Sometimes, even if we have a well thought out plan for creating our healthy lifestyle, we still fail. There is one more seemingly elusive step to achieving a healthy lifestyle; Execution of a healthy lifestyle plan. When I see a patient struggling with this, it usually means that they need assistance in directing their focus. It’s been said that all we can ever do is determine where we place our focus.

When we hit this little bump in the road it can be helpful to enlist the help of a qualified health coach or practitioner to recognize where we are getting caught up and suggest an alternate route.

While there are numerous successful coaching methodologies, it seems that certain ones work for some and not others. How do we know which is best for us? Finding a method that caters to our strengths rather than our weaknesses can be the make or break of our success in creating the changes we desire.

Some people are able to create successful changes by participating in programs that focus on structure. Structures would include calendars, schedules or steps. Any 12 step program is an example of a structure based system.

Other people do best when they focus their attention on their perceptions first. Examples might include daily affirmations, visualization and motivational reassuring designed to alter how someone feels about themselves or their desired change.

Finally, there are some people who do best when they just get right down to doing it. They’re better off not getting caught up in structures or perceptions.

Next time we’ll talk about what happens when we pick the right or wrong method for us and how to determine it.