New Years Reflections in Physical Therapy
This past week for Christmas, Jess and I travelled to the Chicago suburbs to visit with her family. We were blessed with some down time and actually decent weather in all considering. We were able to escape right before all the snow came barreling down as we were leaving. It was a great week all and in all.
When your medium of transportation for the holidays is driving and spend 15 hours in the car each way, you get a lot of time to reflect. For me and with the new year upon us, the bulk of my reflection surrounded behavior change and what goes into the process of creating new habits and decision making models.
To me, behavior change is everything. It's what makes outcomes happen. It’s easy for any of us to fall into the trap of catastrophized thinking and spiraling that ultimately leads to self limiting decision making. To be successful in creating new outcomes, we have to accept 3 basic concepts:
1) Behavior Change is Difficult
There’s no easy route. If it was easy, we would have already done it or would have already been a part of our routine. Understanding and approaching new choices requires a mindset of acceptance that this will be hard.
2) Behavior Change Requires Learning
We have to create a framework that allows for learning. We’ve already acknowledged that it's not easy, but we also have to acknowledge that we may not figure it out right away. Having the opportunity to make mistakes makes us better at whatever outcome we’re striving for. It allows for improved effectiveness and efficiency in regards to the end product we’re aiming for.
3) Behavior Change Has to Start Somewhere
90% of the effort you put into a new behavior comes with starting this new agenda. We’re fighting the most amount of obstacles and hurdles at this phase of the process. It’s why we want the change. It's why we’re doing it. Just understand that if you can get over this initial part, everything else while still not easy, is much less daunting in comparison.
So when you sit down and lay out your 2026 goals this year, my ask is to reflect upon the framework you’ve given yourself. Have you given yourself the space to succeed? And know that whatever you set for yourself this year, behavior change is difficult.
As we set forth in the final email of the year last week:
To Big Mountains and Big Lifts in 2026!
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