If you’re wanting to make this next year your healthiest year yet, you might want to start now by getting your mindset and your lifestyle prepared for the changes that you’re planning to institute. And if you’ve tried making these kinds of changes before but haven’t been able to make them stick, you should also start thinking about how you can make this year different.
To help you in doing all of these things, here are three tips for setting attainable health goals in the new year.
Make It A Journey Rather Than A Goal
While it’s good to have goals, when you’re talking about your health, what might be a more beneficial way to think about things is as a journey rather than a goal with a final destination.
If you’re only working toward a specific goal, once you reach it, you could wind up not knowing where to go from there or how to maintain the success that you’ve achieved. But if you’re going on a journey to a more healthful you, be it as a recent college graduate or someone who’s just moved into an assisted living community, you’ll be less likely to simply look for quick fixes and more likely to make sustainable lifestyle changes.
Start With Small Changes
Trying to completely redo the way that you’ve been doing things for years likely won’t work for you. So rather than trying to make big, sweeping changes to your health, it’s best to start off with small changes.
To do this, think about little things that you can begin doing that will help you to build healthier habits both now and into the future. By making these little shifts, it will be easier for you to maintain any of the changes that you’re seeking to make since you likely won’t be having to make entirely new habits from scratch.
Find Ways To Build In Accountability
Your willpower alone isn’t going to be enough to help you become healthier and build new healthy habits that you’ll naturally and automatically follow. So instead of just relying on yourself, try to find ways that you can build accountability into your new health journey.
If you have people that you can share your goals and aspirations with, ask them to also check in with you periodically to see how you’re doing with your journey. And if you don’t feel comfortable with this, you might want to try things like journaling or tracking your progress mathematically so that you can see how you’re doing and when and where you might need to make some changes to get you back on track.
If you’re ready to make next year the healthiest year for you, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you in doing this.
