Select a health behavior issue that you would like to improve and set out your long and short term goals.

Please do the following

1) Identify the behavior you wish to change 

Is the behavior smoking? Overeating? Being sedentary? Is it being stressed? Anxious? Overly busy? Drinking? Anger management? Relationship issues? Better Physical fitness? Eat better? How does it affect your life?

2a) Establish some Baseline data about your behavior.

You won't know where you are if you don't know where you started i.e. how do you know if you lost weight, if you don't know how much you weighed? Keep a diary of your habits for a few days.

Write down your feelings on those days, especially in relation to the activity you want to change What triggers do you notice in relation to your behavior? What do we know about your behavior? What contributes to it?

What is the history of this behavior? When it is worse? Better?

2b) Summarize your baseline data.

Identify any patterns you see. Look at the positives and the negatives Accept what you have found as accurate Focus on strengths as well as weaknesses Identify any patterns you see.

If they are strengths, use them as such, if the patterns are behavior weaknesses, work on changing them.

3) Establish some specific goals.

Short term goals Long term goals Every journey starts with the first step, remember that. If long term goal is to lose 30 pounds, short term should be one pound per week. You can't do it all in a day! And you will get sad if you don't see immediate results.

Even if you are choosing to quit smoking cold turkey, you need to see the accomplishments of making it one day, then a week. What is a short term goal? This is a smaller project related to your overall goal of being a healthier, happier you! e.g. lose 8 pounds over the quarter What is a long term goal?

This looks at overall, lasting improved health for your lifetime, e.g. Eat more fruits and veggies EVERY day Meet your calcium intake requirement EVERY day

4) Make a personal contract to accomplish your goals.

Write down both the starting and ending dates. This will help you focus on specific activities for reaching your goals. Specify the time Specify the personal resources Specify the energy that you will need to commit to this project.

You could choose any health behavioral issue.