The key to striving for high-level wellness is motivation. No single principle or incident can provide the stimulus necessary to institute change and maintain positive lifestyle habits. To make beneficial changes, you need to understand the many influences that create individual behavior. The family initiates health habits and outÂlooks. Children do not begin to brush their teeth because of a concern for dental care but because their parents insist on it. Social pressure becomes increasingly important as children age. All people are influenced by the desire and need to belong or to act like someone they admire. Adolescents and teenagers are especially susceptible to wanting to “fit in,” sometimes in a way that harms their health. For example, a friend or family member who smokes may influence a youngster’s decision to begin to smoke.A significant contribution to accepting the challenge of wellness is the knowledge and attitudes as similated during a lifetime. To change their health habits, people must internalize information and consider it valuable. Unfortunately, knowledge alone is not enough to bring about change. The discrepancy between knowing what is good for health and doing it is the health-behavior gap. People know that they should wear their seat belts and that they should not smoke, yet many people do not buckle up and continue to use tobacco products. For change to occur, the persons belief system must be affected.
An attitude is a predisposition for action,
that is, what people believe and value as having importance is what they are most likely to pursue. To build a sound and accurate knowledge base, people need to consider the following factors -
- Based on the information, is the person at risk for negative lifestyle consequences?
- How high a risk exists if a decision is made not to institute change?
- If a lifestyle change is made, what are the benefits or advantages?
People are motivated by what they value. For some people, motivation is in the form of attitudes (values) concerning the desire to look better, feel better, or be more self-reliant. The more highly a health benefit is valued, the greater the chance of making and adhering to the change. Support in the form of compliments from friends and family certainly helps to provide motivation and reinforcement. However, for the challenge of wellness to be accepted for a lifetime, changes must eventually be made based on an internalized desire to make that difference. The ability to achieve any health change must result from a personal, ongoing goal and not from a desire to please or impress another person. If people engage in wellness activities because the activities are important to them, the wellness challenge has been accepted.
Tags:Health and Wellness, health behavior, health habits, level wellness, lifestyle change, lifestyle habits motivation