Executive & Life Coach Salley Lee-Chung, ACC
Happy New Year, 2019!
What do you envision this year?
Imagine you are waking on the last day of 2019. What would you like to tell yourself about 2019? What are you proud of yourself? And why? To achieve those goals what are things that you let go of?
Those are the basic questions that I ask my client when they ask me to help them set a goal for the year.
Are you ready to commit to 2019?
When I became a life coach, I learned lots of tips and strategies related to setting up goals, overcoming hurdles, and setting the right mindset that can support them in their personal and professional life. Those are great, so life can be so much easier and fuller. But as you can imagine, I learned the hard way it’s not enough with those tips and strategies to make your better life a reality. In order to be successful in your goals, you need to have a clear goal, right mindset, consistent action and to measure your effectiveness. And making sure your daily actions are aligned with your goal is the golden key for your success.
Every new year, many people set up great goals and are full of energy. I love this sensation and it’s very hopeful. And what happens after few months? Where do the energy and desires go? When we notice that our attempts at new things are challenging, then we often default to our normal routine and wait for another new year, expecting something different is going to happen.
In this article, I’d like to share some tips that keep you focused on habit building rather than just writing goals. When you build up daily actions towards a goal then you just might change your life.
I’ve been committed to my healthy lifestyle for a long time. Such as eating locally grown food, consuming less red meat, home cooking, walking if I can, riding a bicycle, and so on. But after I had two children, my health went downhill without me noticing. Eventually I wasn’t enjoying all the great things my little ones brought into my life. Finally, I woke up and decided to have a healthy lifestyle focused on exercise. I made a goal that I would do a push-up every day at least one a day, after I read a book ‘The power of habit’. It was very easy in the beginning and one month was not a problem. I increased more exercises as time went by. At one point, I decided to run 5K, 2 – 3 times a week. For 2 to 3 months was worked well. But then my knee started hurting, it impacted my daily life and I stopped exercising. I wanted to keep my exercise up but at the same time there was roadblock that made my momentum stop. I needed to navigate my deeper beliefs around health, and look at new habits.
After consideration, I realized my beliefs around exercise were “I am healthy, I walk a lot, so I don’t need to work out”. In fact, all those stories were not serving my health anymore. I reset myself with 4 phrases: “let go,” “let be,” “let it come,” and “let God.”
I let go of my old ideas that no longer support me, let be with my willingness to try and to accept that I don’t know that much about physical training, let it come with new method such as use Classpass to try new classes, find what I can commit to for long time and tell myself playful words even when I was discouraged, to keep at it, and let God– remembering the divine wants me to be healthy and happy.
Now I am committed to exercise 5 days a week. When I decided to commit to 5 days a week exercise, I doubted whether I could keep it. But I realized it is much easier (for me) than to do exercise once or twice a week. I don’t need to negotiate anymore with myself because it’s part of my routine. I can say my action became a habit, it feels so natural.
I’d like to share my habit building process. When you want to build a habit, in order to be successful, make sure that you give enough time, be generous to yourself and do one habit at a time. Understand that some will take shorter, some will take longer, to really master.
Habit building process
Choose one habit that you want to build.
● Recognize why do you need this habit or not.
● What does life like for you have that habit in daily life? (describe with as much detail as possible)
● Envision who you become when you have that habit?
● How do you feel when you have the habit?
Now, what step will you take to build the habit?
● How? By when? How do you know when you achieve it? (write in a journal about what did you do and how do you feel about it)
● When you miss a day or two, what would you like to tell yourself in order to back on the habit?
● How do you celebrate it?
To implement goals and habits you’ll need to rely on tools such as calendars & planners, alarms, self-discipline app (Such as Goal attracter, Weekdone, 7-minute workout, Sleep Cycle, Simple Habit, Tide, Classpass) and your social network/accountability from friends.
I hope you are newly inspired to have great goals and new habits for a great 2019. Every lifestyle and stage of life are unique. Most of all, you are the one who can create your best life. Allow yourself to be you. Remember that will invite more people and achievement in your life. I think positive habits is what makes you and your family grow. Feel safe to share your challenges with your family and friends, choose your diet to make you healthy and energized all day, your commitment to work that is meaningful. There are lots of positive habits that you can build by defining what is most important in your life + reflection (collect data about your actions) + implement in your daily life. My email signature is always followed by Love & Flow. I wish your life full of love and flow. Hope you can find great value in this article and I would love to hear your experience. Sending lots of love ~~~
Recommend books to read:
Martha Lasley. Courageous Visions – How to unleash passionate energy in your life and your organization.
Damon Zahariades. The 30-Day Productivity Plan – Volume 2: 30 more bad habits that are sabotaging your time management.
Charles Duhigg. The power of habit
ABOUT SALLEY LEE CHUNG, Life coach & momma
Salley is an adventurer, motivator, and innovative thinker. As certified professional coach and member of ICF, she supports students, professionals, and executives who are interested in navigating a multicultural world. She specializes in working with bicultural clients to improve work-life balance, develop cultural sensitivity, and grow their leadership. Her holistic approach helps clients to flow and take action that reflects their power, creativity and authenticity. She coaches in both Korean and English. She resides in Brooklyn with her husband and two little boys.
Linkedin: Salley Lee
Website: www.SalleyCoach.com
E-mail: salleycoach@gmail.com