What does your best health mean to you?

Living Well

Written by: Marvin Nixon, Personal Trainer & Health Coach, Toronto Athletic Club

Baseball legend Yogi Berra famously misquoted the author Lewis Carol by saying, “If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi may have got that quote wrong but when it applies to your own health and wellness journey, he couldn’t have been more right.

In order for us to keep our word to ourselves and become as healthy as we possibly can, we need to have a clear vision of what our best health means to us. This requires developing that health vision and understanding how it fits with your personal values. In my last blog on Making Healthy Choices and Changes, I outlined that the process of sticking with healthy behaviour change follows a pyramid pattern with your own vision and your own personal values at the apex.

What is involved in creating your own health and wellbeing vision?

Most successful businesses and organizations use a mission statement to help keep all stakeholders focused on the same goals. It is no different for individuals searching for a health and wellbeing vision and, fortunately, it requires no endless meetings or special committee to create it. As a certified Health Coach who has helped many individuals develop their health vision and reach their potential as a high-performing human, it is apparent that most people already have some understanding of that vision and just need a little outside help from a Coach in order to articulate and polish it.

In order for a health vision to be reachable, it must align with your own values as a person. Any vision or goal that is out of bounds of one’s values either will not happen or the path there will cause so much stress it is counterproductive. For example, if your vision is to “be the best family and corporate leader as possible,” and your values are your family and your work, then you are destined to meet the vision that is aligned with your values. On the flip side, if your vision is to be the top executive in your organization and your values are based more around family than work, trying to meet that work-based vision can lead to conflict and roadblocks.

When Coaching clients, my lead-off question is often, “where do you want your health and wellbeing to be five years from now?” Knowing where you want to go is not only the first step in getting there, it helps keep you on the path during that health journey.

When you get started creating a health vision, ask yourself these foundational questions:

• Who do you want to be?
• What is compelling about being that future person?
• How will you know that you have made it?
• What will it look like when you get there?
• What role do your health and wellbeing play in this future self?

Once your vision is clear and in line with your values, then the next step on the journey is to set your goals and determine the first small action step that is the launching pad towards reaching the goal and fulfilling your vision.

Are you ready to create your own vision of your most productive, high performing, and healthy self? This is where a Health Coach can play a pivotal role in your healthy lifestyle. Coaching is a system for working with you to first find your own vision of your future health and making sure that vision aligns with your own values. Then you work with the Coach to build an action that will move you towards your goal and ultimately fulfill your health vision. New actions are more likely to stick and become lifelong healthy habits when they are fueled by your health vision that is aligned with your personal values.

Interested in exploring Health Coaching? Our Health Coach at the Toronto Athletic Club, Marvin Nixon, can answer more of your questions and work with you to get on course to your ultimate health and wellbeing. Email Marv here.

Next, goals make the vision real.