Sometime ago, I heard someone on a podcast talk about running a-mile-a-day first thing in the morning, followed by a cold shower, and how well this set him up for the day. I recall at the time thinking that this sounded very noble but wondered why on earth you would do that to yourself, and thought no more of it.
Roll on a few months and, following a rather lazy holiday in France, I decided that I needed to somehow build a habit of regular heart-rate-increasing exercise into my day, one which would be easy to sustain. I had recently read a book called Atomic Habits by James Clear – a fabulous book which I highly recommend. Funnily enough, as the title would suggest, it is all about habits – building good ones and breaking bad ones, so I thought I’d try out his suggestions to build my own morning running habit.
It is based on 4 laws:
Make it obvious
Essentially this is about linking your new habit to a certain time/location, or to another already-established habit. The association creates the cue to act, removing the need to spend a while having to make the decision about the logistics of it all (by which time you have talked yourself out of it).
I decided to stick with the first-thing-in-the-morning approach:
Alarm = get up straightaway, drink glass of water, running gear on, trainers on, out the door.
I tweaked it a bit in the midst of the dark winter mornings – pushed it back a bit so my cue became returning home from dropping off the kids.
Make it attractive
I have always been a big breakfast fan, which had previously put me off first-thing-in-the-morning exercise as it delayed this very enjoyable part of the day. For some reason, despite the huge amount of evidence to the contrary, from the very many people who do exercise before breakfast, I always thought there was a risk that I may keel over from lack of sustenance.
And then I realised that I could use this to my advantage - essentially breakfast became my reward. And I also paired it up with writing a LinkedIn post, something else that I find enjoyable. The reward sensation resulting from these enjoyable habits motivates me to do the new habit as they come together as a bundle.
Make it easy
The key to embedding a new habit is to be doing it regularly and, to make this more likely to occur, starting easy is a good way to go. This relates to the fact that we are hard-wired, at an evolutionary level, to conserve energy (such a succinct explanation of my behaviour whilst on holiday in France – honestly, I really recommend this book – so many gems in it).
James Clear suggests the 2-minute rule – literally you start out by doing 2 minutes of your new habit on a regular basis, and then increase slowly. I actually started with 10 minutes because, once I was out, I was a bit reluctant to come back after 2 minutes.
I also made it easy to get out by thinking of my environment: running gear laid out by the side of the bed (option to either trip over it or to put it on – might as well put it on), shoes ready and waiting by the front door.
Make it satisfying
Particularly with goals whose benefits will not be seen in full for some time (such as getting fitter and all the long-term gains associated with this), one way to increase the likelihood of you repeating that behaviour is to somehow make it immediately satisfying. This can be hard when you are huffing and puffing like an old steam train – it can feel the very opposite of satisfying.
Very fortuitously, what I noticed very soon was that that early morning blast of the outdoors and increased brain perfusion really stimulated ideas for writing – and so I had an instant feeling of gratification without having to do anything further.
I did, however, also tell my husband and daughter about my plan – they are both big exercisers – and, as I’d anticipated, they both looked dubious about my chances of success (they’ve lived for many years with my very laidback approach to getting going in the morning). This obviously brought on a strong desire to prove them wrong, which added to the satisfaction each time I breezed back in (OK, maybe I didn’t quite breeze back in, but you get the gist).
Keeping a log is another easy way (a bit like pharmacy jobs on a drug chart - our ward pharmacist told me that leaving a box that could be ticked made a significant difference to the likelihood of the job getting done).
So, what was the impact of all this?
Immediate positive impact: sense of achievement, outdoor therapy, energy levels significantly elevated and carried on into the whole day, general brain function snappier
Pretty quick impact: overall mood better
Slower but definite positive impact: feeling physically stronger, less anxious about possibility of keeling over at any moment, able to slowly increase both distance and speed
Unfortunately, when I was a few months in, I fell over on my ankle and tore all my lateral ligaments. To look on the bright side, I never thought I would be the type of person who would sustain an ankle injury from running – I think this undoubtedly makes me ‘A Runner’?
In conclusion, habits are the cornerstone of life; they apply to so many situations, including our thinking, and can help or hinder. On a day-to-day basis, small steps are the way to go to embed and build up a good habit. My husband, as an air traffic controller, reliably informs me that the smallest tweak in a plane’s flight path makes a huge difference to its ultimate destination (we have many interesting conversations at the dinner table), and it’s the same with life.