I love a good challenge. Bring it on. I just got back from a vacation in Maui (!!!) with five of my best friends and we came up with a great challenge while there: drop 20 lbs each, and then go together to Disneyland. None of us go until we all hit the goal. Booyah, I say, let’s rumble.
So, starting a new challenge, one thing I usually look for is the quick wins in life (I would say “work/life” – but that’s kind of a pointless dichotomy). By “quick wins” I mean what are the things that are easy to implement, but create great outcomes? Essentially, what’s the best ROI, given our time and effort as an investment? What are the LHFs (Low Hanging Fruits)? This is a powerful business concept, but why not use it for this application?
For healthy living, what this will look like is somewhat different for everyone, because effort required is defined personally (e.g., I hate running and love weights, but my sister loves running and is not enthusiastic about weights). The LHFs for me when it comes to being healthy involves a lot of small common sense baby steps: be more active daily, drink more water, decide to have the healthier food options, don’t eat late at night, limit alcohol and other “empty calories” – in general: moderation and activity. These are easy for me. Stuff that’s hard for me and doesn’t pay off? Counting calories and overdoing myself physically – I burn out quickly, frustrated. Stuff that’s easy and doesn’t pay off? Sitting at my computer, eating without thinking, staying up late, and reading YouTube comments (unrelated, but come on, reading YouTube comments never pays off).
Some things that are in the high effort/high payoff category for me are prioritizing sleep and cardio training – both examples of why you can’t just go for the LHFs, you have to also look at the longterm strategic outcomes. I don’t want to send a message that those things that are hard are not worth doing.
Still, starting out with LHFs, even just identifying them, is a very powerful way to jump start toward a goal. And if you’re anything like me, the more you see results, the easier it gets to push into the harder stuff, because you get more and more excited. I’m already 25% of the way to Disneyland, which makes me feel like a badass. And if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that feeling like a badass is a great motivator. A little confidence in yourself can go a long way. Knocking LHFs out of the way like a mega rockstar demigod epic dinosaur hunter will psych you up for continued success.
That all being said, I also like to identify “selfhacks” to get myself jump started in this game of personal “hardware” upgrades. Being a nerd, if I can track health metrics easily and automatically, I am way more likely to be motivated – so I’ve let myself play with a lot of fun gadgets like the FitBit, and, best of all, the Withings WiFi Scale and the CardioTrainer app on my Android (I’d recommend those all – I’ve also tried the Bodybugg and the Nike+ but loved the aforementioned the most). Being a ridiculous extrovert, my other selfhacks have been to schedule social things around activities instead of around food – things like swing dancing, and walking around Greenlake for a chat with a friend.
Both finding LHF and “selfhacks” really focus around knowing yourself and what works specifically for you, you might need to experiment along the way. I’d love to hear what your discoveries are.
