“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn
Think about the last time you decided you were going to make a change. I’m not necessarily talking about a change to your fitness or diet, but any change at all. Once you committed to that change, you probably came up with a plan – written or unwritten, consciously or subconsciously – about how you were going to implement that change in your life. If I had to guess, that plan likely involved all of the ways YOU were going to make that change happen. The triggers YOU were going to setup, the steps YOU were going take, all decided by…YOU. Whether or not you were successful in making that change, did you ever think about how others might react to your new personal mission? Your friends? Family? Colleagues?
Changing our habits and routines is hard. Many of us have a tendency to bite off more than we can chew when it comes to making changes to our life and sometimes our goals don’t align with the the people we spend our time with or the environments where we spend the majority of our day. This is not an easy pill to swallow because it means that making a change might impact the people around us or our close relationships. The silver lining to this dilemma is that it also tests your level of commitment to your goals. If you can stay the course even when getting funny looks or snide remarks from your peers, thats a small win that goes a long way.
In my individual health coaching practice, I often use a “Readiness for Change” questionnaire before even beginning work with a client. One of the questions is “Are you ready to spend less time with people who offer little or no social support for your goals while spending more time with those who do offer support?” That’s not something to be taken lightly! Often, this question alone might be enough to make someone rethink their direction. But an easier way to overcome this issue is to find a peer group with similar goals that supports your desire for change.
With this in mind, we recently decided to invite participants from the inaugural Healthy Habits program to participate as mentors in Healthy Habits 2.0. This will be a great way for new members to get support and learn from an individual that has already gone through the challenges of implementing new habits in their life. It will also help the mentors to reaffirm their commitment to the changes they successfully implemented the first time around. To maintain quality, we’ll be limiting the ratio of mentors to participants to 1:1 for individuals and 1:2 for teams. No matter how you participate, this will ensure that you have a peer support group as you progress through the program and maybe even give you a leg up on getting the highest score.
As a reminder, the kick-off meetings for Healthy Habits 2.0 start Monday, 01/11 at 5:30pm at Union Station and Wednesday, 01/13 at 5:30pm at Printer’s Row. You are welcome to attend either session and we will be accepting registrations through Saturday, 01/16.
If you have questions, feel free to contact me directly at matt@thefoundrychicago.com or coach@coachmattbrown.com. Looking forward to seeing you next week!