Anticipation

In anticipation, we often put things off....till a special occasion....the weather gets better....there is more money....the kids grow up....the bills are paid...the job gets better....the headache subsides...

You may have seen the email forward that circulated a few years ago talking about how you shouldn't save things for a special occasion (I think one example used was fancy perfume) because you don't know what tomorrow brings.

I agree with that, and I also think we can take it a little further into wellness.

Say you want to improve your wellness in some way. What are the things holding you back? Work, time, money, energy, stress, kids, ideas, focus, motivation, lack of support, lack of commitment.... Identify your barriers.

Then take a step back and look at each one. Is the fact that you have no time the real reason you cannot exercise for 30 minutes a day? There are 1440 minutes in a day. Can you spare 30 for exercise instead of TV? Chances are, you could.

So be honest---what is the real reason? You don't know where to start. You don't want to. You don't like exercise. You don't think it will help. You have no plan. You are afraid if you do it and it works, you'll have to keep doing it.

If you're talking about how you'd like to make changes, and every sentence leads to a "but" statement about why you can't do anything differently, you won't get too far. You're anticipating....nothing. It's just talking. If you really do want yourself to make wellness improvements, it's important to get to the bottom of how and why you've made decisions to do what you do now, and what the real reasons are for not doing the desired behavior. Then you can start strategizing effectively.