Photographed by Stephanie Galea for Vogue Arabia February 2018
Motivation comes from taking action, therefore it’s important to learn ways to ensure your habits create the most positive impact to your health and happiness stay in place.
A self-management technique used by Heidi Jones, health and empowerment coach is to set up some lifestyle boundaries. This approach is to help you not only be accountable for your own actions, but to also help you create space (boundaries) in your life to help you succeed in your health goals, over and over again.
This technique will help you if you often;
– Put your own plans on hold because you seem to always say yes to someone else’s plans
– Find yourself skipping a workout because you have ran out of time during the day?
– Find yourself overwhelmed with daily and weekly tasks and therefore always put your plans on the bottom of your never-ending to do list
– You run out of energy during the day to look after your own health
– Your day never goes to plan and the unexpected always occurs
Setting your boundaries Step 1
The first step is to identify the most impactful habits, rituals or routines you would like to keep in place. As a suggestion looking at a habit from each area of health, physical, mental and emotional can help you create a more balanced approach.
Example;
The 3 things that make the most positive impact to my health and happiness:
– Physical: exercising
– Mental: journalling
– Emotional: sleep
Next, write down specifically what makes the most impact:
- Physical: A 30 minute cycle before I start the day, preferably outside on my bike but as an alternative on the stationary bike in the gym.
- Mental – Journalling in the evening on what went well that day and identifying one thing I can do better the next day.
- Emotional – To get a minimum of 6 hours sleep each night, meaning I have to be in bed by 11pm.
The BIG 3 questions
Consider the 3 questions below and answer for each of your answers:
- What’s the impact for you if you do this?
- What the impact if you don’t do this?
- My why for setting up this habit is…
Setting your boundaries Step 2
What is required of you in order to keep these 3 things a priority?
A key skill is to plan ahead, it might seem simple, but for the majority it is not a consideration. We falsely believe these actions will just fit in to the day, or we believe our willpower is strong enough so there is no need for a plan. However by planning you are able to set up your environmental boundaries and keep yourself accountable.
Consider this;
You have an early work meeting, how will you need to adapt you day in order to exercise that morning? Does getting up early have a knock on effect to your sleep pattern? Will you need to go to bed earlier the night before? If you are going to bed earlier when will you journal?
“By planning ahead you are taking control of the controllable and setting yourself up to succeed.”
Setting your boundaries Step 3
Who is required to know about your plans to keep these 3 things a priority?
List who needs to be aware of your plans in order to create the boundaries needed to succeed?
Your partner? children? friends? By sharing your plans and asking for support you begin to create healthy boundaries and set yourself up to succeed even more. From your answers to the questions above, share why these things are important to you and the impact it has on your life to the people who need to know. By doing this it adds value to your plan and helps them understand how they can support you to keep these boundaries in place.
Putting your boundaries in place is a secret to keeping motivated. You cannot continue to feel motivated if you stop doing the things that make you feel your best because you are busy fulfilling someone else’s plans. Setting up boundaries and planning ahead is not always easy, but it is worth the initial effort, the more you practice and use the technique the easier the system becomes.
Health and personal empowerment coach Heidi Jones has been empowering her clients with tools for achieving optimal wellbeing and improved lifestyle habits for the past five years. Her coaching methods focus on implementing preventative strategies, developing a growth mindset and action based self-awareness techniques. Visit heidijonescoaching.com @heidi_jones_coaching
Heidi Jones
Founder & Integrative Health Coach
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