Hope Harrell: Personal Trainer + Nutrition Coach

Do you ever find yourself neglecting to do really simple tasks like putting away your coffee cup in the morning, loading the dishwasher so that you can wake up to a clean kitchen, making your bed in the morning, or filling your water bottle up?

It is really easy for us to come up with excuses for us to not do these simple tasks. Our brains are always looking for the easy way out. If you take it one step at a time, or 2 minutes, it can make these tasks seem much more accomplish-able.

This is how I coach. You are not a failure for not following through on the goals you set for yourself. You just need guidance to make the goals smaller, more consistent, and easier to accomplish. That is how you get habits to stick. It is not doing one big thing one time–like waking up two hours earlier to get absolutely every chore done that you need to do. That is not at all sustainable. The clock will strike 2PM that day, and I guarantee you will crash with exhaustion.

All you need is 2 minutes. 2 minutes will not make you late. 2 minutes will not make you tired in the mornings. 2 minutes will not take away from your sleep at night. 2 minutes is all you need to change your life.

This term was originally coined by David Allen, in his book Getting Things Done. He states that “If an action can be done in less than two minutes, it should be done right then.” Allen was writing this with the intention of motivating people to stop procrastinating. James Clear, an author of habit change and decision making, who wrote the famous book Atomic Habits, takes it one step further.

Clear says that any habit should not be started unless it can take only two minutes. Essentially what he is arguing is to show up. Show up for whatever habit you want to implement for two minutes and that is it.

“Run for an hour” becomes “tie my running shoes”

“write in my journal every night” becomes “open my journal”

“make breakfast every morning” becomes “put the pan on the stove”

“eat more fruit” becomes “put an apple in my work bag”

Any habit that we want to implement in our lives can be scaled down to two minutes. The pitfall that we all fall into is that we want to make big changes really fast, and we think that we can do it if we just have the “willpower” or “discipline.” So when we do not complete our goal/habit that we set for ourselves, we tell ourselves we failed and that we aren’t disciplined.

THIS. IS. NOT. TRUE!

You didn’t fail. You DO have willpower and discipline. You are capable of more than you could ever imagine. You just have to set more realistic goals, even if it seems silly. It feels silly to put on our running shoes but not go for a run. It feels weird to pull out the frying pan to cook eggs in the morning but never break the shells. And that is ok! You showed up for yourself by doing those things.

I implement this methodology with all of my clients. One of my clients asked me one time: “Can I actually cook breakfast if I want to instead of just pulling out the pan?” ABSOLUTELY! The idea here is that you stay as consistent as you possibly can. If you cook breakfast some mornings, great! If you pull out the pan but don’t cook another morning, great! You stayed consistent. You showed up for yourself. You were disciplined to follow through for 2 minutes.

If you are ready to stop the cycle of trying and failing, never sticking with a diet or an exercise routine…If you’re ready to become the best and healthiest version of yourself…If you are ready to start giving yourself grace, stop beating yourself, and actually CELEBRATE every single accomplishment you make…

It’s time for us to work together. Link is here to start your journey to becoming the absolute best version of yourself that you can be.

Here’s to the pursuit of a healthier YOU.