Choosing your Healthy Action

A guide to creating a productive and well-crafted action for your Healthy Action Tracker

Step 1: Area of Life

The first step for choosing a great action for your action tracker is to decide which area of life you’d like to work on. Take a look at the graphic below. Which area of your life is calling out for change? Which one would be most beneficial for you to improve? If there are more than one that you are pulled towards, which one would you like to begin with?

Step 2: Create Your Action

Once you have selected a category, you’ll now create your action. This part is the creative challenge! Below are some suggestions for creating an effective and productive action.

A great action for an action tracker will be be:

Simple and Small

Picking an action that is too big or complicated could lead to burnout and abandonment. So, a good action will be something that is simple and small enough for you to do everyday or at least a few times a week.

Too big and complicated:

❌ Run a 5k

❌ Organize a group outing

Small and simple:

✅ Take a 20 minute walk after dinner

✅ Send a text message to say hello to a friend or loved one

Tip: Be aware that oftentimes our urgency for progress causes us to try to do too much too early. So, do your best to be honest with yourself about what you're realistically willing to do.

Specific

A vaguely defined action will lead to inconsistent and uncertain effort, producing mixed results. On the other hand, when your action is specific, you will know exactly what you need to be doing. Your effort will be focused and your progress will be clear.

Vague:

❌ Eat healthier

❌ Be more active

Specific:

✅ Have oatmeal with blueberries for breakfast

✅ Go for a 15 minute walk during my lunch break

Tip: Designating a time of day (ex. 3pm, or “when I get home from work”) and/or a duration for the action is often a great way of increasing its specificity.

Additional Examples

Below are some examples of actions that you can use as as starting points to generate your own action or use as is if they are applicable to you.

Note: You may be tempted to select more than one action. If that’s the case, I commend your desire to improve, but I’d highly recommend starting with just one. When we take on more than one, we run the risk of overloading ourselves. So it’s best to get consistent and used to one thing at a time.

Physical Activity

5 minutes of stretching hamstrings
20 minute bike ride after work

Healthy Eating

Replace my daily Coke with a Diet Coke
Have fruit and greek yogurt with honey for dessert

Restorative Sleep

Eliminate screen time after 8:30pm
Be in bed with lights out at 10pm

Purpose & Meaning

Write for 10 minutes in your journal before bed
Before breakfast, spend 5 minutes reflecting on your spiritual path

Stress Management

2 minutes of deep breathing at 2pm
Read 10 pages of a book before turning on the TV in the evening

Social Connection

Text/Call a friend to say your were thinking of them
Pay one compliment to a stranger, co-worker, friend, or loved one

Avoiding Risky Substances

No nicotine between 10am-2pm
Replace my evening glass of wine with a ginger ale

Fun & Joy

Spend 20 minutes on your hobby of choice after putting the kids to bed
Sing along to your favorite music on your commute home

Step 3: Adjust as Necessary

Your action is not set in stone! Do your best to be consistent and disciplined, but if it really isn't working, feel free to change your action - either partially or entirely - to find something that works for you!

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