4 Tips For Implementing A Wellness Practice With Confidence
Many of us know what we need to do to care for our chronic illness, our general wellness or any other aspect of our lives. However, translating that into action can tend to go sideways for a number of reasons.
While some of those reasons are outside of our control due to the unpredictability of symptoms. Other reasons are more related to issues that most people grapple with - whether they have a chronic illness or not.
This frequently looks like a lack of confidence that we can or will make it happen.
For example, let’s say that your healthcare provider recommended that you add a certain number of servings of vegetables to what you eat everyday. That sounds reasonable when you are in their office. But, when you get home and think about how to find recipes for preparing the food in ways you actually like, or how to add one more thing to your daily responsibilities, the new veggie eating habit may be finished before it starts.
This is because we are focusing on the hardship, which can be overwhelming and demoralizing. And, it plays into one of the top reasons why many of us do not even attempt to implement a new practice, habit or goal - we lack confidence in how to implement it or in our ability to make a consistent effort.
But, I will not succumb to pessimism! I believe in you!
When knowing what to do is not half the battle, how do we build our confidence to the point that we recognize that we have what it takes?
The first thing to do is to ask yourself, what would it take for you to feel more confident?
Do you need more information, do you need to think through a plan, do you need help? Once you can pinpoint what will make you feel more confident and you figure out a way to make that happen, you are closer to becoming more confident in your ability to do it.
But, let’s get more specific.
Here are 4 practical tips for boosting your confidence:
1. UTILIZE your personal strengths and past experiences
By simply realizing how much we bring to the table by being ourselves, realizing our strengths, and drawing on our experiences, we may realize that we are much more capable and knowledgeable than we give ourselves credit for.
In terms of the new veggie habit, relying on our strengths and experiences might look like:
Listing the vegetables you like to eat and/or how you like to eat them. Do you like your veggies straight up, in soups, smoothies, or do you prefer to hide veggies in sauces?
Listing your favorite veggie recipes and making a grocery list to include the ingredients.
Consider your strengths - are you a competent veggie roaster? Do you like to try new flavors and recipes? Are you excellent at ordering carry-out?
2. Get Creative and experiment
Committing to experiment with how you are going to add a new practice, habit or goal to your life is a low stake way of trying out some options before you commit to something specific. If you don’t get it right the first time, that’s okay. The consequences are insignificant. You can move onto the next idea, or try again. The important thing is to learn from your experiment and utilize that information to figure out what might work better for you.
When the first step in a new habit is an experiment, it keeps the endeavor from feeling too intimidating or like it may be too much of a commitment.
In our veggie example, this could include:
Being open-minded about how you add this habit to your daily life in a realistic way;
Experimenting with trying a new vegetable or recipe for the first time; or
Considering what veggies you already enjoy, that might be a good “gateway vegetable” to get your habit rolling.
3. Do research and/or get help
If you are stumped on how to implement a new habit in your life in a way that feels good to you, it might be an excellent time to do more research. For our veggie example, this could include researching new recipes, asking friends and family for their suggestions, or looking into small appliances like blenders or slow cookers that could assist you.
Alternatively, this might be a time to consider consulting an expert for assistance. This could include:
Consulting a nutritionist for recipes and tips;
Joining a healthy food delivery service; or
Hiring a coach to support you in building your habit.
4. Take it one small step at a time
It is more than okay to take baby steps towards your goal. In fact, it works.
When you slowly work towards the goal with baby steps, you head in the right direction. You end up building up to your goal over time. A big unkept secret in coaching is that building on small successes causes an increase in confidence that results in more sustainable habits over time.
Maybe you start with adding one additional serving of veggies for a week. Then, slowly build up to what your provider prescribed. By taking it slow, you gain confidence based on your past successes and keep moving forward. In a month, those efforts will add up. By adding one serving a day for a month, you will have added roughly 30 more servings than you otherwise would have eaten.
For More Info and Support
on finding a sustainable way to implement wellness habits or practices into your life, contact me here.
When we take the time to sort out why we are not feeling confident about implementing a new practice, habit or goal, we are already setting ourselves up to be more successful because we are focusing less on why we can’t, and more on what we can do to make it work.
Whether any goal, habit or practice that you are working on or considering relates to vegetables or not, I encourage you to think about what you CAN do, even if that is something seemingly small.
This might be a great time to think about how amazing you are for getting yourself to where you are today. Now, you have the opportunity to use your life experiences and strengths to add in any wellness practices that will support you and your underlying health going forward.
What is one small, realistic action you can take this week to get you closer to adding in a wellness habit/practice?
What personal strengths and experiences can you draw on?
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