It isn't easy to adjust when changes come your way and it's even harder when the changes come so quickly. The global pandemic of Covid-19 aka Coronavirus has swiftly changed our lives.
Have you stopped to assess how you are coping? I think it is important to do so to ensure you aren't creating new habits that will have a negative effect on your career and your health. In other words, are you establishing bad habits? It would certainly be understandable, given the unprecedented circumstances. We are here to help so you don't let your habits get bad or out of hand. In order to help you either turn around negative habits or avoid getting into them, I've created a simple exercise. It is an assessment of how you're doing based on a list I've compiled of healthy lifestyle habits. To do the assessment, download it below. For each healthy habit, rank how you feel you are currently doing on a scale from 1 to 5. One is for "needs improvement" and 5 is for "doing great". Be honest with yourself on how healthy you think you are for each habit. You can download the exercise here: Download My Free Healthy Habits Assessment
Once you've completed your assessment by rating each healthy habit, the next part of the exercise is to write down one thing you can do to move the scale closer to "doing great" for any of the habits that rank less than a 5. Make it simple and attainable. Think "one step at a time".
Making small incremental changes is the best approach to making long-term sustainable changes.
For example:
For the healthy habit of drinking water, you don't have to go from no water to 64 ounces tomorrow. Instead, I suggest something like "I will get a large bottle to use for water and track my consumption".
For the healthy habit of human interaction, maybe add more video meetings with your colleagues instead of just emailing each other. Or, organize a social video event for your team. One of my clients recently organized a Zoom at-home cooking event for his colleagues which was so well received. Get creative in this virtual world.
I'll say it again: Making small incremental changes is the best approach to making long-term sustainable changes. In our January "Monthly Nuggett" newsletter, I talked about a book called "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. The premise is that if you want to see big results, you need to make small changes. Those small changes will add up over time. Trying to take on something big can be overwhelming and cause us to give up altogether. So think small and get started!
I hope you find this exercise helpful in ensuring health and happiness in every part of your life!