The new year is your opportunity for a fresh start. With the many obstacles we faced in the past year, many are ready to turn over a new leaf and feel a renewed sense that anything is possible. How we approach the new year is crucial for our success. Some people set resolutions with the hope that they will transform overnight. When they fail to keep these commitments, it can cause such disappointment that they give up altogether. If you are the type to follow this annual cycle of resolution, failure, disappointment, and backsliding, why not take a new approach to self-improvement this year?
Your hearing is a great way to start. With the reasonable and attainable goal of scheduling a hearing test, you will be setting a goal that you can achieve! Let’s consider some other approaches to the new year that will set you up for success. Hearing health is an important new priority for the year that can dovetail with other goals for health and wellness.
Goals for Physical Health
When you imagine the new year and your physical health, what do you envision? If you can see yourself with an entirely new physique, you are likely setting unrealistic goals for yourself. Physical health is a slow progression toward wellness, and incremental changes have the greatest lasting impact. If you are concerned about nutrition, try setting a reasonable goal for yourself, such as limiting one type of junk food you’re prone to overindulge.
If you’re trying to get into a better exercise habit, why not take the approach of integrating physical activity into your normal routine? Taking the stairs, if you’re able, or parking at the far end of the parking lot can be easy ways to get a few extra steps into your day without making a special trip to the gym. Your hearing is connected to other aspects of physical health, as well. Although hearing loss doesn’t directly cause most of these other health issues, the body is an interconnected system, and getting a diagnosis of hearing loss can alert your physician to other issues that might pop up.
Goals for Emotional Health
The last year has been a challenging one for many of us when it comes to our emotional health. Indeed, some introverts truly enjoy the opportunity to stay home with their loved ones, but many others have not felt so fortunate about the limitations of the prior year. The toll on mental and emotional health has been quantified in study after study, and many of us look ahead to a new year that finds us connecting with others once again. When you think about your goals for mental and emotional health in the new year, there are proactive steps you can take to maintain balance in this tumultuous world.
Rather than promising yourself to form daily habits like journaling, exchanging emails with friends, engaging in a religious community, or meditating, you might find it hard to keep up new habits with this rigor. Commitments to any daily habit should be taken with flexibility so that you don’t quit altogether if you miss one day.
Your hearing loss might be contributing to poor mental health, as well. Those who have hearing loss tend to isolate from social situations where it will be challenging to communicate, and that isolation can contribute to an already difficult social context of the past year. As we look forward to a new year, one simple step you can take toward your mental health is to get a hearing test. Although the connection might not seem obvious to you, getting your hearing checked is a great way to see if hearing loss is forming an impediment to your social connections, as well as your mental wellbeing.
If these goals for the new year are appealing to you, keep in mind that scheduling your hearing test is a simple step you can take right away. Rather than setting yourself up for disappointment with a strict daily schedule, why not commit to the single step of getting your hearing tested. The results can bring rewards, health, happiness, and good fortune in the new year!