There is a myth out there that self-care is One-Size fits all. That we only have to do “x” and our world will improve. The self-care industry is a multibillion-dollar industry that includes expensive creams, retreats, diets, boot camps, self-help books, and more. The problem with the public face of “self-care” is that it’s not really indicative of the real self-care an individual may actually need to preserve life in the best way. To provide yourself with the best self-care possible, you need to know the following information.
Know Who You Are
Sometimes it can be helpful to figure out who you want to be, rather than who you are now. To help you do this, write your own obituary to determine how you want the world to see and think of you when you were alive.
Once you have a vision of what you want to achieve and how you want your life to unfold, you need to follow a plan to live up to your potential. You can start now by working your way backward to today. Begin working on the things you identified as your strengths and weaknesses. You also want to identify what drives you towards success and what blocks your success.
Understand Your Goals
Goal setting is one of the life skills necessary to design and create the life you want to live. You may end up with great life by sheer chance. However, you don’t want to leave your life to chance. You can design much of the life you want to live, instead of leaving it up to chance, if you work on planning and setting goals to achieve your dream.
The best goal-setting process to use is the SMART or sometimes SMARTER goal-setting method. You can learn to set SMART goals by simply understanding the acronym: S = specific, M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Relevant, T= Timebound with the ER letters standing for Evaluate and Adjust.
Cultivate a Willingness to Lifelong Learning
The goals you set for yourself at 18 may look completely and utterly different from the goals you start setting for yourself at 38. Not only will you change your views due to experience in life, but you may also realize some of the things you believed weren’t true and no longer serve you.
Invest in lifelong learning by prioritizing reading, travel, family, community, and self-improvement. This will help you navigate the changes and upheavals that occur in life. When you understand human nature and how life works, you can plan for the most common roadblocks and how your personal actions impact your life and others.
For example, when you care about your financial life properly, you learn how to protect and increase your money, so it fits with your principles, morals, and value system. If you discover you have a health condition that requires you to do things differently, you’ll rely on the science of the day to identify the changes you need to make to accommodate for the modifications needed.
One-Size Self Care is a Myth
Self-care is not a One-Size solution. We all need care at different stages of our lives. That care is different for each of us. What works for me, may not work for you. The self-care you need in your life is tied directly to your principles, morals, values, and life goals, plus action based on evidence of impact if you know why you need to do a particular self-care activity and believe the why you’ll be much more successful cultivating a life full of happiness and contentment because you’re going to be much more likely to act when you believe in the impact.
