Healthier Lifestyle change goals often aim for the stars, but rarely do the results reach the tree tops. We try too hard, too much and expect immediate results. Drastic diets, detox, boot camps and marathons do not lead to permanent lifestyle changes for most of us. Small steps, and healthier choices, that we can cope with on an everyday basis can make a big difference – and over time lead to lasting change and healthier new habits. The only one that can set the goal is you. You know what you want and need. Your life is not the same as mine, so you know best what works for you. Bigger picture ideas, motivational inspiration, and some proposed solutions are what The GOODista want to give you here. Overall it is about doing a bit Less to get a lot More.
Healthier Lifestyle: Why Less is More
A healthier lifestyle means looking at what your everyday habits are right now – and making small changes that make a big difference to your overall health picture. When looking at the bigger picture you know what the reality of your life is, so no-one can dictate in detail how to change. You know what areas you would like to change, and that can be very individual.
5 Lifestyle Change Areas
Generally speaking, these 5 areas are what we normally think of when considering changes:
- Health: You aspire to eat more healthily, exercise a bit, stress less, sleep better, cut out a few drinks, and have a bit of time to think and reflect. How? Check out this article on WikiHow: How to lead a healthier lifestyle.
- Relationships: You aspire to have good relationships with your extended family and friends, a close loving nurturing partner and a social circle that you enjoy being with.
Job: You aspire to enjoy going to work and getting paid for something you love doing, and enough time over for a healthy balance between work and life.- Location: You aspire to live well, in a good neighborhood, an energetic or serene surrounding, in a culture and country that you can call ‘home’. Need inspiration? Read this article from Forbes.com: 5 simple steps to change your life
- Hobbies and Projects: You aspire to give your creative, productive talents a go, and make a definite plan B for an elusive ‘New Life’ based on those secret dreams that mean a bigger life or career change. For more inspiration read Gaiam Life: 10 steps to start a new habit and create lasting change.
Healthier Lifestyle Changes and Time
What often stops us in our tracks in the biggest threat, or excuse: Time. You may feel that 24 hours are just not enough to fit in everything you want, wish and must do.
You aspire to have time to eat well, get fit, more sleep, thinking space, Me time and We time, socially rewarding events and rewarding work in a culture and country that inspires, motivates and energizes you.
By re-focusing on what is important to you – time can become your friend with a bit of organization and re-prioritising. Support from family and friends help, but realistically it starts with your decision to want to change some aspects for your life.
5 Steps for a Healthier Lifestyle
Instead of setting impossible goals, it may be easier to look at what is your every day is like now and start from there. Doing a bit less of what you determine as not so good, and a bit more of what you hope to achieve.
Healthier Lifestyle Tips: Less is More
- List: List what your daily activities are. Start with what you do when you first get up from the bed and take it from there. Bullet point by bullet point – be very honest in this secret list that is just for you. Then look your list, and circle the points you think you need to change.
Set Goals: Make change goals that make sense. Not huge ones. But SMART ones. By being very Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Resource limited and Time bound you will be able to narrow your goals to simple ones that you can do.- Mini Goals: Break down the Goal into mini goals that you want to reach every day such as: Walk for five minutes before breakfast, Eat 2 fruits and 3 vegetables per day, make a to-do list at work before reading emails etc.
- DO it: Start doing what you set out to do, and write down what you achieve and not. By being super clear on what you what to do, and honestly monitoring what you manage, or not, makes it easier to feel good about yourself – and also how you can take corrective action. Did you set a goal that was too high?
- Do More or Less: Evaluate and reprioritize. With time your SMART goals and daily achievable will change as you, slowly but surely, also make new habits. Sit down once a week and look at the plan, and adjust what is not working – and reprioritize what you do well. Up the goal, if you easily walk for five minutes to ten minutes, increase the food goals to include fewer junk foods, and make a career plan that you feel works for you. Or – downsize the goal to smaller ones if you often cannot do what you set out to do.
Healthier Lifestyle: You Decide
No-one but you can decide what it is you want to achieve – and only you can give yourself a gold star or reprimand when needed. You are the Change Agent, Driver, and Coach. This is not a recipe, a diet or a life coach session. It is to make more of your life, by doing less, of what you feel is not working. Tip: You may want a talk to our expert wellness and/or career coach to decide what works for you?
Healthier Lifestyle: Make a Difference
A healthier lifestyle is about having time, space, and energy for all the things you do in life. A balanced lifestyle allows for positive energy to flow, wellbeing and wellness to be natural co-habitants in your life, and most of all permanent changes that can lead to life altering changes that you cannot see right now.
By being the Director in your own life movie you change the predetermined course. By being the Producer of a successful first few weeks, you are sure to ask for Season 2 – and the sequels that follow can only mean one thing: Your very own lifetime achievement award.
A few small changes that you decide, smart goals that make sense, and a step by step plan of action that works for you. Less is More. I know what I want: I want MORE! 🙂
Do you want Less or More? What tips can you share on how to get a healthier lifestyle?
If you want tips on how to change specific habits into new ones learn about our wellness and career coaching and feel free to sign up to The GOODista and get inspired every week.
Related & Recommended:
- How to Live a Healthy Lifestyle – WikiHow
- 8 Small Steps Towards a Healthy Lifestyle – RealSimple.com
- How to Change to a Healthy Lifestyle in Small Steps – livestrong.com
- Transform Your Life in Four Simple Steps – John Hopkins Health
- 5 Simple Steps To Change Your Life – Forbes.com
- How to have a Healthy Work Life Balance – WebMD
- Healthy Lifestyle Commitment: Your Partnership For Life – thegoodista.com
- 10 Steps to Start a New Habit and Create Lasting Change – GaiamLife.com
