Master This Valuable Skill To Make & Maintain Life Long Healthy Habits
You’re here because you want to make healthier lifestyle changes that last. Unfortunately, healthy living is a little more complex than selecting a goal (e.g., "Eat Healthier" or "Lose 15 lbs") and just expecting yourself to do it.
I’m sure you can relate: you wake up one day ready to make changes, and select a goal (because that’s what everyone tells you to do), only to fall off track by the end of the month - leaving yourself feeling defeated and upset with yourself.
“Why does this happen?”
When it comes to reaching your health goals, clarifying your intentions and breaking them down into behavior-based goals (or action steps) transforms goals into clear, doable, and appropriate actions! Taking this extra step helps you envision how you’ll reach your goals.
Imagine your goal is a long flight of stairs. You may stare up and wonder “when will I finally reach the top?” or question “can I actually do this?”. But once you begin focusing on one step at a time, the journey doesn’t feel as daunting and you’ll eventually reach the top.
Breaking down your big health goals into smaller steps is the BEST way to reach your health goals and maintain them for the rest of your life!
Want to give it a try for yourself? Give this exercise a try today:
How To Turn Your Health Goals Into Action Steps:
1) Definite Your Outcome-Based Goal
Your Outcome-Based Goal is the goal you want to reach at the end of the journey.
Drawing back to the staircase analogy, your Outcome-Based Goal would be reaching the top of the staircase.
This will look different for everyone, however, some common outcome-based goals include:
Eat Healthier
Move My Body More
Lose 15 lbs
Get More Sleep
Be Consistent With Workouts
2) Brainstorm every possible action step that could build up to your behavior-based goal.
Try to be as specific as possible and list all and every possible action step that comes to mind - big or small.
For example: If your outcome-based goal is to "Move My Body More", some action steps may include walking on your lunch break 3 days a week, working out with a friend 1 day a week, doing 10 bodyweight squats every time you stand from your desk, take your kids to the park twice a week, etc.
3) Identify The Top Contenders.
Now that you have a bunch of ideas, it's time to narrow down the playing field. To narrow in on what to focus on, try to ask yourself these questions:
Which action steps may be easiest to change?
Which action steps may be hardest to change?
Which action steps may have the biggest impact if changed?
Which action steps are you not willing to give up or change?
Write a list of all of the top contenders.
4) Make The Selection.
After you've got a few solid options to choose from, it's time to make the official selection.
I recommend working on only one action step at a time. When selecting an action step, pick ones that are doable, realistic, and approachable.
If you need a little help choosing which action step to practice first, go through each contender and ask yourself:
How might this new action step or behavior look and feel?
What systems will need to be put in place to make this behavior more likely?
Are there obstacles that could make this new behavior challenging? How will I work around them?
What are some of the pros and cons of this new behavior?
Putting Your Plan Into Action
Now that you’ve selected some action steps to practice, it’s time to take action! Changes cannot be made without doing.
As you move along with this journey, I encourage you to continue to evaluate how things are going. This may sound simple, but it can include assessing:
How consistent you’ve been,
How you’re feeling about the changes you’re making,
What outcomes you’re experiencing,
What progress you’re making towards the goal,
And more.
If you are a coaching client, I assess alongside you to help you make realistic and doable next steps; but if you’re doing this on your own, I encourage you to assess on a weekly basis. And as you progress, continue to build on your current action step or select a new action step on your list of top contenders.
Found This Strategy Helpful To You?
Then you’ll love my 4-Week Active Living Challenge - a self-guided challenge that helps new lifters ease into active living with short workouts and small action steps.
