My Good Habit No. 1 is to decide on your one “non-negotiable” health goal for the year.
So here we are again, another new year and another set of resolutions are waiting to be actioned and broken in equal quantity !! Not that I want to appear negative here, more that I am trying to be realistic, I mean lets face it we have all been here before right… well I am hear to tell you that you don’t need to fall off that wagon and that you can achieve your goals if you set yourself achievable ones. Baby steps, thats what I am talking about….
Its’s not easy to achieve those dizzy heights you have set yourself if your resolutions are just too high a mountain to climb. So here’s my take on making positive steps up that mountain rather than a big fat roll back down to the bottom come the end of January !
First you need to decide what your bare minimum achievement is, what is the lowest level of achievement that you are prepared to accept from yourself ?
Why is it that everyone else’s goals seem to be set firm and what they need from us is always achieved. For example, if someone else is asking something of you somehow that seems to take top priority over ones own goals and needs which so easily seem to become disposable in our minds. This invariably leads to us not achieving anything for ourselves, and the feeling of disappointment, frustrated and anger that comes with it – am I right ?
So lets set one thing in your life which is non-waitering, one resolution which you will make, a promise to yourself to achieve no matter what. Last year I promised myself that come what may I would ALWAYS prioritise my Yoga class once a week. This class does me so much good on a number of levels, physically, mentally, just for a bit of guaranteed “turn the volume down” time. So no matter what got in the way I did achieve that for a whole year because I set myself an achievable goal and did not allow my inner voice to talk myself out of it. Even on days when I least felt like going or felt guilty because someone else wanted my time etc.. and particularly on those days when it felt like such a wrench to get myself to the class I made a mental note of how I felt afterwards (“down right amazing” was the gods honest truth !) so there we have it, in my experience it was worth sticking to it and I can tell you that that habit is definitely being carried over into 2018 and beyond.
Whats your non-negotiable ? I would love to reel off examples here for you but I purposefully have not as you must choose something that will add value to your own health and wellbeing and which is fairly easily achievable throughout the coming year. Write it down somewhere safe because you are going to need to remind yourself of what that is as the year goes by. You will feel so great at the end of 2018 when you realise you have achieved something for yourself that you have stuck too and I bet your list of “non-negotiables” will grow come January 2019 !!
P.S. The great thing is that by repeating something regularly for a whole year, you begin to develop “muscle memory” (or shall we say “habit memory”) and this will become your new norm I promise – no bad place to be when it is something that is good for you and that you love.