We’re talking about momentum and about the things we can do now that will set us up for a better future. And while it’s great to have short-term goals in place, think about how you want to live 20, 30 or even 40 years from now. What do you need to do? What small changes could you make right now that your older self will thank you for?
At the moment, it seems that people are really caught up with instant gratification and a lot of us are setting goals to achieve the thing they want to do right now to make them feel good immediately, but they don’t always consider setting goals to make them feel great in the future.
Sometimes it’s okay to live in the moment and to have short-term goals to make you feel your healthiest and best self, but you also need to be gauging the things you want to do, the places you want to be, and the way you want to live down the track. Setting yourself a goal of a healthy active future can help you to shape the decisions you make today.
Ask yourself, ‘What kind of lifestyle would I like to have?”, “Would I like to live an active lifestyle where my personal mobility is not a limitation to the choices that I can make?” and “How can I make sure that my future health is not going to be a hinderance to my ability to show up in my life?”.
Plan the future you really want:
Look at potential future health problems, or at some of the health problems older people are currently dealing with such as diabetes, joint and mobility issues, heart issues – those are the problems we want to avoid. There’s a misconception that, as you get older, you start to slow down and you almost expect to have those health and mobility issues as the reality of getting older, but it doesn’t have to be the case.
There’s a lot of science and health research happening right now that can really help with longevity, helping us to live until we’re 120 or older, but the issue with longevity is, if you’re not setting yourself up for future health and success right now, then no amount of science will give you a long, high-quality life where you can do all the things you want to do without being slowed down by aging.
Focus on the five essential habits:
A lot of people get fixated on following health fads to make them feel better in the short term, but the reality is, the five habits you need for the best possible health and mobility, are the ones you’re already doing.
Living a longer, healthier and more mobile life in the future comes down to five simple habits: breathing properly, eating well, getting enough good quality sleep, moving your body and hydrating.
Focus on the five things that you’re doing already and consider how you could make them a little bit better.
Sleep your way to better health:
One of the most important things you can do is make sure you get a good night’s sleep. You should be aiming to get between seven and nine hours sleep a night. Many people try to live on five hours sleep, even though science shows that anything less than eight hours is actually really detrimental to our lives.
A good night’s sleep allows your body to go through enough cycles of all of the different stages of sleep and can help with memory processing and improved cognition when you’re awake.
Proper sleep allows your body to function more optimally all around including your circulation, detoxification pathways and more streamlined hormones. There are so many things that go hand in hand with good sleep and in this task-centric life we live in 2022, people will try to stretch their sleep to the bare minimum so that they can fit more into their day.
Even if you’re eating well and exercising, without enough sleep, you’re only getting half the job done.
Tips for a better snooze:
- Put the phone down! Don’t go to bed and then lose hours when you could be getting a great night’s sleep lost down the social media ‘scroll hole’.
- If you can’t go without some pre-bedtime tech, consider putting a time limit on your scrolling time. Set an alarm so that you don’t find yourself losing hours watching videos or reading posts.
- Pop a warm filter on your phone. You can actually put a red colour screen on your phone (which is hideous!) -it may even disincentivize you from wanting to be on your phone. Even if the colour doesn’t put you off the bedtime scroll, it will help to block out the blue light which is something that can have a negative impact on your sleep cycle. You can also consider getting some red tinted glasses to wear before you go to sleep.
