Spring is finally here! Depending on where you live, you may be excited for a change or you may already be used to warm weather by now. Either way, spring is a great time of year that brings back fond memories for all of us and keeps us looking forward optimistically. Why do we love spring so much? Well, we love it for the same reasons that we can use the season for positive change:
Renewal: Spring gives us a sense of new. Everywhere you look, you see reminders of a new season and a new chapter in the year. Use it to reach your goals!
Outdoor Access: Now that the weather is getting warmer, it is only natural that we can get out more often and stay out longer when we do. The fresh air can rejuvenate us from day to day and even help rejuvenate our entire routine.
Spring is a great time to take inventory of your routine and decide if there is any “spring cleaning” needed. Even if it’s just a minor adjustment, this is the perfect time to make it. It’s just like cleaning out the garage. It is a good time to do it and here are some steps that will make it easier.
What can you do to spring clean your routine? (How does it compare to cleaning out the garage?)
Revisit your current routine (Taking inventory)
Before you start making changes, you have to know what you are doing now. Ask yourself a few simple questions:
What are you doing for your health now? (What is in the garage now?)
What challenges have I run into lately? (What items do we really need to move or get rid of?)
Plan your future routine (Clearing out the junk and moving things out)
Now that you see what your current routine looks like and what challenges you want to fix, you can start making plans to adjust. There are a few more simple questions to ask yourself at this point:
What do I want to be doing? (What do I want to keep and what do I want to throw away?)
When/Where do you want to do these activities? (Where are you going to put the items you are keeping?)
Execute (Reorganize and put things away so you can actually use them!)
Go out and do it! This is the best part about your routine and cleaning the garage. It is the time when your needs, plan and action all come together. It’s not the easiest part of the job, but when you do it, you see rewards.
No matter what you are doing, there is something very satisfying about setting and reaching goals. Whether you are revamping your exercise routine, your diet or actually cleaning out a room in your house, when you put a plan together, take the time to make it happen and see the result you were looking for, there is nothing better. You wanted to do something, you did it and now you can see the results.
Health may not always be as immediate. You don’t always see results quickly, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t happening. Just make sure that your plan is realistic, give yourself a realistic timeline to execute (you wouldn’t try to clean out the garage in 5 minutes) and you will be on your way to a healthy and happy spring.
Have a Healthy Spring!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Goals: Set and Let Your Habits Do the Rest
Setting goals is an important part of any part of our lives. If you want to accomplish something, you have to set goals and take steps toward them in order to be successful. That is the essence of goal-setting: taking measureable steps toward success. Taking steps toward success is more than just wanting to do something. When you set a goal it is turning an idea into action.
Goals are easy, staying aligned with the goals we set is where the challenge comes in. If the accomplishment of goals was as easy as setting them, we would all be wildly successful. Every New Year’s Resolution would come to be and we wouldn’t ever have to question it. The facts and our experience strongly show us that setting goals and accomplishing them are two very different steps in an important process.
So, what do we need to do to make accomplishing goals part of setting them? Well, once you are in the habit of setting realistic goals that work for you, it becomes that automatic. At least it feels automatic. Think about it this way:
When you get in the car and put on your seatbelt, you are doing so for a number of reasons:
1. Safety- you know that a seatbelt can mean the difference between safety and serious injury or even death if you don’t wear it.
2. Legal- you know that if you are pulled over and not wearing a seatbelt, you will be given a ticket for not obeying a basic traffic law.
These are the reasons you are using a seatbelt in your car. You do this every time you get in and drive anywhere. You do this each time, no matter where you are going and no matter how rushed you are. If you are taking a leisurely drive, you put your seatbelt on. If you are hustling to get to a meeting, you put your seatbelt on. You put your seatbelt on no matter what.
How did this become automatic? Wearing your seatbelt in the car became automatic because we know how important it is. We have two very clear motivators to keep us from neglecting this habit. Bodily harm is a good motivator and so are tickets and fines. These motivators are important and will keep us on track with our goals of not dying. They are helping us keep as much of our money as possible and keeping our driving record clean all at the same time.
The motivators behind goals are important to get you going and to help you start making changes to see the results you want. When you think about health, there are many motivators that become a factor to get us moving. Improved daily feeling, avoidance of long-term health issues, weight loss and other factors are enough to get and keep most of us setting and reaching goals to live healthier.
Motivators are important, but the biggest factor in our health is our habits. The habits of diet and exercise are what bring us the results we are looking for, or keep us from seeing them. If your habits are in line with your goals, you will see the results you want. If they are not, you will struggle and not see the results you want to see.
In other words, our habits are the most important factor in success. Remembering that success is nothing more than setting and reaching goals: our habits are what allow us to reach goals by making the actions part of our daily routine.
Often, the most influential things we do are things we no longer think about. When you put your seatbelt on, you don’t have to think about it. You do it every time, yet it doesn’t even enter your conscious thought most times because it has become so automatic. The motivators are there. You could recall in an instant WHY you are wearing your seatbelt, but you don’t have to think about it in order to do it.
That is what healthy living habits become for healthy people. You know WHY you are eating healthy foods and getting your exercise in each day. You know why you are doing this day in and day out, but you don’t have to think about it because you have set goals and made the action part of your daily routine.
It gets easy. It may be a challenge to get started, but trust me, the more you do something, the more you will be able to do it without it feeling difficult. The longer you do something, anything, the more natural it becomes. As it becomes more natural, you won’t be thinking so hard about the reasons you are doing it or the alternatives to doing it. You will just do it.
The best part about success is that you are reaching goals you wanted to reach. What is success? Success is when:
You set goals.
You are motivated to achieve your goals.
You develop habits that help you achieve your goals.
You achieve your goals.
The first step is to set your goals. If you set them, write them down and understand why you want to reach them, the habits that are necessary to reach them become clear and you can easily make them part of your routine.
As you do that and they become more and more natural for you, you will see success. Setting goals and keeping focus on the action is the best way to develop the habits you need to succeed. It is your habits that are going to help you reach your goals. So, if you want to be successful, set goals and let your habits do the rest.
Goals are easy, staying aligned with the goals we set is where the challenge comes in. If the accomplishment of goals was as easy as setting them, we would all be wildly successful. Every New Year’s Resolution would come to be and we wouldn’t ever have to question it. The facts and our experience strongly show us that setting goals and accomplishing them are two very different steps in an important process.
So, what do we need to do to make accomplishing goals part of setting them? Well, once you are in the habit of setting realistic goals that work for you, it becomes that automatic. At least it feels automatic. Think about it this way:
When you get in the car and put on your seatbelt, you are doing so for a number of reasons:
1. Safety- you know that a seatbelt can mean the difference between safety and serious injury or even death if you don’t wear it.
2. Legal- you know that if you are pulled over and not wearing a seatbelt, you will be given a ticket for not obeying a basic traffic law.
These are the reasons you are using a seatbelt in your car. You do this every time you get in and drive anywhere. You do this each time, no matter where you are going and no matter how rushed you are. If you are taking a leisurely drive, you put your seatbelt on. If you are hustling to get to a meeting, you put your seatbelt on. You put your seatbelt on no matter what.
How did this become automatic? Wearing your seatbelt in the car became automatic because we know how important it is. We have two very clear motivators to keep us from neglecting this habit. Bodily harm is a good motivator and so are tickets and fines. These motivators are important and will keep us on track with our goals of not dying. They are helping us keep as much of our money as possible and keeping our driving record clean all at the same time.
The motivators behind goals are important to get you going and to help you start making changes to see the results you want. When you think about health, there are many motivators that become a factor to get us moving. Improved daily feeling, avoidance of long-term health issues, weight loss and other factors are enough to get and keep most of us setting and reaching goals to live healthier.
Motivators are important, but the biggest factor in our health is our habits. The habits of diet and exercise are what bring us the results we are looking for, or keep us from seeing them. If your habits are in line with your goals, you will see the results you want. If they are not, you will struggle and not see the results you want to see.
In other words, our habits are the most important factor in success. Remembering that success is nothing more than setting and reaching goals: our habits are what allow us to reach goals by making the actions part of our daily routine.
Often, the most influential things we do are things we no longer think about. When you put your seatbelt on, you don’t have to think about it. You do it every time, yet it doesn’t even enter your conscious thought most times because it has become so automatic. The motivators are there. You could recall in an instant WHY you are wearing your seatbelt, but you don’t have to think about it in order to do it.
That is what healthy living habits become for healthy people. You know WHY you are eating healthy foods and getting your exercise in each day. You know why you are doing this day in and day out, but you don’t have to think about it because you have set goals and made the action part of your daily routine.
It gets easy. It may be a challenge to get started, but trust me, the more you do something, the more you will be able to do it without it feeling difficult. The longer you do something, anything, the more natural it becomes. As it becomes more natural, you won’t be thinking so hard about the reasons you are doing it or the alternatives to doing it. You will just do it.
The best part about success is that you are reaching goals you wanted to reach. What is success? Success is when:
You set goals.
You are motivated to achieve your goals.
You develop habits that help you achieve your goals.
You achieve your goals.
The first step is to set your goals. If you set them, write them down and understand why you want to reach them, the habits that are necessary to reach them become clear and you can easily make them part of your routine.
As you do that and they become more and more natural for you, you will see success. Setting goals and keeping focus on the action is the best way to develop the habits you need to succeed. It is your habits that are going to help you reach your goals. So, if you want to be successful, set goals and let your habits do the rest.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Want to Live Healthy: You Can
Living healthy is not easy. The more we see in the media, the more problems seem to be plaguing our country. If you are human, which I think you are if you are reading this, you likely see the problems and may even be experiencing some of them yourself.
Health is not something that comes easy to anyone. There are many people that have made it easy for them, but only after many years of hard work and practice. It may look easy for them now, but they had to build those habits. They had to work their way to where they are now. When you see them in action, it looks easy. It may even be easy for them now, but trust me, it was not easy to start and there are still difficult times for them when it comes to sticking with the routine.
The difference between healthy people and unhealthy people is nothing more than the habits and routines that they have worked on for a long time. Even with new habits, the process is the same for healthy people. They know what it will take to make something stick, so they do it and do it until it is part of their routine.
Unhealthy people look at these people and think that the process is easy for them. They think that it is hard for themselves, but easy for the healthy people and they think that the difference between them and the healthy people is the ease. That is not true. No matter how much you struggle with health, there is a way to do it. You can be successful.
You can also fail. This is not what you want to hear, but failure is always a possibility. If you are trying something new, you can fail. If you are working to include new habits into your routine, you can fail.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss some real solutions. Here are some solutions to help you realize that you can:
Stop Fearing Failure
If you acknowledge that failure is an option, you can get over the fear of failure. The fear of failure is worse than failure itself. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people are able to fail and keep going, try again or simply find a better way to do something. There is always another way to do something, so if you fail, simply try again, try something different and you will eventually succeed.
Determine Plan B
If you have another option, failure will be pretty short. The problem with falling short of a goal is that it leaves you feeling like you missed the mark. Well, it’s true. You did miss the mark, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t try again. If you have a plan for getting back on track or a secondary goal that will allow you another option, you can succeed or simply limit the impact of a small failure.
Don’t Expect it to Be Easy
Health is not easy. If you expect it to be easy, you will be disappointed. The most common reason for failure is poorly managed expectations. We’ve all been there. You set out to try something new and expect it to be easy. When we run into one little issue, it is enough to derail us. We didn’t see it coming because we expected it to be easy. Success is not easy and often takes a lot of practice. If you go into it knowing this, you can reach it. If you go into it with the fantasy that it will be easy, reality will quickly catch up to you and failure will not be far behind.
So, what are you goals? What is the new habit you want to make part of your routine? No matter what it is, you can do it. How do I know that without knowing what your habit is or what your routine looks like? I know that you can because it isn’t as hard as you think it is. If you can move forward without fear of failing, have a plan B in place because you know that failure is possible and expect a few challenges along the way, you can do it.
It’s not rocket science. It’s not brain surgery. Health is hard, but it’s not that hard. We can all do it. You don’t have to run marathons or lose a hundred pounds in a week. All you have to do is come up with a simple plan that works for you. Determine what habit you want to improve and go improve it. Notice I said improve and not change, eliminate or create. We already have many habits. If you can improve just one habit gradually, you can make a significant impact on your health.
Can you improve your health? Of course you can. Is it going to be easy, of course it won’t be easy. But no matter what it is you are trying to do, if you are focused on your health and willing to create a realistic plan, you can do it. Trust me, you can.
Health is not something that comes easy to anyone. There are many people that have made it easy for them, but only after many years of hard work and practice. It may look easy for them now, but they had to build those habits. They had to work their way to where they are now. When you see them in action, it looks easy. It may even be easy for them now, but trust me, it was not easy to start and there are still difficult times for them when it comes to sticking with the routine.
The difference between healthy people and unhealthy people is nothing more than the habits and routines that they have worked on for a long time. Even with new habits, the process is the same for healthy people. They know what it will take to make something stick, so they do it and do it until it is part of their routine.
Unhealthy people look at these people and think that the process is easy for them. They think that it is hard for themselves, but easy for the healthy people and they think that the difference between them and the healthy people is the ease. That is not true. No matter how much you struggle with health, there is a way to do it. You can be successful.
You can also fail. This is not what you want to hear, but failure is always a possibility. If you are trying something new, you can fail. If you are working to include new habits into your routine, you can fail.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can discuss some real solutions. Here are some solutions to help you realize that you can:
Stop Fearing Failure
If you acknowledge that failure is an option, you can get over the fear of failure. The fear of failure is worse than failure itself. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is that successful people are able to fail and keep going, try again or simply find a better way to do something. There is always another way to do something, so if you fail, simply try again, try something different and you will eventually succeed.
Determine Plan B
If you have another option, failure will be pretty short. The problem with falling short of a goal is that it leaves you feeling like you missed the mark. Well, it’s true. You did miss the mark, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t try again. If you have a plan for getting back on track or a secondary goal that will allow you another option, you can succeed or simply limit the impact of a small failure.
Don’t Expect it to Be Easy
Health is not easy. If you expect it to be easy, you will be disappointed. The most common reason for failure is poorly managed expectations. We’ve all been there. You set out to try something new and expect it to be easy. When we run into one little issue, it is enough to derail us. We didn’t see it coming because we expected it to be easy. Success is not easy and often takes a lot of practice. If you go into it knowing this, you can reach it. If you go into it with the fantasy that it will be easy, reality will quickly catch up to you and failure will not be far behind.
So, what are you goals? What is the new habit you want to make part of your routine? No matter what it is, you can do it. How do I know that without knowing what your habit is or what your routine looks like? I know that you can because it isn’t as hard as you think it is. If you can move forward without fear of failing, have a plan B in place because you know that failure is possible and expect a few challenges along the way, you can do it.
It’s not rocket science. It’s not brain surgery. Health is hard, but it’s not that hard. We can all do it. You don’t have to run marathons or lose a hundred pounds in a week. All you have to do is come up with a simple plan that works for you. Determine what habit you want to improve and go improve it. Notice I said improve and not change, eliminate or create. We already have many habits. If you can improve just one habit gradually, you can make a significant impact on your health.
Can you improve your health? Of course you can. Is it going to be easy, of course it won’t be easy. But no matter what it is you are trying to do, if you are focused on your health and willing to create a realistic plan, you can do it. Trust me, you can.
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