Goal Setting for Success: Whole Body Health
If you are looking to improve certain areas of your life, or find time to be mindful, eat balanced and exercise you may feel overwhelmed and not know where to start. It’s time to go back to basics and focus on small achievable goals. One of the keys to incorporating good habits into your life is to create a plan. Being organized will allow you to dedicate time to your well-being and prioritize self-care.
Let’s face it, creating change is hard, it takes time and energy both of which are in short supply some days. But if you want to change a pattern or circuit (habit) you must repeatedly fire a new ‘healthier’ circuit. Unfortunately doing something different once or twice is not going to create a new habit. The brain needs to have the pattern (circuit) fire repeatedly over time to create a new pattern in the brain where it becomes easier and automatic.
Further, our brains perceive change as a threat (and stressful), therefore works to get us to repeat the same old behaviors. It does this by making us forget what we’re working on or by thinking negative thoughts like “this is silly, it won’t work”.
That means to accomplish lasting change; we need to be consistent enough that we’re doing the new behavior much more than we do the old one and finding ways to push past the resistance and be comfortable with the discomfort of change.
Tips to create lasting change:
1. Ignore the impulse to “bite off more than you can do”
Choose to change only 1 (2 maximum) behaviors at a time. Remember that if you were in fact successful at rewiring a couple of behaviors at a time then over the year look at how much progress you would have made!
2. Change what matters to you
Choose only behaviors that are important and meaningful to you. If it isn’t important to YOU then you won’t take the time and energy needed to successfully create a new wire/pattern.
3. Get support
Look at an elite athlete or winning team, they don’t let their trainers, coaches go before the big game or race. They know that their support has gotten them to where they are it is critical to continue with their support so that they continue to be successful.
4. Create a plan
Set specific goals and action plans. Make sure the goal is specific and measurable and then set out the steps that you need to do to accomplish it.
Let us help you make this year different with our online wellness program – My Viva Plan. We designed the plan to help prove to people they have what it takes to be the best version of themselves. It is designed to support you along your journey, encouraging you to be kind to yourself, and to believe in your goals. It proves to you that the baby steps for wellness you choose to take each day add up to bigger steps towards being the best version of you.
Combining the three elements of whole-body health: mindfulness, nutrition, and fitness, you can increase your self-care a little at a time, starting where you are at and focusing on the areas separately or seeing how they work together to impact your well-being. Don’t hesitate to make this year all about you. It’s not self-centred. Every area of your life benefits when you are the best version of yourself. You will feel better in your work, your relationships, and you will feel you have more to give to others. So go ahead, start where you are at. We will support you every step of the way.