What Are Your Non-Negotiables?

Non-negotiable meaning – not open to discussion

When you start to think about implementing changes that will help improve your health or achieve your goals, I believe you should have these non-negotiables.  This mean that unless something happens out of your control you will do these non-negotiables and eventually, they will become fixed into your routine, like having your morning coffee.

Here are some examples of mine

• To walk 10,000 steps minimum every day
• To eat protein with every meal
• To wash my hair at least twice a week
• Aim to get at least 7 hours sleep every night
• To get some sunshine every day (weather dependent so not totally in my control)
• To never drink coffee after 12pm

These are my non negotiables because they make me feel good, or happier and I know if I do them it’s only a good thing for my health.  These are all now habits that I have formed because I didn’t let anything get in the way of them.  I feel if at the end of the week if I have done all of the above its been a good week.

We can’t always rely on our motivation so if we make little tweaks like this until they become habits then we won’t need to rely on motivation so much.

Now, your non-negotiables need to be realistic but also not to easy.  For example, if I changed my 10,000 daily steps to 20,000 steps then I would be setting myself up for failure as I know that I just would have time in my day for that.  On the other side if I set myself a target of 5,000 steps then that wouldn’t require all that much effort for me personally, 10,000 steps with a sit down job requires effort on my part, it means that if I get to 4pm and I am only on 6,000 I will make sure I go for a walk to make them up, it’s my non-negotiable.

Uncontrollable and controllable

But what if I can’t’ because of blah blah blah?  I hear you say.

It’s not a test, no one will know if you don’t tick them off your list, only you.  So, make your non negotiables achievable and be honest with yourself.  This is for you only.

There will always be things out of our control but you need to be careful not to let them creep in an excuse.

An example – I’m not going for my walk as it looks like it will rain.  That’s an excuse not an uncontrollable.

A real uncontrollable would be – I can’t go for a walk today as I have injured my ankle.

Make your list now!

I really urge you to make 3 health related non-negotiables now and stick to them for a couple of weeks to how it goes.

Other examples can be

To eat 3 portions of veggies everyday (if you usually only eat 1)
To switch my white bread to whole meal bread to up my fibre intake
To drink 2l of water every day
To take 20 minutes a day for myself to do whatever I want

It can be literally anything but remember to make it a slight challenge.

To finish off I recently heard a quote that I thought was brilliant and it ties in with non-negotiables.

Giving 95% is so much harder than giving 100%

I didn’t get it at first.  In nutshell if you give 100% there is no room for error, its non-negotiable. It’s in your mind that no you just can’t.  If you give it 95% then you have all the intention of doing it but there is that 5% that leaves room for you to not quite do what you intended to do, to find a reason or excuse to not do it.  Therefore 100% is easier as you are not in a constant mental battle with yourself.

Go ahead and create new habits!