said Marie to me on New Years Day 2023.

Almost everybody wants a quick fix first, and that’s okay.

I tell this to all my new clients who start my Deep Health coaching program, which is purposely designed to help people change beyond surface-level “quick fixes.”

My client, Marie, joined my coaching in January 2023 for a simple reason:

She’s busy, in the middle of her perimenopause, and wants to get in shape.

Marie has basic goals: improve her fitness and overall health, lower her stress, improve her bloodwork, and lose weight.

She’s feeling run-down and trapped in her responsibilities as CEO, as well as with her responsibilities as a parent and wife.

Marie is an eager, coachable client, so she’s on board for all the small changes I recommend 🙂

1. She starts with one of the simplest changes: Take a 5-minute action!

Anything goes, as long as it’s a very small action. She chooses to do a 5-minute wake-up workout of mine to start her day with a bit of me-time. But it can also be drinking an extra glass or two of water, eating two fists of veggies at lunch, and so on.

This 5-minute action helps Marie feel empowered to make more changes.

2. A week later: She makes herself a fiber-filled breakfast. She decides to run a few blocks at night.

3. One month later: She eats a big salad with protein for lunch, makes bowl dinners for her kid and husband, and stretches every second day for 15 minutes. One day, she gets herself to join a photography course.

4. Three months later: Marie stumbles across her newfound enjoyment of and capacity for fitness, upgrades her gear, tools, and activities, gets a good bike, reschedules her working hours to have lunchtime workouts, and chooses to have more girlfriend-dates. Along the way, the photography course turns out pretty well and her pics are liked well on Instagram, and in the meantime, she loses 11 kg and has a great fitness level in place.

5. A year later: She balanced her work-life balance, is fit and fulfilled, and is now making pictures for a popular online magazin.

I am high-fiving her for her successful change.

Marie is now self-sufficient, and her relationship with her partner is zestier than before.

That’s deep change: Change that permeates all aspects of life.

Let’s look at what was affected by this year-long process:

• Physical health: Marie’s physical health, function, and capacity improved.
• Mental health: Marie’s learning new things and feeling intellectually engaged and challenged.
• Emotional health: Marie’s feeling happy and much less stressed or concerned.
• Relational health: Marie feels much more connected to her partner and family, and her relationships are stronger.
• Existential health: Marie feels a sense of passion and purpose. She now has a deeper “why”. She feels differently about who she is as a person.
• Environmental health: Marie now spends hours each day active or outside, enjoying fresh air and nature. At home, her household supports her healthy habits.

You can imagine that this purposeful change process will continue for the next years; we will definitely see even broader effects.

For example, after another year of actively pursuing personal and professional growth.

I am also confident that Marie’s personal deep change towards deep health is or will change her entire community.

Of course, deep change doesn’t have to come from a single health concern. It could just as easily come from any other change project: quitting smoking, learning to manage money better, building job skills, improving one’s literacy, trying to be a better parent or partner, renovating a house, and so on.

What would be your next change project? Let me know here