How to create a wellbeing plan you will actually stick to

Creating a wellbeing plan will give you a sense of what you want to do to improve how you feel and help you to stick to it.

So, we will take you through a few small steps to help you develop your own personalised plan.

When developing this plan, the vital thing to remember is that we want to create habits, not resolutions.

To get started, we have a wellbeing plan that you can download, print, and stick on your wall to help get you started. Alternatively, you can just use a pen and notepad to write down your plan.

Download the wellbeing plans

Start your wellbeing plan by answering two questions about you

In your wellbeing plan or your notepad, start by writing down these two questions and some answers to them:

• What things do you like doing?
• What things make you feel good when you accomplish them?

Making a note of these things is essential. The more you do things that make you happy and give you a sense of accomplishment, the better your wellbeing. This advice might seem obvious, but many people can overlook it.

Having an idea of what you like doing and what gives you a sense of accomplishment will help you in the next section.

Create new habits and goals

The next step is to identify and commit to starting three new habits and writing them down.

These habits can be something you have stopped doing and want to start again or something new entirely.

Ideally, you want these habits to be linked to what makes you happy or gives you a sense of accomplishment.

For example, you could commit to:

• going for a walk three times a week
• reading a page or a chapter of your book each day
• meeting friends and family to spend time with them.

Can’t think of three to write down? That’s fine. We have lots of wellbeing ideas on this website to help get you started.

We also recommend that you sign up for our Year of Wellbeing email and make a ledge to improve your wellbeing. That way, we will send you ideas and tips you can add to your plan on a steady weekly basis straight to your inbox.

Sign up to Year of Wellbeing emails

Review your three habits as you go along. You can always replace habits with new ideas you prefer as you discover or think of them. You can even have more than three if you want, or less if you don’t have the time. The main thing is that you have habits you enjoy.

Be realistic

Don’t make resolutions. Instead, try to create habits.

You don’t need to make grand gestures or spend a lot of money to improve your wellbeing. Often people fail to meet their goals because they are too hard and unrealistic. So, this is where you need to think realistically about the habits you want to take up and decide how often you want to do them.

Likewise, set a realistic goal to schedule one or more things to do that make you happy or feel a sense of accomplishment each week.

Put your wellbeing plan into action

Think about the barriers that might stop you from seeing through your plan and work out what you can do about them.

You could also:

• put your plan somewhere you can see it
• set daily or weekly reminders that allow you to tick off each habit as you complete them
• use your phone to set reminders.

Suppose you don’t meet your goals. Don’t worry about it. Your goal might be too hard, or you might need to accept that you will not meet your goal some days or weeks. Not meeting goals does not mean you have failed.

Finally, make a note of how you feel when you tick off each habit as you complete them. Take time to recognise how the new habits begin to make you feel. If your habit does not change how you feel, try something new.

Good luck

Creating this plan is going to help you achieve that pledge to improve your wellbeing. So please put some time aside to make one.

Creating new habits and improving your wellbeing takes time and practice. There will be moments where things may not work out as you thought. When this happens, remember to keep going and review your plan as you go along.

Last updated: 19/11/2021 16:05