Skip to content

Opinion: Breaking out of the pandemic slump starts with that first step

Change up your habits
walking
iStock photo

At the end of a year of successive waves of COVID-19 and extreme weather conditions, many of us were cautiously hopeful for a brighter 2022.

You may even have considered New Year’s resolutions to improve your diet, get fit or start those projects you’ve been putting off amidst these pandemic doldrums.

Recent studies have showed that up to two-thirds of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by February.

Many more haven’t even bothered to make any formal life-improvement plans. The radical changes we’ve had to make with work and school, shopping and socialization have left many feeling frustrated, angry, helpless and even hopeless – in short, stuck in pandemic burnout.

To escape the downward spirals of resignation or rage in the face of accelerating and unpredictable change, we need to regain what in psychology we call the locus of control. This is a personal sense of agency – the conviction that we can positively control some important aspects of our lives.

Although we have been forced to give up many of the comfortable and sustaining routines of our daily lives, we can each regain our personal identity as agents of positive change.

One of the keys to coping with change is what psychologist Carol Dweck calls the growth mindset. The limits of our abilities are not fixed. We are adaptable and capable of learning and personal growth even as adults.

We can do better than just survive this pandemic. We can thrive.

We can even do better than just be resilient. We can learn to be anti-fragile – growing stronger with each challenge.

If you’re ready to make some positive changes in your life, you should, of course, start with your deepest values and needs. But the key to successful personal change that will last well beyond February is not to launch right into a radically different and difficult routine.

Start with a small, achievable behaviour that is just one step in the direction of your greater goals. For example, if your big goal is to walk 10,000 steps a day, simply put on your runners in the morning. If your big goal is to eat healthier, start by eating one fresh fruit with breakfast.

That one easy routine will become a habit in as little as seven to 10 days. You’ll have the positive energy and confidence to take the next step.

These small but progressive changes will progress month by month. By the end of 2022, you will be amazed by what you have achieved. As James Clear says in his bestseller, Atomic Habits, every positive action is a vote for the person you want to become.

In this rapidly changing world, you will remain an agent of positive change in your own life.

I’ll be giving a free online talk call the Keys to Positive Change at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20, as part of the Burnaby Division of Family Practice’s Empowering Patients public health education program.

I’ll share practical tips for improving your wellbeing and making positive changes that last. These are the secrets that my patients and I have successfully used to transform new habits into healthy routines that stick. 

For more information or to sign up, please check https://divisionsbc.ca/burnaby/for-patients/empowering-patients

Dr. Davidicus Wong is a family physician. His Healthwise Column appears regularly in this paper. For more on achieving your positive potential in health, read his blog at davidicuswong.wordpress.com.