Live better and healthier with the right goals
How about more sport, more balanced nutrition or even more breaks in your daily life? If you want to make a positive impact on your health, you'll need to focus on exercise, nutrition, sleep and your wellbeing.
Discover seven techniques for permanently changing your behaviour and sticking with your resolutions for a healthier life.
Seven ways to make positive changes to your behaviour
Resolutions boost your motivation and help you to achieve your goals. It is however essential that you set realistic and measurable goals that you will be able to achieve. You can use a few strategies to help you keep your resolutions. Simply make a list of things that you absolutely want to achieve and set individual goals to ensure that you stay on the right path. You can also create a system for yourself which you can use to track your progress and regularly check that you're staying on course. Rewarding yourself when you achieve small successes also has a positive impact. This keeps you motivated and gives you the self-confidence to continue pursuing your goals.
Behavioural research has found 93 different ways to help change behaviour. You probably already use some of them intuitively in your daily life. Discover seven ways to make it easier for you to overcome your inner obstacles and achieve your goals.
1. Get a nudge
Nudging is a strategy used to change behaviour. With the help of small signals our behaviour is guided in a predictable direction. It's important that this behaviour change happens without any pressure or bans. The nudging principle (2009) was formulated by the economist Richard Thaler and the legal scholar Cass Sunstein: "A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates."
We encounter many nudges in our daily lives:
- The Nutri Score on food nudges us towards eating healthier. If the score is low, we will opt for food with a higher score.
- In hotel rooms we often see information like, "9 out of 10 hotel guests use their towels several times." This nudge is used to get hotel guests to use their towels more than once by describing how most people behave.
2. A concrete and realistic goal
If you know exactly what you want to change, it will be easier to put it into practice and stick to it. The more clearly the goal is formulated, the better. From a neuropsychological stance, the best thing to do is write a real script for your resolutions and describe when and how the resolution will be put in practice. For example, it's better to say, "I want to lose six kilograms by the middle of the year" rather than "I want to lose weight". You should also set yourself realistic goals, otherwise you'll quickly lose motivation when you hit any setbacks.3. Enjoyment
If the new goal or the new behaviour is associated with unpleasantness and obligation, you’ll soon give up. It should always include enjoyment. So your resolution shouldn’t work against you.
4. Social support
A problem shared is a problem halved. It's a good idea to get support from friends. If you want to be more active in life, arrange to go for a run with them. It'll be easier and more fun together. Added to this, it’s more difficult to get out of the run because you’ve already made an arrangement. Telling people about your goals is also a good incentive to keep to them, as you won't want to disappoint anyone.
5. Routines
We are creatures of habit. That’s why it makes sense to think up new routines and follow them until they become habits. This can start out small. For example, you could get up 30 minutes earlier every morning to avoid being stressed in the morning. It might be difficult in the beginning, but if you keep your goal in mind for a while, it will turn into a habit.
6. Make if-then plans
From a neuropsychological point of view, if-then plans are very helpful. For example, if you want to eat more healthily, you can set yourself the goal of eating some fruit every time you feel like something sweet. When we think, "I feel like something sweet", our brain remembers and then reacts with, "I'll eat a piece of fruit", changing our behaviour pattern.
7. Baby steps
Our behaviour won’t change overnight. Time and patience are both important factors for successfully making lasting changes in our behaviour. You often get further by taking small steps than if you set off at a gallop right from the start.
Maybe one of these techniques is helpful to you. Be aware that if you slip up once, it’s not the end. It takes time to establish new behaviour.
How SWICA supports your goals for a healthier you
Anyone who is active or does something for their nutrition or wellbeing is doing something for their health and mental wellbeing in the long term. That's why SWICA supports its customers who have supplementary cover with up to 1'300 francs* per year (*find out more) and with a variety of health promotion offers. These include nutritional advice, traditional massage, autogenic training, personal training, yoga, breathing gymnastics and exercise options such as fitness classes, Pilates, tennis and much more. By the way, supplementary insurance is a valuable add-on to your basic insurance in every case, and you can purchase a plan from SWICA at any time, regardless of which insurer currently provides your basic insurance.
SWICA – Because health is everything
Being active pays off. SWICA – unlike many other health insurance companies – supports your personal commitment through a wide range of activities and offers relating to health promotion and preventive healthcare. Whether it's yoga, tai chi, fitness classes, swimming lessons, breathing exercises, personal training, nutritional advice, mindfulness training, tennis or one of the other available options, you enjoy attractive contributions of up to 1'300 francs* per year from the COMPLETA FORTE, COMPLETA PRAEVENTA and OPTIMA supplementary insurance plans (*see detailed information).
Incidentally, supplementary insurance always provides valuable additional benefits above and beyond those available under basic insurance. It can be taken out with SWICA at any time, regardless of which insurer currently provides your basic insurance.
Personal consultation
Would you like more information or a personal consultation? SWICA Client Services would be happy to assist. Call us on +41 58 800 99 33 or send us a message using the contact form below.
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