CONSISTENCY CHANGES EVERYTHING: 150 VISITS IN 190 DAYS

At the end of February, I joined the gym at Ashford International Hotel & Spa with one very specific goal: to improve my core strength.

I gave myself a year. Six months in, I’ve been to the gym 150 days out of a possible 190. That’s almost four out of every five days.

At the start, I rated my inner core strength at about 5 out of 10. Today, I’d put it at 8 out of 10.

It feels like a massive improvement in six months and has reinforced something I’ve believed for years: Daily activities, done consistently, can compound and change everything.

MY ROUTINE ISN’T COMPLICATED

I’m normally there for around 90 minutes to two hours from 0630. The routine rarely changes.

20 minutes on the treadmill – walking at three miles per hour at the highest incline. It certainly gets my heart racing.

45 minutes of weights – I started mainly on machines and have gradually moved onto free weights.

Then I’ll swim 10–20 lengths, followed by five or ten minutes in the sauna and an ice-cold shower. That’s it. The power is in repeating it.

Most of the days I haven’t been are because I’ve either been away on holiday or business. When I’m at home and near the gym, going has simply become something I do.

THE THREE DAILY GOALS

This takes me back to the system I used when I stopped drinking alcohol in December 2020.

I had a huge goal: become alcohol-free, healthier, fitter, more present and happier.

Big goals can feel overwhelming. So, I reduced mine to three daily goals: Don’t drink alcohol. Walk or exercise every day. Meditate for 15 minutes. Those small daily wins changed everything.

For 2026, the goals have evolved. Mine are broadly:

Move: Get to the gym whenever I’m home.

Hydrate: Drink plenty of water every day.

Fuel: Eat as healthily as I can, starting with something simple such as fruit and granola or muesli for breakfast.

I’m not chasing perfection. Just staying consistent with a few daily habits.

THE POWER OF ALCOHOL-FREE

I’m now in my sixth year alcohol-free, and I genuinely believe that has made this level of consistency possible. I’m not saying people who drink can’t exercise regularly. Of course they can. I’m talking about me.

The drinking version of me joined gyms before. I’d go enthusiastically for a week or two. Then perhaps I’d turn up once a week for a swim and sauna.

Basically, I had a very expensive swimming and sauna room membership.

Today, because I use the gym so frequently, it works out at less than £2 a visit!

Alcohol used to disrupt my routines. It made me lethargic, affected my energy and pulled me away from being fully present.

Removing it gave me space to build better habits; and better habits created a different version of me.

I’m now halfway towards my one-year target of 300 gym visits. But the real target isn’t 300. It’s becoming the person who keeps showing up.

LIFE COACHING CHALLENGE

Choose three simple daily goals for yourself. Remember three is a good number as if you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any priorities.

Make them small enough to easily achieve and meaningful enough that repeating them for a year could change your life. You don’t transform your life in one enormous leap. You transform it one day at a time.

WANT TO CHANGE YOUR HABITS?

If there’s an area of your life where you know what you want to change but struggle to make it stick, that’s exactly the sort of work I do through coaching, NLP and hypnotherapy.

We look beyond willpower and work on the habits, beliefs, triggers and identity that drive your behaviour.

Walking Back to Happiness: The Secret to Alcohol-Free Living & Well-Being also shares the practical tools I used to change my own relationship with alcohol, health and happiness.

Have a great day,

Your Life Coach

LINKS

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Email — nigel@9kmby9am.com

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Book — https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DLPH36R3/

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LINKS

COACHING

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Podcasts – https://www.9kmby9am.com/about-nigel/podcasts/

Testimonials – https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/coaching-testimonials/

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My Book – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DLPH36R3/

Professional Bodies https://general-hypnotherapy-register.com/nigel-jones/ & https://anlp.org/members/nigel-jones

Newsletter – https://www.9kmby9am.com/latest-news/newsletter/

Sober Coaching – https://www.9kmby9am.com/coaching/getsobercurious

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BOOK

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SOBER CODE

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