Today's Tip: What ONE Thing Would You Change?

I'm borrowing Today's Tip question and overall concept from another trainer/dietitian that I follow because it goes right along with what I read in Proverbs 17 this morning - that sometimes less is more. I want this simple question to remind you that ONE change at a time is okay.  We often get caught up in ALL the things we want to change about ourselves, particularly this time of year as we say good-bye to 2013 and hello to a new year.  It's usually not too difficult to come up with a list of more than one thing we need to change, be it our weight, diet, sleeping habits, time wasters, attitude, how we drive, parent or even the places we go. But how successful is anyone if they set a goal to change 10 things starting tomorrow?  I haven't met a person yet who didn't give up if they had too many things on their "change" or goal list.

So what ONE thing do you need to write down? Maybe you need to ask yourself one of the following questions to help you determine what your one thing needs to be.

1. What is ONE area of my life I would like to improve?

2. What is the ONE thing that gives me the most stress in life?

3. If I had a magic wand, what ONE thing would I change about myself today?

Sure, you can write down more than one thing or goal - that's okay.  Make time to answer all three questions - you may find that all three answers relate back to ONE main thing.  How do you want to feel?  How do you want to look?  How do you want to live your life differently?

Think back to last year or maybe the year before - did you make a change that led to positive results in your life?  Maybe you quit smoking or began choosing to eat more vegetables than sweets.  What were the results?  Or think about it this way...how would your life be different today if you hadn't made those changes?  Let that motivate you to build on those positives as you move forward with another change or goal.

Let me leave you with ONE last thought...WRITE IT DOWN.  Anyone can all sit and talk about what they want to do.  But writing it down makes a MUCH bigger impact and motivator.  A year ago I asked (okay, forced) my family to write down a few goals for 2013.  The other day I unearthed those 5 little colored recipe cards from a moving box, so we sat down the other night and reviewed them...ouch!  Some were achieved, some were worked on and some well, weren't even touched.  But what a great reminder of where we all were a year ago!  And yes, some of our goals will transfer to this year, but I think everyone is more motivated to make the changes so that in another year we can reflect without so much "ouch"!

Some information taken from Isabel De Los Rios and her 12/31/2013 BeyondDiet.com post.