Right about this time of year, many people are looking back over their best New Year intentions about health habits. If you are still on target with your resolutions, good for you! But if you’re like so many of us have who have gotten off course already, here are four pointers to help you right the ship:
- Think about why you wanted to make the change in the first place. Knowing why something is important will give you power to follow through, even if you have to keep reminding yourself in the beginning. Why did you want to exercise, to eat better, to worry less, to quit smoking, to get adjusted regularly? When you know why, you will comply.
- Imagine if you made the change you want to make – what would you be like? What would be different? How would it be better? What would you gain? What wouldn’t you lose? Get clear about what you would look like, feel like, be like if you made the change you wanted to make.
- What’s the first step you can take in the right direction? Maybe it’s hard to do everything all at once, but could you take a single step? Eat that way once. Do that exercise once. Then you can decide what to do, after doing it once. If you do it again, that would make twice, and you have the beginning of a habit. Build it a brick at a time.
- If you stumble, get back up quickly. Everyone messes up. Sometimes we fall because we tried to make too many changes, too soon and couldn’t “do it all.” Sometimes we give up too soon because we aren’t seeing the results we expected as quickly as we would like.
Review your goals, pick the simplest changes you can consistently make to achieve them. Reconsider your timeline — is it realistic? Focus on the process, and If you get up one more time than you are knocked down, you will get to your goal.
Whether you want to lose weight, get in shape, quit a bad habit or start a good one, use this simple and magical formula – know why, imagine your success, get started, and keep going. Over time, you’ll get to where you want to be!
If you’re having challenges keeping up with the good habits you want to develop, especially due to pain or injury, please give us a call. We can help you get moving better so you can heal better and feel better!