4 Tips To Create A Plan To Improve Your Health And Well Being
A lot of what we discuss on Bullionite is how to improve your well being and health. While we are wanting to build our wealth and create money through smart investments, we know that wealth is only part of the puzzle for contentment and true satisfaction in life. If anything, wealth is the easy part! We know how to create money and maintain our finances but what can be challenging is how to improve our mental well being. The wealth of wellness is a much more elusive thing to strive for for many reasons. For one it is not as easily measurable. We can't open up an account and look at what percentage our wellness or happiness has grown. It also isn't something that can maintain itself. While we can make daily decisions we know are healthy for us this does not guarantee the happiness will be there. So what are we to do? We offer many tips such as practicing mindfulness, exercise, treating your body with respect, but sometimes all of these tasks end up feeling overwhelming. Instead of improving our wellness, it just becomes one more thing we feel like we don't measure up properly in. Instead of trying to measure up to what we think we should be, we should instead focus on what we need to achieve our goals. By creating a wellness plan we are able to focus on what we need to do most urgently to create the life we want. Here are 4 tips on how to create a wellness plan, whatever your goals are.
1- Be Realistic
The number one issue that comes with creating wellness plans is that we go too large. Go big or go home you may think, but this is ultimately setting you up for failure. Don't make your goals too big. This isn't to say you can't have big goals, but this will be your next plan. This wellness plan isn't the end all and be all of your life, it is simply a stepping stone to the life you are hoping for. If your ultimate goal is say to finish your doctorate, you know this is your goal, however you could be 10 years out for that degree. Instead, set your goal to get through your semester with high grades. This is something you can spell out for yourself, follow your exam schedule and papers you have to submit in order to get good grades. This makes it something you can itemize in your day.
2- Be Specific
Don't be vague or simply put statuses as your goals. In the same example of finishing a degree, don't say your goal is finishing the degree, that isn't going to give you much. Collecting the piece of paper quickly does not necessarily mean you have made the contacts and relationships to go forward in your area of expertise nor does it mean you have utilized your school in the best way. What you want is to achieve a goal in your field and the degree is actually one step in getting towards that goal. With that realization, go back to your goal writing and get as specific as possible. Remember, that this isn't the wellness plan of your entire life, just for a period, maybe only a couple months, so don't be afraid to bring in all the details you need.
3- Keep Going
As with any wellness plan, things are not going to be perfect. You are going to have off days, weeks, months, but this does not mean the whole thing needs to be thrown away. We don't expect perfection in any other part of our lives, so why would we expect ourselves to be perfect? Of course nothing will be perfect, but we shouldn't allow that to make us feel like we are not making progress. If you feel like you are going nowhere, take a step back and look at where you started in your program. If you are very recent in your program, look back at where you were a year ago, five years ago, you make so much progress without realizing it because you see it every day. The same way distant relatives' children seem to grow tremendously every time you see them but the parents feel they are the same, it is the same way with your own progress in your life. Embrace the imperfection and keep going.
4- Anticipate Setbacks
Since we already know there are going to be setbacks, start making plans on how you are going to deal with them. Anticipate where your issues will come; will it be scheduling, sleep, time with your family, something in your life, maybe multiple things in your life will need attention that will set you back on a goal. It is important to realize that these setbacks are not burdens! You are not a slave to the goal you are trying to reach, rather you are making this wellness program so that you can have a social life, family and enjoyable things in your life. It is not a burden to have to set your wellness program aside for a while in order to be there for your loved ones, they are the important thing; not the goals. That being said, anticipate how you will maintain working towards your goals and having time for your loved ones, after all that is what wellness is about. We are not here just for the task but for our life!
Of course there is much more to creating a wellness plan but these four tips are things that we feel are important to remember when creating the plan for your life. Remember the goal is to live and love your life, not to be the perfect wellness machine satisfying all the goals. Visit our blog at https://www.bullionite.com/blog-index for more articles about lifestyle and wellness. Reach out to us with your comments and questions at info@bullionite.com.