Break It Into Chunks

Some years ago, a young woman came to see me wanting help to reduce her weight. She was very successful in a very short period of time in fact.

At one of the sessions, she mentioned that she was due to go on holiday and had wanted to have lost some weight by then. I told her that a healthy weight loss was around 2lbs per week which meant she could be a half stone lighter by the time of her holiday.

She told me at the next session that this had been a turning point for her. Wanting to lose 3 stone to get to a healthy weight had seemed such a large task, an almost impossible task. Of course, this belief was really holding her back from getting started and committed.

When I said the above to her, not only did the task seem much more manageable, but also indicated that she could expect to notice some real change within a particular time frame.

This kind of chunking down is useful in all sorts of arenas. If you think about it, how often do you procrastinate in starting a particular project, task or undertaking because in your mind it all seems rather large? How often do you stall midway through because it still seems as if you have a long way to go?

Breaking things down into chunks and then completing them can give a real sense of achievement. This can then spur you on to the next chunk and ultimate completion.

So how about exercise? Are you exercising? Does getting that slim, toned, healthy body seem a long way off? Start small. If you’re not doing any exercise at all, start with a minute a day and see what happens.

Want to write? Start with 5 minutes, do it every day and see what happens.