How to Set Healthy Goals – and Stick to Them

The choices that you make every single day influence your health whether you know it or not. The choice not to walk to the store, and instead drive your car, impacts your health. Everything that you do will have a long term effect. A ripple through your life – and you won’t know until it’s too late and you’ve developed heart disease or high blood pressure.

You have to put yourself in front of it sometimes. You must make the choice to walk, to eat the green stuff, to swap out the cigarettes for a vape pen. It all adds up and it all means that you can enjoy a life free of stress and worry, as at least you know that you’ve taken care of your health.

The problem? You haven’t made that change yet. You need to make a plan and you need to think about how to stick to it. So, let’s look at some steps you need to take to make a personal plan that you can stick to in the long term.

• Start with a goal. You need to have a goal to aim for, otherwise, why are you working so hard? You can succeed with the finish line in sight and it can propel you forward when you know it’s right there for the taking.
• Ask yourself the big questions, and you can decide if you have a dream that will go hand in hand with your goal. Perhaps you want to climb mountains, or visit as many beaches as you can in Australia. If you have a dream that aligns with your goal, you’ve got a reason to do well with your health.
• Pick your hard. Giving up smoking is hard. Dying of lung cancer is hard. Pick which hard you want, and go from there. You know what the better choices are, so make good choices and live better for it!
• Commit yourself to the changes that you want to make. If you want to eat better, start eating better. If you want to start jogging, join a running club. There is always a way to make your goals a reality.
• Start carving out time for your healthy goals. If you want to walk your 10k steps a day, make the time in the day to walk as much as possible. If you really want to hit your goals, you’ll stop making excuses and start making them happen for you. It’s easy to achieve if you try hard enough.
• Give yourself a reward, something to look forward to having. For some, it could be new clothes after a weight loss goal. It could be saving up the money you would have spent on cigarettes towards a vacation. A reward could be an excellent motivational tool for hitting your goals and sticking with them.

To be successful at anything, you need a plan, and plans are easier to work with when you have them nailed down!