A better year of health and happiness

Top 3 action steps you can take starting today to make 2021 your best year yet!

#abetterway coachrustiq newyearsresolution stress

I feel so sluggish, can’t get motivated and I don’t know why….aaaarrrggghh, when will the horror of 2020 end!

In just a couple weeks, 2021 will be here and that’s when I’m really going to kick it in gear.  Come January 1st, things will be different and I’ll get back on track!

Why bother now, this late in the year?  It’s cold out, I’m working from home, can’t get together with friends or family and it’s the holidays…2020 has been hard enough to get through. In January, I’ll get serious about things.

Aw f*ck it, who cares…pour me another glass of wine, that’ll help!

Which of these sound like your inner voice these days?

So many of us just can’t wait for 2020 to be over, and while this year has been hellish in many respects, there’s nothing magical that’s going to change on Jan. 1, 2021 except for the date.

I know, big time buzz-killer I am huh?!

Over the years, you've heard me say that for the vast majority of people (like 98%), New Year’s Resolutions aren’t meaningful or impactful.  Most people’s willpower to stick with their grandiose resolutions last all of about 10 days.

Why?  Because to fantasize or visualize, or heck, even put together a very well laid out master plan for a January 1st start date doesn’t address the core issue:  being willing to consistently operate outside your comfort zone long enough to create real, lasting change.

As one of the best personal development trainers, Brendon Burchard, says (paraphrased):  When opportunity knocks, guess who answers?  WORK!

If you’re not committed to doing the work, consistently, nothing changes.

So, how can you do things differently in 2021? 

My suggestion would be to change your relationship with your most precious asset:  TIME!

Throughout the last 6 years as I’ve built up my Health Coaching practice, there’s key obstacle that gets named most often as the biggest reason a client can’t achieve their goals despite their best of intentions is time.

--Not having enough of it

--Always running out of it

--Having it taken away by other people's demands

This concept of not enough time has always intrigued me because of the harsh truth that we all have the same 24 hours in a day, but we choose how we spend it and where we put our attention differently.

Given the unprecedented nature of 2020, I took the opportunity to ask the many coaching clients I’ve had the privilege to work with this year, how they repurposed their new found time.  NOTE: most of my clients were forced to begin working from home (WFH) because of COVID restrictions, saw their social life shrivel up, and those who have kids faced the daunting and upending change to remote schooling.

These changes meant roughly 1-2 hours per day were given back to them through things like no commute to the office, showering/getting dressed less often, fewer or no extra-curricular activities with the kids, less or no leisure travel, no weekend get-togethers with friends or family, etc.

So, if the biggest obstacle to achieving one’s health and life goals as most people pre-2020 would claim was the lack of time – wouldn’t that have gotten turned on its head in a big way, to the tune of approx. 10 hours, on average, per week?

The time jackpot right?

Well, not exactly.  How this gift of time was repurposed was wide, varied, inconsistent and often not even recognized by most of my clients.

I have a theory as to why that is

The year 2020 is one for the history books and for a lot of grim and frightening reasons.  Because it was filled with epic amounts of change, uncertainty, gaslighting, grief, etc., many weren’t prepared to ride the epic waves, redirect their energy into healthy outlets and adapt as needed.

The 4 things I believe most crushed a person’s ability to repurpose the 10 gifted hours of time were:

  1. Digital addiction soared!
  2. Bedtimes got later and later and definitely irregular
  3. What we ate and drank changed in dramatic ways
  4. Ambiguous loss

That’s not to say that we didn’t all try to do our best.  We did!  I wholeheartedly believe we did and I equally believe we were ill prepared.  

So what do we do to become better prepared for the uncertainty of life?

Reclaim your time!  Seriously, this is the key to making the changes you desire in 2021 and beyond.

To see, feel, experience time differently it will require a recalibration.  Our nervous system has been hijacked in 2020 and we have attempted to fill the void with things that soothe our spirit and make us feel more in control.  That’s our humanness trying to make sense of it all, but for most of us, it meant using unskillful and harmful coping skills like becoming more sedentary, self-medicating, poor and irregular eating habits, chucking morning and evening routines that help structure our day and give us energy, etc.

Where to begin when things seem so off course?  As my good friend Jim always reminds me, ‘how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

The top 3 bites I’d take are:

 

  1. Begin small, like super small.  Tiny is even better.  For help with that, read BJ Fogg’s book “Tiny Habits” (and he has loads of worksheets and supportive tools online for free when you purchase his book).
  2. Recalibrate your nervous system by developing better breathing throughout your day.
  3. Commit to spending some time each day doing nothing; just being.  Meditation is a foundation practice for anyone who feels anxious, fearful, and out of control.

The last one, Meditation, is honestly the most impactful way to reclaim your most precious asset: time.  Meditation helps you begin to see and experience time differently.  It teaches you how to pause before responding and offers new and powerful perspective to choose differently. 

If you’re still reading this, thank you.  As a reward for reading this far, I’d like to offer you the opportunity to receive a 1-year subscription to the Ten Percent Happier meditation app (it’s my favorite meditation app, resource for meditation wisdom including their newsletter and podcast).

I’m raffling off an annual subscription to the Ten Percent Happier app valued at $99!  To enter the raffle and give yourself a chance to win, all you need to do is email me at [email protected] and let me know what was the most meaningful lesson you learned from your personal experience in 2020 and how has it forever changed how you see yourself and the world?

RAFFLE ENTRY – here’s how:

Email me:       [email protected]

Subject:           Raffle Entry

What?:            Describe what the most meaningful lesson you learned from your personal experience in 2020 and how it has forever changed how you see yourself and the world?

Deadline:        Dec. 24, 2020

You can be as short and to the point or as long-winded as you’d like.  And I will respond to all submissions!

Winner Announcement:  I will draw the lucky winner’s name and announce it on Christmas Day by email to the lucky winner, so watch your inbox for a special gift that day.

And if you’re struggling to get things back on track with your health and life goals, reach out to me and let me help you through private Health Coaching.  It’s my sincere mission to help others shorten their learning curve to discovering the answers that lie within just waiting to be unleashed so that you begin consistently living your life from your Healthy & Happy Sweet Spot.

To get started with individual coaching with Coach RustiQ, go here.

 

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