Take Care of Goals & Take Care of Yourself
My disclaimer before we start:
Your physical health and your mental, emotional, and spiritual health matter. It is wonderful that the new year may bring you to self-reflect and identify something that is not working for you.
I have seen many new year’s “resolutions” that focus on negative feelings, reinforce harmful societal ideals, and are unhealthy or dangerous. I do not want to align myself with those ideas. This post is a fun new year’s project that I made as part of a reflection about the changes I am continuing to make in my professional and personal life while starting my own business.
Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. Please make decisions that will take into account all aspects of your health, and talk to a healthcare provider if you’re planning to make any major changes to your nutrition, physical activity, take a new supplement or medication, or otherwise make any changes to your health. We would love to help you and make sure you stay safe.
This time of year often inspires us to contemplate a new system for getting things done, how an exercise plan fits into our day, or all the exciting food we can meal prep. I’m a sucker for self-planning, and I know many of you are too. This post is for New Years Resolution-ers, mid-year goal-setters, and anyone who has thought they’d like to change something in their day and are looking for the next step.
How does change happen?
There are some important things to understand and remember when implementing any new habit, whether that habit is a change you want to make for yourself, or prescribed as part of a treatment plan to recover from injury or pain.
Change is not overnight, its incremental.
Change happens with little habits repeated over and over (and over and over) again, for days, weeks, months, and built upon when they’re solidly etched into your routines.
To make a large change less daunting, break it down into smaller tasks.
Change takes thought.
Think about what you want to change. Think about why you want to change it. Then write it down. Focus on something positive to motivate you.
Sometimes those thoughts turn to strategies, online research, or talking to a professional to help coach you - and this is fantastic.
Change takes planning.
Achieving a goal or creating a change is easiest when you’ve already created a plan to follow, and you don’t have to get your planning and creativity brain on every time you are ready to move forward. Create goals that are SMART.
Specific: who is doing this, what is it, for what reason (why), where will it take place, and when is it happening?
Measurable: how will you know when you’ve achieved the goal? Understand how much, how many, or what your end point is.
Attainable: is the goal physically, financially, and within the time you have able to be achieved? Is there another skill you need to achieve before you can hit your ultimate goal?
Realistic (or Relevant): does the goal fit into your life? Is it a goal you can pursue and you’re confident that even if it’s a stretch you can actually hit? If you were asked “how confident are you that you can complete this goal?” you should aim for a confidence of 7/10 where 0 is not confident at all, and 10 is completely confident that it will happen.
Time-Limited (or Time Bound): make a time-frame for your goal. When do you want to achieve it? Even better - what can you do today, this week, and this month to achieve your goal? Define the steps you can take and when you want to take them. (Just keep in mind that goals are allowed to be fluid and your dates can change!)
What does this look like?
To put these concepts together, let’s make a hypothetical goal of “having a better sleep.” After COVID lockdowns this summer I found I had really changed my nighttime routine and sleep schedule, and I wanted to make it more regular so I could be more productive first thing in the morning. This example is roughly based on my own experience.
Change is incremental: thinking about the barriers to good sleep…
Room too bright - closed the drapes every night
Scrolled through phone too much - switched to reading fiction before bed (didn’t like that), and set time limits with auto-reminders on my phone (worked better)
Thinking too much about what is on the next day’s tasks - made sure all tasks were physically written in agenda, and if anything was missed was put into a phone document for transfer the next morning so it is off the brain and on the page
Establishing a night time routine, allowing the body time to relax - spent a few minutes of washing dishes, setting out clothes for the next day before getting ready for bed
Change takes thought: the reasons you want to achieve a goal are personal to you. Perhaps you can write out the reasons for your goal at the front of a journal, or on a sticky note on the bathroom mirror.
Change takes planning:
Specific: instead of choosing “sleep more” as a goal, the focus is much clearer when you say “I want to set aside more restful time in bed each night so I can feel more focused and clear when I wake up in the morning.”
Measurable: choose for yourself an amount of restful time n bed each night, for example “9 hours” or “between 9pm and 6am every day”
Attainable, Realistic: does the measurable time selected fit with your work and personal schedule?
Time Sensitive: allow one week for deciding on routines, research, consultation, etc, and one week for each new habit:
Week 1 - ideas for routine
Week 2 - spend 15 minutes washing dishes every night
Week 3 - dishes + set out clothes every night
Week 4 - dishes + clothes + another pre-defined goal
By what date do you want to achieve our final goal product? This time frame can be fluid and adapt to the changing steps to get there.
Now, some science.
The transtheoretical model of behaviour change gives insight into how we make changes to our routines. It models a process of thinking about change, our reasoning, and the actions we take to get there. It contains six stages + one stage where the participant is not yet ready to make a change. Using this model, change in behaviour is not linear, does not have a particular start or end point, and if it was pictured as a cycle could be entered or exited at any stage.
Behaviour change is fluid, cyclical, dynamic, and requires more than just the decision to change itself. Before any action is taken there is contemplation and preparation. After an action has been taken it may be maintained for any period of time, and it may terminate as it becomes integrated into a routine, or it may relapse. This sounds like a lot of work (because it is) but any work you put in before or while taking action helps set you up for success along the way.
To point out one of the most important elements of this model: experiencing a relapse when making changes to behaviour is completely normal! There is no element of a “failure” end point within this model. If you want to make a change, it is likely (and in my experience, expected) that at some point you will have difficulty keeping up with your new habit. This is a normal part of finding success. Often finding what doesn’t work helps you to learn what does work for you when establishing new routines and habits.
The age-old trope of busy gyms in January (…except this year) that are empty by February is anecdotal evidence of this relapse stage. That said, provided with the right planning, motivation, and support systems relapse can be overcome and the cycle can once again be re-entered at an appropriate stage for the participant.
What does the transtheroretical model look like when applied?
Let’s look again at the goal of “having a better sleep.”
Precontemplation: “I have no desire to change any sleep habits,” or “I have tried in the past to have a better sleep but it didn’t work for me.”
Contemplation: “I don’t like my current sleep habits but I am considering making a change within the next 6 months.”
Preparation: “I’m looking into different ways of improving my sleep through books, internet resources, and I spoke with my healthcare provider.”
Action: “I have started making small changes. Before bed, I set out my clothes for the next day, drink an herbal tea, and spend 20-30 minutes colouring or drawing.”
Maintenance: “I have a solid routine before bed. My body is used to my routine so I begin to feel tired when I start my routine. I am spending my desired restful hours in bed.”
Relapse: “I spent a couple nights doing work late at night and threw off my routine. I feel more tired in the morning and have a harder time falling asleep. I understand this is part of the process though, so I am working one step at a time to re-establish my routine.”
Termination: “My regular nighttime routine and restful hours are fully integrated into my life. I am 100% confident that I will continue to enjoy the benefits of a regular restful time in bed.”
Takeaways
Behaviour change is a process: series of small actions repeated over time
The better the definition of your goal, the clearer your path to success
To give yourself the best chance of success, planning, preparation, and thought are essential
There are steps that take place between deciding to make a change and actually making it
“Failure” to accomplish part or all of a goal is a normal part of the process, and not a definitive end point
So which stage of change are you at right now? What do you need to do to get to the next stage? How confident are you that you can achieve the next stage, and your overall goal?
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Good luck in your endeavours in the new year, or whenever they take place. If you’d like to include me as a member of your support team as you journey through the stages of change I would be honoured to support you, and be a member of your Village.
All the best,
-Dr. B
References:
Prochaska JO, Velicer WF. The transtheoretical model of health behaviour change. Am J Health Promot. 1997 [cited 2020 Apr 20]; 12(1):38-48.
Bassett SF. Bridging the intention-behaviour gap with behaviour change strategies for physiotherapy rehabilitation non-adherence. New Zeal and J Physiother. 2015 [cited 2020 Apr 20]; 43(3):105-111.