If you do nothing, then nothing will change.  Coaching is designed to help you see what your options are, commit to the change you desire, and guide you towards those changes.  However, there may be times that roadblocks get in the way and this is one of them.  

The only thing stopping you from moving forward is you.

Wellness is the manifestation of functioning optimally within the environment you’re in.  It’s taking what you have, defining what you want it to look like, figuring out what it will take to make that happen, and then making it happen one step at a time.  No matter how small, any step taken is the reflection of the decision that you’re ready.

I used to exercise regularly and faithfully.  I went through a long spell of emotional eating and not exercising, and when I decided I had to start exercising again, it took me over a year to finally implement it.  I spent years prior saying “I don’t want to so I won’t.  I’ll find a way around it.” I was utterly in denial that I actually needed to exercise. Then I began accepting how important it was to move my body and how detrimental it was not to.  So I spent the next year or so saying “I’m going to start. I know I need to. I’ve got to exercise,” etc, etc.  I bought some equipment and tools to help me, but it sat there for at least a year.  As if “wanting the change” and having the stuff was going to be enough to motivate me. 

Until one day I sat down and got honest with myself. “Ugh! I know what to do! I know what would be best for me. Why am I not doing it??” And through self-exploration I realized that I had not truly decided to go all in.  I was still waiting on someone else to MAKE me do it.  

The problem was that no one was going to make me do it.  If anything, my body failing me was what would eventually make me.  

So I had a choice.  Keep going down the road I was on and keep getting the same result, or take a new direction.  

I had to take that first step off the beaten path, and tread a new path that might be uncomfortable, in order to do what I needed to do to be the best version of me with each step.

This is self-actualization. 

“Self-actualization is the intrinsic growth of what is already in the organism, or more accurately, of what the organism is.” – Abraham Maslow

Your decision to grow past your fears and apprehensions is essential to your development in your lifestyle change.  You have to decide that you are all in and that you’re ready for that first step.. and the next one.. and the next one.

So I began by setting up a room for me to exercise in.  The next step was to put on some work out clothes and go into the room.  The next day, I repeated those steps and added rolling out the yoga mat.  The next step was to repeat those steps and add one more, and another, and another, until I was doing a few reps at a time and building on the last.  Finally I was incorporating just a little bit of movement every day and giving myself grace as I grew into my new normal.

You don’t have to do it all at once, but you do have to decide that you want to do it at all.