In Need of Some Motivation? Check Out This 30-Day Healthy Habits Checklist I Made for You!
Are you a list person too? I know it’s nerdy, but I love me a good list.
Planners, colorful pens, stickers, and a sturdy checklist are my love language. Can you relate?
I also love praise. I know it sounds childish and it’s kind of painful to admit, but when my husband drops a compliment about dinner, I’m suddenly ecstatic to make another meal tomorrow. My sister texts me a 👏 emoji after her Apple watch notifies her I finished a workout and I suddenly walk with a little more swag.
In one of the best handbooks for life, Atomic Habits, James Clear says that in order to make positive behavior change, we need to make the behavior we want to implement both obvious and attractive. Want to exercise more? Put your exercise equipment in a well-used part of the house, or place your running shoes by the door. Then reward yourself after your workout is complete - with a protein shake, money, a Netflix show, a good read, or whatever non-self-defeating treat that will make the behavior appealing.
And if you’re anything like me, you have a LOT of things you want to do, and a person in mind that you want to be. But more often than you’d like, the circumstances of life get in the way. Real, raw, messy life drops sick kids into your lap right when you’re feeling motivated to start exercising. Sudden and urgent car problems or home repairs stop you from taking time to nurture your mental health. A toddler starts a nap strike during your work time. Or a messy house hijacks everything because you can’t think straight. And that’s not to mention family tragedies, illnesses, or other serious challenges.
The “circumstances” of life happen to all of us and they can be a frustratingly real barrier to our desired goals (though sometimes they surprisingly help us get there!). However, we can combat these barriers by making our desired behaviors such as exercise, healthy eating, gratitude, meditation, learning a language, playing more intentionally with our children, etc. both obvious and attractive.
Because hey, your mental and physical health deserves to be nurtured and cared for even among the daily grind and larger challenges.
And so, for this reason, I have created a tool that can help make the behaviors you want to implement obvious, simple, and attractive. And if you’re a list person like me, you’re going to love it. This tool is called the 30-Day Healthy Habits Checklist, and it’s 100% free.
If implemented it will help you be more physically active, eat better, cultivate gratitude, serve others, learn more, and engage in what Brené Brown calls “wholehearted living.” It’s incredibly simple but can be super powerful.
Now if you want to jump ahead, you can get your hands on the checklist here. But I would encourage you to keep reading to know how to get the most out of the checklist.
How to use the Healthy Habits Checklist
The setup
The checklist is made up of 14 items designed to maximize your physical and mental health and boost happiness. You will find some of the very best and most foundational activities included for your body and mind.
Sure you’ll find activities such as exercise and eating vegetables in there, but you’ll also find things like reading for 10 minutes each day, sleeping for at least 7 hours, and practicing gratitude. There’s even a space for you to choose your own custom habit.
Each activity is assigned a point value to further motivate and excite you! You definitely don’t have to follow the point value system if you don’t want to. Rather you could simply check off items as you go. But I do personally think the point system is more fun, especially if you decide to compete with family members or friends (which I highly encourage)!
The checklist is set up for 30 days, to give you a solid month to start implementing habits. Want to go longer? No problem! Just print another checklist, or clear it if using the digital version.
Make the healthy habits checklist visible
The checklist needs to be somewhere obvious so you will see it and be cued to do the healthy behaviors listed on it. If you’re using it on your phone, make sure you’ve downloaded the Google Sheets app and put it on the first display page on your phone. If you’re using a paper copy, put it on your fridge or on something else you will see multiple times a day.
Make healthy habits attractive… AKA you MUST choose a reward ahead of time
In order for this to be effective and successful, you must, must, must determine a reward for yourself ahead of time. For something to actually stick, it HAS to be attractive and as morally above rewards as we all want to be, we are biologically wired to crave rewards. The reason we have bad habits in the first place is that they reward us and we got to combat that.
There are several ways you could do this. You could assign a $ amount that you will allow yourself to spend on something FUN per point (maybe you earn 10 to 25 cents per point). Or perhaps you make it a competition with friends and everyone puts $20 in a pot and the winner for the month gets all the money. Or maybe if you hit a certain amount of points or a certain percentage complete at the end of the month you get to go to an amusement park, the spa, or something purely for the fun of it. Or maybe your partner agrees to give you an entire Saturday off without the kids. Maybe you get your kids into it and the winner is relieved of dishes for a month. The sky is the limit. Be as creative as you want and have fun with it! No guilt or shame allowed.
Well, friend, I hope this gets you pumped about healthy and wholehearted living. By using this healthy habits checklist, you could find yourself feeling better, eating better, exercising regularly, feeling well cared for, stressing a lot less, creating sustainable healthy habits, thinking more clearly, being more organized, seeing life through a lens of gratitude, and so much more in just 30 days.
Snap a photo as you tackle the checklist and tag me @ashlee.reallifefitness on instagram! I would love to see the ways you choose to implement healthy habits!
Wishing you the best of luck!
