Keep on track and win at your 2019 New Year health and wellness goals

As everyone looks to slow down, look to recap and assess the current years milestones and achievements and think about what your New Year’s resolutions will look like.

The biggest problem is allowing old routines and habits to fall back into place and your new resolutions fly out the window. If this sounds like you, you’re not alone! Many people have trouble sticking to their goals for longer than the first couple of weeks and it’s hard to come across someone who has flawlessly committed to their goals for the entirety of the year.

Despite this, there are multiple ways to increase your success rate for sticking to your health and wellness goals leading into the New Year.

Here are some of our favourite tips for staying on track and winning at your New Year’s goals:

• Dream big: Don’t play small, go with ambitious goals that are compelling! Whether you want to finish your 1st marathon or lose enough weight to fit into your favourite item of clothing, by embodying perseverance, resilience and support anything is possible. By having ambitious goals, you inspire people around you who will cheer you on and support you during this process.
• Break down your big dreams into bite-sized chunks: Breaking down your ambitious goals into small actionable steps can help put the big task at hand into perspective, reducing the anxiety associated with getting started. This helps you process the required steps and builds your confidence along the way, by ticking off task by task.
• Make sure you understand you should not return to bad habits: One of the crucial moving parts of sticking to your wellness and health goals is understanding why you are doing them and why your current lifestyle and health choices are not working for you. By understanding the importance of forging a new shift in your behaviour and why going back to your old ways is not an option, will give you the extra motivation to succeed.
• Create a schedule: This will help you avoid common excuses like, “I don’t have time”. If you have a hard copy and evidence of scheduled time for meal preparation or exercise you are much more likely to stick to it. It is very easy to avoid or forget things if they are not recorded anywhere.
• Patience is key: Professionals estimate it can take around 21 days for a new activity to form a habit and 66 days to create a habit. It won’t happen overnight, being persistent and patient is key!
• Be your biggest fan and give yourself a medal mate: Don’t wait for the end goal to celebrate small wins along the way. When you achieve small milestones be proud of yourself and look back knowing you are doing better than yesterday. Being able to reflect on small wins will give you greater motivation to achieve the big win.

Motion Health practices offer a range of services over and above physiotherapy, including our unique long-term health and wellness plan, Results4Life®. Speak with your local practice about how we can aid you to get back on track with your New Year’s health and wellness resolutions.