Today, let’s talk about perspective.
(This perspective is a different kind compared to the honest perspective I shared last week about privilege and health!)
It’s something I’ve been using lately to help me navigate the chaos that is life, and how I’m trying to become a better, healthier person.
It’s called the “Zoom in, Zoom out” strategy, which I actually learned from our Team NF’s coaches, and thought it could help you too.
So here’s how it works:
Most people just pick a goal, and then do their best to work towards that goal:
- “I want to go for a daily walk.”
- “I want to lose 25 pounds.”
- “I want to journal every day.”
Fantastic! Goals are great, they can serve as a North Star that determines our daily routine and actions and whatnot.
Here’s the important step that often gets missed:
Treat each goal like a science experiment and give it a specific time limit.
Our experiment will have a hypothesis like “going for a daily walk will improve my mental and cardiovascular health” or “If I can eat 1 extra serving of protein and vegetables each day, I’ll have a healthier relationship with food.”
Great!
And then we say “I will reevaluate this experiment after 4 weeks.”
Setting a time limit does two things:
1) We can laser-focus on the experiment. We aren’t worried about the results yet. That’s for later when we have enough information.
2) We know we won’t be stuck doing the same thing forever. We’re committing to a specific time-frame.
Once we’ve picked the goal and the timeframe, we can start our experiment.
Step 1: Zoom in! We can “zoom in” to clarify the specific daily practice we are experimenting with. Here are some examples:
- Adding 1 serving of vegetables to every dinner.
- Doing the Beginner Bodyweight Workout 3 times per week.
- Pick one self-care action to do before bed each night to wind down.
Here’s why having a specific daily action can be so helpful:
If we have a goal like “I’m going to eat healthy today,” it’s pretty subjective and hard to track if we did it or not. But! If we intentionally narrow our focus with a specific, tangible practice, we can track our efforts and build momentum. “I ate 2 pieces of fruit today” is specific and measurable.
For the duration of our experiment, we stay “zoomed in” as much as possible. Keep it simple. Keep it focused. One step, one day at a time.
Step 2: Zoom out! At the end of our experiment (here, 4 weeks later), we will take a bird’s eye view of how things have gone:
- What’s working and what’s not working?
- Do I want to keep doing this?
- Am I enjoying this?
This is when we get to decide if we want to keep doing our 5k training, or if our new diet strategy works for our schedule, and if we’re seeing the results we expected.
By taking a nonjudgmental look at our experiment, we give ourselves a chance to have a serious conversation with ourselves:
- “I learned I don’t actually like running, so I’m going to stop my 5K training.”
- “I learned I’m able to stick with my new eating strategy, and can increase the amount of change.”
- “I learned I’m loving this, and want to keep doing this for another 4 weeks!”
The key here is we aren’t zooming in or zooming out every single day.
We aren’t constantly comparing ourselves to the end goal and feeling “less than” for not achieving the goal yet. Doing so robs us of the energy and focus we need to actually create the changes we want to see.
Instead, we focus on our daily/weekly actions for the duration of the experiment. We track what happened and didn’t happen, without judgment.
And then we zoom out to evaluate and tweak the plan at set intervals.
This does absolute wonders for those of us that are used to starting and stopping habits, yo-yo dieting, or who struggle to stay focused or committed.
Whenever I personally feel overwhelmed at the things that need to get done, I zoom way way way in.
I don’t worry about trying to do things every day, or how many times per week I need to work out. I don’t even worry about when I’ll be able to do the activity again.
I just narrow my focus to that ONE day:
- I just have to write in my journal today.
- I just have to go for a walk today.
- I just have to do a workout today.
Every four weeks, I take some time to journal and ZOOM OUT:
How are things going? Where am I struggling? Do I like the path I’m on?
I can then decide what my next steps are, and then zoom back in.
What about you?
Overwhelmed or feeling pulled in ten different directions? Let’s pick one habit and a timeframe and see if we can zoom in, then zoom out and get to work on it.
Going through the motions and unsure if you’re making progress? Zoom out, and spend some time analyzing your past few weeks and see if your routine is working for you.
Let me know what you’re zooming in on, and how you’re zooming out.
-Steve
PS: This has nothing to do with today’s email, but I am loving Shōgun on FX/Hulu. I read the book years ago and it’s amazing seeing these characters and feudal Japan come to life on the screen.
