When we are inspired to make a lifestyle change, one tendency is to procrastinate; another is to jump in over our head and flounder. In either case, we may find ourselves stuck where we are, not making the progress we intend and wondering why not.
Sometimes, we like the idea of taking on a new habit, and may even commit verbally to trying it out. However, we haven’t done enough pre-work to ensure success. Using the travel analogy, we haven’t checked for construction delays, bridges out, the weather forecast (or haven’t figured out how to deal with them). It is often worth the investment to STOP before we act— before we join the gym or buy the stationary bike or take our “fat” wardrobe to the thrift shop.
When initiating a lifestyle change, mentally test-drive the route and its detours. Ask hard questions. What will be required of me and those close to me? Does it involve a change in schedule, at home or at work? Does it mean eating different foods at home or changing the patterns of eating out? Can I budget for the cost of a class, or equipment, or a membership? Do I have a compelling vision of the desired future and my reasons for going there? Do the benefits of making a change clearly outweigh the comforts of staying the same?
Let’s look at an example: I want to deal more effectively with work stress. I set a goal of meditating 30 minutes every morning during the week. My mornings are already full, so I need to carve out time for meditation by changing what I do now. I usually start the day with my husband over coffee. I prepare breakfast for my kids and pack their lunch for school. I like to stay up late and I hate to get up early. I have daily 8am staff meetings at work.
In this case, adding a new morning habit calls for the cooperation of family members. It means modifying my own expectations, and moving out of familiar patterns. It could involve negotiating standard practice at my workplace. If I am not sure why such a change is critical to health and well-being, I may not have the emotional strength to forge new rituals and let go of old ones.
Think about successful changes you have made, personally or professionally, and how you have worked out the details. Reflect on lessons you have learned about yourself, your environment, and your support network that can be applied to the current situation. Identify personal strengths and skills you can draw upon.
Ask yourself, “On a scale of 1-10, what is my level of confidence that I can make it happen?” If the answer is below 7 on the scale, spend some more time on “thinking and feeling” work before committing to action.
Until the next time, go well.
Pam
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Renewable Energy: A Personal Challenge
As I spend time with people who aspire to healthy lifestyles, the concept of personal energy is a recurring theme. We want more. We are not sure how to get it. We read books and magazine articles. The advice doesn’t work. Energy is elusive. It is not just about hydration, the right vitamins, or a good night’s sleep. Too much coffee is worse than too little. Exercise helps, but can also hurt.
In The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz assemble the elements of optimal energy into a simple but comprehensive whole. They describe energy as engagement with life, and they conclude: “To be fully engaged we must be physically energized, emotionally committed, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.” I will reflect on each of those four dimensions in coming weeks.
For now, I want to begin with an over-arching theme from the book. Drawing from the field of sports performance, Loehr and Schwartz describe the training cycle of exertion and recovery. When building strength, endurance, and flexibility, an athlete pushes the body slightly past its limits. For performance to improve, the extra effort must alternate with strategic periods of rest and recovery. Fatigued muscles need to rebuild. Depleted cells need to replenish.
Mental, emotional, and spiritual performance also benefit from cycles of exertion and recovery. We tend to run our daily lives on the model of a marathon, which calls for sustained effort at a constant pace over long hours and miles. These authors recommend the model of a sprint, with its burst of high energy followed by recovery; engagement followed by disengagement. Their experience shows that the “corporate athletes” they work with perform best when 90-minute chunks of concentrated effort alternate with strategic changes of scene and pace. They call the process “oscillation.”
How does your energy hold up when you spend long hours working without a break? How does it feel when you skip from task to task without finishing any one of them? Does the idea of oscillating between focus and recovery intrigue you? Give it a try.
Until the next time, be well.
Pam
In The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz assemble the elements of optimal energy into a simple but comprehensive whole. They describe energy as engagement with life, and they conclude: “To be fully engaged we must be physically energized, emotionally committed, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.” I will reflect on each of those four dimensions in coming weeks.
For now, I want to begin with an over-arching theme from the book. Drawing from the field of sports performance, Loehr and Schwartz describe the training cycle of exertion and recovery. When building strength, endurance, and flexibility, an athlete pushes the body slightly past its limits. For performance to improve, the extra effort must alternate with strategic periods of rest and recovery. Fatigued muscles need to rebuild. Depleted cells need to replenish.
Mental, emotional, and spiritual performance also benefit from cycles of exertion and recovery. We tend to run our daily lives on the model of a marathon, which calls for sustained effort at a constant pace over long hours and miles. These authors recommend the model of a sprint, with its burst of high energy followed by recovery; engagement followed by disengagement. Their experience shows that the “corporate athletes” they work with perform best when 90-minute chunks of concentrated effort alternate with strategic changes of scene and pace. They call the process “oscillation.”
How does your energy hold up when you spend long hours working without a break? How does it feel when you skip from task to task without finishing any one of them? Does the idea of oscillating between focus and recovery intrigue you? Give it a try.
Until the next time, be well.
Pam
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fear or Hope: It Makes a Difference
When we decide that now is the time to shape up and get our lives in order, any number of motives can drive the desire to change. Perhaps we received an invitation to the class reunion, and don’t want to overhear, “Wow, he sure let himself go.” Maybe we took the health assessment that they offer at work, and were surprised by the numbers. A scary doctor’s visit, anxiety about falling behind the group on a family hike, or the declining health or loss of a parent or sibling can serve as a wake-up call.
The motivation emerging from these examples includes an element of fear. We don’t want to be seen as declining, to suffer illness, or to lose our ability to engage in activities we enjoy. These experiences grab our attention and get us off the couch! For a while. On the other hand, they rarely fuel the kind of change that holds up over time.
Science has unearthed some intriguing evidence in favor of compelling positive motivation. Positive thoughts generate positive emotions and increase mood-lifting hormones that give us energy and hope. Negative thoughts generate hormones that are unpleasant and trigger the fight-or-flight response. We are repelled by thoughts that trigger negative hormones and attracted to thoughts that flood us with positive energy. As a result, we avoid thinking about the motivators that scare us, and we savor those that make us feel good.
Try it for yourself. If you are relying on fear to get you going, try re-framing the fear in terms of its complementary vision. “I don’t want to die at 60 like my parents,” becomes “I want to be hiking with the kids and grandkids in my 80’s.” “If I don’t lose 20 pounds, I’ll look like a beached whale at the wedding,” might be more inviting as “I like to wear a fitted dress for special occasions.” What is the key motivation for you, and how will you describe it in terms that invigorate you, again and again, with eagerness for change?
Until the next time, go well.
Pam
The motivation emerging from these examples includes an element of fear. We don’t want to be seen as declining, to suffer illness, or to lose our ability to engage in activities we enjoy. These experiences grab our attention and get us off the couch! For a while. On the other hand, they rarely fuel the kind of change that holds up over time.
Science has unearthed some intriguing evidence in favor of compelling positive motivation. Positive thoughts generate positive emotions and increase mood-lifting hormones that give us energy and hope. Negative thoughts generate hormones that are unpleasant and trigger the fight-or-flight response. We are repelled by thoughts that trigger negative hormones and attracted to thoughts that flood us with positive energy. As a result, we avoid thinking about the motivators that scare us, and we savor those that make us feel good.
Try it for yourself. If you are relying on fear to get you going, try re-framing the fear in terms of its complementary vision. “I don’t want to die at 60 like my parents,” becomes “I want to be hiking with the kids and grandkids in my 80’s.” “If I don’t lose 20 pounds, I’ll look like a beached whale at the wedding,” might be more inviting as “I like to wear a fitted dress for special occasions.” What is the key motivation for you, and how will you describe it in terms that invigorate you, again and again, with eagerness for change?
Until the next time, go well.
Pam
Sunday, May 10, 2009
SMART Goals Achieve Results
In last week’s Reflections, we celebrated the journey to a healthier and happier life. This week, I want to focus on the destination, or results of that journey. Endless summers and chasing the next wave are enticing images, but when well-being is at stake, a clearly defined end-point and a detailed step-by-step itinerary are critical to a successful trip.
The Wellcoaches® model of wellness planning is deeply rooted in the science of behavioral change. A few key findings of that science are: a) the value of a compelling vision that paints a picture of the desired lifestyle a year or more from now; b) the importance of allowing time for meaningful and lasting changes to become established (it takes at least three months to build from thinking about a new behavior to doing it regularly); and c) the effectiveness of moving toward the vision by taking small steps, rather than attempting to change in giant leaps.
With support and guidance from a wellness coach, the client generates a long-term vision, a limited set of three-month goals, and a new set of short-term goals every week. Unlike the vision, which describes results (pounds lost), goals describe actions that will lead toward those results (eating less of certain foods).
Powerful behavioral goals have five key characteristics: They are
1. specific, so you know whether you are doing what you said you would do.
2. measurable, so you can evaluate success objectively.
3. action-oriented, so you are monitoring behaviors that you can observe.
4. realistic, so that success in the short term generates energy for the longer term.
5. time-specific, because an entry on the calendar focuses and strengthens commitment.
The acronym for these characteristics is S-M-A-R-T—so we call them SMART goals.
It is important that goals are written down, helpful if they are shared with others for accountability, and essential that progress is monitored and evaluated frequently, with room for regular adjustment based on lessons learned. The underlying intent is not so much to plan-and-implement, but to experiment-and-adapt.
Let’s return for a moment to the value of the journey itself. It is exciting to experience progress toward specific outcomes, and it is also exciting to expand our capacity to change and grow in a direction of our choosing. With new insights and skills to draw upon, we can accept the full range of life’s challenges with increased confidence and optimism.
Until the next time, be well.
Pam
The Wellcoaches® model of wellness planning is deeply rooted in the science of behavioral change. A few key findings of that science are: a) the value of a compelling vision that paints a picture of the desired lifestyle a year or more from now; b) the importance of allowing time for meaningful and lasting changes to become established (it takes at least three months to build from thinking about a new behavior to doing it regularly); and c) the effectiveness of moving toward the vision by taking small steps, rather than attempting to change in giant leaps.
With support and guidance from a wellness coach, the client generates a long-term vision, a limited set of three-month goals, and a new set of short-term goals every week. Unlike the vision, which describes results (pounds lost), goals describe actions that will lead toward those results (eating less of certain foods).
Powerful behavioral goals have five key characteristics: They are
1. specific, so you know whether you are doing what you said you would do.
2. measurable, so you can evaluate success objectively.
3. action-oriented, so you are monitoring behaviors that you can observe.
4. realistic, so that success in the short term generates energy for the longer term.
5. time-specific, because an entry on the calendar focuses and strengthens commitment.
The acronym for these characteristics is S-M-A-R-T—so we call them SMART goals.
It is important that goals are written down, helpful if they are shared with others for accountability, and essential that progress is monitored and evaluated frequently, with room for regular adjustment based on lessons learned. The underlying intent is not so much to plan-and-implement, but to experiment-and-adapt.
Let’s return for a moment to the value of the journey itself. It is exciting to experience progress toward specific outcomes, and it is also exciting to expand our capacity to change and grow in a direction of our choosing. With new insights and skills to draw upon, we can accept the full range of life’s challenges with increased confidence and optimism.
Until the next time, be well.
Pam
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Wellbeing: Journey and Destination
In our pragmatic, results-oriented culture, wellness is typically described as getting enough exercise, eating nutritious food, and losing a few pounds. Sometimes we throw in bits and pieces like getting more sleep, coping with stress, and taking our meds.
The first step in working with a wellness coach is to develop a vision of the ideal future: Where do I want to be a year or five years from now? That exercise is also, by definition, results-oriented. On the other hand, as we look forward and begin to describe our ideal lives, we are often pulled from within toward images beyond miles run, pounds lost, or servings of fruits and veggies per day. As we envision optimal well-being, we find ourselves describing such qualities as peace of mind, sustained high energy, and an expanded capacity to enjoy our lives, our work, and our relationships.
One version of wellness is a mitigation plan for life: keeping our bodies reasonably healthy while absorbing or resisting the barrage of impacts that assault us from sources outside our control. Another version of wellbeing arises from within, taking responsibility for who we are and how we interact with life, seeing health as an integrated whole composed of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.
I find that wellness journeys can become more powerful and transformative than we expect at first. We can dream, design, and ultimately live with more inner alignment and outer richness than we imagined before embarking. The destination may include a smaller waist or dress size, a faster or longer race, and better “numbers” on our health screenings. In addition, the journey itself can be enriched by infusions of peace, love, and joy as we take charge of who we are and who we want to become.
Until the next time, go well.
Pam
The first step in working with a wellness coach is to develop a vision of the ideal future: Where do I want to be a year or five years from now? That exercise is also, by definition, results-oriented. On the other hand, as we look forward and begin to describe our ideal lives, we are often pulled from within toward images beyond miles run, pounds lost, or servings of fruits and veggies per day. As we envision optimal well-being, we find ourselves describing such qualities as peace of mind, sustained high energy, and an expanded capacity to enjoy our lives, our work, and our relationships.
One version of wellness is a mitigation plan for life: keeping our bodies reasonably healthy while absorbing or resisting the barrage of impacts that assault us from sources outside our control. Another version of wellbeing arises from within, taking responsibility for who we are and how we interact with life, seeing health as an integrated whole composed of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.
I find that wellness journeys can become more powerful and transformative than we expect at first. We can dream, design, and ultimately live with more inner alignment and outer richness than we imagined before embarking. The destination may include a smaller waist or dress size, a faster or longer race, and better “numbers” on our health screenings. In addition, the journey itself can be enriched by infusions of peace, love, and joy as we take charge of who we are and who we want to become.
Until the next time, go well.
Pam
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