Back to School Resolutions

Back to School Resolutions are the product of the mental reset button we feel each September

Back to School Resolutions Are All About Going Forward

Forget New Years resolutions - Back to School resolutions are the ones I always make. They do not necessarily relate to being a parent either, since my son is almost finished university and doesn't need me buying his clothes or packing his lunches anymore. They are about my own return to school, my own wellness over 40, and my own improvement in achieving wellness goals and maximizing life in a new age zone.

What are back to school resolutions, anyway? They are the product of the mental reset button we have from decades of closing the chapter of summer and embarking on a return to school. They are from our childhood excitement about starting a fresh new grade each September with a fresh new pencil case full of sharpened pencils and a new 3-ring binder with paper, dividers and a box of reinforcements on hand. (hmm, what I really mean here is a new laptop, cell phone, music and clothes...)

Being a Better Everything

I still get excited every September about starting something fresh! But now my resolutions are about passing to the next proverbial grade of life, not about passing from grade 7 to grade 8. I still think that my current resolutions are influenced by a mindset from three or four decades of deciding to be a "better everything" in order to have a good year - the year from September to June, that is.

Here are 7 quick ideas to kick start your own career, financial, environmental, or wellness aspirations:

• Whether you're a new grad or facing a working retirement, pursue the next level of your career by upgrading your skills in a way that's relevant to the marketplace as well as your own personality

• If you really want to get to work feeling grounded and able to take charge of your own productivity, walk at least part of the way to work

• Buy fresh food and cook it

• Whether you have kids yet or not, think about them and their kids of the future - reduce your car usage and if possible get rid of your car and use transit

• Save money painlessly by managing your personal cash flow

• Consider chemical-free skin care products - it's hard to believe that many of us smoked cigarettes at our office computers in the 80s; well, in the future people will look back incredulously at the amount of chemicals we put on our face daily when there were other alternatives out there

• Try something out of character and take up dancing

How To Maintain Wellness Over 40

As a boomer, I am healthier now than I was at any point between age 17 (when I left home to attend university) and my mid-40's. When I recently summed up the reasons why, I realized that they all revolved around diet, exercise, stress management, yoga/meditation/therapeutic massage, mental stimulation, emotional connectedness/satisfaction, and finances. In fact, I would even put them in that order. And here's why:

1. What we eat seems to dictate how well we feel and how well we handle things - never mind all of the other associations connected to diet.
2. Exercise also has equal weight to food when it comes to being well - and this seems to increase with age.
3. Stress, or over-stress, is a wellness-killer. It eats up all of the mileage we get from eating well and exercising, so it has to be managed and kept in check.
4. Yoga, meditation, massage, dance, tai chi, and other forms of spiritual physicality are all tools to connect the mind and body and they all increase wellness.
5. Mental stimulation is not talked about much, but it's pretty well "use it or lose it" (use it and be well, or lose it and don't). Mental stimulation is more important for wellness than we think.
6. Emotional connectedness and satisfaction with oneself and others doesn't keep us well without the other 6 factors, but it plays a key role in keeping us well-balanced.
7. Finances are talked about a lot in this part of the world as an elixer to all troubles, but you can be a wealthy, top performing, emotionally connected individual who is positively challenged by your job and interests, but if you don't take time to unwind, exercise, keep your stress in check and eat right, these unattended elements will catch up with you. That's not to say finances aren't important, they are. But over age 40 the other key points start to matter just as much when it comes to wellness.

Stay tuned to Wellness Over 40 - we'll be discussing each of the 7 elements from the personal point of view of someone who found meaning and value in all of them. We will be telling stories of fantastic people and resources for achieving and keeping your own wellness, your own way.