The Action Gap - Tips To Bust Through Another Fitness Barrier

I had a flash at the grocery store this morning.  My daughter and I ducked in to buy some fruit for lunches and a few other odds and ends.  When we got to the cash, I realized that once again I did not bring one of those re-usable bags with me.  Instead I had to carry my grocs home in more plastic “landfill bags.”

It’s not like I don’t know better.  I agree that the eco friendly bags are a good idea.  But there seems to be an Action Gap.  There’s a space between what I think I should do and what I actually do.

Not long ago I wrote a post about fitness barriers.  The Action Gap fits right in with this idea.  You know what needs to be done.  You may even have a desire to do it.  But you can’t make it over the Action Gap.

It’s not hard to figure out what to eat if you want to be more healthy.  There are 1001 diet books out there (probably a hundred times more than that actually).  Almost all of them have at least some good information in them.  So it’s pretty much impossible to say that you can’t a nutritional strategy that will make you more healthy, fitter and leaner.  Heck, I’ll give you one thing you can do right now.  Stop eating refined sugar (including High Fructose Corn Syrup in your soda).

So, that was easy...  Just decide exactly what it is you want to do.  In this case, let’s pretend you want to stop eating refined sugar.  Great!  But there is still the nagging problem of the Action Gap.  How are you going to get over it?  Try these three tips:

1. All Systems Go
I once read that you can’t change people, you can only change systems which change the behavior of people.  That made a lot of sense to me.  So when I am trying to change a behavior I put concrete systems in place to help me.  When I want to reduce my coffee consumption, I put the espresso maker in the back of a cupboard with lots of other stuff in front of it.  This makes it a pain in the butt to drag it out, so I think twice about my second cup…  Don’t try to change yourself, change the systems that affect your behavior.

2. After Action Report
Each night, before you go to bed, spend a minute taking stock of your day.  Write it down, if it helps, in a little journal.  Include any slip-ups.  But more importantly, record any instances in which you broke the gravity well of your old habits and replaced them with your new desired behavior.  If you were tempted by that sugar-filled yogurt cup and had some cottage cheese instead, make a big deal of it!

3. Reporting For Duty
In the Army, more than anywhere else, it is very clear who your superior officer is.  If you don’t fulfill your obligations, you’ll have to answer for it.  Make yourself accountable to someone for your new desired behavior.  You can hire a coach or trainer.  You can enlist a best friend or family member.  You can join an online support group.  It doesn’t matter who you are accountable to as long as you can trust them to call you on your slip-ups.  Explain your new desired behavior in detail and ask your watchdog to keep you accountable.

There you go, three ways to help you breach the Action Gap.  What other ways have you found to help you move from intention to action?