I can think of hundreds of health related New Year’s resolutions and I’m sure most everyone has thought of a different New Year’s resolution every year. Sometimes we keep them and sometimes we don’t. The most important ones are compelling and ones that you think you can actually keep.
Setting an unrealistic goal or an unrealistic resolution is always going to be a bad idea. If someone was asked, “How does one person eat an elephant?” It would be, “One bite at a time.” You need to break it down into simple steps that are achievable goals in nature. There are tons of great goal-setting workshops out there that people can look up online. Just type in ‘goal setting’ and you’ll see tons of different tools that you can use. But it is important that the goals be realistic, attainable, and compelling to you. It has to be the thing that you want in life.
For many people, New Year’s is a time to renew and reflect and look at what was done in the past year and make decisions going forward. For most people, they talk about diet. The reality is ‘diet’ isn’t one thing…… that you go on a diet. What I think most people should do is just make better health choices one at a time. People know what is good for them. People know what is not good for them. We all know going to McDonald’s isn’t going to be the most healthy, nutritious meal.
It’s just about making sure that you pick realistic goals that are compelling and that you can achieve. We all know that we do better when we are encouraged to do so. If we can hit one milestone, how good does that make you feel? If I said, “Hey, I just want to lose 5 pounds,” and I lost that 5 pounds, I’m going to feel great about myself. And then losing the next 5 pounds is going to be easier because I’ve already got some momentum built up.
What I always tell people about making a resolution or setting a goal is just make sure that you set realistic goals. Make sure that you have easy, attainable steps along the way. Each time you achieve a milestone, it’s going to help you anchor to that milestone and help you do better with your next goal or your next step.
There are a million resolutions – to start exercise, to start eating better, to get your spine checked, to make better food choices. There are a million resolution choices that we can make and it is most important that they be measurable, they need to be attainable, and you need to set these goals step-by-step so they’re achievable.
That’s really the best advice I can give people. Then again, I have to admit that there’s been some resolutions and some goals that I’ve set that I haven’t achieved. But once you’ve set a goal and haven’t achieved it, then you need to go back and start again. We can’t be afraid of starting over. That’s what New Year’s is all about. It’s a new start, a new beginning, and that’s what we need to take to heart. I think that’s going to be the best way for people to look at this and go forward.
Dr. Gregg D. Rubinstein, D.C., is a midtown Manhattan chiropractor with over 20 years of experience providing customized chiropractic treatment services to a wide range of clients in the Midtown Manhattan/West New York City area. Dr. Gregg Rubinstein and 57th Street Chiropractic can be reached at (917) 534-6484 and is located at 119 West 57th St. in New York, NY.
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