Believe and Achieve

Posted on August 4, 2008

Want to improve your health? Have health goals you are trying to reach? Here are some thoughts I had about goals and making healthy lifestyle changes. I’m not a psychologist and I don’t pretend to know everything about goals, behavior change and motivation. These are just some things that have worked for me:

Believe

I am a firm believer in the power of the mind. You have to believe that you can reach your goals, whatever they may be. Believing in yourself will help you work hard to reach your goal. If you don’t believe you can reach a goal, why would you even set the goal in the first place?

Start Small

Did you ever wake up one morning and go run a marathon without any training? Probably not. When it comes to health goals, especially if you haven’t had a very healthy lifestyle, start small. It’s really hard to make all the changes we want all at once. We sometimes get discouraged because it’s too much to handle, and then we give up completely. Remember, little changes can go a long way.

Be Accountable

Report to someone. It can be yourself, a spouse, a friend, or anyone. Just be accountable to someone. I like to report to myself. I have a sheet of paper with my goals and plans and I write down what I did that day to help me reach that goal. At the end of the week I can see how I did and see what I need to improve for the upcoming week.

Be Determined and Disciplined

Stick to your plans everyday. If you miss a day, or come up short, forget about it. Start again and keep pushing forward with whatever goals/plans you have set for yourself. Healthy lifestyle habits take time to form and we have to be determined to create those good habits. We have to have the discipline to stick with the changes we are trying to make.

Set a healthy lifestyle goal today and stick with it.