Create Your Wellness Plan: Where to Start?

Making the decision to create a personalised wellness plan requires reflection, determination and courage. Take a systematic approach, be organised, take small steps, make the change.

Here is a list of strategies to consider when you are creating your personalised wellness plan.

Use your Executive Functioning Strategies
- Make a list and prioritise it
- From your list choose 1 or 2 things to focus on
Start small making little changes
- Find a class to learn about your new change
- Read an article about your new change
Use your Calendar
- Add it to your routine
- Make it a habit
- Do it daily until it is engrained
Do one thing different
- Excellent strategy to get started
- Helps to build change
- Baby steps are important. Keep moving forward one small step at a time

Teacher

Wellness Plan

Steps to Take

Steps:

Possible Strategy:

Effectiveness

Identify the necessary components of your plan

Do a self-reflection strategy identify which aspects of your wellness you want to focus

Evaluate the effectiveness of your new wellness strategy periodically while you are building into your routine. If necessary, make small adjustments along the way. Be reflective and be organised as you approach this project.

Make a list of the identified areas

Prioritise the list

Research ways to improve the most important identified aspect of your wellness

Calendar time to research

Identify specific strategies that could work for you

Choose one that you want to try

Develop a short term goal

Create a short term, manageable goal to put in place as a first step toward improved wellness

Take a photo of the goal and put it somewhere that you will see it throughout the day (as the screen saver on your phone, on your mirror, in your car, etc.)

Evaluate

Reflect again – did the change make a positive difference

Take another step

Start the process again with a second change you want to make

Important thoughts to keep in mind:

Þ Take small steps – it is most important that you keep moving forward

Þ Use your calendar, make lists, be organised about enacting this change

Þ Prioritise – don’t try to do everything at once

Þ Use your network. Who will be your support?

Þ Practice self-compassion. Expect to make mistakes, you won’t get it perfect the first time around, keep coming back to the change you want to make

Þ When you plan your week, plan time to focus on your wellness plan

Þ Build this new practise into your routine.