2020: Reflecting and Retooling
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With the New Year comes a hope of a fresh start. Setting resolutions of personal and professional goals is a common practice to help you start the year on the right foot. But are your resolutions setting you up for healthy habit success or failure?
New Year’s resolutions are notorious for being made with good intentions but falling by the wayside after just a few weeks or months. Tyler C. Cooper, MD, MPH, President and CEO of Cooper Aerobics, encourages his patients to consider a resolutions alternative they can continue year-round—retooling goals.
Keep these helpful tips in mind when setting goals. Try your best to make them:
• Specific — clearly state what you want to
• Measurable — allow tangible means to measure your success
• Achievable — be sure it’s an attainable goal that you can stick with for several months at a time
• Relevant — pick goals that make sense for your lifestyle
• Time-bound — set a specific date you want to accomplish your goal by
Dr. Tyler Cooper personally makes a habit of consistently reevaluating his healthy habits throughout the year. “Good health is never a completed objective. It’s a journey not a destination,” explains Dr. Cooper. “Consistency is key. Developing goals and habits that you can consistently work toward achieving over time is the objective.” Dr. Cooper strongly believes that small changes yield big results. What you believe will bring about change affects each of your actions and your actions bring about change—one belief-impacted decision at a time.
“I’ve never been one to set resolutions,” says Dr. Cooper. “I am always in a continual process of evaluating my health throughout the year. For example, if I feel like I am doing a poor job in maintaining a healthy weight, I will be more diligent about watching my diet and eating healthier.”
Whether it be weekly, monthly or every 3 months, hold yourself accountable by setting smaller frames of time to reevaluate and retool your lifestyle to meet your goals as needed.
2020: Reflecting on the Past
Taking time to celebrate successes is equally as important as goal setting. January 2020 brings about reevaluation of healthy habits for Dr. Cooper and sentimental reflection as Cooper Aerobics celebrates its 50th anniversary. “In today’s business world, anything that lasts 50 years is an accomplishment,” says Dr. Cooper, “especially when it is based on a mission, not a profit.”
Founded in 1970 by the “Father of Aerobics himself, Kenneth H. Cooper, MD, MPH, Cooper Aerobics was built on the mission to improve the quality and quantity of people’s lives. The most valuable aspect of celebrating Cooper’s 50-year milestone to Dr. Tyler Cooper is the countless number of lives that have been impacted physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. “With our business, yes there have been tangible successes,” says Dr. Cooper. “But what is truly impactful is the difference we have made in individual lives.”
Dr. Kenneth H. Cooper’s introduction of and focus on prevention has become a critical component of modern medicine. Cooper’s movement wouldn’t be possible without the people who believed in this change from the beginning. The Cooper family and organization expresses a strong appreciation for all the people who believed in Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s fitness movement in the early days and for all the people who entrust their health care to Cooper daily. “We’ve been able to change history from the perspective of fitness through my dad’s initial efforts and our team who has done the heavy lifting of research to back it up,” says Dr. Cooper. “Consequently, the world is a better place because of it. Whether we are here another 50 years or gone tomorrow, the legacy of mass positive impact we have made will live on in perpetuity.”
2020: Casting the Vision through Goal Setting
Dr. Cooper explains that while celebrating 50 years is impressive and an ideal time to reflect on the magnitude of its past and present influence on the country’s health care system, the mission at 51 years will remain the same. The need and acceptance of the idea of fitness and health is ever evolving and changing with the times and the mission itself stays true. Dr. Cooper describes the goal for the future of Cooper Aerobics as putting the knowledge of how to improve the quality and quantity of people’s lives in impactful hands. His desire is for this powerful information to spread not only to third-world countries but also first-world countries where the crisis at hand is a crisis of choice. “We want to do anything we can to help provide this knowledge to the average person to help them improve their life and start a grass-roots type revolution,” says Dr. Cooper. Cooper Aerobics is constantly looking for ways to innovatively provide research and practical tools to bring about life change.
Be a Part of the Movement
What are you doing with your life to impact others? While it may look differently in your company, family and lifestyle, the fact is that you can change the lives of others by providing them with information that matters. You can be an encouragement to those around you in your consistency in healthy choices and dedication to valuing good health.
“We don’t own the patent on inspiration for wellness. Anyone can be an inspiration to others to help create positive change,” explains Dr. Cooper. “It just involves focusing less on yourself and more on others.” While the company itself can serve as the trusted source, Dr. Cooper’s hope is that the lives Cooper has impacted will become vessels of sharing impactful information to continue the health revolution in 2020 and beyond.
For more information about Cooper Aerobics’ 50th Anniversary visit cooper50.com.