How to 🏃♀️ Start & Keep 🏃♀️➡️ Going
There are things in life that can help you get things done and, from there, be more successful. But, once you've started, how do you keep going? Diet can help because improving gut health affects your 🧠 brain 💪 power and this means you can achieve more goals by going on quests!
Turns out that your gut is like a second brain because there're heaps of nerve endings to control digestion and assist mental health via the vagus nerve linked to the brain, neurotransmitters, microbes and the immune system. 😅 Dr Emily Leeming has some suggestions for hi-fibre things to feed off to improve your memory, mood etc. We try and eat the following …
- Beans & chickpeas (legumes)
- Cauliflower
- Whole grain bread
- Omega-three fatty acids (chia & flax seeds)
- Antioxidants (vegetables)
- Tea & coffee
- Fermented foods (kambucha, kimchi, olives, cheddar, kefir etc.)
Fasting is also beneficial — try and keep daily food intake within a ten hour period and eat three or more hours before sleep.
Eating better helps your 🧠 brain!
We try and apply the above lifestyle choices to Raptitude's getting started advice — creating a base context for achieving goals. Because it is hard to do things that're unfamiliar and complex — that you're unskilled at — these tasks can be challenging — tasks you need to tackle rather than just do. They need to be done, but you have to figure out what they are before doing them.
So, you put it off … and now you’re procrastinating. But tasks do get psychologically easier once started … it's the ‘getting started’ that you don’t know how to do. 🫠 So, rather than saying ‘just start’ i.e., do what you don’t know how to do say ‘just focus’. For example …
Brasco Cleaning:
- Go 'round the bowl and see if there're any dried bits.
- OK, that's the grossest so it'll be clearer how to continue.
- Now you know what sorts of things need to be done …
- You’ve done some so it’s not so intimidating any more …
- Get the power-gel toilet bowl cleaner going!
Organising Stuff:
- To ‘get started’ think you're designing a system for organising.
- Criteria? Date? Subject? Tag?
- Maybe google ‘x systems’?
OK. But what now? How to keep contributing (i.e., stay focussed).
Early mornings are the best time for us to read and write. So many things to read and we'd like to learn so much too. The list never stops! Paralysis by analysis! You also need the confidence to start new projects and use whatever's required to make it work and the basics need to be second-nature.
But what if this eternal struggle is draining? Try Lifestyle Therapy which centres around exercise and the aforementioned dietary enhancements to maintain good vibes! 🏖️
You can also try and maintain this by doing quests and not setting goals. There's a clear distinction between things needing to be done (buying food) and those things you want to do (learn language, get fit etc.). So, goals are things you've put off doing — they're non-essential and require the ‘right’ time unlike things needing to be done right now and this requires a mind shift. So, try and think of the task as a ‘quest’ where you expect not to know how to finish but succeed by defeating the unfamiliar — goal achieved!
The next time will be easier because you know you're capable of doing and succeeding on a quest and you'll be well-fed 🥗 to start and keep going!
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