This week is all about how to set yourself up for success so you can beat chronic pain
We are going to set up goals and give you an activity/course calendar that will allow you to follow along daily for 10wks to start you on your path to beating chronic pain
Tips for goal setting
- Goals should be written down
- People with written goals are 50% more likely to achieve them than people without written goals
- Only 3 out of every 100 adults write down their goals down on paper
- Sharing your goals with a close 'confide' is proven to increase the chances of you achieving your goal
- The world's most successful people agree that what you 'get' by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become in the process
- Specific goals which are time-bound and measurable work best
- It takes time for a change to become an established habit
- The path to success is rarely a shirt line and you will have set backs, but consistency is what is important
Before we set goals we need to look where you are at in this journey
Stages of change
- Precontemplation- You do not intend to take action in the foreseeable future (the next 6 months).
- Contemplation- You are intending to start a healthy behavior that will lead to a pain free life within the next 6 months.
- Preparation (Determination) - You are ready to take action within the next 30 days
- Action- You have recently changed your behavior so you can live a pain free life within the last 6 months and intend to keep moving forward
- Maintenance -You have sustained your healthy change for more than 6 months and intend to maintain the behavior change going forward
- Termination - You have no desire to return to your unhealthy behaviors.
Why this matters to you... A study showed that people who enter in a precontemplation phase who after a month are still in preconetemplation have a 3% success rate. People who enter in a precontemplation phase who after a month are in contemplation phase have a 7% success rate. People who enter in a contemplation phase who after a month are in contemplation phase have a 20% success rate. People who enter in a contemplation phase who after a month are in preparation phase have a 40% success rate. Another study on smokers showed that 76% of individuals in the action stage were not smoking after six months.
We understand this is hard because of previous misinformation around your pain, but if you can come into this course in the action phase your chances of success are massively increase
What are you thinking right now?
Honestly where are you at?
Kubler Ross developed a grief curve that has been expanded beyond grief to look at how we feel when we are presented with a challenging situation that requirs us to change our beliefs before we can overcome it... When we here something that surpises or shocks us we can experience one or more of these
- Denial/Disbelief- we look for evidence that it is not true
- Frustation and Sometimes Anger- it can be hard to recognize that things are different then what we thought
- Depression- lacking energy and having a low mood
- Experiment- intial engagement with the new situation
- Decision- learning how to work in the new situation and feeling more posistive
- Integration- changes made and an empowered person
We understand this class will be an automatic light bulb for 1/3 of people, it will be something that 1/3 will have to expirement with until they have success with it and for the last 1/3 this is going to be extremely difficult to come to terms with. If you are in the second group go through the course and it will sink in eventually. If you are in the last group take some time to reflect on what is being presented to you in whatever way helps you calmly work through problems. For the last group of people this will be extremely challenging and you may need to come back to this when you are ready. We understand and are here to help
No Matter What Stage You Are In We Want You To Start By Making SMART Goals
We want you to write out a SMART goal
Specific: Make your goals specific for more effective planning.
Measurable: Define how you are making progress.
Attainable: Make them reasonable to accomplish.
Relevant: Your goals should align with your values.
Time-Based: Set a date of completion.
We have some examples of things you could acomplish from this course
Specific: I will use this chronic pain course to be able to get back to walking my dog for 11mins without stopping, 4x a week
Measurable: Each weeks success will be measured by an increase of 1 min of walking and/or an increase of a day of walking that week.
Attainable: As long as I can commit to the program it is very attaible because I can follow along daily.
Relevant: Walking my dog is something that I mess doing and love doing, this will also help me handle stress better, and have less depression
Time-Based: I will do this for 10 weeks and then turn it into a weekly lifestyle habit.
Specific: I will use this chronic pain course to start a routine of doing core workouts 2x a week
Measurable: Each weeks success will be measured by succesfully playing the rehab board game 2x
Attainable:As long as I can commit to the program it is very attainable because all the resources are present
Relevant: Doing core workouts will allow me to play with my kids again and hold them again
Time-Based: I will do this for 5 weeks and continue this into a weekly lifesyle habit.
Specific: I will use this chronic pain course to start trying to sleep better and lower my stress through a once a week yoga and meditation practice
Measurable: Each week success will be measured by doing a yoga session and by attempting a meditation session.
Attainable: With the course and calander I can do this
Relevant: Walking my dog is something that I mess doing and love doing, this will also help me handle stress better, and have less depression
Time-Based: I will do this for 2 weeks and continue you it into a weekly lifestyle habbit.
Home Work
Pull up the course calendar
The calender will start by making sure you have taken your screenings, giving you a place to write down your SMART goals, and lay out you what you need to do during this first week and for each week after. This week you will start using the pain journal and see if you can move for 2 mins for 3 days
We are excited about what this class will do to reframe how you look at pain, which will get you back to doing the things you love in daily life again
We are so proud of you for undertaking this course and taking your pain head on
This process can be a lot, so do not hesitate to slow down to your own pace. You are not alone. If you are stuck and need more help do not even hesitate to reach out to us.
Your life is waiting for you again on the other side of this course, till next time guys 🙂
