December 29, 2007 by Kavit Haria

Create your wellness plan for 2008

I was pondering putting this information into a PDF that you could download. I may still do that, but for now I thought it best to write it out as a full length blog post.

The new year is only days away now. I truly hope you’ve set yourself some time to look back at 2007 and look forward to what you’d like to do in 2008 if you haven’t already. Doing this much life planning for your forthcoming year will reward you with greater clarity about your life and where it’s going. I want to use this article to discuss some elements of creating your very own wellness plan in 2008. 

When the word “resolutions” comes to mind, I think of the millions of people who set goals to lose weight, eat more fruit and vegetables, cut out chocolate from their diet, drink no alcohol, stop smoking, get fit, etc. The list can go on. But when you make a list of how many people actually achieve those goals, by February, most have forgotten about it, if not done anything to make it a reality.

I like to think of New Years as a time where I set some major ‘ReVolutions’ in motion for my life. Rather than pick many, many smaller goals, I opt to go for at least one big goal in each important area of my life. For wellness for example, 2007 for me was about less junking and snacking and more fuller meals that are high in water-rich content and protein as required. By focusing on the one goal throughout and using people and aids to support my development, I’m now definitely able to see the benefits. I feel and look much better due to my high water intake and I trust if I continue on like this which I’m going to, the benefits will be even better as I get older.

I propose a four-step system to helping you achieve your wellness goals in 2008.

Step 1: Create your wellness vision for 2008

A vision is where you create a view of what you’d like to achieve and something you see using your mind’s eye. It’s got to be realistic but feel free to aim high if it’s going to challenge and push you to new levels. What is the vision of your health, body and mind in 2008? How do you see yourself looking? What’s the size of body you want? How do you want to feel? What do you currently inhabit in your body that you’d like to get rid of - be it wrinkles, unhealthy sleeping habits, smoking, alcohol, etc? Set up your vision and be clear on what it is you want from taking a wellness plan into next year?

It’s also important that when you set up your vision, you become as specific as you can. For example, if you want to lose weight, by how many pounds or stones do you want to be more lighter? If you want to stop junking, what specifically do you want to cut down and how often will you allow yourself to eat that junk, if at all? If you want to stop smoking, by how many cigarettes will you reduce your intake and by when will you totally reduce to smoking none? What will you replace your smoking addiction with and by when? As you can see from these questions and examples, it’s important to set a “by when I’ll be done” date for the vision you have. 

Step 2:  Clarify your reasons

If you’re familiar with any work in personal development, you may have heard of Tony Robbins and his work which states that no matter what goal you set, the more reasons you have for achieving it, the more you’ll convince yourself of wanting to achieve it and you’ll go out and get it. Whether you’re a self-help fan or not, there is considerable truth in his statement. The more reasons you have to doing and achieving something, they more you will achieve it.

What are your reasons for achieving wellness in your particular vision in 2008? If it’s to stop smoking, don’t just say because my spouse told me to or because it’s bad for my health. Dig deeper. Why specifically is it bad for your health? Because it affects your lungs. How will it affect your liver? It’s making my lungs all black and affecting my breathing. What happens if your breathing is affected? I can’t breath well and I may die. Ahhh, so that’s the reason you want to stop smoking? Because you don’t want difficulty in breathing and you want to die of lung failure. 

Do you see where I went with that little rant? I kept digging deeper to find out the core reasons. I’m sure if I went deeper, there would be more to unravel. Come up with lots of reasons, my friend. 

Step 3:  Create actionable chunks

Once you’ve completed step 2, break your 2008 wellness vision down into 12 monthly chunks. By the end of every month, what will you need to have done and achieved in order to stay in line with your goal to make your wellness vision a reality? Again, give each month’s goal lots of specificity like you did in step 1 and step 2. 

Step 4:  Take action 

All that’s left in my 4-step process is for you to then take action on those chunks. Take each month one at a time, figure out what you’ve got to do to make that month’s target a reality and make it happen. Get out there and do what you need to do to lose weight, stop smoking, quit the alcohol, eat healthily, stop junking and snacking, or whatever your vision is.

All that remains is for you to take action. Without action, there is no result.

It becomes a case of “the ball’s in your court now…”

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Posted to: Health and Wellness, Mindset and Thinking

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