Create your Vision Board 🌈

There’s often a lot of pressure around the new year to overhaul one’s diet, get fit, save for retirement, to change jobs or be a better parent. This is why we usually wait until the first or second quarter to create ours. It’s a great time to check in and see what is and what isn’t working in our lives. Plus there’s still time to get clear on what the rest of the year could look like. Let inspiration be the fuel you need as you strive to attain the next level of success.

When did vision boarding begin?

Vision boarding became popular in the early aughts, somewhat in conjunction with the 2007 movie The Secret about the Law of Attraction, but it has roots further back than that. In fact, collage was a popular art form whose composition of parts (photos, newspaper clippings, and pieces of fabric, for example) was often glued onto a surface to create a whole new expression. We started making collages/vision boards back in high school and would clip images and words from magazines that fit goals we had or just plain inspired us.

Beyond inspiration and pretty collection of images, is there a scientific benefit to making vision boards?

In a Forbes article, neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart says, “[if you] look at it daily and visualize it coming true, this tracks images to your sub-conscious and primes your brain to grasp opportunities that may otherwise have passed you by.” The other key part of what she calls an ‘action board’ is taking a small step towards our goal everyday so that “you’ll be transforming abundance thinking into reality.”

What is the purpose and benefit of making a vision board?

An important purpose of vision boarding includes activating the powerful faculties within us: imagination and visualization. Often, part of the educational process (and beyond, into our jobs) strips these skills away from us in favor of recitation and regurgitation of facts and figures. Activate the skills of your brain’s right hemisphere – home of creativity, imagination, and artistic ability – by sparking a bit of creativity and learning how to dream and have a little fun again.

How to vision board effectively

❄️ Are you Frozen too? ❄️

One of the great joys of having young kids in the family is letting our own inner child come out to play. With the recent release of Frozen II in theaters, we thought this was the perfect time to relate this to being frozen in our own lives. Elsa the Snow Queen’s super-power is turning objects and people to ice. She can build icy bridges, stop an attack, and probably make ice cream whenever she wants (lucky). But her power has to be controlled. And while Elsa freezes things, we often freeze ourselves.

How we ‘Freeze’ ourselves

How do you relate with being frozen? In what area of life are you stuck? It could be around starting an exercise regimen, decluttering the basement or guest room, addressing the issues in your relationships, writing the book, updating the resume or asking for a raise. It could be in the area of health improvement, where we want to lose weight or become more plant-based, but we just can’t seem to begin or sustain our progress.

And because we are frozen, we just find ways to feel better about it. Sometimes we distract ourselves. Have you ever needed to study for a test and then looked at the messy state of your room and thought to yourself, “there’s no ways I can study in this environment”and then spent your study time detail-cleaning the room? We may distract ourselves with lounging in front of the TV, or spending hours on Facebook or Instagram. Numbing out with sugar, caffeine, smoking, or alcohol are also ways we try to make ourselves feel better about being frozen.

What makes this even worse is we put a layer of shame frosting on top. We start belittling ourselves and ‘wishing’ we were better. “Argh,” we think as we get up from the couch after 4 hours of watching Gypsy Sisters or Netflixing World War II documentaries, “I wish I had more motivation to have exercised today” or “I should have cleaned out the downstairs closet, it’s such a mess.”

Perhaps you can relate to unachieved goals, shame storms, and numbing out. Have you ever wondered what lies beneath?

What causes us to be Frozen

In a word: perfectionism. It sounds kind of beautiful, but it’s actually one of the worst words because of the meaning and effect it has in our lives.

It’s hard to say where our perfectionism comes from, but if you’ve ever grown up hearing someone say to you, “If you can’t do it right; don’t do it at all!,” that could be part of the origin. In essence, we are told that our actions, and even who we are, aren’t worthy unless perfect. What a toxic message to carry around with us in our lives.

Perfectionism tends to either paralyze us into inaction or cause us to go overboard and, consequently, burn out.

Why even start to clean the guest bedroom if we can’t do it ‘perfectly’ and we don’t have the five hours we believe it will take? Well, because you CAN make progress, even with 15 minutes of removing trash, clutter, and boxes. 

Perfectionism with our food usually looks like following a certain diet for a few days or weeks, then falling off the wagon and eating everything in sight. There’s an anti-dote to this that allows for sustainable weight loss; chat with us and find out more.

In short, perfectionism usually causes us to procrastinate, get overwhelmed, and shut-down or ‘freeze’.

What’s the cost of perfectionism? The cost is not getting things done at all, whereas we could have made progress. The cost is our inner peace; we don’t feel at peace when we feel stressed and frustrated by not having the time or ability to do something perfectly. Perfectionism can cost our relationships with other people. If you’ve ever yelled at a child or spouse because of a small mess or because they aren’t cleaning the ‘right’ way (your way) you can see the effect your perfectionism and words have on others. Also, and this is two-fold, if you value keeping your home environment museum-perfect over having your ‘messy’ grandchildren visit or if you feel like you can’t have visitors due to a messy, cluttered environment, your relationships with others will suffer.

Check yourself: next time you find yourself frustrated or overwhelmed by a challenge, look underneath that feeling to see if perfectionism is the undercurrent.

How to get Un-frozen

The power of un-freezing ourselves comes from realizing that progress > perfection. Initially, your belief in that statement will recoil. How could progress be better than that which is perfect? Well, considering the high costs and knowing something will never, ever truly be perfect….progress starts looking really good, right? Excellence, according to dictionary definition is, “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.” If excellence means that we can take action, feel good about ourselves, and not get stuck, why would anyone choose perfectionism instead? 

A small step, taken consistently and continuously reaching toward our goal is better than no action at all. Perhaps you remember My 30-minute Morning Routine about how many people create obstacles for themselves to workout when 6 minutes of strength-training in your own home can still help you feel better and see results. But if you don’t learn to change your way of thinking, perfectionism will keep you hog-tied and frozen.

In Frozen II, Elsa’s sister, Anna, seems to display and embody more of the element – fire – in this movie. Here’s where we have an answer to thawing ourselves out and taking action. Fire motivates, it stirs passion, and, if uncontrolled, it will burn everything in its path. So the key here is to find your motivation and use it as the fire to propel you towards your goals, but without going overboard and burning out.

Motivation isn’t usually enough though, so consider other ‘hacks’ such as scheduling your workout. The 4 Tips to Fit in Fitness blog is a great place to start. When it comes to decluttering, check out our experience with the Konmari Method for inspiration and ideas to make it easier.

Want to write a book? Just start writing, imperfectly. A typo is not the end of the world; besides, there are opportunities to review and make edits (or have others do it!). Allowing perfectionism to rule in this area of your life means your story is never shared, in-print or online.

What’s one area of your life where you’re willing to become ‘unfrozen’ and warm up your ‘fire’ to take action?

Where is your Motivation?

This writing is inspired by a conversation we had with a realtor last night. A man in his 50s, he had recently lost 12 lbs by “going to a gym and setting goals” for himself. He relayed how, unlike him, one of his female friends has struggled in the weight loss realm– “she texted me last night to say she’s ordering some microwaveable diet boxes sent to her home.” It was hard not to let a groan escape while protesting, “but a client just got off of that stuff and is losing weight; she can do it too!”

Why are some people successful – “I set goals and go after them” – versus those who set goals and 3 days later find their manifesto is buried under the mail on the coffee table?

It’s not like second group didn’t set goals (though typically the goals are too broad to be S.M.A.R.T. ) so why aren’t THEY able to implement them?

Over the years of working with clients, we have noticed a variety of factors playing into a client’s success in reaching their health and lifestyle goals. Readiness for change, motivation, creative problem-solving, dedication, contingency planning, and a willingness to make the financial and time investment for their health all can play a part.

Here’s another way to view motivation

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, has created four categories people may fall into based on how they respond to internal and external motivators. These are the Upholder, Obliger, Questioner, and Rebel. In general, Upholders are motivated by internal and external factors; Questioners want to know what the rules are and why they should follow them (if the reason suits them, they will internalize this for action); Rebels flount the rules while seeking freedom and self-determinism; and Obligers respond to external expectations but not their own internal ones (i.e. the ‘manifesto’ mentioned above) and hate the feeling of letting someone down.

The Upholders we work with are very good executors of recommendations; they are energized by a list of recommendations and like to turn them into to-do lists which they can check off with a sense of accomplishment. They are motivated to not disappoint others (their healthcare provider, for example) and they tend to be very hard on themselves or feel upset when they don’t follow through on their goals or recommendations.

What we see most in our practice are Obligers and here’s what is typically related during the initial consultation:

“I have health issues and am aware of what I should be doing but I’m not sure why I cannot seem to follow through. I’ve been on soooo many diets. My neighbor went gluten-free and lost 20lbs, why can’t I? ” These people float in a sea of information but aren’t sure what to exclude/include, how to synthesize it….or the big one, how to take action in a sustainable manner. They are generally overwhelmed and feel a sense of shame over what they ‘should’ be doing.

As we work together, they enjoy aiming to be a ‘gold star’ client and they end up putting recommendations into place. They receive support when they ‘fall off’ the wagon and are reassured and encouraged to think of how to overcome obstacles to problems. They start taking better care of themselves – not just with food, but by taking time for exercise or reflection.

They are successful in reaching their goals because they have a nutritionist & health coach who understands what motivates them, provides longer-term support, guidance and accountability.

In fact, we are One Bite Wellness are dedicated to ‘walking our talk’ in this arena too. Many clients are surprised when we tell them that we have our own accountability partner and coach. “Well, you already seem to know everything”…..knowledge, as we’ve seen above, doesn’t equal action; having someone to share obstacles with and create sustainable goals, has proven invaluable. 

An important question to ask yourself: what is driving you? Is your motivation internal or external? Where do you fall in the categories mentioned above?

When you understand where your motivation stems from, you’ll have a key to knowing the next step to take towards your goals.

Tools for New Year’s Resolution Success

This weekend I was invited to speak about Staying on Track with your New Year’s Resolutions on Good Day Columbus. It was a blast – you can watch the video here:

Some of the tips we discussed are included below, along with other bonus bites of information:

1. Assess your Motivation for making the change. Is it for a an external event, such as an upcoming wedding you want to lose weight for, or is it for a longer-term, internal goal such as wanting more vitality and better health outcomes.

2. Create S.M.A.R.T. Goals – by making general statements such as “I want to lose weight” or “I want to eat healthier” creates a very nebulous goal which may or may not be reached. When you include the elements of a S.M.A.R.T. plan (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely), your goal takes on more of a true form and is more likely to be effective.

3. Change your Environment – if your environment at home or work feels like a junk-food trap, you’ve realize the need to start cleaning out the pantry and refrigerator or avoiding the vending machine by bringing your own delicious and healthy snack 🙂

4. Planning helps make resolutions fail-proof – I’ve said it before to my clients and I’ll say it again. “If you don’t plan, plan to fail” – because it’s so very true. Nothing knocks a well-meaning person off the resolution wagon faster than either failing to bring in a healthy lunch or pack their gym bag the night before. Planning your meals, setting up a routine for a seamless morning, and having athletic gear for your workout packed will all help create success.

5. BONUS: Enlist Support! In order to use these tips to the best of your ability remember the importance of creating a support system. Whether that’s enlisting the help of family, significant other, group, or a nutritionist & health coach ….you’ll want someone to be there while you’re running a good race, and someone to pick you up after you’ve skinned your knee.