk walk or counting our blessings.)

I don’t believe in magic bullets.  However ‘flicking the switch’ comes close.

And just what is ‘flicking the switch’?

 It’s just doing it.                                                                                                                                

Many people might say, ‘that sounds like great theory – although what makes it actually work?’ The key to the astonishing effectiveness of this concept is habit.

When we just do it, we build our habit muscle.  The predictable responses we build through repetition change our bodies’ approach to the activity.

The cycle goes like this – we start, experience the endorphins, and then we end up feeling like it.

The clincher to this winning formula is to flick the switch on ourselves and start before we feel like it ¹.

Sound too good to be true? Humour me, and trial it for yourself.  When you don’t feel like going exercising, just do it anyway. Get going, and then repeat this 5 times.

If you’re game enough to take on the challenge of flicking the switch, message me.  I’d love to learn of  your experience.

  ¹ In “How to Make Yourself Do Something When You Just Don’t Want To,” Heidi Grant Halvarson, PhD, shares Oliver Burkeman’s thoughts about the relationship between doing and feeling: “Somewhere along the way, we’ve all bought into the idea — without consciously realizing it — that to be motivated and effective we need to feel like we want to take action. We need to be eager to do so. I really don’t know why we believe this, because it is 100-percent nonsense. Yes, on some level you need to be committed to what you are doing — you need to want to see the project finished, or get healthier, or get an earlier start to your day. But you don’t need to feel like doing it [. . .] As Burkeman asks, ‘Who says you need to wait until you ‘feel like’ doing something in order to start doing it?’

Fi Jamieson-Folland D.O, is a Lifestyle Consultant, with over 26 years experience in Europe, Asia and New Zealand as a qualified osteopath, educator, writer, certified raw vegan gluten-free chef, speaker, health mentor and Health Brand Ambassador. She loves to globe-trot with her husband Chris (NZ, Australia, USA, UK + Europe and Indonesia are current favourites) relishing an outdoor lifestyle and time with family and friends.