Is it a seasonal thing?

I don’t know how many people I’ve heard talk about how they are just not feeling like they’re just not as motivated lately. I believe it’s the time of year. Not only does it stay dark until later in the morning, but it was just Halloween a couple days ago, and the holidays are around the corner.

I think people tend to go into hibernation mode and their motivation starts to wane a little bit.

The other day I talked about self-discipline being a crucial trait to reach your goals, and one way to increase discipline is through streamlining –or minimizing — your choices.

How being a minimalist helps me reach my goals

I’m going to talk about the following in the video below:

• The ways I consider myself a minimalist
• decision fatigue
• streamlining decisions
• four ways to minimize your decisions to help you with your fitness and nutrition goals.

(click to play)

You know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever been to my house. I don’t like having stuff on my counters; in fact, Shane even had to encourage me to have a canister on the counter with spatulas in it! My toaster’s under the counter, my Vitamix is under the counter, and I don’t have anything on my office desk — I just don’t like clutter!

Have you guys ever seen the picture of Mark Zuckerberg’s closet? There are 10 shirts that look exactly the same. Mark Zuckerberg never has to think about what he’s going to wear that day, and that’s one less small-rock decision he has to waste brain power on that day.

I’m actually kind of jealous of that. Ok, so maybe I like a few more choices — but how easy would it be to get dressed each day?!

That’s just kind of my personality, but also it helps me so much in my day to day life. Specifically, it helps me reduce decision fatigue.

Eliminate decision fatigue

Decision Fatigue: “Deterioration of quality of decisions made by and individual after a long session of decision-making. It is now understood as one of the trade-offs in decision-making.”

I talked about this in a blog last week about motivation, and how to stop relying on it– and start relying on self-discipline.

This is kind of the same thing, but it’s a hack for that: it’s the minimalist hack.

Basically, it means that all day long we have these little decisions to make. Each decision that we make fatigues our brain power. It drains our willpower, which is a limited resource.

As we keep making these choices and decisions, that willpower continues to decrease.

What I like to do by practicing a minimalist mindset is eliminate as many decisions as I can. Making choices is a part of life, but I don’t like making little small-rock choices that don’t really make a huge impact on my day.

So, get rid of making decisions where it makes sense and when possible. In other words, streamline.

Streamline

When you wake up, you need to decide what kind of coffee you’re going to have, what are you having for breakfast, and what are you going to wear today? All these decisions you can just streamline and eliminate.

I literally eat the exact same breakfast every single day of the week, for several weeks, until I get sick of it. I also know that I’m going to have my lemon/lime elixir, then my coffee.

For my clothing? I have a standard uniform, that I rotate the colors: lulu align tights, racerback tank, and a long-sleeved shirt or jacket over it.

These are all small rock decisions that I can breeze through on autopilot.

Two things I streamline the most are breakfast and lunch. I typically have the exact same thing for breakfast and the exact same thing for lunch every single day for a few weeks at a time. When I get sick of it, I’ll switch it up for another few weeks.

I wake up, and I get going on my day. I do a little bit of journaling, a little meditating, and then I am on it. I’m working all through the day, as I’m sure you are. Heck, I barely have time to eat breakfast and lunch, let alone stand around trying to think about and decide what I want to eat. Having those two meals nailed down, that you know you really like and enjoy, can be a great way to eliminate that decision fatigue.

Each little decision you’re able to streamline will help you concentrate on those big goals so much more.

Write down your workout, make up your meal plan ahead of time instead of leading to an analysis paralysis, which is a total willpower drainer.

That way, if you work out in the evenings and have already made silly, small decisions all day, you’re going to have a tough time making it to the gym because you’re going to be drained. So try to streamline as many decisions as possible. 

This also helps me with my work day, because in my work I make a lot of decisions and I’m really thinking all day long, so taking those decisions out of the equation allows me to focus on what makes the most difference. Especially those of you who manage many different things — a business, a family, extracurricular activities, etc. — can experience decision fatigue early in the day.

This brings me to my next tip.

2. Make your important decisions first thing in the morning

I’ll often tell my clients that even though our bodies aren’t really primed to workout first thing in the morning, sometimes it’s good to get it done and out of the way while you’re on auto-pilot and your motivation and willpower are high. Maybe writing down your workout and menu for the rest of the day will help you first thing in the morning.

Get those “big rock” items done first.

In fact, I start every single day with an action item for my business that is going to really make an impact on it and move it forward. I don’t start with emails, I don’t start with Facebook, I start with a big-rock action item. 

The same thing applies to your fitness and nutrition goals. Start your day with your workout (if you can, and if it makes sense for you) and plan your menu early in the day while your resolve is still high, and before decision fatigue sets in.

3. Choose the less overwhelming option

If there are a couple smaller-rock choices you have to make, and one makes you feel slightly more overwhelmed than the other, always go with the one that is less overwhelming. (Side note: There are exceptions to this of course; there are times to really go for it in life and really choose yes! But we’re talking about our general, day-to-day life here.)

4. Let your good enough be good enough.

This is the most important — last is not least here. Let your good enough be good enough.

A lot of us tend to have analysis paralysis over making everything perfect. We let something build up and be so overwhelming in our mind, that by the time we actually get time to do it, it’s so overwhelming and there are too many steps that need to be “perfect.”

Just let it be. Let it be done, and let it be good enough. 

Good enough is always better than not done at all. You can always go back and improve it. Always give your best, of course, and know that your best will vary from day to day, and even throughout the course of a day.

So to recap…

1. Eliminate decision fatigue

2. Make your important decisions first thing in the morning

3. Choose the less overwhelming option

4. Let your good enough be good enough

I hope you found this helpful! Please reach out to me at info@trainerpaige.com if you ever have questions. If you have a topic in mind you’d like me to write about, please list it in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!