Get Social to Keep on the Path to Better

When left to my own devices, I find it challenging to stay motivated. Social support goes a long way in terms of keeping me on the path to better and inspiring me to carry on despite the conflicting voices telling me to do otherwise. Here are a few techniques you can use to enlist the help of others to keep you going.

Power in Numbers.

Pick a partner. Enter races with your friends. Workout with your wife. Exercise with your kids – they like jumping jacks! This goes for healthy eating too… Group training and fitness classes are another great way to connect with people that share common interests and keep you motivated. Share your experiences and you’ll go far!

Like stuff on Facebook.

There are plenty of like-minded individuals and communities out there on Facebook. Seek them out and Friend/Like them. These might be individuals, communities or even companies. You’ll be introduced to new ideas, interesting products, and a variety of events and engaging conversation. I’m assuming that everyone is quite familiar with Facebook so I’ll stop here but just remember that you’ll get the most out of the experience by sharing and engaging in positive conversation.

You can find us on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/BeHealthyBeHappyBeBetter

Find some people to follow.

It took me awhile to understand Twitter. I still don’t know if I completely “get it” but there are a number of good resources to follow that will keep you abreast of developments in your areas of interest and perhaps introduce you to some new ideas.

Some of the Twits I follow are @MensHealth, @EverydayHealth, @Runchat. Twitter chats are pretty neat – They are moderated conversations among followers of a particular organization. They occur at a scheduled time and usually have a theme. EverydayHealth runs them around specific health topics and disease management. Runchat is about running of course. You follow along using a specific hashtag. If you participate, you’re bound to meet interesting new people.

Blog. Tumble. Write it down.

Start a blog or maybe your own page on Tumblr. That’s how we got started. Or go low-tech and keep a hand-written journal. (We have a tool for that, by the way.) The point is that writing things down, expressing your thoughts in a way that can be revisited, will reinforce the good habits that you are building. It will validate your effort to be better. It may even inspire others to follow in your footsteps. So go ahead and take pictures of your food. Post about your runs on FB. Check-in at the gym. Don’t be obnoxious about it, but also don’t worry about whether or not other people like those type of things… they can unsubscribe or ignore your feed if they aren’t interested. Just keep it up!

Here are some of the blogs that I have discovered over the past year by connecting with like-minded people.