With summer drawing to a close and the fall about to set in, many people are starting to set intentions for a new school year or even just a new season. If you’re looking to make changes, sometimes the best place to look is at your habits. Have a bad habit you want to break? Want to get in the habit of making better choices? Whether it’s weight loss, smoking cessation, reducing screen time, improving relationships or finally running that 5km, here are some tips to make it happen:
- Learn more about how habits are set and changes are made. Try reading Atomic Habitsby James Clear or The Holy Sh!t Momentby James Fell. Learning more about the behaviour change process can help you implement changes more effectively. When you know how changes happen, it’s easier to make them happen.
- Get clear on your priorities. Changing all the things at once can make forming new habits difficult so figure out what is most important to you and go from there. It might not feel terribly ambitious, but it is more achievable than trying to revamp your whole life overnight. You don’t have to stop there – positive changes often yield more positive changes. There’s a snowball effect. You just have to start building it one handful at a time. Your confidence will grow with every success.
- Find your why. Changing habits can be challenging. It’s important to understand why the change is important to you. Spend time reflecting or even journaling about the why behind your change. It’s not enough to know something is important foryou to change, you have to understand why it’s important for youto change.
- Visualize the win. Think about what your life will be like when you’ve made this behavioural change. What will it feel like? What will your day look like? How will people see you? What will accomplishing your goal look like? A vision board might be helpful for inspiration.
- Talk about it. One of the best ways to put an intention out into the world is to speak it out loud. Talk over the change you want to make, why, and solicit advice on how to overcome roadblocks to your success. You can do this with a friend, a family member or a qualified counsellor from Wellin5. A counsellor can help you work through the psychological and emotional aspects to making a change and help you strategize how to overcome internal resistance to change.
The lifestyle you want is within your grasp and learning more, reflecting, prioritizing, visualizing, and talking it out are great steps towards achieving it. Wellin5 is on your team if you want to embark on a journey of self-improvement – after all, teamwork makes the dream work. Schedule an appointmentto discuss your goals today.