When it comes to health and wellness, most of us know what we should be doing, but putting that into action is the hard part. If I asked you what a ‘healthy diet’ looks like, I’m sure you would reel off things like, eat your 5 a day, stay hydrated and limit highly processed foods. However consistently achieving these habits is much easier said than done.
On average it takes 66 days for a new behaviour to become automatic, so we cannot expect to master something in just a few days. With the summer holidays coming to a close, Autumn approaching, and potentially kids going back to school, we thought it was a great opportunity to start building some new habits.
In this blog we will explore some top tips for setting healthy intentions, and sticking to them!
Our Top Tips
Habit stacking
The idea of habit stacking is simple. Essentially, we attach a new behaviour, to one that is already established. This helps us to remember to perform the habit, and creates a routine. For example, if you take a shower and brush your teeth every morning, you could then perform 5 minutes of stretching straight after. Or spend a few minutes writing in a journal as you wait for the kettle to boil.
Habit tracking
Tracking habits can give us a sense of achievement, as well as a daily reminder and a boost in motivation. You may want to download an app or use a calendar or diary, just make sure it’s easily accessible. Each day you can tick off the habit and start to build up streaks, but don’t worry if you miss a day as that’s part of the process!
Start small
A common mistake when starting something new, is that we are not realistic with our goals. If you want to start walking more, and currently do 4,000 steps a day, don’t immediately jump to 10,000. Pick something that is slightly challenging but also manageable, otherwise you will feel discouraged. A good questions to ask yourself is, ‘how likely out of 10 am I going to be able to do this every day, or every week?’ If the answer is less than 8 or 9, simplify the task.
Also, avoid doing everything at once. You may have goals to increase hydration, join a gym, start meditating, cut down on alcohol and improve your sleep, but tackling everything in one go will be overwhelming and not conducive to success. Choose one or two things to focus on at a time, you will likely find they have a positive knock-on effect too.
Make habits fit your lifestyle
We all have different things going on, whether it’s work or family, and we also have personal preferences. Your colleague might go to the gym at 5am, but if you hate mornings or have to get kids ready for school, this is unlikely to work for you! Think about your own commitments and strengths, and try not to compare yourself to others.
Plan ahead
‘By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail’ is a famous quote by Benjamin Franklin and can be applied to setting new habits. Planning could be as simple as filling up your water bottle the night before and leaving it next to your work bag or laptop. Or spending each Sunday planning in your exercise for the week, we are more likely to accomplish a written goal, so put pen to paper and make those commitments.
Avoid perfection
Finally, it’s very common to think we need to do something perfectly, or not at all. How many times have you thought, ‘I’ll start again on Monday/next week/next month’ because you don’t feel like you’ve done a good enough job. Building habits is about action, not perfection. If you get to the end of the month and have achieved something 20 out of 30 days, that’s fantastic, so keep going!
CONCLUSION
We often wait for motivation to show up, but in reality, it is our actions which lead to motivation. Whatever it is that you want to achieve, give some of the above tips a go. Once you build some momentum you are much more likely to feel motivated to continue, and the habits will become automatic. If you would like to support your employees in setting goals, our 1:1 wellbeing coaching could be for you.
