The desire to “be healthy” is a common goal many of us share. Yet that can mean different things depending on how you define “healthy,” your current health status and conditions you may be coping with, plus your lifestyle and environment. The first part of your journey is understanding what “your healthy” is. From there you can determine small steps that will add up to big results. These tips can help.
Consider these questions: What does healthy mean to you? How would you describe it in the context of your life? For example, are you struggling with your own needs and those of others? If so, your healthy may be recognizing how vital your well-being is and developing a plan to find balance and control.
Put it into words. Write it down, type it up, record it on a video or voice note on your phone—any method to get your idea of healthy out of your mind and into your world.
Determine small steps to take that will add up to the big result: Your healthy. You don’t want to overwhelm yourself; the key here is to pick 2-3 things that can fit within your lifestyle. Based on the example above, this could look like:
- Each week, I am going to meditate for 5 minutes prior to getting out of bed.
- Every Wednesday, I am going to call my best friend just to chat—no important matters, simply enjoyable conversation.
- On Saturday evenings, I am going to take some “me” time and read a chapter in a book.
Practice your small steps until they become habits. Make an effort to follow through on your small steps, and when you notice that you’ve been doing them most of the time for several weeks, consider building on them with new small steps! Building on your small steps and adding more over time, while maintaining the previous steps, will add up to big results.
Reassess. As you start to feel good about your progress and meeting your small steps, redefine your healthy. Are you not quite there yet and want to take your first idea of healthy further? Or since you’ve made some changes, does healthy mean something different to you now?
Whether you maintain your original idea of healthy or expand upon it, the idea is to focus on simple steps you can slowly and easily incorporate into your lifestyle that will get you where you want to be.
Keep in mind that every step you take to reach your healthy will need to be maintained or built upon in order to continue your success. Good luck!
