No Exceptions
Many top performers use the rule of “no exceptions”. What that means is that once you’ve decided to do something you do it every single time.
As an example, if you wake up every morning at 5am, you always wake up at 5am, regardless of the time you went to bed. You don’t sleep in “just this once” or ever. The danger of making an exception is that the next time you don’t want to do something you have already set a precedent of not doing it so the second time you make an exception it does not seem as bad to you.
Keep the Chain Going
If you’ve decided that you’re going to workout every day, then you do it, no exceptions. Again, because one missed workout could lead to two could lead to three. Before you know it, you haven’t worked out for weeks at a time.
You may not have great night’s sleep or the best workout, but the point is to continue the activity so that a regular habit is formed.
No exceptions can also work when you’re trying not to do something or to quit doing something.
If you’ve decided to quit smoking you don’t have an occasional cigarette. Because one occasional cigarette could lead to two could lead to three, etc. You don’t have any, period. You don’t even buy them.
Alcoholics Anonymous is famous for this. Once someone has decided they’re not going to drink anymore they start counting in days then months then years the amount of time that they have not had a drink. There are no exceptions. They don’t have a social drink with their friends occasionally, they don’t have one quick drink at home occasionally, they don’t have a little bit of wine at dinner occasionally. There are no exceptions.
If you’re trying to follow a particular diet to feel better about yourself or lose some weight, no exceptions will help you do that too. One of the easiest ways to have no exceptions is to decide that you don’t snack. Then you don’t have snack foods like cookies, chips or ice cream in the house at all. That way when you’re in front of the TV watching the game, you don’t reach for a bag of chips or some cookies or some ice cream or whatever snack foods you like. There are no exceptions.
Two Cookies??!!
The issue with a snacking exception is when you make it once it’s much easier to make an exception another time. And we’re really good at justifying “just once”. If you’ve ever read the nutritional values on a box of cookies or a bag of chips, they’re not actually that bad. Usually the calorie counts are not very high. Neither are the fat or salt counts. However, the serving sizes are not very big. In the case of cookies usually the serving size that they are referring to in the nutritional panel is 2 cookies. When it’s a bag of potato chips very often it’s 25 potato chips. Who is only eating 2 cookies or 25 potato chips? What’s more likely is you’re probably eating half of the cookie box or most of the potato chip bag.
The reality is that doing something 100% of the time is much easier than doing it 99% of the time. Once you’ve decided that there will be no exceptions, that you won’t have any alcohol, cigarettes or snack foods, in the house, then you’re ready to make “no exceptions”.