“Your habits will determine your future.” - Jack Canfield
Consider these habits and see how you are doing with them! These are not specific habits related to what you should eat and drink or how much you should exercise. These are more big picture habits. I’m really thankful for people in my life that have modeled these for me and I hope that I can do the same for you.
Have a Learner Mindset
“The capacity to learn is a gift, the ability to learn is a skill, the willingness to learn is a choice.” - Brian Herbert
It really all starts with the willingness to learn. If you want to increase health and wellness in your life, it starts with figuring out what that looks like and how you can get there. There is a degree of humility that must come with a health journey. You have to admit that you don’t know all the answers and that what you have been doing isn't best for you.
The more I study and research, the more I realize I will never know it all. I just have to learn a little at a time and do the best that I can. Learning from others is the learning fast track. What have others done, tried, researched, experimented with, etc.? What were the results for them, and will that work for me? In this age of exponential information, we don't have to start at ground zero. Through books, blogs, social media, courses, documentaries, and more, we can jump up a few levels and glean from the knowledge that others have shared.
There’s so much fascinating health information and free education out there. Find people who can mentor you and that you enjoy learning from, and learn all you can!
Think Long-Term
It can be hard to make daily decisions that don’t offer immediate gratification. Some days you don’t feel like cooking healthy food, going to the gym, setting boundaries, staying within budget, swapping out home and personal care products, etc. Some days the healthy choice feels like the hard choice. But you have to choose your hard.
It’s also hard to:
Get an autoimmune disease.
Have broken relationships.
Have high blood pressure or cholesterol.
Go bankrupt.
Be obese.
When your unhealthy habits don’t seem to be affecting you negatively, you aren’t motivated to change. Unless….. You think about the long term impacts.
Your body will come to a point where it just can’t handle any more stress, processed food, imbalanced hormones, environmental toxins, or __________. You will suffer the consequences of poor health habits at some point. So, think long and hard about how your choices today may affect you long-term.
Prioritize What You Want MOST (over what you want now)
This is similar to the habit of thinking long term, but I wanted to hone in on motivations.
What do you really want in life?
A family? Good job? Money? Purpose?
Now think about how those things will be impacted if you lose your health.
I won’t be able to enjoy my family like I want to if I’m sick.
I won’t be able to keep my good job if I have a debilitating disease.
I can’t use my money to do fun things and enjoy life if I don’t have my health. (Or it will all be spent on treatment and care.)
I may not be able to pursue my passions and purpose like I dreamed if I can’t get out of bed.
I have experienced this in a small way when I first started having anxiety symptoms and didn’t know what it was. I was more stressed and worried because I knew I wasn’t ok but didn’t know what was wrong. I was run down and tired from the anxiety, but also from trying to find answers. I spent a good bit of money to get answers, too. When you are sick or have a health issue, it is consuming in so many ways.
Do you see what I’m saying? A life characterized by health and wellness is so important and so valuable. And knowing that helps us stay motivated to focus on what we want MOST. We can make the hard changes that need to be made, because we know it will help us have the life we want MOST.
Focus on Lifestyle Changes
Healthy people aren’t stuck in their way of living. They aren’t afraid to change as needed. As I have learned, I’ve changed. Once I saw evidence that a certain lifestyle component of mine wasn’t healthy for me or my family, I tried my best to change it. This includes physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial and relational health.
It’s common to hear people say things like:
“Well, this is just the way I am.”
“This is the way my mama always did it.”
“I don’t see how it’s hurt me yet.”
This “stuck” mentality has its root in pride. It takes humility to admit that you need to make a change.
At one point, I was trying to remove toxic cleaning products from our home. I had come up with a system of sorts. I was DIYing cleaners, buying a few “green” brands and figuring it out. Honestly though, a lot of times my homemade concoctions didn’t work well, the store bought stuff didn’t last long and I was getting tired of having to Google every ingredient.
Several friends mentioned a brand of cleaning products they really thought I would like, but I wasn’t willing to change. I didn’t think that I had the capacity to make all the changes again. But then I finally (2 years later) checked out what they had mentioned - and they were right. It was so much better than what I had been trying to do. I made the switch and have been loving the products ever since. My pride and stubbornness got in the way and I learned a lesson. Make the changes you need to make, and the sooner the better.
Note: Trying to change everything all at once is usually not the best because it’s exhausting and the changes won’t be sustainable. Make sure you make healthy changes at a pace that you can sustain and really adapt as part of a lifestyle!
Take some time to evaluate your habits and if they are helping or hurting your health goals.
What habit do you need to grow the most?
- Melisha
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