Go back to www.lifeintelligencegroup.com

5 Actionable Tips to Help You Stick to Your Health Goals

In my many years as an agile coach, I have found that most people struggle with consistency in their health goals. Being consistent and sustaining one’s motivation is an understandable challenge when sticking to one’s commitment to be fit. But it’s far from impossible. You too, can follow many others who have committed and followed through on their fitness goals. Read on to learn actionable tips that can help you be (and stay) fit.

Keep it simple

It’s a mistake to overhaul your entire routine in an effort to be healthier. Because when you fail to do so (and it’s easier to do so than you think), you will feel like a failure even before you begin. You don’t want to fail so early on. The trick is to give yourself a chance to feel accomplished in establishing even one simple change to your day-to-day routine.  

For example, if you want to start exercising, you don’t want to immediately promise to wake up at 5 in the morning, run for 30 minutes, and go to the gym right after your shift at work. If you’re someone who typically wakes up at 8 AM and has never been to the gym, you’re likely to hit snooze once your alarm sets off earlier than usual and you are most likely going to skip the gym after being so worked out in the morning. 

Failing to keep a promise to yourself doesn’t feel pleasant. It sets you up to feel like a failure and it makes you think you can never actually get what you want because you give up so easily. But in reality, it has more to do with setting expectations than being lazy. 

Set yourself up for success right from the get-go. If you are a beginner to exercise, start with a simple 5-minute exercise routine you can do in your living room right after you’ve had your morning tea. This eliminates the pressure of: 1) waking up too early 2) needing to go out of the house and 3) doing something you will probably not like for a tortuously long amount of time. 

To make it even easier, set up your alarm and prepare your workout clothes the night before.

Try to stick to this routine for a week and once you have proven to yourself that you can actually do it, you can add little changes here and there to refine the routine to your personality and your lifestyle preferences.

Prioritize sleep

There’s no doubt on the side of science on the importance of sleep. Lack of sleep is the cause of a host of critical health problems like forgetfulness, mood swings, having difficulty making decisions or solving problems. Not to mention it makes you vulnerable to health issues that can seriously impair your quality of life. That’s because sleep is responsible for: 

  • Consolidating your memories 
  • Regulating your emotions 
  • Your ability to recognize threats 
  • Your ability to solve problems 
  • Repair and healing of the body 
  • Your body’s immunity against diseases

If you exercise, sleep helps your body recover and build up muscles that have been worked during the day. Both should go hand-in-hand. 

If you take care of your sleep, that is, get enough of it at the same time every day, then you are more likely to stick to your routine in the morning, more likely to be less impulsive, and therefore also less likely to skip your commitments. 

If your sleep schedule right now is off course, fixing it should be your top priority before committing to other health goals.

Track Your Progress

Monitoring your progress can be incredibly motivating. Use a fitness tracker, food journal, or progress photos to visualize your process. I personally use TaskSpur, a goal tracker and life planner app to stay on top of my fitness goals. 

When it comes to health, I believe the most important thing is to maintain weight. I keep it simple by minding my diet and making sure I get regular exercise. I aim to walk for 30 minutes every day if the day allows me, and I make sure to get at least an hour of exercise 3 times a week. I dedicate the first 15 minutes of my routine for HIIT (High-Intensity Impact Training), 30 minutes for weight (Monday: Full body, Wednesday: Lower body, Friday: Upper body), and the last 15 minutes for yoga or meditation. 

As an Agile Coach, I like automating my to-do list for the day and TaskSpur helps me seamlessly keep track of my day-to-day priorities including the habits that I plan to follow through. TaskSpur’s Kanban UI is familiar, simple, and gets the job done. I recommend this app to my students and those who want to prioritize progress over perfection.

Find someone to do it with

Wouldn’t you be motivated to exercise in the morning if you had a running partner? Doing things with other people is a powerful strategy for sticking to one’s commitments. First, because you don’t want to disappoint them, and second because things are just way more fun when you share them with someone. 

So try to ask your friends to commit to a health goal with you. Make it simple for both of you and be sure to consider each other’s schedules. Not only will you both be healthier in the near future, but you will also have fostered and nurtured a relationship built on a shared positive experience. 

If, for many valid reasons, having such an accountability partner is not possible for you at the moment, try to get a dog or any walkable pet — although I would not advocate getting a pet for solely selfish reasons. A dog is an excellent companion and they love taking walks! 

Forgive yourself

A lot of people are so afraid of failure that they end up not trying at all. But failure, while avoidable, is oftentimes necessary. Failure builds resilience and it is resilience that gets people to the finish line. 

When it comes to committing to your health goals, it’s important to remember that you are going to fail. You will lose a streak, you will feel lazy one day, and you will fail to commit. These are the most critical moments in your journey because they determine whether or not you persist or throw in the towel. 

If you decide to concede, you’re telling yourself that you are not reliable and that does an inconceivable amount of damage to your confidence and self-esteem. But if you power through, you’re telling yourself that problems are solvable, that you can get back up after you fall through. And that feels good. That builds you up. If you keep powering through every time, failure eventually loses its power over your mind. 

So don’t beat yourself up if you stumble. An adage that I love to keep repeating is to prioritize progress over perfection.

Final Word

Achieving long-term health goals requires commitment, resilience, and a willingness to adapt and evolve along the way. By following these tips and staying focused on your "why," you can increase your chances of success and maintain a healthier lifestyle for years to come. 

Build your fitness routine with TaskSpur 

TaskSpur is an honest attempt at simple goal management that was borne out of my years in tech and agile coaching. Combining the two disciplines seemed natural — the need to prioritize progress and put it in an app that is a no-brainer to use. Today, I use it to create, manage, and track all my personal, financial, career, and of course, health goals in one place. Check it out and I hope it helps you build a fitness routine that you can stick to. If you have suggestions on how I can improve the app, please send me a message at bernard@lifeintelligencegroup.com.

Download TaskSpur on Android | Download TaskSpur on your iPhone 

Sign up or Login on your browser

About the Author

Bernard Boodeea is the founder of Life Intelligence Group, a company that uses Agile principles to build products that help people succeed every day. Bernard is a seasoned certified Agile coach, entrepreneur, and technology consultant.

References

View All Blogs