The New Year is here, and we all know what that means: a slew of New Year’s resolutions were made as people take aim at self-improvement and goal setting. One area that many people focus on when considering their goals is their health. In fact, the most common resolutions are about health-related goals, and for good reason. But if you have ever tried to make a positive change for your health, then you are aware of how difficult making a positive health change is. Here are a few tips to help you find a winning formula for making positive health changes.
Have Someone Hold You Accountable
According to the Washington Post, there is no better way to ensure that you will make a positive health change than to have someone to keep you accountable. When you have another person in the know about your goals and resolutions, it’s not just your brain remembering to follow up. You will feel a stronger sense of responsibility for your goals since there is another person helping you keep track of things. Even better, find yourself a buddy who also has some health goals and resolve to hold each other accountable. This makes your goals feel like a team effort and can increase your compliance with your goals.
Set Goals
The next key is to set goals. While you may hear that and think that you already have health goals, it’s quite possible that your goals are not the most effective goals. When you set goals that are vague, difficult to measure, or ephemeral, it can be difficult to take concrete steps towards your goal, which makes hitting your goals difficult. If your goal is to eat healthier, that is a noble pursuit but hard to measure. Rather, if your goal is to eat a certain number of fruits and veggies each day, and eat fried foods once a week or less, you can measure that and keep track of it. According to TMS Clinics of Canada, setting goals can give you something to work towards. Make sure you are setting effective goals.
Don’t Punish Yourself When You Fall Short
With health goals, like any other goal, there is a strong likelihood that at some point you will struggle and make a choice that goes against your stated goal. According to Healthline, the worst thing you can do in that scenario is to punish yourself and feel bad about coming up short. Change is hard, and one choice does not ruin your goals, take away your progress, or make you less than. Be kind to yourself and remember that you should celebrate your successes far more than you should look down on your shortcomings.
There are a lot of great reasons why you may want to make positive health changes in your life. Sticking to those life changes, however, can be a challenge. Follow these three tips to find a way to make positive health changes stick.
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