If you want to master meaningful lifestyle changes you must be willing to become the weird one. This is something other blogs won’t tell you. They’ll give you the same copy-and-paste advice, detailing the same old bullet points about what you should change but offer little to no substance when it comes to actually mastering them.
But not here. This post is as important as the better habits you’re trying to build in the first place. Trust me, I’ve experienced this key factor in building better habits.
I want to make the most helpful articles on meaningful lifestyle changes that I can – the kind of changes that really make a difference and what I know it takes to master them in the real world, not the world where you read something and become inspired for 5 minutes before putting down your phone and then falling back into the same old bad habits.
Here’s the truth about mastering meaningful lifestyle changes that most people don’t want to believe: you are going to seem weird to other people. (At least in the beginning)
That’s right. You’re going to seem weird in a world that wants you to follow the pack and stick to the status quo. Let me explain…
A few years ago I realised that my social media addiction was exactly that. I wanted a break from it. It was sapping my time and causing my right thumb to go numb. So, like anyone would, I decided to take a break.
I actually decided to go one step further and completely delete the social apps from my phone. It was a weird experience and needless to say my right thumb ended up feeling lost out in the wild with nothing to do. But I pushed on.
I pushed on through four weeks of social media sobriety. But something strange happened at the end of that month, something that I hadn’t even thought about. When I finally went back onto social media, I had a bunch of messages from friends.
Lesson: It turns out no one uses SMS anymore to send messages…
After finally replying to the old messages, my friends and family asked me why I hadn’t replied. I told them I decided to take a break from social media because I realised I was addicted to the shiny apps that were distracting me all too often.
Their response? Confused faces. They all thought it was kind of weird. It was as if they’d never even considered not opening social media apps on their phones for longer than their eight hours of sleep each night.
Was I the weird one?
The people in your life will tell you “You’re fine as you are.”
If you’re looking to make meaningful, positive lifestyle changes, your friends and family will hopefully support you but sometimes they’re going to tell you that you “don’t need to worry about X, Y, and Z,” and “you’re fine as you are.”
You’re going to seem like the odd one out. And the truth is, it’s more than likely you will look like a zebra amongst a bunch of horses. But why is that?
Most people chug along in the same routines their whole lives, never believing that they can change for the better. Sometimes they don’t even think they need to.
Most people:
- Sleep in and hit snooze on their alarms 5 times in the morning
- Don’t even think about stretching
- Don’t want to exercise because it’s uncomfortable
- Take a sandwich and chips to work for lunch
- Graze at their desks all day
- Don’t cook every dinner from scratch
- Come home and watch TV all evening
- Believe their own excuses are good reasons not to do something
And I don’t blame them. I don’t want to put them down. Making positive lifestyle changes is hard because most people are doing the above. These things are now ‘normal’. Life is tough. It’s much easier to go with the flow and swim in the comforts we indulge in so easily.
But this is why you’re going to seem like the one duck who is swimming away on their own course when you start bringing in your cooked meals to work. It’s why you’re going to seem like ‘you’re changing’ when you tell your wife or husband you will eat dinner after you get back from the gym. You’re going to seem strange when you tell your colleague you don’t want to eat the candy they brought in for their birthday.
Sometimes you’re going to get resistance when you’re trying to make meaningful lifestyle changes. You might have arguments with your spouse about what you want to eat for dinner and your friends might think you’re distancing yourself when you miss a few nights out with them because you want to stay in and keep writing your book.
People will want to keep you as the same person you’ve always been – the person they know and love. And that’s understandable to a degree.
But if they don’t support you when you’re trying to make positive lifestyle changes, you’ll at least know where you really stand with them.
Keep going and own the weirdness
Me writing this blog is weird. Me taking cooked meals to work is weird (I’m the only one I know that does it.) Me doing my workouts solo each week in my bedroom is weird. Me trying to master my emotions on a daily basis is weird. Me playing soccer every week is weird (after not playing for two decades.)
But I’m not saying this to brag. I’m not saying this because I think I’m better than everyone. I’m making this point because looking like ‘the weird one’ is a real thing that people don’t even think about when they’re trying to make positive lifestyle changes. If you don’t care what most people think, good. But most people do and sometimes the resistance from others can derail them and put them off the idea of keeping up their new positive changes.
The only way around this is to keep going and own the weirdness. You do this because you have faith that what you’re doing is the right thing.
Keep going until your positive changes become ‘normal’.
Sean C is a writer, passionate about improving one’s self by maintaining healthy habits and doing the things that make life more meaningful.
