Earlier this week, I met over zoom with my health coach for our monthly one-on-one coaching session. Over the last 4 and a half months, she’s been my personal coach and cheerleader as I have been healing from auto-immune disease, gut health and hormonal issues.
Meeting with Amanda* (that’s her name) has been the key catalyst to optimizing my health, and this first half of the year I have made significant changes to my nutrition, supplementation, fitness, hydration, stress management and sleep patterns. I’m not exaggerating when I say her coaching and support has changed my life, and I am deeply grateful for this specialized time learning from her.
Towards the end of Monday’s session, she asked me what my core focuses and goals were for the coming month, and I expressed to her that I felt like I had great practices in place for areas that are foundational to my health. And now I wanted to know what else I could be doing. Like, I’m in prayer and the Word every morning, I’m eating clean, improving the quantity and quality of my sleep, moving throughout the day, limiting my scrolling and screen time, engaging in strength training and cardio workouts throughout the week, throwing in some yoga, staying hydrated… like what else?
What’s next?
Her answer: Just keep doing what you’re doing. That’s it.
There is no new program, no new fad, no new trend to adopt that health influencers are promoting. There’s just staying consistent. And then she said something that challenged me to my core…
Boring always wins.
Now, to be fair, I enjoy my day-to-day life and the healthy habits I have formed over these last few months. In fact, I love them. They are hardly what I would call boring, but they are what I would call routine. They’re not flashy or extraordinarily eventful. They are just small daily disciplines that build towards a focused, peaceful and vibrant life.
I think we are often sold the latest ‘new thing’ with the promise that it will fix our problems. The new diet will help us shed the pounds. The seminar will turn our productivity around. The retreat will restore the mind and body. The new gadget will maximize our efficiency. The new idea will transform the company. The new hair cut will bring us confidence.
Sure, there’s a place for ‘new’ and we can get ourselves into a whole lot of trouble when we repeatedly fail to embrace it. I got to say though, consistency will outperform the latest life hack that crosses your feed 9 times out of 10.
How do you get healthier? How do you spiritually mature? How do you grow your business? How do you develop your leadership capacity? How do you bring the romance back into your marriage? How do you become a better parent?
Do the things you know you ought to do every day. Even when you don’t want to. Even when the progress isn’t as quick as you’d like. Even when it feels boring or repetitive. Even when you are in a bad mood. Even when you missed it yesterday. Even when it’s inconvenient. Even when no one else is doing it with you. Even when people are giving you an out.
Boring always wins. Stay consistent. Or as Galatians 6:9 (NLT) tells us, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
*Amanda Soukoulis is a certified holistic coach, and she’s amazing. I highly recommend her coaching if you are looking to discover what your body needs and work towards optimal health. (She’s not paying me to say this or anything like that. I just want to share her expertise with you because she’s had such a positive impact on my life.)