Carving Out The Grand Canyon
What it Actually Takes to Build a Better Habit
By: Patrick S. Cross, LMT, CPN, CET
“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” — Sean Covey
“Maybe I should do the Whole 30.”
“I think I’m going to join a six week boot camp class.”
“I’m going to do the Master Cleanse for 14 days.”
“I should really get into that 30 day yoga thing at that one place.”
Heard anything like that recently?
It’s January, a brand new year, and it’s time to reinvent ourselves. The gyms are packed and nutrition books are selling.
The problem is that by March the gyms will be back to the normal flow of regulars and the coffee shop pastry sales will start going back up as people complete their crash diets and start falling back into old patterns.
Why is that?
Working in health care I’ve racked my brain over this conundrum for years. How do we take the mentality that drives us to accomplish fantastic things January through mid March into the rest of the year, and on into the rest of our lives?
The thing I keep coming back to is the law of facilitation. This, I believe, is one of the most important concepts in success, health, and a thriving lifestyle. The law of facilitation is not esoteric or metaphysical, it does not require any understanding of quantum theory or deep meditation practices. All it requires is the simple understanding of a common cliché — the Grand Canyon was not formed in a day.
More specifically the law of facilitation is about how the nervous system functions. The law states that when a nerve impulse passes through one pathway it is very likely to take that same path again, and every time it takes that pathway it becomes easier and easier to continue repeating that same path. Simply put, the more you do something the easier it gets to continue to do that same thing over and over again. The law is simple, but profound.
The issue is that it takes a lot of energy to override a solid neural pathway (existing lifestyle habit), and a lot of consistency to build a different one that eventually flows easily (new lifestyle habit). If we want to create a healthy, thriving lifestyle it’s not about what we do for those 14 days during our cleanse, or toughing it through that six week Fit Blast workout challenge. Real change is about what we do the other 46 weeks out of the year, for the next five years.
I’m not discouraging a cleanse, short term fitness goal, or resolution to finally get that massage our body has been screaming for. These things can be a great way to kick ourselves out of a rut. But the norm is what ultimately makes us who we are, for better or worse, and the only way to create a true shift is slowly but surely developing that new norm. Eating healthy six days a week, every week. Exercising at least twenty days a month, every month. And scheduling regular massage, chiro, and self care sessions before our bodies feel completely broken.
It’s time to shift away from focusing primarily on short term intensives with an end date, and start carving out a norm that lasts the rest of our lives, bit by bit, step by step, day by day. Let’s not focus on the next four weeks, and instead focus on the next 52, and then the 52 after that.
This year let’s think differently. Let’s think long term. Let’s think like we’re saddling up to carve out a new Grand Canyon. The results will be just as fantastic, and unbelievably beautiful.
