New year, new you, right?! Whether you love resolutions or loathe them, the new year presents a fresh opportunity to reach for goals. I love process-driven frameworks, and a routine provides the framework for structuring sustainable personal transformation and some serious goal achievement.
Routines also offer a host of mind-body-health benefits, including better stress management, sleep, and health. Science backs the idea that it takes 12 weeks to form a habit. So by making small tweaks to your routine, chances are pretty good that improved habits will start to feel a lot easier and more integrated as the first quarter rolls on.
Embrace the basics and get your 2021 daily routine on the right foot:
- Create a routine that is designed for your individual needs and goals. Balance is about experimenting with the right amount for each of your priorities. Identifying personal transformation goals and breaking them down into day-to-day items helps to establish positive momentum, even if it’s a short step forward at first.
- Dedicate time for meditation/mindfulness. Start with whatever time you have available. Deepak Chopra offers a wonderful way to get started. Setting the intention at the beginning of the day and finding a grounded center starts your daily routine with a clear mind.
- Get moving. A brisk walk, sun salutation, or a set of push-ups can be amazingly clarifying. Prioritizing health and wellbeing and finding a way to make it enjoyable can help combat future health problems and bring even more mind-body wellness into your life. A small exercise-commitment in your routine can also transform into a new habit, hobby, or friend-group like a running club or cycling group.
- Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Pick up a glass and fill it up with cool, refreshing H2O. Drink and repeat. Water is a quintessential part of our world and our bodies. Water balances your body’s properties, flushes out the bad, and fuels you up for optimal functioning.
- Ritualize food and connection. Food can be really complicated, but it can also be really simple. Shifting a nutrition-mindset to fueling makes the conversation around food a more holistic approach. Reconnecting over a shared meal and eating food that infuses nutrients is amazingly fortifying.
- Establish consistent sleep patterns. Bingeing on “The Mandalorian” is totally understandable. But sleep is the other thing that you really need some more of (besides water). Sleep is imperative to successful regeneration as the body heals itself after the wear-and-tear of the day and the mental file cabinet gets cleaned up. 13-23% of your sleep should be in deep sleep.
Hold yourself accountable because change is what you make it. If you’re ready to commit to a schedule, then embrace personal responsibility. Not every day is going to come together perfectly, but sticking to your routine is the structure that helps keep the most important “You” things in-tact.
Habits – from optimizing the little things that make a big difference (sleep, food, and water) to tackling the big life goals – begin with a daily routine. 2021 is a time for each of us to elevate ourselves and take another big step in the direction of our bold, beautiful dreams. You got this. Tag me in your social post, so I can cheer you on.
