Habits are one of the biggest factors separating someone that wants to get healthy from someone who gets and stays healthy. Your habits are subsconscious, and whether you realize it or not, they are a big driver of the results you are seeing (or not seeing) today across different areas of your life.

If you continue to find it to be a challenge to not only get healthy, but to stay healthy as well, then it’s going to require you to change some of your habits and adopt some habits that fit people follow. You might think that you need a new strategy, diet, or workout plan - but if you’re like most clients I work with you’ll benefit much more from some small mindset shifts that lead to big changes over time. Once these new mindset habits become second nature for you, you’ll find getting fit and staying fit easier than ever before.

Here are 5 Mindset Habits you can adopt if you want to live a fit and healthy lifestyle:

1: Set Goals

A main difference that separates fit people is their ability to set goals. This does not have to be some formal written out process (although it can be), but you will benefit from working towards an intentional goal. If you ask someone who is fit or healthy what their focus or goals are, you’ll rarely get an ‘I don’t know’. Focus = results.

Pick ONE goal that’s most important to you and set a timeline that you want to achieve it. This could be a strength number, body composition goal, or simply a habit goal of how many times you make it to the gym.

2: Track Progress

Once you have a goal in mind that you’re working towards, it’s important to make sure you’re also measuring your progress. Everyone can set goals, but setting goals and achieving goals are two different things. Think about how many set goals and resolutions at the new year and how few actually achieve them. If you want to stay on target with your goals, you’ll need a way to measure what’s working (or not working).

Tracking progress provides accountability. Choose a way to measure your progress that aligns with your goals and decide when/how you’ll keep track of progress.

3: Data>Feelings

Fit people rely on data, not their feelings, to guide their actions. Those that continue to fall short rely too heavily on feelings and not enough on data. If you find yourself ever compromising on your diet, skipping the gym, or getting frustrated with a lack of results - you might be relying too heavily on how you feel day to day. By sticking to the plan and relying on data you’ll see your situation and your progress for what it actually is, which is usually different than what you think it is. Sometimes this might mean being a little harder on yourself, but often it’s actually giving yourself some grace and understanding you are making progress even if it’s small.

Decide ahead of time what plan you want to stick to, and only make significant changes when progress is stalled or going backwards.

4: Play The Long Game

Fit people don’t get caught in quick fixes, fad diets, or aggressive goals. If you want to not only get fit, but stay fit for the long-term, you have to adopt a long game mindset. The health and fitness industry has done more harm than good when it comes to setting unrealistic expectations. The results you see of people losing weight or building muscle quickly is not typical or realistic. Remember, getting fit isn’t the goal - staying fit is. And this requires smaller but more sustainable progress.

If you think your goal should take 3 months to accomplish, give yourself 6-12 months to accomplish it. This will provide a more realistic timeline and keep you from getting discouraged when results don’t happen fast enough.

5: Don’t Miss Twice

Fit people aren’t immune to slipping up, overeating, missing the gym, or self-sabotaging their progress. Never messing up or being perfect is never the goal. It’s not if you’ll mess up, but when. And when you do the key is simply to get back on track as soon as you can.

If you mess up, that’s okay. Don’t let one bad day (or week or month) turn into another. Perfection isn’t the goal, consistency is.

While any of these habits will provide some improvement in your health and fitness, the most power comes from stacking several of these habits together. Each one builds on the other, making results compound over time.

We help men lose 10 lbs of fat and build 10 lbs of muscle over the next 10 months by strengthening your body and your mind. Want to learn how? Click here to talk with one of our coaches.