Today is the 1st of February and it is Monday. Therefore, it is a perfect day to set new goals for this week and month! Our goals should be SMARTER (specific, measurable, achievable, recorded, time-bound, exciting and rewarded). It is important to remember that long-term success is not about a single accomplishment, but rather the process of continuous self improvement and growth. It really is the small changes when sustained over time that lead to big results. It is much easier to achieve our goals successfully when we focus on our daily habits to reach that goal.
Below you will find our downloadable habit tracker template that we encourage you to print and complete daily this month. Although there are space for 3 daily habits, you may decide to focus on improving 1 or 2 habits. Start small and keep going!
Your habits should be specific to you and what you want to achieve for example:
- If you want to increase your water intake you could increase the number of glasses you drink each week. Aim to start small and gradually increase over time.
- If you want to increase your fruit & vegetable intake you could aim to consume an additional portion at each meal.
- If you want to increase your daily steps, set yourself a daily step goal.
- If you want to practice gratitude you could write 3 things down that you are grateful for each day. Morning or before bedtime are good times to do this.
Did you know? Self-monitoring and goal setting are identified as effective behaviour change techniques (Michie et al., 2009, Michie et al., 2011).
References:
1. Michie, S., Abraham, C., Whittington, C., Mcateer, J. and Gupta, S. (2009) ‘Effective techniques in healthy eating and physical activity interventions: a meta-regression’, Health Psychol, 28(6), pp. 690-701.
2. Michie, S., Ashford, S., Sniehotta, F.F., Dombrowski, S.U., Bishop, A. and French, D.P. (2011) ‘A refined taxonomy of behaviour change techniques to help people change their physical activity and healthy eating behaviours: the CALO-RE taxonomy’, Psychology & health, 26(11), pp. 1479-1498.
