Brendon Burchard is a motivational, speaker, trainer and coach who has an excellent exercise he uses and writes about in his book The Charge.
We love this tool because it is super simple and if done consistently for at least a month you’ll notice a shift. Here are the steps:
Pick 3 words that define who you want to be as a person. These could be brave, energetic, strong, confident or focused. Spend some time deciding what words resonate with you. If you find this hard imagine where you want to be 10 years from now and think about the 3 traits you would need to get there.
Now get into the habit of repeating these a few times a day. “I am……. “
To get into the habit I like to set an alarm on my phone that goes off every 3 hours (during the day) that pops up with my 3 words. Beyond reminding me to repeat my words, whatever activity I am doing I can ask myself “does is align with my three words?”
It is a small shift that keeps aligning you to your larger goals. If energetic or vital is one of your key words and when your alarm sounds you're drinking a sugar filled bubble tea or binge watching Netflix it is pretty clear that your chosen activity is not aligning with your future self.
It's the awareness we are after. I have a client who completely changed her relationship with food by pausing before making a choice and asking herself "Do I really need this?" "How will I feel after I eat this?" Sometimes those small micro shifts are enough to create major change.