Get in the Right Environment
One of the main things that can prevent a self-improvement and mindfulness journey is a poor environment. If you have literally nowhere in life that is quiet and distraction-free it will be hard to sit in silent meditation. If you want to play an instrument but have nowhere to dedicate the space to the instrument and a music stand you will find it hard to play. If you want to get fit but don’t have a gym nearby or a dedicated space at home then it will always be easy to find an excuse not to get in shape.
If your environment doesn’t allow you to make the changes that you want to make, then the place to start is changing your environment. Renovate your house to have a new room, build a dedicated bungalow or pool room out the back, or hire a landscaper to redesign your backyard with a zen garden or quiet space.
Peninsula PODrooms can crane in an additional portable outdoor room to give you some more space when your house is bursting at the seams, to give you a quiet place to enjoy mindfulness practices.
Create a dedicated sanctuary that is free from anything that prevents you from beginning your journey.
Where to Start?
There is a famous saying that the hardest part of any journey is to take the first step. This is true, and often this is hard because you don’t even know what the first step is. The great thing about both mindfulness and self-improvement is that there’s almost nothing that you can do wrong. A single push-up every morning is the start of a self-improvement goal, staring at an analogue watch face for just 1 minute without thinking about anything else is a simple way to begin your mindfulness journey.
So, if you are ready to start your journey to positive change, just start, start anywhere, and start right now. Don’t wait until the morning or the new year or any other excuse. You will be surprised at how quickly your life will start to change.
Start Small
If you can start large, feel free to start large. But for most people, this doesn’t work, and it leads to avoiding the goal entirely or burning out before you get there. Starting small makes it almost impossible not to start. Is your goal to do 100 push-ups a day? Are you failing to even bother doing one each day? Set a goal to simply lie down on the floor and get back up, be sure not to have any expectation on yourself that you must do anything more. It is so simple and so easy that you have no reason not to do it. If this is too hard, make the goal to simply sit on your knees, with no expectation to go any further. If you do this repeatedly, eventually, the idea of going a step further seems stupidly easy, so you can do that with no expectation to do anything more.
The point is that you can always choose to do more, but you never expect anything more. You make it so easy that your brain will find it hard to provide an excuse not to do this one small thing, whatever it is. This is a powerful secret to beginning new habits, especially if those habits seem too scary or confronting.