habit – Crisbie Coach

Six Tips to Make Physical Activity (and Continue Doing it)

unrecognizable person walking pack of dogs in park

We hear from all sides that we need to do more sports, that we have to move at least half an hour or take at least 10,000 steps a day. We would need that especially if we sit all day long at a desk, because “sitting is the new smoking”. But if we already have super busy days, how do we engage in a physical or sport activity?

Let’s first clarify what physical activity may be. It could simply be a matter of moving regardless if you do housework or sport.

Therefore, you can consider the activities you do every day, such as climbing stairs, walking, cycling and house cleaning.

Here are six tips on how to fit some physical exercise into your schedule:

Look at your agenda and find the best time for you to play sports or go to the gym. Write it down and you won’t forget it. After some time it will be part of your daily routine. And if you have a friend who comes with you, it is even better because you will be more motivated.
Create a calendar of your activities. Take a calendar and write down the days you managed to achieve your goals in terms of minutes of physical activity. At the end of the month you will be able to see your progress and you will be more motivated and satisfied! The ideal time per week is 150 minutes of moderate activity. A moderate activity is an activity that allows you to talk to someone and that makes you sweat slightly. An example of this activity could be also walking out your dog.
Distribution. Three to five times a week would be ideal. 30 minutes of daily activity would be even better. You can distribute activities throughout the day like this, for example:
- 5 minutes to go to the subway or bus stop;
- 5 minutes walking to your office by getting off one stop before;
- 10 minutes at lunch break to walk around the neighborhood;
- 5 minutes walking from your office to the subway or bus stop;
- 5 minutes to your place by getting off one stop before your place.
Find the activity you really like. If you haven’t found it yet, try some and you’ll find it soon. Jogging, boxing, dancing or swimming are just a few examples of activities you could practice.
Put your guilty feelings aside. The long-term goal is to make physical exercise a habit. If one evening when you come back home from work you feel tired and you want to be at home alone or with your family, do it without feeling guilty. Relaxing is just as important as moving. Moreover, if you’ve already followed your daily distribution, you’re okay, you don’t need to add more activity.
Strengthen your muscles. You don’t necessarily have to lift weights. A Pilates or yoga session will help you strengthen your abs, for example.

What do you think? Could you make it?

How Discipline Can Lead to Success

Self-discipline is the ability to train your body and mind. Successful people are masters in this art. Sportsmen, stars of the showbiz, great doctors, inventors, researchers, managers, but also parents, teachers, nurses, all those who have achieved important results during their career and their lives, practice fundamental techniques to train their body and mind. They know that thought generates habit and by disciplining their thinking they create the attitude to do better and better. Let’s see some techniques to learn how discipline can lead to success.

Visualization – Listen to audio that explains what visualization is and how to practice it. You will learn to condition your mind to relaxation, and in this state, you will be more receptive and therefore more creative. Write down your goals (not many, maximum three) and read them aloud. Listen to energizing music repeating your goals like a mantra.
When you visualize your goals, visualize them exactly as if they were already achieved. For example, if you want to see yourself slimmer, visualize yourself in a dress that you have not been able to wear for a long time.
Do this exercise daily: repeat to yourself several times that you have already achieved your important goals. Observe yourself in your new “version”. Persevere in wanting to achieve your goals, do not abandon them, take care of them.
Make a list of some important and essential things that you don’t feel like doing because you don’t like them, they’re demanding, or you don’t have time to do them. Set a deadline and comply with it. The action dedicated to performing unpleasant tasks reduces stress and tension (I know, it sounds strange, but that’s how our brain works).
Remember that you need to improve your body’s discipline as well. So practice sports activities, walk at least three times a week for half an hour, rest and sleep regularly, eat healthy, nutritious and balanced meals, try to always maintain the same weight.

Finally, don’t forget that both losing and winning are mental attitudes that can be learned, but it takes days, weeks, and even months of consistent practice to achieve your goals. Discipline can lead to success if you are determined to follow these fundamental steps.

If you want, you can read in my blog more articles about discipline.

How to Keep Your Resolutions

Today is the first of January and many of us have decided about their resolutions for 2023, or are about to do so. The new year brings the desire for a change, the need for renewal. We would like to spend more time with our family, to take that trip that we have been dreaming about for so long, to change our job, to enrol in a gym club, to lose weight, to stop smoking…the main goal is feeling better with ourselves and with others.

Why does it happen then that along the way we forget about our resolutions or we abandon them?

Here are some questions you should ask yourself.

Are your resolutions too ambitious, vague or simply they are too many? In this case you are putting too much pressure on yourself. If you have decided to stop smoking or to lose 10 kilos, you must ask yourself why you have started smoking and why you are always hungry. Are they ways for relieving the daily tensions?

Are you positive in comparison to the achievement of your resolutions? If you think that you will never make it, it is sure that you will never make it. Henry Ford used to say: “If you believe you can make it or if you believe you cannot make it, you will always be right”.

Are your resolutions appealing? You have decided to lose weight or to stop smoking. As such, they are great objectives. But find a bigger reason for which you want to achieve these objectives. For instance, you want to stop smoking to be able to recover breath faster when you go jogging or you want to lose weight to put on those beautiful pants that suited you very well.

Bad habits are difficult to lose, above all you need time. If you have been sticking to them for years, you have your good reasons (to protect yourself from stress, for example). You cannot change your habits in some weeks. Some time ago, studies stated that you could take up a new habit in 21 days. Now, neuroscience has found out that you need at least 60 days! Take your time then, establish a new habit with calmness, don’t stretch your body too far, your body is comfortably used to the old habit and it doesn’t feel like changing it. You must make it understand, day after day, that another way is possible and it is also healthier!

Besides, remember that the path won’t always be linear and you may find obstacles. There will be some easy moments and some difficult ones but losing a battle doesn’t mean losing the war. Accept the ups and downs: your body will learn to adapt slowly.

Choose an objective that won’t sound like an obligation, in the sense that it must represent a real choice, a thing that you want to do, not that you must do. Control your thoughts, remember what Henry Ford said. Don’t focus on what you still have to achieve, but celebrate what you have already achieved. List the small victories and congratulate yourself. Stay positive!

Think about the strength that a seed has to become grass. It must come out from the soil to be able to live and flourish. It works slowly under the soil, up to when one day it comes out and sees the light! For you it is kind of the same thing. Work slowly and one day you will see the results, because you are stronger than you think.

And now four tips:

1. set one objective at the time, but define it well, use the SMART model (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound). Even though this model has been created for organisations, it may be helpful also to individuals engaged in goal setting.

2. Adopt the strategy of small steps by dividing your objective into smaller objectives.

3. Celebrate achievements: the first kilo you have lost, the first whole day without smoking. Put some post-it all over your place with your success on it. Tell yourself “Well done!”.

4. Inform your family and friends about your goals and ask them to help you with this. Getting their support will help you in achieving the results. Look for some groups on Facebook that share your same goals, and participate in forums on the Internet. Remember that you are not alone, there are other thousands of people that may have your same goals and exchanging ideas with them can be helpful to you. You can create a blog that can become your journal (a journal on paper is also okay).

I wish you a successful 2023!

Why Saying No To Temptations

How can you resist the temptation to drink a good glass of wine, eat a piece of cake or skip the gym and go to the cinema instead?

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it” said Oscar Wilde.

Diet, sport, sleeping enough are fine, but sometimes indulging in the breach of the rule helps your psycho-physical well-being and eases the performance anxiety that often accompanies a healthy lifestyle.

However, in addition to giving in to temptations, we can learn to control them.

Have you ever heard of the “Marshmallow test“?

The “Marshmallow test” is a curious experiment, carried out by Professor Walter Mischel in the sixties at Stanford University.

yummy marshmallows heaped on white table — Photo by Arina Krasnikova on Pexels.com

A child is left alone in a room in front of a Marshmallow: they can choose whether to eat it immediately or wait 15 minutes and get two as a reward. Some children will know how to wait; others, unable to resist, will throw themselves on that inviting sugar candy.

The professor compared throughout the years the self-control skills shown by children with the successes achieved in their adult age and found out that those who did not eat the marshmallow achieved more goals in life.

Is self-control therefore the secret of success? Is it postponing rewards really more likely to bring success in life?

The Mischel experiment actually explains how self-control is fundamental in studying, in sport, at work and in many other circumstances of your life.

Self-control means knowing how to make decisions in the right time and in the right place to improve your skills to not yield to the temptation of a marshmallow.

People who are best at mastering their decision-making are generally people who are better off. They eat well, play sports, get enough sleep. These people structure their lives around good habits and build routines that are easy to follow.

Good news are that you can learn new habits.

Eating a piece of pie is not a moral failure, even if you have decided to go on a diet. Giving up on the piece of cake may cause you more stress and therefore cause you more harm than eating it. The trick is rather to avoid buying a cake or passing in front of a cake! But don’t feel guilty if you eat a slice. Don’t forget that an excess of willpower can also be more harmful because, as mentioned before, it can cause additional stress.

Self-control depends on your choices and it is your responsibility. Stress has become a personal burden, which you are called to manage alone with the help of techniques, like meditation, coaching, yoga.

Remember that it is important to recognize your own limits because it makes you become aware of the fact that you cannot be perfect and control everything.

Do you think that you can learn how you can control yourself?

assorted colorful lollipops on pink background — Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Why Sleeping Less than 6 Hours Is Not Good for Your Health

A few days ago, I came across an article on the Internet that recommended sleeping three consecutive hours and then taking three 20-minute naps throughout the day. This sleeping pattern was indicated as a model for obtaining success inspired by great world managers or businessmen, in particular they referred to Elon Musk.

As a person who has trouble with sleeping, I can tell you that science warns that too little sleep affects cognitive performance, behaviour and metabolism. With this strategy, you may be successful at the price of your health.

Sleeping is also productive. To get enough energy and focus to devote to work or another productive activity such as studying, you need to sleep at least 7 and half hours.

person in beige long sleeve shirt using macbook pro — Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

One of the functions of sleep is to process and consolidate learning, focus and memory. Sleeping implies continuing to work, because the brain clears up the bombing of information accumulated during the day that is generally very intense due to the different sources available today. Our biology is prepared for short periods of sleeplessness in stressful or urgent situations.

Several studies have revealed that the habit of dedicating a few hours to sleep reduces cognitive performance, causes focusing deficit and loss of the ability to make decisions, as well as increases states of stress, anxiety and depression. Humans are ‘circadian animals’, programmed for 24-hour sleep-wake cycles. Sleeping for a few hours is a physiological assault on our body and, in particular, on the brain. If sleeping little is your choice, know that this alters the neuron-hormonal pattern which can cause:

1. emotional problems;

2. difficulty in acquiring new learning;

3. problems in storing new information;

4. increased nervousness and anxiety.

Thinking that sleeping is a waste of time is wrong because it has health consequences. Sleepiness and loss of focus are evident the next day, while other problems could arise in the long term, such as an increased risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic disorders. Actually, sleeping for short time also increases appetite, with obvious consequences on your weight. Lack of sleep, in fact, leads to have frequent snack and drink sugary or caffeinated beverages.

Another important question is whether these negative health effects also occur when you wake up very early. Studies show that getting up too early does not necessarily cause alterations, as long as your sleep has been restorative enough. Remember that it is very important to complete five or six sleeping cycles every night (a sleep cycle lasts an average of 90 minutes).

What about you? Do you sleep enough to be productive?

back to school flatlay — Photo by olia danilevich on Pexels.com

How To Use the Pareto’s Principle

Towards the end of the 19th century, a group of economists from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied the social inequalities in Europe. Analysing the tax data of several European countries, they found out that in each of them about 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth.

This discovery was a real springboard for the career of an economist, Vilfredo Pareto, who gave his name to a principle, the Pareto principle, also known as the law of 20-80.

Some examples of the application of this principle:

• to optimize production, some industries in Japan focus on 20% of the causes that generate 80% of production problems;

• customer services of most companies focus on 20% of customers who generate 80% of turnover;

• finance professionals agree that 20% of their investments represent 80% of the benefits.

What does this principle make us understand? The message of Pareto’s principle is that we need to focus on 20% of the actions that lead us to 80% of the results.

In practice, we must focus on high value-added actions because they are the ones that make us move forward.

This principle is very important because it deals with a precious resource: time.

To avoid being stuck on a goal and slowly losing sight of it, it would be beneficial to use this perspective (20-80).

However, how can we identify what are the essential things to our goal? Moreover, how to choose high valuable actions?

Try to answer these two questions for each action you have planned but are hesitating to take:

1. Is this action vital in moving me towards my goal?

2. Am I the only one who can do this action?

The first question allows you to separate essential actions from those that can wait.

The second allows you to identify what are the actions that others can do in your place and that, therefore, you can delegate.

Once this is done, you will know 20% of the actions you need to take to advance towards achieving your goal.

Now you could estimate the time required for each action but it is not ideal, because you would end up putting it on your “to-do-list” and you could continue to shift the priority order. Therefore, in the end you would have wasted some time.

Once again you have to ask yourself some questions:

1. What problems are stopping you from really moving forward with your goals?

2. What do you need to do to solve these problems?

3. What are the elements that allow you to understand if the problems have been solved?

You will be surprised to see how well these questions work. The 20-80 rule allows you to focus on actions that have a visible and direct impact. You will see that they will soon become a habit to you, and that you will use them every time you feel stuck with something.

Do you think that the Pareto’s principle is useful for progressing with your goals?

How the Pandemic Has Changed Our Lives

It is undeniable that the restrictions imposed by the ongoing pandemic have drastically changed our habits and our lifestyle. There is no doubt that the stress produced by uncertainty, prohibitions and lockdowns, whether partial or total, have prompted us to search for distractions that can give us some relief. As Ovid said, human beings seek what is forbidden and desire what is denied them.

There is a thread that links excessive behaviors (drinking too much, smoking too much, overeating, spending too much time on the computer or watching television) to stress.

Clearly, the pandemic puts our desires on hold and it is normal to wish for what cannot be done. Only when we go back to a more or less normal life and our desires will be satisfied, our lives will be brighter. The pursuit of pleasure is an absolutely human behaviour, there is nothing to worry about.

Our brain identifies and reinforces beneficial behaviours such as eating well, socializing, having fun. This complex reward circuit that generates pleasure is the result of the evolution that guarantees our survival, that orients us in daily life and that keeps us going on. The more we can produce dopamine (the pleasure and reward hormone), the more we can generate pleasant sensations in a natural way. As a consequence, we would not need to adopt excessive behaviours that can lead to addictions.

However, the situation we have been experiencing for about a year has affected and affects motivation and self-control. We are no longer able to generate pleasant sensations and situations naturally and we have to look for different means to improve our life condition. The sudden lack of dopamine results in a short circuit of pleasant sensations which then pushes us to seek pleasure in another way.

It is important to be careful that these behaviours do not turn into addictions. Luckily, few people drive themselves to the point of becoming addicted to new harmful habits.

To prevent addiction it is necessary to put in place strategies that favour self-control, especially anti-stress strategies. Practising physical exercise, walking in the nature, trying not to isolate yourself but to maintain contact even remotely, are just some suggestions.

Do you have any anti-stress strategies? Let me know!

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash

How Has The Curfew Changed Your Habits?

When I hear about curfews, dark times come to my mind, times of war. Actually we have been fighting a war against Covid since March this year. There are no bombs, we don’t have to be evacuated, we can eat every day because there are enough food supplies. But the curfew has changed our habits, most probably also those related to meal times.

From North to South of Europe we eat at different times. Soon in the north, later in the south. Maybe you are invited to dinner by someone and the curfew forces you to eat earlier because then you have to go home. Or you eat later because you finish work late and don’t have time to buy something for dinner, or to stop by in a restaurant. The restaurants are closed, they only offer take-away service and you must go back home within the time set by the curfew.

A friend from Paris, before the city was put into total lockdown, had to return home by 9 p.m. We know that Paris is a big city and people often use public transport, which is very efficient. To be home by 9 p.m., she had to take the subway by 8:30 pm at the latest and therefore she was eating later than her previous habits. And she began to sleep badly.

If you make an appointment before the curfew begins, you may feel stressed out because you will have to rush to get home on time. Perhaps it would be better to stay at home and respect the government’s directions and limit our social contacts. But sometimes you want to be out for a while, to meet some friends.

The effects of the curfew are not only on your social life, but also on your health as a result of adapting to a new pace of life and changing your routine.

The new schedule imposed by the curfew may have advantages, for example, you stop working earlier, go home earlier and have dinner earlier. For example, you arrive home at 7 p.m., have dinner between 8 p.m. and 8.30 p.m., go to bed around 11 p.m. and get up at 7 a.m. the next day.

This would be optimal for your health. Indeed, you would better synchronize with your internal, external environmental and external social biological clocks (time).

Internal time is what marks your endogenous rhythm, which helps you sleep at night, stay awake during the day and eat at the right time for you.

External environmental time is determined by the alternation of the phases of light and dark generated by the solar cycle.

External social time can alter these balances. If your working schedule, lunch, dinner and leisure are not suitable to your biological type (chronotype) you could enter a phase of temporal disruption that may cause several health problems, like insomnia.

Our ancestors got up with the light and went to sleep with the dark. This rhythm allowed for adequate production of melatonin (the hormone that regulates sleep), which allowed for a perfect balance between internal time and external time.

The habit of eating around 9:30 p.m. or even later goes against these natural cycles and makes it more difficult to rest well. A large dinner ending around midnight could cause difficult digestion at a time when the body should be resting instead.

It is therefore recommended to finish dinner at least two hours before going to bed to avoid poor quality sleep and an awakening marked by fatigue, irritability and low cognitive performance.

If you follow the biological rhythm of your body, you will have a big improvement in your overall health!

Do you think the curfew has made you change some of your habits?

The Magic of Synchronicity

You miss the train and on the quay you meet the love of your life. You receive money in the exact moment you need it: this is the magic of synchronicity; they are coincidences that sometimes leave you speechless and let you see a new path.

What Is Synchronicity?

Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung brought us the term “synchronicity,” which literally means “falling together in time.” Synchronicity describes the surprise that occurs when a thought in the mind is mirrored by an external event to which it has no apparent causal connection.

Read this story told by Jung to understand what synchronicity is about.

A young woman of high education and serious demeanour entered Jung’s office. Jung could see that her quest for psychological change was doomed unless he was able to succeed in softening her rationalist shell with “a somewhat more human understanding.” He needed the magic of coincidence. He asked for it, searched his surroundings for it. He remained attentive to the young woman, while hoping something unexpected and irrational would turn up.

As she described a golden scarab—a costly piece of jewellery—she had received in a dream the night before, he heard a tapping on the window. He looked and saw a gold-green glint. Jung opened the window to coincidence. He plucked the scarab beetle out of the air. The beetle, closely resembling to the golden scarab, was just what he needed—or just what she needed. “Here is your scarab,” he said to the woman, as he handed her a link between her dreams and the real world.

A synchronic event goes beyond mere coincidence because it has a transforming power, which marks a before and after in your personal history.

In order to notice synchronicity, you need to develop attention and spirit of observation.

If you begin to notice with curiosity what happens to you during the day, your everyday life would become a joyful space of possibility and opportunity.

Hidden or obvious, these ephemeral messages are so precious that they deserve our full attention. You will see that then, the more you notice these significant coincidences, the more they multiply and will help you get out of your routine. Moreover, you will be headed for something new. By changing your perspective, you will also be able to make your reality move.

Try one of these games and see what feelings you get.

Here is the first one that is called Bibliomancy.

Write down a question in a notebook or a sheet.
Pick up your favourite book, or the book that is nearest to you. Note down its title.
Close your eyes, and open up randomly the book.
Before opening your eyes, run your hands along the page and point with one finger at a random line.
Open your eyes and read the sentence or paragraph. Note down the page number and line number.
Consider what implication the passage you pointed to has on the question you posed, and write down some reflections.

Here is another one, that I call “The Sidewalk Observation Game”. Even with this game you can get an unexpected message by putting you in touch with a symbol or situation.

Start by writing down a question. Walk with your senses in full alert and notice all the details. For example, catch some elements of a conversation between two people you cross during your walk, read an advertisement, look at a graffiti or a newspaper left on a bench. These are signs that can help you find the answer to your question.

Even slips or dysgraphia can be a clue to explore. For example, I often write massage instead of message. I think I may need to get a massage …

These tips come to you so that you can open doors and not close them. They offer you the opportunity to enjoy meaningful experiences with enthusiasm and enjoyment and to abandon the plans established by your ego.

In this way, you have the opportunity to connect to the collective unconscious because you adhere to positive and non-blocking beliefs. The more you pay attention to synchronicity, the more your neurological and emotional circuits are positively stimulated and they create new behavioural patterns, installs beneficial habits that connect you with the consciousness of the universe.

The time of synchronicity

As the Greek root of this word shows, synchronicity refers to time (syn means meeting and chronos means time). The ancient Greeks conceived synchronicity in three distinct ways: the chronos, which corresponds to a linear flow; the aion, or the endless cycles; the kairos, that is the right moment to act.

In the Greek mythology there is the winged god Kairos. When Kairos passes by there are three possibilities:

You don’t see him;
You see him but you do nothing;
In the moment he passes by you give him your hand to grasp the chance he is offering you.

In practice, synchronicity is telling you carpe diem, namely seize the moment.

What do you do when Kairos passes by next to you ?

Stop Using The Car Now

2009, The Netherlands. Some inhabitants of one Rotterdam’s neighbourhood receive a strange email: they have been watched while driving and are asked of not doing it any longer. Is it a threat or blackmail?

Absolutely not! The message comes for Rotterdam City and the company managing the highway that are allied to reduce traffic jams that has been polluting the cities day after day.

Wouldn’t it be easier to build bigger highways or built new ones?

Here comes the “Braess Paradox” . According to this theory, increasing the road capacity to reduce traffic jams would make the situation worse.

Actually, with a new road, people who have given up to the car before, would go back and use the car again. In addition, those who were avoiding using the car during the rush hours would try to do it again.

Photo by Iwona Castiello D’Antonio on Unsplash

However, by eliminating roads, the journey time can be reduced, because some motorists will be inclined to abandon the car. This is the paradox.

Rotterdam City tries also another thing: the positive toll, also known as the reverse toll.

What is it? If the citizens leave the car into their garage during the rush hours, they will receive a small amount of money. Of course, they will receive also a device to control if they indeed have left the car into the garage.

It works! In a couple of years, the volunteers applying to that scheme increase and traffic jams decrease. Also when the money stop, people keep up with their good habit. Rotterdam starts to better breath.

Would you stop using your car in exchange of some money?