The "I'll Start Tomorrow" Mindset Holds You Back. Here's How To Change It.
You decide to start working out or improve your eating, but it's not quite time yet.
Maybe you have family visiting for the next few days, a big work deadline coming up, or you want to clean out your pantry and get new workout clothes first. You decide to start tomorrow, or next week, when you’re not so busy and there are fewer distractions and obstacles.
You have good intentions – if you wait until the time is right, you can get off on the right foot and give it your best effort.
That sounds like a good idea, but there’s a problem.
With the “I’ll start tomorrow” mindset, it’s easy to keep putting your healthy habits off. You think you’ll start tomorrow, but then something else comes up and you put it off for another day, and then another.
“It’s just one more day”, you think, “what’s the harm?”. Soon weeks, months, or even years have gone by and you’re no closer to achieving your goals.
Even when you do get started, you might justify your unhealthy choices or let yourself fall off the wagon. “I don’t really feel like working out today, but it’s ok because I’ll start again tomorrow.” “I can get fast food for dinner tonight because tomorrow I’ll be starting a new diet.”
This mindset moves you farther away from your goals rather than setting yourself up to achieve them, and the sooner you change it, the better.
There’s never a right time to start exercising or healthy eating. There will always be obstacles. You’ll never be completely ready, and once you start, there will be even more obstacles.
You need to learn how to navigate those challenges, not wait for them to magically disappear.
What You Can Do Instead
Start Right Now
Tomorrow, when the time comes to work out or start your diet, what will stop you from putting it off again? What if something else gets in your way, or you’re even busier than you are now? What if you still feel tired or stressed? Maybe you’ll decide to wait for the next tomorrow.
When you commit to improving your health, don’t wait. Start building momentum right now.
Whatever your next eating choice is, make it a healthy one. Take the next opportunity to move. Do a simple workout today. No matter how small the healthy behavior is, do it now.
Speaking of small healthy habits…
Start Small And Easy
Do you think you need to completely change your eating habits and give up all your favorite foods when you start your diet? (hint: you don’t.) Do you think you’ll need to do long, boring, or intense workouts every day once you start working out? (again: you don’t.)
If you think you’re about to start something difficult and unpleasant, of course you’ll want to put it off.
I’ve written many times about how important it is to start with a small, easy goal when building healthy habits. One of the reasons it’s so effective is that it reduces the friction to getting started.
I use this strategy all the time.
I don’t always feel like working out. Sometimes I’m tired or stressed, or still sore from my last session, and the thought of an hour-long workout makes me want to get in bed and pull the covers over my head. At those times, I tell myself “I’ll just do five minutes”. Five minutes seems easy and achievable enough, so I can get started.
Pretty much every time, something amazing happens. Once I start, I don’t feel tired anymore and it’s easy to keep going.
Start with a small and easy goal, like a three minute jog, one healthy meal, or going to bed 10 minutes earlier. When you know you can achieve a goal, you’re less likely to put it off, and you can start stacking up successes and build on them.
Instead of “I’ll Start Tomorrow”, Focus On Today
Shift your mindset to focus on today and forget about tomorrow.
When you expect to be on an unpleasant diet or workout program forever, you feel restricted and your instinct is to push back and to want to give up. Instead, remind yourself that you don’t need to exercise and eat perfectly for the rest of your life.
Make healthy choices today, with the knowledge that if you want to stop tomorrow, you can. That mental shift gives you freedom and confidence.
The next day, do it again. Keep that up, one day at a time, and before you know it you’ll have strung together several days of healthy habits. Each of those days brings you a little closer to achieving your goals.
Don’t Overthink It
When you have to do something big and complicated, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You might think you need to put together a sophisticated workout program or plan out a complex diet, so you delay starting until you have all the details in place.
Keep it simple. Leading a healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to be complicated. This is all you have to do:
Eat mostly minimally processed foods, especially vegetables. Include a source of protein with each meal.
Move as much as you can.
Lift weights.
You can figure out the details later, once you get some momentum. For now, just start with the simple basics and don’t worry about getting everything exactly right.
No one ever regrets starting sooner. It’s the time you lost procrastinating that you’ll want back. The best time to get started is right now!
If You Need Help
Here's a FREE resource to get you started, my Guide To Setting Effective Goals. You can use this guide to help you structure your goals the right way and create action plans to achieve them.
If you need more personalized help, contact me. All my one-on-one personal training programs come with goal-setting assistance and help creating a healthy mindset.