When I work with clients we are often examining their life foundations and looking at things they may wish to change to move to the next level so to speak and improve their life and relationships.

There’s a very common interesting start point where the new thing, lets say it’s doing a bit of shadow work, or starting having some disciplined relaxing time. What usually happens is they do the new thing and they enjoy it. They get some relief and decide they’d like more of it in their routine.

However there is often the journey of doing this at the time of crisis. Lets say for example the idea of a walk on the beach seems a great idea for a stress reliever, so it’s done, and then there’s the waiting until things get so stressful before actually doing it again. The same phenomenon occurs particularly with activities like journaling or maybe work which integrates shadow aspects of the self.

It’s great though that the start has been made and it’s always good to take things a step at a time. It’s here that ISMART goals are useful whereby we really look session to session what is Inspiring, Realistic, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time framed to ensure it stays manageable.

For the new routines coming into play I often use the analogy of cleaning our teeth. Presuming they are someone who does this regularly without question I feedback how whereas it’s obviously great to clean our teeth when they are particularly dirty, it’s generally a great practice to clean them a couple of times a day and for this to just be a given and a discipline.

I see self work the same. It’s important to make a constant inward journey to keep us on track, most conscious, and at our best. A combination of smart goals while recognising these things are as foundationally important as our habit (we hopefully have) around teeth cleaning can be a useful analogy.

How are you right now ? Is there anything you want to make disciplined in your routine to help your life and relationships? The same way as you clean your teeth.