Finding Your ‘Why’ in Setting Goals for Your Health and Wellness
By: Dr. Peggy Malone
Ok, so you have had a couple of weeks to get back into routine since the kids have gone back to school. How’s it going so far in terms of your health and wellness? Did you get back into a good routine for these extremely important areas of your life?
As promised last week, I want to remind you of some things that you can be doing in this Fall season to get you on track to be your happiest and healthiest before Christmas!
The first place I will encourage you to start is to ask yourself what you want to accomplish for your health and wellness and then ask yourself why you want to accomplish that.
The ‘what’ is your health and wellness goal.
In previous posts we have discussed goal setting and why it is so important for success. You can read about goal setting in detail there, but the basics are these: Only about 3% of people have concise written measurable goals and their resultant success is what separates them from the pack.
So whatever your health and wellness goal is….make a plan, write it down…put it somewhere that you can see it every day. Expect that you will have some setbacks. Believe you can do it.
The ‘why’ you want to accomplish your goal is the fuel that will take you there.
Finding your ‘why’ and attaching meaning to a goal of any kind will better motivate you to get your butt in gear and go after it.
The more emotion associated with your ‘Why’, the more motivating it will be and the more likely you will be to push until you succeed.
For example: If, when I asked you why you wanted to learn to eat better and lose 25 pounds, you told me “Because my doctor told me that I should”….sure it’s a good reason but that’s not the most powerful ‘why’.
If instead you told me: “Because I want to be able to play with my children and set a good example for them so they don’t end up with health challenges like mine when they get older”. Well….now we’re talking. That’s a ‘why’ that you can really feel. And because you can really feel it, it will be there for you when the going gets tough to motivate you to keep moving towards success.
What is your ‘Why’?
-Your friends and family
-Your children
-Your career
-Your independence as you get older
-The ability to stay active and healthy to travel
-A race or event coming up
There is no right answer as to what your ‘Why’ should be. It has to be important enough to you and associated with enough passion and emotion that you consider it a good reason to keep working toward your goals for health and wellness.
Each one of us has to make a conscious choice every day to make health a priority. Make one decision today that will change the next three months of your life leading up to Christmas and beyond.
Once you have decided on the goal that you want to achieve, attach a powerful ‘why’ to it and you won’t even recognize yourself when January 1st rolls around.
Believe you can do it. I believe you can 🙂
Live Well,
Peggy
Dr. Peggy Malone is a Chiropractor and an Athlete who helps other athletes to overcome injury and get back to their sport. Her weekly Television Series 'Living Well" inspires people from all walks of life to take control of their health to be as happy and as healthy as they can be.
A former varsity Basketball and Rugby player, she has since entered the world of endurance athletics where she has completed 2 Ironman Triathlons, 3 Marathons, several Half Marathons and many other Triathlons, Road Races and Off-Road Adventure races of varying distances.
Her own athletic endeavors and injuries have given her valuable insight into working with athletes in her practice for both the care of injuries as well as for the improvement of athletic performance.
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