​In part one of this series, I wrote about the "Art of Steady Progress" and how it is exactly what we need to transform our lives. And to help our clients do the same.

Step 1 of this process is to design a realistic plan for your day.

There are a couple of components to this that can make it super effective.

​Let's use an example that most of us can relate to...

Imagine that you want to lose 40 pounds.

1) Look at what your average day looks like now. Write it down to get a clear picture.

2) For your realistic plan, add, change, or remove one small thing.

This is where people who try to lose weight often fail. They try to add, change, or remove too many things at once. Or try to make one BIG change.

Instead, you're going to choose one small thing that you can change.

Let's say these are the options you've come up with...

Remember, you're choosing only ONE thing. Not all the things.

Seeing this list, it's often very tempting to try to do a bunch of these at once.

That's too much to take on and your mind and body will rebel. Maybe not the first day or two, or even the first few weeks, but it will happen. And then you'll be back where you started. Or worse.

What you want instead is to make one small change every day. One small change today. One small change tomorrow. And so on.

Your goal is to change your behavior and habits FOREVER. You want this to be slow and steady so you don't fall back into old patterns.

3) Make sure that one small thing is something you are willing and able to do for the rest of your life. Don't choose something that feels temporary.

Make sure that this one small thing is something you're WILLING to change. Not something you think you SHOULD change.

Maybe you're completely ready to decrease the size of our soda from a large to a medium, but you're not willing to give up that second glass of wine just yet.

At first glance, this may seem like the long path to transformation. It ends up being faster because it removes the "one step forward, two steps back" result we get when moving too fast.

In part 3 of this series, I talk about how to assess the plan you just created in the right way.

(I'll give you a hint.)

No flogging allowed.

With love & joy,