We all want the perfect wellness plan. A roadmap. A how-to. A proven formula that promises results.
But here’s the truth: the best wellness plan isn’t a plan at all. It’s your way.
For years, I chased the how. I thought if I could just find the right steps, I’d finally see the results everyone else was talking about. When that didn’t work, I attempted to build my own how-to plan. But the more I tried, the more I realized attaching yourself to an external system isn’t actually the easy answer. It’s the harder one.
Why? Because it overemphasizes what isn’t in your control while overlooking what is.
It overlooks your unique biology, your lifestyle, your rhythms, your design, and ultimately the spiritual aspects of health. It bypasses your body’s feedback, lived experience, and the ways God designed you in an effort to attach yourself to someone else’s experience. Not to mention, it pushes you into God’s territory (how things happen), while ignoring your territory (the way you live).
The truth is, what works for me may not work for you. And what works for you may not work for me. That doesn’t make one of us right and the other wrong. It simply makes us human.
We’re all similar in many ways, but deeply individual. When you embrace that individuality, you discover the wellness plan that actually works for you. The one built on your way.
Plus, it eliminates the need to force yourself into someone else’s way, all because you think it’s the only way to achieve results.
A Lesson From My Own “How Trap”
I learned this the hard way. I fell fast into the enticing aspects of living a “how-to” plan, the removal of responsibility, and the promise of quick results. That’s why I was quick to jump into becoming a member of the 5 am club. I was convinced (and also convinced myself) that if I woke up earlier and pushed harder in the morning, then I’d get healthier.
Could I do it? Yes. Did it create the health and energy I wanted? Not at all.
While some people thrive on early mornings, I flourish with fewer and slower things to start my day. This doesn’t diminish my experience. It amplifies it. For me, the real shift came when I stopped trying to force myself into a schedule that wasn’t mine and leaned into the rhythm that was.
That’s the heart of it: what feels like magic for one person might feel like misery for you. When you’re miserable, you’ll subconsciously find ways to resist it, leaving you wishing for health but rarely living it.
If you find yourself here, don’t judge it, but lean into it and learn from it. Use it to clarify the way, your way, you’ll use moving forward.
Remind yourself, change doesn’t happen in the how. The how is stagnant. External. Even disempowering.
Change happens in the way. The way is action-based. Internal. Empowering.
So instead of asking, “How do I create the best wellness plan?” ask: “What’s my way of living health?”
The five elements to establish your “way” to build a wellness routine that works:
01. Understand Yourself
Health begins with awareness. Pay attention to what energizes you, what fuels you, and what aligns with how you were designed. The more you lean into this internal awareness, the more you create rhythms that naturally support health.
02. Experiment With Action
Once you have an understanding of yourself and the way you’re responding to life and what you need, start to experiment. Test rhythms, tools, or systems. Think of it as a science class, you’re both the scientist and the experiment.
If this is sounding too similar to the “how,” remember the defining difference. The “how” tries to control you. The “way” helps you resource yourself.
03: Evaluate Your Outcomes
Look back at the results of your actions. Did you feel energized? Are you sleeping better? Did you feel more grounded and alive? Evaluation is about noticing what moves you closer to what you desire. Ask yourself, are you moving toward or away from where you want to go?
04: Adjust Your Experiment
Using the information collected from the evaluation, make simple refinements. Use the evaluation as motivation to keep moving forward. As they say, the only way to redirect a ship is through small shifts in direction, not a lack of movement. Don’t stop the movement, but refine it to keep it in alignment with where you want to go.
05: Repeat The Process
Health isn’t a one-and-done kind of business. There is no finish line. It’s a process that lasts a lifetime. Health is not a destination. It’s an action, an ongoing movement. It’s a rhythm of experimenting, adjusting, and creating. The more you lean into it, the more it becomes a natural expression of who you are.
Building The Best Wellness Plan (that actually works)
The best wellness plan isn’t a packaged program, a quick-fix diet, or someone else’s formula. It’s a plan built on your design, your feedback, and all done your way.
Let this be the permission to move forward differently. Stop chasing the how. Start creating your way.
Need help creating your way?
Ready to start creating your way? The Nourished Planner was designed exactly for this. To help you track your rhythms, notice your feedback, and build a wellness routine that actually works for you.
With space for meal planning, habit tracking, and reflection, it’s more than a planner. It’s your partner in creating a personalized wellness plan that becomes your way.
Are you ready to stop searching for the perfect plan and create your own way of living it?
Grab your Nourished Planner here and start building health your way.
