You’re starting to think you look so haggard you want another mirror for a second opinion. Your dryer shrank your pants – again. Bending is such a challenge that when you tie your shoes, you look around to see if there’s anything else you could do while you’re down there. THIS time, you tell yourself, after getting winded coming up one flight of stairs, you’re going to get healthy.
That’s certainly a worthy goal. But it’s also daunting. How in the WORLD will you get from where you are, to where you want to be? It’s just too easy to decide to wait and start tomorrow…and then tomorrow….and then tomorrow.
The simple truth is, you’re going to get more positive results, and lasting behavioral changes for the better, when you release the idea of making immediate sweeping lifestyle changes in favor of taking tiny steps.
1. The first step should be making sure you want to make changes for you. Tune out all the external chatter, and check in with yourself to see if you are trying to please someone else, or if this is truly something you personally want to accomplish for your own well-being. Focus on the values, virtues and strengths that nourish your body, mind and spirit. You can’t live someone else’s life.
2. That being said, what you do deserve to get from others is encouragement. Is someone subtly – or not-so-subtly – trying to sabotage you? Surround yourself with others who support you in your efforts. Sure, you want friends and family to give you a reality check, but you also deserve their encouragement.
3. Now that you’ve created a strong foundation for change, and your support team is in place, break your goals down into manageable steps. Running a marathon next month when you rarely even go for a walk isn’t realistic. Starting to walk half an hour a day, and over the course of a year gradually increasing your time, distance and speed, certainly is. Check with your doctor before embarking on this challenging but doable goal.
4. Successfully making any changes will require some mental “rewiring.” When we repeat a thought or behavior, it literally creates a groove in our brain, similar to the grooves on a record. Any messages we’ve received through our life, good or bad, we unconsciously “replay” and repeat the habituated behavior. “You’ll always be fat,” “you’ll never be good at math” or “you’re just not cut out to be athletic” are some of the judgments from others that can resonate throughout our lives, limiting our abilities to reach goals, get healthy or be truly happy. That’s why starting out with small, realistic and achievable objectives is so smart. Early successes immediately increase our self-confidence and self-esteem, helping us stay with the program. By changing the messages we tell ourselves, even slightly, we begin creating new neural pathways, those “grooves” in our brain.
5. So now that you’re sure you’re making changes for your own personal satisfaction, you have a support team to encourage you, you’ve started taking small steps and you’re successfully changing the messages you’re telling yourself, it’s time to celebrate your progress. Congratulating yourself reinforces your commitment to positive change, and is essential to staying on track. Before too long, you’ll experience for yourself how those small steps will lead to achieving big goals for optimum health in body, mind and spirit.
Learn how to make positive, powerful and lasting changes when you embark on a life-affirming visit to the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego or Austin, Texas. Our caring team can help you achieve your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual goals for optimal health. Visit our website at www.optimumhealth.org , and call us at (800) 993-4325 to make your reservation.
