Set up simple and SMART well-being goals
Health should come second to nothing. No one knows the status of your well-being better than you do. You have a complete history of your physical and mental health. You probably know where you need to focus to achieve overall well-being. Most often, it is simple lifestyle changes that can get you started on a journey towards being healthy. It is essential to create a plan that works for your individual needs. There is a lot of information online, and the advice we receive from several people around us often leaves us confused and overwhelmed. So here is a simple way to set up well-being goals that suit you.
Understand your body, mind and health
While there are plenty of ways to adopt healthy living, take your time to understand your body and mind before jumping into a health regime. Study your health through self-observation for a month. Start by writing down your health conditions and fluctuations in your mental health with regard to mood, stress and the like, if any. Record your habits related to eating, drinking, and sleeping. Also, check how physically active you are (make a note of how much you walk, or play with kids, for example). Add the family history of diabetes, blood pressure, or heart conditions. Get a doctor’s advice, especially if you have a health condition that needs professional input.
With all the information, rate yourself on how healthy your lifestyle is on a scale of one to ten on parameters such as Nutrition, Physical Activity, Stress, Work/Life Balance, Socialising and Sleep Habits. Add in any other factors relevant to you. At the end of the month, you’ll have a picture of your lifestyle and areas of improvement. Now set some goals.
Keep your well-being goals simple and SMART
It is important to start simple and make SMART well-being goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Vague goals like I will be more active, are not helpful. SMART goals may look like this:
I will do a 30-minute brisk walk at 5 pm starting today, 6 days a week. And by end of the month, I’d have a routine for walking habit set. I’ll increase the duration to 1 hour in the next four months by adding 10 minutes each month.
I will eat only vegetables for lunch every day from tomorrow. This is to increase my nutrition intake. I’ll replace snacks with raw vegetables and fruits starting next month and avoid deep-fried snacks. This should help me implement a plan to manage my Body Mass Index three months from now.
Specific: A goal must be specific, telling you exactly what you will do, when you will start, and so on.
Measurable: It should be easily measurable and help you assess how much time you spend, or what you will achieve by doing a specific activity.
Attainable: The goal should be realistic. Do not go overboard and make it flexible if, say, you work in shifts. It’s better to start simple and gradually increase the difficulty so that your body and mind can cope and adapt to the new routine.
Relevant: What you set out to do should meet a purpose. It should help you achieve a health goal and lead to meeting a larger goal.
Time–framed: It should let you know when and for how long you do something. Setting milestones helps you review and modify goals at regular intervals. It helps you stay on track.
Aim for holistic health
If you did the exercise of self-observation for a month, chances are you found more than one area of improvement. Your larger goal must address all the gaps to achieve well-being holistically. While physical health needs exercise, not planning to address your social needs, might affect your physical and mental health equally. If you overeat due to stress, then addressing only nutrition might not be sufficient, you may need to do something that reduces stress as well, like mindfulness practices. Try and find a balance between all parameters.
Many factors become impediments to your plan. They could be as simple as catching a cold or extra hours spent at work on a project. Prepare for them as well, and cut yourself some slack if it feels like too much or if you don’t achieve 100% of your goals. Monitor your progress and reward yourself for staying on track. Repeat until living healthy becomes habitual. You are responsible for your health, and only you can make it a priority.