Change. Are you Ready, Willing and Able?

17 Apr Change. Are you Ready, Willing and Able?

We in the health and fitness profession learn about the ‘stages of change’ very early in our training. These stages are ‘precontemplation’, ‘contemplation’, ‘preparation’, ‘action’ (my favourite!) and finally, ‘maintenance’. These are pretty self-explanatory and give us an understanding of what people have probably gone through at a conscious and subconscious level before they come to us for help.

However, this is mainly a tool for us practitioners. In conversations with my clients, I address change from a different angle which I have found is far more useful to them, in-the-moment. I’ll share that with you today.

There is a need to ascertain what’s going on in your life: the reasons you’d like to change whatever it is you’ve come to me for… the basics of how you move… and of course, how, what and when you’re eating. I’ll ask, on a scale of ‘1 to 10’ if you are ‘Ready’, ‘Willing’, and ‘Able’ to make the required changes. You would be amazed at how many people quickly say “ten, ten, ten!”. But then we break it down…

How READY are you to make the changes?

This is the easiest one. If you’re talking to me about these matters then I’ve been recommended to you, you’ve read some of my articles or you have been following me on social media. Either way, it’s a fair bet that you are indeed ready to make that change. You’ve gone through the ‘Contemplation’ stage and by having the initial conversation you’re currently in the ‘Preparation’ stage. We are about to commence some serious ‘Action’! I’ll ask what Ready means to YOU and I’ll normally receive a positive answer without the need for me to act like a cheerleader.

How WILLING are you to make the changes?

This one is more difficult. It’s easy to say you’re willing to make the change, but of course any change requires give and take with whatever is already existing in your life. There is a

finite amount of time in the day, and if we’re going to dedicate some focus to the new habits and practices required for both initial and long-term change… it’s likely that something is going to have to give.

We all say we have to ‘make time’, but in truth what I’m asking is “how much are you prepared to do less of something you like (or better still, less of something you don’t like or need), in order to create the space to grow some positive habits”? I generalise but there is a good chance that I’m going to ask you to do some dedicated exercise or movement for half an hour up to three times a week. No one ever says “Oh yes I can do that easily because I have lots of free time”. We’re going to have to manage other things we already do to make time for ‘the new’, so the real question is how willing are you to do that.

Changing your nutritional habits for the healthier normally requires an element of planning ahead, a change in the way you think about your food and often some conversations with people with whom you share your home. How willing are you to have these conversations and implement these changes? We will together discuss the things we can do to shape the path to get these key factors more likely to happen. This is compassionate coaching. If it were easy to make these changes there would be no need for coaches as everybody would have the level of overall Wellness and physique that they were happy with. This isn’t the case.

How ABLE are you to make the changes?

This is the third and most difficult of the questions and is rarely an immediate ‘10’. This question takes into account all those things which have torpedoed your efforts in the past. These aren’t necessarily negative things in your life… they are just things which will probably get in the way of your new practices and habits! If you have a home to run, or a job, are currently home-schooling the kids and simultaneously in the process of moving home, how able are you really to push a suite of new guidelines into your day? It’s unlikely that’s a 10 out of 10. Now of course, this doesn’t mean that you can’t start on a positive path to change… it might just mean we have to be realistic with what we can achieve at this time. There is always something you can do to move towards positive change but I say it is better to be honest about what you can do in advance, claim the easy wins, and build from there.

So ask yourself how ready, willing, and able are you in this moment to make the changes that will push you in the right direction. If any of them are less than ‘10’, what small thing can you do TODAY to get that 5, 6 or 7 closer to the maximum?

For further information or for a bespoke plan contact Ayo at: https://www.ayotrainingnutrition.com/contact/

Ayo Williams