Don’t Let Your New Years Resolutions be Busted
New Years resolutions are opportunities to change things. You decide to improve and you resolve to do it this year. Often, you have not done quite enough preparation to see you through the entire process of change. I did this show on Blog Talk Radio
about what to do if you aren’t making progress and feel you never will on what ever you resolved. I hope you enjoy it and will leave me some comments on you thoughts and experiences.
Aging – What are you doing about it?
I belong to a kind of mastermind group in which we read each others blogs. We are critical and those that make the grade get a leg up by having all of us comment and submit the good stuff to social media sites. I read Growing Older Disgracefully this morning. Since I write here about coaching and self care, this post really made me think. Some of the comments gave me pause too. Maybe in part because this year has passed so quickly and so much less was done than I wanted to achieve.
One of Corrine’s readers left a comment about her Grandparents over 90 years old and their life and regular comments. Corrine wrote about helping others in need and how they were not likely to object due to our age. We are never too old to help someone in need.
This made me think about how much time I might have left if everything goes perfectly. It won’t no matter how much I think it will. But my attitude about it will determine how well I recover and what happens during any therapy or treatment I need. What ever happens, it will cause expense, inconvenience and new stresses.
My Father at age 75 needed open heart surgery to receive 4 coronary bypass grafts. They asked him to participate in a study using “robotics” to do part of the surgery. It was new at the time and after surgery he had several complications. He never complained, he just told his Doctors – do it – lets move forward. He never flinched from what ever he needed to do. He recovered completely even though the mistakes made required two more surgeries that opened his chest and prolonged his recovery. I never heard him complain, he was always grateful.
Now, don’t think my Dad is a gentle Saint. He isn’t. He is a tough, pragmatic realist and can be very critical and quick to anger. He just believes in moving forward. There are things he could do now to make things smoother for others and I know he isn’t going to do it. I want to be able to follow that example of lets get this done.
Right now when I look at the symbol of the circle with self care at the center, I realize my Dad was willing to shine as much light as possible into caring for his health. He knew that without it, nothing else much mattered. 
Right now, look at the 12 areas in the circle around self care. Mentally rate the amount of light between zero and ten in each area with 10 being the most possible. Maybe you should write these numbers down. As you look at the area and number, does one strike you as needing more light? Is there one area you know you want to illuminate more but have put it off. What if my Dad had said, I don’t want to have this done. He could have! He could have said I am 75 years old and this isn’t fair. He could have just stayed home in his chair and suffered and deteriorated.
Think about what YOU want and need in your life now. Think about what you are going to do about it. Are you going to take some action to add a little more light where you want it. Don’t think of what you “need” to do. That is doing what you think others expect you to do. Where do you need more light? Do you need to improve your health? Your diet? Your spiritual life? What actions will do this? What needs to be done first?
I work as a coach with many people who want to lose weight. Diet and exercise is always their focus and the areas where they have failed over and over. As I have them look at their strengths, victories and challenges, we usually find things like not going to bed early enough and chronic fatigue from lack of sleep a big problem. Correcting this makes them much more able to do more of what they want and surprising to them, they begin to lose weight with just this one change and they begin to feel like “they can”.
This busy season is not built to help us succeed. It is one that runs us ragged, stresses us and tempts us to just “Give up” to say “What the Heck! I have already flubbed – I may as well just enjoy the food and over eat. I will never change!” Think about what you want. If you need help, think about hiring an expert in exercise, diet or coaching (like me) to help you better illuminate your life and better care for yourself so that “old age” isn’t a time of complaint and regret.
Healthy Habits – which one is most important
On Ask an Expert Anything last night I talked about Health Habits and gave my opinion about which I thought was most important. I divided up the hour into 4 15 minutes segments to make it easier to listen to on the treadmill or walk or drive to work. Please take the time to take this poll and to listen and then tell me what you think.
Two people you want to check out are Dan Buettner and his work in Blue Zones and Dr. David Snowdon and his longitudinal study of Nuns. Dr. Snowdon wrote the book Aging with GRACE which details some of the initial findings of his study on aging and the brain. You can find some documentary footage on YouTube.com by searching Nun Study.
Other links to information on healthy habits can be found below:
New York Times report on Congressional Incentives for Healthy Habits
4 Healthy Habits Recommended by WebMD
WebMD has another list of 13 but with the 4 above that is 17 total Healthy Habits – not so unlucky?!
PLEASE! Take the survey, listen to the 4 15 minute podcasts and then leave me some comments on this post. Agree, Disagree but tell me what you think. Remember what Dr. Seuss said,” Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind do not matter, and those who matter do not mind!”
This link is a PDF on how to create an intention, set up a SMART goal with action steps and create an affirmation with associated mind/body practice.
goals, intentions and affirmations
