New Year, New You - How to develop healthier habits in the New Year

It’s exciting to have a new year upon us and many like to turn a new healthier leaf in the new year. It is a great goal to have and encourage each one of us to look toward a healthier 2019. It can be super challenging, however, especially in the meeting and events business, no matter what side of the business you are on.

Creating healthier habits can be intimidating, challenging, overwhelming, and simply not fun. No one likes to change health habits, but we all know it is good for us.     

Here are three easy tips to help you make change in 2019:

1. Keep it simple/keep it realistic. Don’t put too many goals on yourself. Keep it realistic. Ask yourself what is realistic for you while stretching yourself at the same time. You only have so much time and energy.

   Here is a fantastic 2019 goal for us all: Drink 64 ounces of water daily.   

   Drinking more water is a great goal. It helps every part of your body and performance. I used to hate flooding myself with water daily. It is annoying and not always easy to do when you are busy. My solution to maintain my goal was to buy a great water bottle that allows me to infuse fruit and veggies into the water, but now I can’t live without my water bottle with me.   

2. Rome was not built in a day - be patient. Things won’t change overnight, and, in fact, they can’t. What it comes down to is a mental game that we all play with ourselves. We have all heard from those self-help gurus like Zig Ziglar and Tony Robbins that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Well, that is not simply true.
   
   Here is where that came from – Dr. Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon in the 1950s when he began noticing a strange pattern among his patients. He noticed after a plastic surgery, i.e. a nose job, in 21 days, his patients would get use get used to their new look. In 1960, Maltz published a quote and his other thoughts on behavior change in a book called “Psycho-Cybernetics.” To paraphrase, “a habit tends to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to gel.” Maltz’s book went on to become hugely popular, selling more than 30 million copies. And that’s when the problem started. People forgot that he said “a minimum of about 21 days” and shortened it to “It takes 21 days to form a new habit.” 
   
   I believed that thinking for years as it seemed reasonable but kept failing. I loved reading about how to change my habits especially from people like Robbins … he is a motivator. Then I read a study that proved 21 days wrong. In 2009, health psychology researcher Phillippa Lally published a study that examined the habits of 96 people over a 12-week period. Each person chose one new habit for the 12 weeks and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior and how automatic the behavior felt.
   
   Some participants chose simple habits and others chose more difficult tasks. At the end of the 12 weeks, researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.
   
   The study showed that on average it takes more than two months before a new behavior becomes automatic. Specifically, they determined to show any new behavior in those 96 people it took at least 66 days. One might be discouraged by that figure but it can vary by the habit, the person and the situation. In this study, it took anywhere from 18 days to 254 days for people to form a new habit.
   
   In other words, if you want to set your expectations appropriately, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from 2-8 months to build a new behavior into your life — not 21 days. Just be patient!
3. Surround yourself with like-minded people and keep focused. It is easy to go back to your old ways. To help support your new ways, ask people to support you and encourage you. Have them check in with you frequently and help teach you more and more about healthy ways.You can also attend the 2019 Health and Wellness Forum in Chicago Feb. 7-9 at the Midtown Athletic Club/Hotel. I am passionate about health and wellness in meetings and events.Vancouver sponsored the event last year and found it spot on for teaching people how to integrate wellness into their meetings meanwhile learning some new habits for themselves.For 2019, I was asked to help plan the education. I took the task on whole-heartedly and believe the education offers a balance approach to helping you as a professional stay healthy and share ideas for you to keep your attendees healthy. For more information, visit www.healthandwellnessforum.org.
   
   We need take better care of ourselves to take amazing care of our attendees.  

I hope these ideas spark some thought for you and motivate you change some of your ways in 2019!   For any questions, feel free to reach out to me at rriggs@tourismvancouver.com or (847) 853-1647. I’m happy to help!

About Author: Riggs leads the Midwest Sales effort for Tourism Vancouver based in Chicago. She leads many health & wellness initiatives in Vancouver including the Vancouver Wellness FAM and the #vangiving program. Riggs was a planner at SmithBucklin and The Sherwood Group (now Kellen Company). Early in her career she wanted to run corporate wellness centers and went to work for the Association for Fitness in Business, managed by The Sherwood Group, where she was introduced the meetings and events business. In addition, she has been a personal trainer, exercise instructor and sleep wellness director on the launch team for the sleep aid, Ambien. Vancouver’s lifestyle fits Rachael’s lifestyle and is a great opportunity for her to share health and wellness tips to our industry.