Welcome to my new series: 52 Healthy habits. This may sound like something I should have started the first week of the year, but I am big believer that making healthy changes, chasing goals and pursuing greatness is something that can start any week or any day, not just during the new year.
It's the fourth week of January, how are your resolutions coming? Most people forget all about their new year's resolutions by March 1st, but I am not going to let that happen. I am going to pursue my goals all year long.
How do you meet goals? You develop healthy or positive habits. How do you develop healthy habits? You practice them. You commit to them. You make yourself accountable to someone for them.
I already know (from trying to failing) that making a lot of new changes in your life all at once is never an effective strategy, so I am going to tackle 52 healthy habits one week at a time. I plan to build on with a new habit each week. For example, my week one habit is to get up early before work in order to write, blog, workout or work on my business. (I honestly planned on doing this for January 1st but haven't been able to pull it together.) I will focus on this habit for a week and then week two I will work to continue and build on this by adding another habit.
I am not sure yet what the 52 habits will be, but I am sure as the next 52 weeks come and go I will have a lot of opportunity for improvement. I also know that just because I focus on a healthy habit for one week that it will mean it will "stick" for life. I'm just going to do the best I can.
This is an experiment. I am going to try some new things and make some small positive changes. Some of my healthy habits may just be to make my lunch for work the night before instead of rushing around in the morning, or adding more greens to every meal, or increasing my protein intake or reading instead of scrolling social media. This isn't a whole life overhaul but rather an experiment to make small incremental changes that have the potential to snowball into big results.
It's about building consistency, it's about accountability, it's about sustainable healthy habits.
Up first: The early morning habit. I love getting up early and spending time doing the things that I love before I haul off to my corporate job. Until I don't love it and the warm bed beckons me to shut off the alarm and resign myself to another hour of sleepytime comfort.
I know that when I write here that I am going to get up at 5:30 and that alarm goes off at the crack of dark thirty, I'll have some accountability to not turn off my alarm clock and go back to bed, because I really don't want to write a post next week telling you that I failed. See how that works? I just created some accountability. Who can you be accountable to?
I've written a lot about getting up the morning. I've done it successfully in the past and have always felt amazing during those times. It can be hard at first but it is worth it. Especially when I have big goals and dreams to chase.
Will you join me? No matter where you are in your healthy lifestyle journey there is always room for improvement. What small positive healthy habit can you focus on this week? Is it to drink more water? Get outside for some fresh air? Eat one salad a day? Watch less TV? Turn off your cell phone during time with friends/family? Pack a lunch for work? Get 8 hours of sleep? Just choose one small sustainable goal and focus on it for the whole week and let me know how it goes! Here are some ideas to get the creative juices flowing.
Week 1: Get up at 5:30am to work on my business, blog(s) or to workout.
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Are you someone who feels the tension between what you should do and what you want to do and hopes to make better choices and decisions to enhance your long-term health? I will cover some tangible ways to revise your thinking, environment, situation, and habits for the best chances of success. People with greater self-control are more likely to achieve their goals