By Sean Foy, MA
Daniel Plan Health and Fitness Coach
I had a client, let’s call her Julie, that was having the most difficult time waking up in the morning to go for a walk that she would nightly promise herself she was going to take. Unfortunately she would find herself wrestling with the alarm clock and the alarm clock would always win!
Day after day Julie just couldn’t get out of bed! She shared with me that her busy schedule as well as all of her responsibilities left her exhausted and the extra 30-45 minutes of sleep was too difficult to give up and that she found a thousand reasons not to get out of bed! So I asked her to follow a simple assignment:
I asked her to describe on a note card that she could carry with her daily, as well as place on her alarm clock, what her life would be like if she were to decide each day to nurture her health and wellness by going on a short walk. I asked her to list what potential personal benefits she would experience 10 years or 20 years from today as well as how her family and others would be effected positively as well as negatively if she were to begin to nurture her body by moving daily.
Julie stated after thinking for a moment, “Oh, I would feel so much better about myself! I would be healthier, I would lose weight, and I would fit in to my pants that I haven’t been able to put on for a while! My kids would see me in a better mood! I know that it would take away from my extra sleep but I would have more self-esteem, more energy and I probably would do better with food cravings! She went on and on for at least 5 minutes! She actually became excited as she listed these items!
Then I asked her to write these items down on her card and to read her health card at least 3 times during the day and especially in the morning when the alarm clock went off!
She looked at me a little funny and asked, “That’s it?” I said, “That’s it!” I then asked her how confident she felt in reading her health card at least 3 times during the day and especially in the morning. She stated, “Oh, I am almost 100% confident that I can do that!”
So her assignment was not to get out of bed and go for a walk, rather it was something she felt confident she could accomplish, reading her card at least 3 times a day and at least one time in the morning!
So after a three weeks Julie contacted me and was excited to share that something amazing had happened!
She mentioned to me that the first few days, she found herself hitting the alarm clock as usual in the morning and not looking at her card. But, she said the difference was she couldn’t go back to sleep without feeling a strong pull to get up and read her health card!
After the third day she began to read her card. After reading her health card she would lay in bed thinking about getting up and going for a walk because she really wanted to feel better, have more energy, lose weight, be healthier etc…
