👋 How to Change Anything in 7 Days (or less)

It's Monday. I'm here for you.

If you enjoy this newsletter and want to support my writing, please consider becoming a paid subscriber ❤️. Thank you for being here.

I am the type of person who wakes up with 1,000 pounds of anxiety, stress, and energy on my chest.

When Gemma eyes me from her crib, two feet away, at 5am, my feet are on the ground before she even has the chance to cry.

You're up. I'm up. All of my worries and problems and existential crises are up too.

Because I'm like this, I need to exhale the build-up of emotion and energy out of me throughout the day.

The best way to do that is by working out.

Lately, the only times I can find in my schedule to work out are also the only times I'm too tired to get off the couch and move my body.

So all that gunk builds up and by Friday, my chest is so tight it feels like steel.

I mentioned a few newsletters ago that I want to change so many things about my life — including my health. I want to be strong and feel fierce again. I want to build workouts back into my weekly schedule and make them a consistent habit.

For the past three weeks, I’ve been able to do that. But only after flopping a few times.

👋Welcome to the Monday Pick-Me-Up. This week, I’m sharing my formula with you on how you can change anything in your life in just one week. I call it my Flop formula.

---

👋How to Change Anything in 7 Days (or less)

When I first started trying to integrate consistent workouts back into my weekly schedule, I went too hard, too fast.

I will work out every single day of the week for at least 45-minutes and I will also walk 10,000 steps because that’s what every single person seems to do on the internet!!

Monday, I did both those things.

Tuesday, I only did the 10,000 steps.

Wednesday came around and I was hit with a bunch of work deadlines and Gemma skipped her naps and by the time my day was over at 9pm, the thought of going to the gym seemed painful.

Thursday and Friday sounded similar.

So in order to make sure another hundred weeks didn’t go down the same direction, I started following a different kind of game plan — a more realistic one.

I call it the Flop Formula. It’s set up to understand all the ways my usual game plans fail and build off of that.

When I want to change, I pretend like there aren’t other outside issues and factors that could get in the way of me making these changes — yet there always are.

So here’s the formula I’ve been using the past few weeks that has helped me consistently workout.

The Flop Formula

• Make your goal realistic and then minus one

  • Look at your life — your real life and not the fictional version of it you daydream about. If you want to do something/change something, be honest about what that could look like in your life right now.

  • I realistically can’t workout 7-days a week. Plus, it’s not good for my body. My body needs rest. Based on my schedule, 5-days is doable — 3 days during the week and 2 weekend days.

  • But because I’m starting from scratch, 5-days is still a stretch. It’s hard to go from 0 to 5. I know I’m the kind of person who if I don’t do 5 days the first week I try, I’ll feel so guilty and down about it that I’ll quit.

  • FLOP! Set a goal and then minus it by one so that you will just get started and it will feel doable.

  • My goal: Workout four days a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and either Saturday/Sunday.

• Some part of this has to be outrageously fun

  • I get soooo serious when I’m trying to change my life. But being too serious can make even the little things feel more stressful.

  • Think of one— just one little way—to make something you’re working on doing/changing a little more fun.

  • I found a dance class in my neighborhood where every class also has a live DJ! It’s such a fun (and really hard workout) that I look forward to doing every Monday. It helps me kick-off the week in a positive way and it makes this workout goal really, really fun.

• Don’t do it alone

  • The more fun you can make annoying and hard life changes, the more you will want to do them. My friend is learning Spanish right now and she tried to use one of those language apps but was so bored by it that she dreaded logging on it and almost quit. Until she made it fun. She joined a local group where you can practice speaking Spanish with other beginners IRL. This changed everything because she was able to hit her goal with with new friends and feed off the accountability that comes with showing up somewhere with other people.

  • I made a new friend in one of my workout classes last month. Every Sunday, I text her and try to coordinate going to a class together that week. It’s a fun way to stay accountable and it’s a good excuse for us to meet during the week, catch up, and take a workout class together.

That’s the flop formula! It can be applied to any goal or life change that you’re working on.

Trying to save money, get a new job, move to a new city, edit your diet?

Make your goal realistic - then minus one part of it + find a way to make it fun + don’t do it all alone = the Flop Formula.

Love,

Jen Glantz

---

How I used AI to make life easier this week

This week, I used ChatGPT (a free AI tool) as my personal trainer. I shared very clear instructions about what type of workouts I wanted to try, the amount of time I had, and the equipment that was available.

Here’s what it shared with me:

---

⚡Instant Pick Me Ups

📖: I didn’t have a chance to read anything new this week but I’m thinking about rereading some of the books I loved from the last year. Here’s my ultimate list.

🛍️: Here are the items I wore over and over again this week — it was a hot one in NYC!

• I wore these cool pink shoes every day this week — including out to dinner with my friends on Friday night.

• This polka dot dress that’s on sale right now. It’s casual but you can also wear it to events and dress it up with heels.

• I got a pair of Brooks sneakers and have walked miles in these. Love them — so so so so comfortable and a few people even complimented me on them.

🎵: Whether or not I want it to, this song is playing on repeat in my head at least once an hour.

---

Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Monday Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 9-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.

Become a paid subscriber: I’m building a community here with private Zoom hang-outs, workshop, bonus content, and more! Join the community and support the newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber in 2024 for $5 a month. Thank you so much for considering :)