Goal for the Day: Ease into a Healthy Lifestyle

You’ve resolved to engage in a healthier lifestyle. Perhaps you’ve vowed to wake up early and get some exercise, perhaps you’ve decided that you’re going to eat healthier, or perhaps you’ve challenged yourself to get more sleep. Whatever your resolution, you can’t just change your previous behavior overnight. Cut yourself some slack. The habits you developed over time, will take time to undo. If you decide to just change your behavior immediately, you might find that you’re setting yourself up for failure.


Ease into your new lifestyle. Go into it gradually. If you’ve vowed to get more sleep, for example, start going to bed a little earlier each night. If your body is accustomed to staying up until 1:00 A.M., you’re not going to fall asleep at nine. Ease into it. The same concept applies to exercise. If you’ve been inactive for the past several months, getting up at 5:00 A.M. to go workout is going to seem like a monumental task. Instead, start waking up half-an-hour earlier and take a walk around your block. If you approach new habits gradually, they’ll seem less daunting, and you’ll quickly find that you’ll reach your goals sooner than if you force yourself into them unnaturally.