When it comes to making changes for your health and wellness, keeping yourself on track can be incredibly difficult. You may struggle to accomplish your daily tasks and find you need a way to hold yourself accountable. There are so many ways to keep yourself in check and find the one that works best for you!
1) Make to-do lists
Having your daily goals written down and taking the time to check them off can be such great positive reinforcement for completing goals. If one of your goals is to get in more movement, prioritize writing a movement goal for the day and checking it off. It’s important to rewrite this goal daily and make sure you don't let it slip off your radar. After a while it can feel like you’ve committed that task to your routine, that’s normally when we fall off track!
2) Find an accountability partner
It’s ok to know that you need help in staying on task! Sometimes this means finding a coworker or friend to join in the same goals who you can report to. Sometimes it’s the people who live with you. Maybe it's a group online. Coaches are also helpful in this endeavor. Setting yourself up for success is all about knowing that if you aren’t reporting to someone that you won’t reach your goals, find a partner in your goals and make it fun! Having someone going through this with you can also be really be exciting!
3) Find an established challenge
While you can find a lot of misinformation out there related to the health and wellness industry, there are still a lot of good tools. There are a lot of monthly challenges that can become a great template for keeping you on track. Pinterest has a lot of 30-day challenges you can use and they come in an endless variety of tasks, so you can find one that works for your lifestyle and goals!
4) Get a coach or trainer
Having a trainer is a great way to not only stay on task, but that trainer can ensure you are continually challenged! When we set goals for ourselves, sometimes we don’t always know if those goals are the best for us. A trainer can talk through our plans and help make them specific and attainable in your lifestyle. If you struggle to meet that goal they can help to simplify it for you, and if it becomes too easy, they can up the challenge! They can also provide regular check-ins to make sure you are doing your part, and sometimes that’s exactly the fire we need to reach our goals!
5) Set specific weekly, daily or monthly goals
General goals are the enemy of adherence! Make sure that you are not only setting a large end goal for yourself but small goals. These small goals are your stepping stones and allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment as you work towards that large goal that could take months or even a year or more. It can be hard to stay motivated for something that won’t be happening anytime soon. Make sure to take stock of your accomplishments as you are going and notice the small improvements being made.
6) Create your goals around your current lifestyle
“Oh! I’ll figure out how to make time for that.” “I’ll just move things around.” “I’ll figure it out!”
These are some of the common phrases we use when we have set a goal but have a packed schedule or other obligations that we already think will interfere with accomplishing those goals. Know what’s going on in your life. This is key for setting yourself up for success and also for keeping a healthy mindset towards working for your goals because you know you are capable of reaching it!
In a world of get rich quick and 7-day detoxes, we can often have a skewed perspective on goals and the timelines around them. So many tasks are presented as easy and as simple as a quick pill, but creating change and growing as a person takes time and patience. Nothing in life is a linear path, and knowing that there will be both good and bad days allows us to have a healthy take on the road ahead. If you take a step backwards, that’s ok. You have time to succeed and you always have time to grow from the missteps!
Until next week… and remember growing is for all!
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