Maintaining A Winning Streak

Most people if you ask them would say they have good habits… We have this distorted view of how we view our own behaviour. A tendency to think we act better than what we actually do… 

We let ourselves off the hook for things all the time. What could potentially be just one bad meal on the weekend turns into a full blown cheat weekend or you you have a cold/flu and take a couple of days rest then suddenly realise it’s been 3 weeks since you stepped foot in the gym.

You know what I’m talking about because you have done it and I have too. 

Here’s the thing I have come to realise and luckily for me it was at an early age… I use streaks of certain behaviours to my advantage to help form good habits. Let me explain:

I am currently 78 days into a streak of spending 20 minutes stretching per day. I set the goal to complete 20 minutes of stretching per day and to do it for as long as I could. I have a certain routine that I follow so I don’t have to think about it and just do it each day. 

Sure the first few days were hard to get going but now that I’m 78 days in I have a pretty good reason to not drop the ball because I don’t want to lose the hard work of getting into the 70’s again and now that 100 is in sight it is super motivating. 

So how can you incorporate this into your life? I have seen clients do it with Alcohol, smoking or to avoid eating certain foods. To start you simply have to set the ground rules and embark on your winning streak! 

If exercise is the thing you struggle with your ground rules could be you either go to the gym OR if you don’t make it do 50 push ups and 50 squats at home. 

Sure it doesn’t seem like much but over time each small win has an addictive effect on your motivation and makes it easier to get motivated on those days where you don’t feel like it. You can even cross it off on a calendar so you have visual proof.  

What is something you can use the power of streaks to motivate you for in your life? 

Shaun Diachkoff

@shaundiachkoff