December is one of the busiest times of year because of family, holidays, and travel. But December is also the time to prepare for 2015. If there are some health or life goals that wasn’t accomplished in 2014, this is usually the time people reflect on 2014 with the hopes of accomplishing them next year.
Change in your health begins with you. You have to be truly wanting to do something different from what you are already doing. The next step is to create short and long term goals. Once these goals are discovered, they should be written down. One of the most overlooked parts to accomplishing goals is creating a plan. The best way to creating a plan is with the “5 Hows”. The 5 Hows is a questioning process to reach the root of solutions.
For example, your goal is “I want to lose weight”.
1. How? “By eating better”.
2. How? “By eating less.”
3. How? “By controlling portions”, and so on.
Once the goal and the plan is set, the next step is implementing commitment. This tends to be the most difficult task. So difficult that most people that create New Year goals quit after two weeks in their journey.
If you noticed this is a pattern for you, start looking for a buddy with similar goals to help you along. Alert family members of what your goals are and ask for their support or participation.
Remind yourself of your goals by posting them at home, work, car, or even on your cell phone.
Encouragement and rewards are great ways to solidify commitment. If your goal is to lose weight or eat better, check your progress daily or weekly. If the results are not favorable, it is the perfect time to alter strategy to get better results.
The final thing you need is to dispel negativity from yourself and others. Anything worth obtaining is going to be hard work to receive desirable outcomes. There may be doubt or negativity that can fester and deter you from what you want.