New Years Resolution or Wellness Planning
How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions? You might be doing very well, and that is awesome, keep up the good work. Or are you struggling? Well join the crowd, you
are not on your own. Millions of people vow to change at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve and by midnight the following day nothing has changed. Or they might have started off well and then slowly they have slipped back into the old routine. This experience can leave you feeling frustrated, guilty and disheartened.
The term resolution means being firm or having determination, resolving to do something. But of course just because you are determined to change, doesn’t always mean that you will. New Year’s resolutions fail because they are not built on a foundation of a plan; “Failures don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan” Harvey MacKay. No one wants to fail; we all want to be well physically, emotionally, socially, financially and spiritually.
This is where Wellness Planning steps in, where New Year’s resolutions left off.
How do I get started?
Firstly create a space in your day to be able to reflect upon what are your personal priorities and dreams, and make a list. You may find it usefully to break it up into the subheadings of Physical, Emotional, Social, Financial and Spiritual. Next create your goals they should reflect your priorities and dreams. Setting goals allows us to measure our success against our baseline. This is vital as we quickly forget where we have been. Goals increase our motivation and our accountability which means we are more likely to be successful. Wellness Goals are always related to behaviors and not the outcome, whereas New Year’s resolutions are outcome goals.
Behavioral goals are SMART goals.
Specific: Create the goal using the details like how and when
Measurable: Goals must be measurable so that your success can be determined
Action Based (behavioral): Break down the dreams and priorities into actions that you are going to take you one step at a time. It makes it makes the change process more manageable
and you are more likely to succeed
Realistic: If the goal is realistic you are going to achieve it. If you are not achieving your goals then the goal has to be changed.
Timely: Make sure that you add in a time frame in which to accomplish the goal.
Goal Setting
Set goals by the week and write them goals down on your calendar and when you have achieved them cross them off, what a sense of achievement! Some goals might roll over and some might need to be changed entirely. By writing it down or inputting it into a computer or iPad you have a record of where you have been and how far you have come. Here are some examples of goals.
On Tuesday evening after dinner (Time) I will reflect upon my personal priorities and dreams and make a list. (Specific, Measurable,Action based, Realistic).
Physical: On Wednesday (Time) I will call the Doctors office and schedule an appointment for my Annual Physical for the Monday 23rd January (Specific, Measurable, Action based, Realistic)
Emotional: On Friday evening I will take a relaxing bath and then listen to music for 1 hour before I go to bed.
Social: On Saturday morning at 9am I will meet up with my friend at Starbucks and have a coffee.
Financial: On Wednesday evening I will do an internet search and find out how to write a budget.
Spiritual: I will wake up 15 minutes early Monday-Friday and meditate and pray for 15 minutes before I get ready for work.
Goal setting is fun and fulfilling. Every journey starts with a step, and if goals are steps then you are on the Wellness path and who knows what exciting destination
you will end up in.
