January not gone according to plan? It’s never too late to set yourself on track with goals and resolutions. I wrote this post for the inspirational corners of the ProHealth website, which was posted in time for the New Year, but it applies any time of the year really!
Approaching a new year can be difficult for a chronic illness warrior. The nature of chronic illness means that even when we do make progress it is often very slow, and it is difficult to set goals and aim for achievements in the same way that a person with normal energy levels can. We have to be careful not to set our expectations too high or set ourselves up for failure. It can be very tempting to set ourselves a seriously strict regime at the beginning of the year, thinking if we get good enough at pacing or follow our diet strictly enough, we might just have a chance of making a difference. That kind of pressure doesn’t help anyone, and even if by some kind of miracle you manage to stick to your regime, the results are never as clear and rewarding as you might expect them to be. However I still believe that there can be a great deal of value from reviewing the previous year and setting goals for the next, as long as it is done with compassion and understanding.
Looking back on last year
In my way of thinking, the only way looking back can ever serve us, is if it brings us pleasure or if there is something to be learned from it. It doesn’t really help to think about the goals we had this time last year and see whether we met them or not. Goals have one use only and that is to help drive us forward. However, what can serve is to recognise what we have learned, what we’ve achieved and what obstacles we overcame. Achievements might involve meeting goals, but they can involve a whole lot more too: getting through a rough patch; honing an illness management skill; being kind to yourself or paying attention to your happy moments, are all valuable achievements for a chronic illness warrior. If you find yourself compelled to look back on last year before moving on to the next keep the focus positive!
First of all aim to focus on all the good times you had. Life may not have been filled with exciting happy events but there are often many little happy moments the can mean a great deal if you choose to pay enough attention to them. Then think about your achievements, not just in terms of the big things but also all the little things like getting through a difficult pain day without biting someone’s head off. Think back on all the things that you did well last year. What worked well for you in terms of illness management? What could you do more of? What have you learned from things that didn’t work so well?
I had many little moments of pleasure last year particularly while I was able to take my meals outside. I made a point of appreciating the view, the sounds, the experience of warmth or breeze on my skin, the taste of my food. Mindfulness brought me a great deal of easy pleasure last year!
One thing that had the biggest impact on my wellbeing last year was really cultivating a trust that things would get done in their own time and really listening to my body so that I only did what I felt like at any given moment. It kind of felt lazy at first, but I wanted to trust it would be alright, I wanted to take care of myself properly and I was amazed to find that nothing important got missed and my health steadily improved! I definitely want more of that next year!
Planning for next year (New Year’s Resolutions)
If you’d like to set goals to help motivate you to move forwards this year make sure you think about them precisely in those terms. The purpose of goals is to motivate, don’t allow them to be used as a stick to beat yourself up with. It can be so easy to turn our goals into pressure which then turns into stress and tension, but stress and tension have nothing to offer our health and happiness! My number one goal is always relaxed effortlessness in all that I do!
For many of us it may be unrealistic to set big goals that involve being a productive member of society, but there are many ways we can think of how we can take responsibility for improving our own lives (and generally when we improve our own lives, life becomes better for those around us too!) I like to think about what illness management skills can I work on? How can I hone my low energy happiness skills? How can I get better at resting? How can I bring more balance into my life?
I’ve always loved the SMART goal acronym. Goals are most likely to be helpful if they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound.
One of the happiness skills I want to continue working on this year is gratitude. I know I’ve been getting a bit sloppy with it recently but I also know it’s something that works when I do it well. I can make this a specific goal by including the 10 finger gratitude practice in my daily meditation. I can make it measurable by recording whether or not I do it each day. I know it’s definitely achievable because I’ve done it before but to be kind to myself I’ll set myself a target of doing it 5 days a week for the month of January (by then it should be an established part of my routine again). I know it’s relevant because I’ve had it as part of my routine before and I know it helps me notice the things that I appreciate more often and leads to more happy moments in the day. And aiming to do it for the month of January (until it becomes a regular part of my routine) is a way of making it time-bound.
If you have a broader goal to achieve something within the year, break it into smaller steps and make sure each of the steps are smart, also make sure you’re not tackling too many steps at once. If your general goal is to improve your health but there are a lot of elements of your self-help that could do with some improvement, pick a priority and get it established before tackling the next important thing!
Finally remember rewards are a good way to get motivation started. I find that withholding treats until I’ve achieved a small step is a good way forward (as long as the step is small and achievable enough). After a while, the sense of achievement from having taken those steps is motivation enough!
So how will you use what you learnt from last year to help you make this year even better? What’s your focus for improving your health and happiness in 2016?
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