You have the willpower to start, the motivation to live a healthier lifestyle but for some reason, no matter what you do, you can’t stick to your plan of eating healthier, working out and drinking less coffee.

In order to take action – that sticks – we need to see ourselves and our situation from a new perspective.

As a high-flying career women, you’ve most likely spent your early adult years prioritising building your career and finding success in what you accomplish by working your way up the career ladder. The main issue here is that you’ve potentially only defining success in what you accomplish at work.

To make a shift in your actions towards creating a healthier lifestyle, it’s time to define what success looks like from a perspective of your future-self, emotionally, mentally and physically.

This definition will outline the actions you need to take today towards your health to continue to be successful in the future. The benefit of making these changes now ultimately feeds into other areas of your life, including your career goals. For example; to be a CEO you need to be emotionally strong, mentally prepared and physically able to manage the demands of the job.

Define what success means to you by:

• Listing your top five personal values.

• Next to each value write down what actions you currently take to live by those values.

• Then write down 1-3 things you can start doing to live more in line with those values.

• Commit to taking these actions.

Example;

Personal value – good health

What I currently do; drink plenty of water, meditate daily, eat vegetables

What I can start to do;

1. Cook at home

2. Commit to a regular exercise routine

3. Sleep earlier

Perhaps you’re on the brink of burnout, or starting to see the side effects of not taking care of yourself (weight gain, exhausted, emotionally drained, stressed-out…) use this method as a kick start to taking action towards self-care for your future-self. The benefit of focusing on your personal version of success will help you stay focused and ultimately help you make long-lasting positive change.

Heidi Jones coaches high-flying career women to take action to balance their health and career goals. Follow @heidi_jones_coaching