Make your habit-changes SMART
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Sponsored by the National Association for Health & Fitness, May is Global Employee Health & Fitness Month. Geared towards promoting healthy lifestyles among employers and employees, this national observance hopes to encourage worksite health promotion activities and lifestyles. Years ago the observance was only one day long, but with recognizing that the formation of sustainable healthy habits takes time the observance was increased to a month.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and healthy habits aren’t formed overnight. Behavior development and lifestyle changes take time. While we focus on healthy worksite activities and lifestyles this month, we should also remember to strive for long term changes and not just quick results. According to the European Journal of Social Psychology (2010), it takes around sixty-six days for the average person to develop an easy habit like drinking more water. Actually, participants of the study took anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form a new habit.
Therefore when setting S.M.A.R.T. goals for yourself, it is important to give yourself time. S.M.A.R.T. goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-specific. For example, it is not enough just to say, “I should drink more water while at work”. Look at your starting point, your end goal, and what you need to do to get there. If you don’t drink any plain water while at work, then a good S.M.A.R.T. goal might be: for the next six weeks drink two, eight-ounce glasses of water during the workday.
Start small and work your way up to the end goal. If you misstep, this doesn’t mean your whole week or even your whole day is ruined. Remember not to fall victim to the “all or nothing” mentality when forming healthy habits!
Nikole E. Tome, MPH, CHES is an assistant director/program evaluation at the Byrnes Health Education Center. She graduated in 2013 from West Chester University with a Master’s Degree in Public Health. She has also obtained her Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) credentials from the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.
