Happy New You! | Episode 15

In this episode Joanne discusses how to make this year the year you create a new you. She shares strategies for setting the right goals and achieving them so that you can have your best year yet.

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*This podcast does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment and its contents are intended for informational purposes only. 

Transcript

Welcome to Episode Fifteen of our Full Spectrum Wellness Podcast. I'm so excited to be back here with you for our fifteenth episode.

The New Year is here and this can be the year you create a new you, even if you’ve failed to create meaningful change in the past. If nothing in your life seems to be working, there’s good news. It doesn’t take as much to enhance your life as you might think. Just a few changes in your daily habits can bring about incredible results.

The beginning of a new year is a time of hope and enthusiasm. Even if you just completed a challenging year, it’s natural to entertain the possibility of something better. It’s common to start the year with several lofty resolutions. After all, it’s exciting to contemplate a life with more money, greater love, and fewer pounds. A holiday to the Maldives sounds nice, too!

Sadly, few resolutions are ever realised. Gyms and Health clubs are packed with new members for a couple of weeks. Half of those new members are never seen again after two weeks, and 95% are gone within a month.

We quickly forget our resolutions.

But this year can be different! A systematic approach can make all the difference.

Start by evaluating your life. How will you know where to go if you don’t know where you are? It’s not possible to develop an intelligent and effective plan of attack without evaluating your current situation.

It’s the deficiencies in your life that limit your happiness. You’re not unhappy because:

• You live in a 3-bedroom house instead of a 7,000 square foot mansion.
• You’re not married to a supermodel or famous footballer.
• You don’t own a £200-pair of shoes.
• You drive a Honda Civic instead of a Mercedes.
• You don’t have a million pounds in the bank.
• You don’t have the body of a Greek God or Goddess.
• You only have five friends instead of 20.

You can certainly be unhappy because:

• You live in an unsafe part of town.
• You’re alone.
• You can’t afford appropriate clothing for yourself or your children.
• You drive a car that might not survive the drive to work.
• You don’t have enough in savings to cover any emergencies.
• You’re 50 pounds overweight.

That’s not to say you can’t make any part of your life brilliant. However, dealing with the most challenging aspects of your life first will result in the greatest return on your time. So focus on these low-rated parts of your life.

Finding a few friends can do more to enhance your life than buying a fancy new car if your social life disappoints you.

Ask yourself where do you feel the most pain in your life? What causes you the most stress? Many psychologists believe that we’re naturally happy. It’s only the negative parts of our lives that make us unhappy. So you don’t need anything in order to be happy other than to be free of the bad stuff!

It is human nature to turn to our strengths and avoid our weaknesses, but this is a mistake in certain circumstances. The weakest parts of your life limit your happiness and sense of well-being. Ensure you’re prioritizing your focus.

Address the low-rated parts of your life first. When these have been conquered, you can turn your attention to other areas.

George Bernard Shaw said “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Changing your life is rarely like repairing a broken fence. It’s not a single event. Changing your life requires ongoing effort. Your habits create your life. The little things you do on a consistent basis determine your outcomes. Changing your habits is a priority, but there are several other components to creating a new life.

Successful change requires several steps:

1.    Decide what you want. The previous activity accomplishes this requirement. You now know which area of your life you want to change.

2.    Create a goal. Your goal is a target. An effective goal is:

• Measurable: How will you know you attained it if you can’t measure it?
• Time-bound: Without a time limit, you’ll take your sweet time and never reach your goal. A time limit creates a sense of urgency and focus.
• Specific: “Losing weight” isn’t an effective goal. “15 pounds” is specific and effective.
• Reasonable: You won’t even get started on a goal you don’t believe you can reach. Only push slightly beyond your comfort zone.
• Desirable: All goals should be desirable. Why waste your time on anything less?

Now create a goal based on your number one priority. An effective goal might be, “On or before March 31st, 2023, I will have lost 20 pounds.”

3.    Prioritise the goal. Read and write your goal each day. Twice is ideal. Review your goal once in the morning and once before bed. How many times have you started on a new goal only to realize you’d completely forgotten all about it? Reviewing it daily will prevent that from happening again.

4.    Develop habits that will result in success. You don’t become rich, poor, fat, skinny, lonely, popular, unpopular, or an expert overnight. Your daily habits have a huge impact on your results in life.

5.    Deal with discomfort. Any change is uncomfortable. Actually, any significant change is uncomfortable. And that’s the key. Keep the amount of change in your life relatively small. A series of small changes are as effective as a significant change, but the small changes are much easier and comfortable to implement.

• There are many ways to decrease the amount of discomfort felt when altering your life. We’ll explore several later.

6.    Measure your progress. It would be difficult to reach a weight loss goal if you never stepped on the scale. Regular evaluation of your progress ensures that you’re on the right track.

7.    Adjust your approach. If you’re not making sufficient progress, that’s a sign that you need to change your approach. That seems like simple common sense, but most people either continue with the same actions or give up. Both guarantee failure. Steer your ship.

It looks simple when you list the steps and it is simple. However, it’s easy to lose focus, become uncomfortable, or give up. If change were easy, we’d all be living the life of our dreams.

Remember, habits take time to develop. It’s common to read that a new habit takes 21, even 66 days to become ingrained. It actually depends on the person and the habit! Studies have shown that it can take as long as 7 months to develop a habit. So be patient.

Whether you’re starting a new diet, increasing your social circle, changing jobs, you’re bound to experience at least a little discomfort along the way. This is completely natural! Discomfort is a part of change.

Understand that discomfort is a misguided defense mechanism. Scientists believe that the discomfort experienced during change serves to keep us alive. Your brain is worried about life and death. Your happiness is secondary. It views any change as potentially life threatening.

A good rule of thumb: Your mind should be focused on your surroundings, your breathing, or your current activity. If your mind is focused on anything else, you’re not really living. Life can only be lived in the present.

A few stress hormones and neurotransmitters don’t have to dictate your actions. These compounds can alter your pulse, blood pressure, and feelings of anxiety. But the effects are harmless. Remember that your brain is trying to keep you alive. Anxiety is just a feeling in your body. You’ve survived much worse.

The first step is simple, but creating a cohesive plan is a little more challenging! How can you do it?

1.    Remember that you prioritized the list of changes you’d like to make. That’s the first step. You simply work your way down through the list. When you’re successfully working toward one goal consistently, it’s time to add in the next priority.

2.    As a rule, you can add in a new priority each month. If a habit takes longer than a month to become automatic, that’s okay! Continue to focus on that one habit until it becomes automatic. Even 3-5 changes over the course of a year would be very significant.

Imagine if you:

• Found your perfect partner
• Found a your perfect job
• Got in great shape
• And had one great adventure.
• When was the last time you had a year this good?

3.    Create a rough schedule. Find a calendar and make some notes on it. Avoid tying yourself down, as it’s impossible to predict your progress. But get a rough idea of what you can accomplish in a year.

4.    Set priorities. Choose the few items you’re absolutely committed to accomplishing this year. Four items equals one per quarter. What will you have accomplished by March 31st, June 30th, September 30th, and December 31st? 

• Maybe you have a goal that will require 12 months, but what milestones will you have reached by these target dates?

5.    Stay focused on your habits. Getting in shape is little more than 2 habits: eating and exercising effectively. Learning to speak Spanish requires studying the language regularly. Many successes aren’t complicated if you focus on the proper habits.

6.    What have you accomplished in the last year? If you’re like most people, not much. A few changes are a huge improvement over your past results. Avoid overwhelming yourself.

7.    Visualize the new you. Imagine how you’ll look, think, and feel at the end of the year. Get excited. Keep coming back to this picture when you’re struggling.

• If you think about how much you hate eating oatmeal every morning, you’ll never make it. If you’re focused on how great you’ll feel at the beach this summer, the year will fly by.

8.    Reward yourself handsomely for significant results. If you reach your quarterly goals, do something nice for yourself. You’ve earned it!

9.    Be patient. A year can seem like a long time to wait. Focus on today. Tomorrow will come. Stringing together enough good days is the key to success.

Zig Ziglar said “What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.” Enjoy the process!

Remember, it’s important to prioritise the changes you’d like to make. There’s only so much that can be accomplished in a year. Why waste your time fooling around? Determine the most important changes and get busy!

Develop the habits necessary to reach your goals. Many of your current habits have shown themselves to be inadequate. New habits provide new results. The real work is in developing those habits. Running isn’t hard. Putting on your shoes and getting out the front door is hard.

Be patient with yourself, but get started today. This could be the year of a new you!