From the moment you pop open your eyes in the morning to the time your day shuts down at night, you are faced with endless decisions on how to use your time. It has become an almost impossible task as the amount of daily choices we have to make has multiplied rapidly over the last thirty years. Everything from choosing what workout top to buy to what song to listen to while exercising, is bloated with infinite variety.
Step into the modern supermarket to simply buy a dozen eggs and you either spend triple the time you thought you would spend in there, or you come out with a bag full of purchases that you didn’t think you needed. We are bombarded by choices at all times which tests our decision making.
This constant straining of our decision making mechanism is ultimately what leads us to making poor choices throughout our day, from what to eat, to how to properly use our time.
The business of coaching people is a multi million dollar industry that is growing every year. With all the information and technology that people have now, why would they need help deciding what to do with their lives?
In a now famous experiment conducted by psychologists Mark Lepper and Sheena Iyengar, a display was set up in a store containing an array of high quality jams. At first they gave customers a choice of 6 jams, whereas later, they gave the customers a choice of 24 jams to sample and buy.
60% of the customers stopped to look at the large display, whereas only 40% stopped to look at the smaller display of jams. This would suggest that people are initially attracted by greater variety.
However, the researchers found that 30% of the customers with the limited choice bought some jam, whereas only 3% of the customers with the larger choice bought some jam.
This would suggest that having too much choice reduces people’s motivation to buy or, in other areas of life, to make any decision at all. This indecision or “paralysis of analysis” is what’s fueling today’s ten billion dollar a year coaching industry.
According to Chip and Dan Heath, in their insightful book Switch: How to change things when change is hard, to spark someone to move in a new direction you need to provide them with crystal clear guidance.
Left to figure things out themselves, many people over analyse the choice they have to make. This leaves them stuck as they are afraid to make any decision at all. This is not a good place to be.
Everyone wants to make excellent choices in their life and create momentum for themselves. Each good decision leads to another and another until all of a sudden, you are driving fully charged towards your goal.
Here are six ways to filter out the unnecessary and ruthlessly execute better choices everyday:
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Forget All or Nothing
Life can be hectic at times and quite often you can find yourself a little behind schedule on your plan for the day or week. All of a sudden you’re running late from work and losing that time you set aside for your training session. This happens and it’s OK!
In these moments instead of going down the all or nothing route, how about shouting out “One is better than none!” In my mind, one minute of exercise is better than not exercising at all. How many push-ups can you do in a minute?
The same goes for your food choices. Sometimes you may eat something that is not part of your healthy eating plan like a slice or two of cheesy pizza (boy, have we all been there!). Instead of thinking you have blown it, and therefore should continue to eat the entire pizza, take a moment to reset. Understand that you can start again from where you are, and go forward gaining positive momentum.
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Turn off the Noise
Technological improvement has been a wonderful addition to our lives. It helps us work faster, be entertained at the click of a button, and gain excellent knowledge on any subject we choose. It has become entrenched in the way we work, live and play. Sometimes, however, we need to switch off.
The constant visual stimulation and sound from our devices clutters our minds and distracts us too easily. Consider how distracting a child playing the loudest video game on earth is, while you’re trying to catch up on some reading or work on the bus or train.
It can also affect our performance in the gym as I talked about in Get Off That Phone: Building better gym habits to take you to the next level. Quietening our minds momentarily each day helps us make better decisions by allowing us time to pause and truly focus on the correct choices for us. Start with a daily twenty minute No Tech Time Out.
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Ask the Question
Is this going to bring me closer to my goal or push me further from it? It is a simple but powerful question to ask yourself every time you feel indecisive – Should I give myself that extra scoop of chocolate fudge ice cream? Should I stay up late to watch that show? Asking the question helps to clarify the consequences of your choice. It also reduces your anxiety surrounding the decision, as it pushes you to focus more deeply on it.
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Understand Momentum
Momentum is a powerful thing that can either slide you forward or backward in your life. Forward momentum can be hard to start but once it gets going it is incredibly hard to stop. Momentum in life is gained by making good choices day after day.
The person who pushes themselves to complete 5 minutes of a workout video struggles their first few days to get to the 5 minute mark. However, before they know it they’re blasting through minutes 6,7,8,9 and 10!
This success in their fitness consequently leads to success in other areas of their life too. Each good choice gives you a boost of confidence and joy that makes you much more likely to make another strong, positive choice.
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Remember that Some Choices Hurt and that’s OK!
Sometimes the best choices are the most uncomfortable ones. It’s easy to watch movies late into the night or stuff those last few cookies into your mouth. It’s not so easy to say no to that offer of dessert at your friend’s house or squeeze those last two burning reps out at the gym. A lot of the time the choices that bring most benefit to you in the long run are those that are tough to do in the moment.
Become friends with that feeling of getting pushed into that discomfort zone. It will no doubt be worth it. The consequences of taking the easy road many times over are worse than the pain of any momentary discipline. As the great motivational speaker and author Jim Rohn said, “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is, discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons”.
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Be Organized
Have you ever been so hungry that you cleaned out the last three chocolate bars in the office vending machine or ate a full packet of biscuits in one go? When blood sugar crashes, only the most disciplined of us can make it to the nearby fruit market before, in a ravenous haze, devouring every sweet thing in sight.
Making a plan the night before each day begins, not only saves you time on the execution of your daily tasks, it also ensures that you face the new day ready to take it on and give it your best.
With so many things fighting for our attention each day, your decision making muscle is constantly tested. Focus on the things that are important to you and ignore the rest. Pause to think and then be proud of the decision you make as every choice is a mini step to getting to your destination.
Nobody wants to be the hugely overweight person that over analyses. They spend weeks researching the best diets, workout equipment and personal trainers instead of beginning their first simple step of just moving more. Don’t get stuck.
Both life and health are about movement, whether that is making the choices to catapult you forward or the choices to inch you slowly along. You are executing and progressing and that is something to celebrate!
Do you find food or exercise choices the most difficult? What time of the day do you have to try extra hard to make the right choice?
Would you like to leave a comment? The decision is yours!