Perhaps you’re jumping on The Habit Tracker train (I recommend it!) or are simply looking to build some new habits in the months to come. Either way, I have a simple process you can follow to select new habits to focus on.

Do a Wellness Visualization

My favorite way to do this is through a simple visualization exercise. This is one I’ve done with my Thyme Transformation group students, and it can really help you gain clarity on so many aspects of your life. So, chisel out 3-5 minutes of time, grab a piece of paper or open a blank word doc, and find a comfortable place to sit. Close your eyes and spend a few minutes thinking about this prompt:

“Imagine that it’s 20 years in the future and you’re living your most fulfilling life. You wake up in the morning and go through a typical day. What does it look like?”

Feel free to adjust this to a time-period that feels most helpful to you (5 years, 10 years, 30 years, etc). But, looking further into the future can help you identify the habits that will support the  long-term vision you have for your life.

While you’re visualizing, work through some of these additional questions:

• Where do you live?
• What are you wearing?
• What are some of the first things you see after waking up?
• Where do you drink your coffee in the morning?
• What is your mood?
• What do you eat for lunch?
• What do you do for work?
• How do you feel energetically?
• What do you do with your free time?
• What makes you feel fulfilled and successful?
• How do you feel in your body?
• What are you most proud of?
• Who do you spend most of your time with?

Once that vision is so vivid in your mind you sorta feel like you can reach out and touch it, try reverse engineering it. What habits did you see yourself completing in your vision? What habits would you need to start building now, in order to be that future version of yourself? Do you need to get more movement? Increase your strength? Learn to swim? Study aromatherapy? Stay hydrated? Get better sleep? Learn Italian? Start cooking more meals at home? These are the habits you should consider integrating into your routine! Start making a list, and we’ll come back to it later.

Create a Wellness Vision or Statement

If it helps, you can also try creating a Wellness Vision by collecting images that represent some of the items from your visualization, and then identify what they represent. Here’s an example of mine, below.

Or you could create a Wellness Statement, if that feels more helpful. To do that, try filling in these blanks:

“I am (the actions you want to take) so that (the values and desire you want to fulfill).”

An example might be “I am staying active and prioritizing simple wellness practices each day so that I can maintain my mobility and live an adventurous and active life.”

Identify and Implement

List out the various habits you can identify within your vision, but embrace the fact that you don’t need to integrate all of them immediately, and you shouldn’t! You might also consider breaking some habits down. For example, if you saw your self swimming in open water in your vision, but you aren’t actually a great swimmer, perhaps taking swimming lessons is a good habit to start with, and not 200 meters in the ocean.

I’d suggest focusing on 10-15 habits per month, and have it be half NEW habits, and half habits that are already established or underway. Assess them at the beginning of each month and adjut.

When you’re ready to decide which habits to focus on in the month ahead, try the ones that:

• Have the fewest barriers or least resistance (perhaps the least cost prohibitive or time consuming).
• You feel the most excited about.
• Integrate well with your exiting habits and routines.

Integrate a Habit Tracker

A tool that I love for growing new habits is The Habit Tracker. This is a template I created for Google Sheets, and it helps you track up to 15 habits per month, while automatically tracking your annual progress and keeping you motivated with changing emojis! You can get your copy here. I have mine set to auto-open each morning when I get on the computer, and that has made it so easy to stick to (here’s how to do that)!

Not ready for a digital version? Try my free paper download here.