Progress Not Perfection
While striving for optimal health is the goal, it is one that is forever ongoing. Health is not a destination. It’s not as if you reach optimal health and then you’re home free for life. Health is fluid and dynamic and is something that we are constantly either moving towards or away from. Aiming to be the best you can in the health department requires a pretty constant and consistent effort. There are many paths that can lead us towards health, and even more that can lead us away. Many of us take the scenic route on our journey. We try different strategies, perhaps hitting some dips and bumps, we may even loop backwards for a bit in the wrong direction before making a course correction, but that’s all just part of life! The goal is to shoot for better health, not expect perfect health overnight.
I often have patients come in and tell me about a few really beneficial things they have done for their health since I last saw them, but then they immediately follow that with a list of things they didn’t do and are frustrated with themselves for. I always circle back to the things they did do, because we need to celebrate those! We aren’t perfect and there is always going to be more that we “could” or “should” be doing, but that doesn’t negate and shadow the things we did do! Progress, not perfection is the goal when it comes to taking care of your health. Maybe you didn’t do “everything” you could have, but hey if you took a few steps in the right direction, let that progress be your fuel for further progress. Here’s a few things to help you focus on your progress rather than be frustrated searching for perfection.
Take stock of where you are. In order to help us stay motivated, we humans like to be able to see and appreciate our progress. When it comes to our health, it can be hard to appreciate the small changes that build day to day, week to week and month to month. Down the road, being able to compare to where you are now and how far you have come can be invaluable and can be a very helpful motivator on the days when you feel like you’re not moving forward.
Keep a positive attitude. Don’t rain on your own parade, and don’t worry about it looking perfect. Life can be messy sometimes and that can rattle our commitment to ourselves. When you get off the rails, dust yourself off and try again rather than dwell on what you should have been doing. Don’t “should” all over yourself ;) it’s not helpful. If one of your health goals and commitments isn’t going as planned, maybe leave it and come at a positive change from another avenue, perhaps in a different area of health.
Find your “why”. Knowing why you want to be in better health can help you keep progressing towards it. Maybe there’s a trip you’d like to go on that requires a certain level of fitness. Maybe you’ve got children or grandchildren to keep up with. Maybe there’s an activity you’d like to be able to do again - or something new you’d like to try. Maybe it’s just that you want to blow your doctor’s socks off one day with your blood test results. Maybe you’re on medications that you’d like to get off of. Whatever it is, find your “why(s)” and you’ll be more motivated to put in the hard work required to get there.
Write it down. Now that you know where you’re at and why you’re doing it, (and you’ve made a commitment to be positive and nice to yourself along the journey), it’s time to write down where you want to go. “Better health” is our overarching goal, but it’s a bit abstract. It can be beneficial to make some specific goals to help you reach for that target. This is also your opportunity to break things up into bite-sized chunks, which will help you track that progress that you’re striving for. Having your goals written down (and if you feel so inclined, shared with others), helps keep you accountable to yourself.
Track your progress. Keep tabs on the positive steps you’re taking towards your health. Diet, exercise, mental health practises, sleep, you name it. Don’t worry about what you didn’t do, keep track of what you did do. The more time you focus on strategies and activities that move you towards health, the more often you’ll find yourself doing them. With time, the not so helpful things begin to naturally fade away. Our steps towards health build on each other. When we exercise more, our body often craves it on lazy days and we also begin to seek healthier foods. Vice versa is also true: when we eat healthier foods, we have more energy and pep for activity and social engagement. When we take care of our mind, we naturally “feel” like doing more, and again the reverse is also true. There are lots of different ways to keep track of the good things. The old fashioned way of writing down on a calendar what you did each day works perfectly fine. Technology has also unleashed many different strategies with the era of smart watches and apps. Just find whatever works for you. I remember I had always had a hard time drinking enough water throughout the day. One day my “regular” watch died and I eventually was talked into a smart watch. Wouldn’t you know it, adding my water onto the chart so I could get that little green check mark at the end of the day has been a game changer - and nobody even sees it but me!
Now, for the bonus step…celebrate you progress! Even if it’s just silently to yourself. It may not look perfect but that’s ok, it’s progress that’s the goal here. Give yourself a congrats for what you did achieve today. If it wasn’t much, instead of “shoulding” on yourself, take a moment to remind yourself of your why, then think about one thing you can do tomorrow to move towards that. Let that be the motivation to get up early and try again - not to mention you’ll be able to get back to your celebrating… and those little green check marks!