Things don’t just happen – whether at home, at work, or in life.
Okay, we should rephrase that… some things do just happen, but they are rarely the things we want to happen and are usually things that take up a lot more of our time than we’d like.
# Learning to love kale
The average mother gets 17 minutes of me time a day. Maximising how we use our time goes a long way to getting what we want out of life, whether that’s more time to play with the kids, more time to focus on work, or more time to juggle them both and still squeeze in everything else we want. Our routines and habits can really help with that.
Picky Eaters
Studies have shown that it takes between 10 and 15 exposures to like any new or previously hated foods. So pick a food you hate… eat it 10-15 times… and see how you feel. Apparently, you’ll feel a lot better about it and should actually like it. Whilst this may sound like a good reason to persevere if you’re feeding some picky eaters… the bad news is that if we still hate kale (insert your least favourite vegetable if you happen to be a kale fan) after 15 attempts, it’s probably all in our head.
As unconvincing (and perhaps unappealing) as this may seem, it does give us a really useful starting point for habit building – and doesn’t hurt when convincing ourselves or others to eat more of the green stuff either!
The point, thankfully, isn’t that we might have to eat more kale (although that wouldn’t hurt), the point is that if our bodies and minds are exposed to the same thing over and over, they are great at adapting. So if there are things we’d love to have more of in our lives, or ways that we can maximise the time we have, we can make them habits or routines and get them integrated into our lives in a relatively short space of time.
The Power of Habits
According to Charles Duhigg, author of “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business”, “routine basically gives us the mental freedom to think about what’s actually important. That way we don’t have to think about all the mundane aspects of life”.
So when we get to work and can’t remember driving down every single road, or brush our teeth in the morning without thinking about it, we know that our routines have kicked in and given us the mental space we need to think about other things (whilst of course observing all the rules of the road, or indeed the bathroom). He says that “almost every single species that has survived has the ability to take rules and make them automatic”, and that “there’s a huge correlation between thinking very deliberately about the right habits in your life and developing successful habits”. Clever stuff. So by repeating the things we want to make a habit, we free up more of our brains for other things.
Establishing the routine
There will be something for all of us that we can point to and say with confidence that it improves our day, it’s often just a case of looking for it. And what works for one person may not work for another. “I use my tube commute to get a little time out from whatever business is going on in my day,” says Hannah Baker, a Teacher who has spent the last 6 years working in a school in South London. “It could be anything from listening to the Jillian Michaels show, about health and fitness, to Rob Bell’s the RobCast covering personal wellbeing and spirituality, it’s more about taking time out and using my journey for some me time.”
Sarah Langdale is a Personal Trainer juggling a busy work life with being a mum to Sienna, 7 and Rocco, 3. For her, it’s getting up at 6am. She says, “it’s all about that 6am routine. If I’m not up at 6 my day won’t be nearly as productive. I make sure I do all I can to plan my day around 8 hours of sleep and a 6am get up and everything else falls into place”.
We all have our own routines, and things we could do more of that don’t take much planning but make a real difference to the rest of our day and week. Half the battle is being mindful enough to spot what habits work best for us when we do them by chance, but the real magic happens when we take time to work them into our day on a regular basis. So have a think – what healthy habits would you like to have as part of your daily routine? Then plan them into your day for the next 2 weeks and see where that takes you.
And while you’re at it – if there’s any food you’d love to love but aren’t a fan of just yet – just fill your trolley with 10-15 servings…
# Learning to love kale