Here are some strategies for putting ‘your prescription’ of good habits into practice and they include:
- Strengthen Your Why – determine why is it you want to change. The stronger your why the more likely you are to not give up. Write out all the pros and cons of staying the same versus changing. This might just help to keep you focussed.
- Focus on Emotion – emotions are powerful things. We often make decisions not based on reason but on emotion. If you are finding it difficult to stay on track with positive changes try and associate that positive change with how you will feel if you achieve that change e.g. more energetic, more attractive, more vibrant, and/or happier and more confident.
- Be Consistent – practice is the key to establishing positive habits. Try and be as consistent as you can and soon enough you will find that you have created a new, effortless habit.
- Be Patient – change takes time. Nothing worth achieving happens overnight. Give yourself time to change and rest knowing that each day you are implementing a positive habit is another day moving towards your goal.
- Keep the End Goal in Sight – sometimes it is hard to persist with positive changes if the end is not in sight. Focussing on the end-goal often helps to keep us focussed. Consider sticking your goal tracker on the refrigerator door. That way you are reminded of the end-goal, that is, achieving a year of implementing positive changes.
- Create Accountability – along with keeping your end goal in sight, remember to establish accountability. This was mentioned at the start of this book but can not be overemphasised enough. Accountability to someone else often means you will keep going when you ordinarily would have given up. Consider asking a close friend, family member, or local doctor to keep you accountable to your progress with the 52 Simple Habits. Give them permission to ask you regularly how you are going with implementing them into your lifestyle.
- Choose Your Time Wisely – sometimes we try and change our lifestyles and it is not the best time to do so. Recognise when life is not stable enough to provide emotional space and time to make positive changes. Come back to making positive changes later when things have settled down. Set a date to revisit making the positive changes in this book, though, otherwise you may be prone to procrastinate indefinitely.
- Create Rewards – to keep yourself motivated consider creating rewards (non-food based!) along the way. Perhaps for every 8 habits you introduce into your lifestyle consider celebrating by enjoying a day out with friends or family or buying yourself a little gift as a token to remind you of what you have achieved.
#healthyhabits #healthyliver
Dr Cris
Holistic Medical Doctor, Author ‘Healthy Habits, 52 Ways to Better Health‘ and Healthy Liver
