TL;DR
New Years resolutions don’t work
Wellness Plans are more malleable and process oriented
5 steps to build your wellness plan:
1) Create a Wellness Vision
2) Set Intentions and Goals
3) Write Your Wellness Plan
4) Take Immediate Action
5) Revisit and Revise Regularly
Rather listen? Check out the recent episode of the Better Than Fine podcast:
We All Know Resolutions Don’t Work
There’s a trove of data that’s been marched out ad nauseum about how ineffective New Years Resolutions are ~ or really resolutions in general. That’s because human beings aren’t light switches, we’re processes. We’re built to change gradually.
Slow change isn’t a bug, it’s a feature!
Imagine for a moment your partner woke up tomorrow and was a completely different person. New disposition, new approach to life, new habits, new communication style. How disruptive would it be if your closest companions changed on a dime.
Now, imagine instead of your warm, cozy home with a pantry full of food that rapid change happened to your ancestors in an unpredictable wilderness.
Yes, we can change quickly. But it’s very stressful and takes a lot of resources. We’re all, each of us, a combination of stable habit and flexible change. That’s what allowed our ancestors to survive and thrive… that’s how we all got here.
But I want to do that New Years thing!
The desire to change at the start of a new year is very real. Whether it’s the horizon of a new day, week, month, year, or millennia it makes sense that we’d want to capitalize on pivot moments in our lives. The trick is to do it in an informed, smart way.
So what does work?
Here is a core concept I want you to internalize:
Not everything works for everyone all the time.
That is to say there’s no one right way to go about your 2023 wellness, fitness, and wellbeing. What you need is enough structure to consistently move in the direction you want to go with enough freedom to evolve and change as you do.
Enter: The Wellness Plan
What’s a wellness plan?
It’s a flexible, process-oriented roadmap of your ongoing personal wellness journey.
The goal of the wellness plan isn’t being perfectly optimized in every detail of your life or to set a million goals - it’s to make sustainable adjustments to your habits with the goal of any changes becoming integrated into your self and your life; making you more whole and well.
Your wellness plan is built on this core process:
You try things you think will be of benefit
You learn from trying (like a good scientist)
You apply that learning forward - sustaining what works, dumping what doesn’t, and keeping a growth mindset about the whole thing
So let’s get to it:
Want a workbook to go along with this post?
Well here you go:
Step 1: Write Your Wellness Vision
The Wellness Vision is your personal vision of you, well. Without over-idealizing or perfectionism, what are you capable of growing into over 2023.
You can write it out, draw it, put together a vision board. Whatever works for you. The idea here is to communicate to yourself what it is you actually want. The Wellness Vision is all about what authentically aligns with you.
(If you want journal prompts you can download the guide above)
Step 2: Set Intentions & Maybe Some Goals
There’s a lot of pressure this time of year to set some Big Ole Goals.
Don’t get me wrong, goals are great. Specifically, goals are helpful when:
They’re self-directed instead of done to please others
Clear, unambiguous, and measurable
Possible with your current resources
Sometimes we don’t know what we want. Sometimes what we want isn’t currently accessible and we have to work on something else first. Sometimes we’re being pressured into things we don’t actually want for ourselves.
In those instances, intentions are a better fit.
(Again, the free guide above has guiding exercises for this)
Step 3: Write Your Wellness Plan
Gameplan time! Make a roadmap for your first phase from where you are now to where your Wellness Vision takes you in 2023. If you set goals in the last step, break them down into smaller chunks that you can tackle progressively. If not, how can you move forward exploring towards your intention?
Keep in mind the wellness plan doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be complete. What you need is a sketch out of the path as you can currently see it and to give yourself enough grace and flexibility to change the plan as you learn more.
(If you want journal prompts you can download the guide above)
Step 4: Immediate Doable Action
When you finish making your plan it’s time to do something.
Take whatever immediate action increases the likelihood of acting tomorrow. Lay out your running clothes for tomorrow’s morning jog. Call that friend who’s going to go try the yoga class with you. Download the meditation app. Whatever!
Then, get clear with yourself about the next 2 or 3 steps after that. Mentally rehearse what you’ll do to keep the momentum going.
Getting up and taking specific action shifts your state. We all know the feeling of making a loooooong to-do list and feeling too overwhelmed after. This is the opposite of that.
(There’s a step by step guide above…it’s free)
Step 5: Revisit & Revise Regularly
Wellness Plans are meant to grow as you do. As you grow and change your plan should, too. Set a regular touch base with yourself about your plan.
Personally, I check in with my goals and purpose for just a minute each day. Once I week I check in with the bigger goals and set that week’s micro-goals. Once a quarter I recalibrate, moving goal posts and celebrating process wins. Having a regular check in schedule means that while you might miss some behaviors here and there you’re focused on progress and process over outcome.