By Michael Lawrence Green
The beginning of the year is a great time for appreciation and excitement. Even though we’re almost a month into 2021, it is still a good time to look towards the future and get excited about our goals and objectives. Most of us establish goals at the beginning of every year, but how many of us set goals to help our memory and brain health? Well, this is the year that you can start!
At Memory Spring, we promote an integrated approach to improving your memory by emphasizing four key areas: Physical, Organizational, Technical, and Mental/Emotional. Here are some potential goals to consider in each area.
1) Physical – The Physical area includes anything that you do to your body including exercise, nutrition, sleep, and hydration. Potential goals might include:
- Exercising one additional hour per week
- Reducing soda and coffee intake by 20 percent
- Eating one additional serving of brain food per day. Click here for more information on brain healthy foods.
To view our Physical Articles, Click Here.
2) Organizational – The Organizational area focuses on the how you organize the world around you. Potential goals might include:
- Reducing clutter in your life
- Establishing a place for your keys, purse, and other daily items
- Organizing your workspace.
To view our Organizational Articles, Click Here.
3) Technical – The Technical area has to do with exercising and stretching your brain to maintain and improve mental performance. The popular term is neuroplasticity. Potential goals might include:
- Finding a new hobby
- Taking a memory or other type of class
- Implementing a brain exercising program.
To view our Technical Articles, Click Here.
4) Mental Emotional – The Mental Emotional area focuses on how you deal with stress and your belief basis. Potential goals might include:
- Establishing positive affirmations in your daily routine
- Integrating some physical exercise into your weekly routine to offload stress
- Learning a new breathing technique to apply when you’re stressed.
To view our Mental Emotional Articles, Click Here.
Here are some tips for goal setting:
A) Make your goals SMART. SMART stands for:
- Specific – Make sure that you can put some type of detail to it.
- Measurable – Make sure your progress can be measured
- Actionable – Make sure that it is goal is clear enough that you can create steps to achieve this goal.
- Realistic – Too many times, we establish goals that are not achievable given our situation. Take the time to evaluate. You want it to be a stretch but doable.
- Time dependent – Set an end date.
A good example of a SMART goal would be: Read 8 books by December 31st. Well, as long as it’s realistic as compared to what you read this past year.
B) Write down your goals. Writing down goals signals your brain to start moving in the right direction. In fact, researchers have found that you become 42% more likely to achieve your goals by writing them down on a regular basis.
C) Have an accountability partner. According to Success.com, when someone knows what your goals are, they hold you accountable by asking you to “give an account” of where you are in the process of achieving that goal. Accountability puts some teeth into the process. If a goal is set and only one person knows it, does it really have any power? Many times, no. A goal isn’t as powerful if you don’t have one or more people who can hold you accountable to it.
Establish goals to improve your memory in this coming year. Those goals will pay you dividends in the coming year and for the rest of your life.
For more information on goal setting and brain health, Click Here.