How to Stick to Your Wellness Goals in 2024

If you always struggle to stick to the wellness goals you set at the start of the new year, 2024 is unlikely to be any different — unless you put a strategy in place to help you. This means thinking about what you can do to ensure you develop long-lasting habits. Here are some tips to try.

1. Make Wellness a Priority

In life, it’s essential to set priorities. It’s impossible to give everything equal importance because you sometimes need to choose one activity over another. Wellness needs to be a top priority because your health is crucial to everything else in your life. Think of it this way: when you’re in good health, you’re able to give your family members the attention they deserve, be productive at work, and enjoy your hobbies.

Making wellness a priority may mean carving out time in your schedule every day for exercise, committing to prepare healthy meals, or creating a morning routine where you decide on your purpose for the day.

2. Have an Underlying Reason for Your Wellness Goals

It’s important to be clear about why you’re setting wellness goals. You’re more likely to stay motivated if, instead of focusing on the goal itself, you remember why it matters. For instance, improving your diet, exercising more, or taking time to relax all have an impact on your overall health by reducing your risk of disease, helping you maintain a healthy weight, and making you feel better both mentally and physically.

3. Make Your Goals SMART

You’ll also increase your chances of sticking to your goals if you make them SMART. This means they need to meet five criteria:

• Specific — It’s too easy to cheat when you have a broad goal, which will mean you fail to stick with new habits and see a change. For this reason, it’s important to make your goals as specific as possible. Think about what particular aspect of your health you want to improve and what exactly you could do.
• Measurable — It’s difficult to know if you’re on track to meet your goals if they’re not measurable. Examples of measurable wellness goals include exercising a certain number of minutes each week, making time for self-care on a daily basis, or reaching a particular weight.
• Attainable — Avoid being overly ambitious with your goals; instead, make sure they’re all things you can achieve. To do this, it helps to think about the steps you’ll take to reach your goals.
• Relevant — You’ve already decided on the reason for setting wellness goals this year. Make sure the goals you set relate to this reason. For instance, if the main reason for improving your health is to reduce stress, set a goal to improve your wellbeing that won’t feel like another chore on your to-do list.
• Time-bound — Setting time-bound goals allows you to decide what results you want to see by a certain point in the future. Remember, as you have all of 2024, there’s no need to rush. However, you may like to set a shorter timeline to work toward your goals in small increments. This will allow you to monitor your progress and keep working toward more ambitious results.

4. Think of Some Backup Plans

Even when you prioritize wellness, there will be occasions when things don’t go according to plan. Failing to meet your goals just one day can cause you to slide back into bad habits — until, before you know it, you’ve given up entirely. Prevent this from happening by having some backup plans for times when you’re extra busy.

For instance, if you know there will be some days during the upcoming week when you’ll be unable to cook dinner, do some meal prep in advance. That way, you’ll have dishes you can just heat up. If something comes up that you didn’t anticipate or you don’t even have time for meal prep, order some healthy food from a local restaurant.

You may also need a backup plan for exercise. If you like to exercise outdoors, for instance, you may need an alternative activity for days when the weather is bad. You may also like to have options for shorter workouts for times when you’re especially tired — a short workout is much better than doing nothing.

5. Ask Others for Support

There’s no need for you to feel like it’s up to you to meet your wellness goals on your own — there are many people in your life who can help you. For example, just making sure that your family members are aware of what you’re trying to achieve can be helpful. You can also involve your friends by discussing the challenges you’re facing and sharing ideas.

Other ways people can support you is by holding you accountable. For instance, you could make exercising a social activity by going to the gym with friends, booking sessions with a personal trainer, or paying for a set of fitness classes.

6. Make Your Goals Enjoyable

You’re more likely to stick to your wellness goals if you enjoy them. For instance, many people are unable to stick to a healthy diet because they focus on what they need to restrict rather than how they can enrich their meals. A better option is to experiment with new flavors by eating more vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, and whole grains. You’ll grow to appreciate how healthy foods taste and make you feel, eventually finding you crave these more than the fatty, sugary foods you used to prefer.

Another wellness activity you’ll enjoy fitting into your daily routine is using essential oils. Not only will these help you relax, they’re also one of the top natural ways to boost immune system function. You can use natural oils in your bathwater, massage them into your skin, or add drops on your pillow. Choose a blend with the characteristics you need and a scent you love.

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