the healthy habits these experts are taking into 2024

Motivation mantra: I believe everyone should have one. Mine is “I have to get uncomfortable to be comfortable. I will be rewarded. Get it done”.

Stay positive: We all fall off the wagon or have bad days. I will remind myself of the good moments and momentum I have built and reward myself when I complete a session. This creates a positive association to support making these changes into lifelong habits.

Make it fun: I personally love dropping into the local BFT in the city I am in. The community around the training makes it fun, and community is often what keeps people coming back to a fitness studio.

Shannah Kennedy: Celebrate the small things

Master life coach, co-founder of Human Elevation and co-author of Elevate: Unlock your Extraordinary Potential

My defining word of 2024 is “elevate”. It’s about mastering the skill of daily gratitude and celebration. Having lived with the remnants of chronic fatigue syndrome for 20 years, health and focusing on what is going right, remains my master skill of choice.

Oprah Winfrey says, “the more you celebrate your life, the more there is to celebrate”, and until I started to practise this, I didn’t quite understand. You and your life are worth celebrating and, as they say, slow and steady wins the race.

I often gloss over small achievements, so in 2024, I really want to hone in on this skill. We are biologically wired to focus on the negative, and by celebrating our small wins, we begin to rewire the brain to recognise the progress we are making.

As a life coach to many athletes, I have seen the importance of this first hand. Watch any sporting event around the world, and you see athletes celebrating: the victory dance, the fist pump, the hugs and the high-fives. It is a habit that can elevate our health and how we experience life.

In our new book, Elevate, former chief executive of Sportsgirl Colleen Callander and I explore the impact of identifying habits to start, stop or continue for transformative change. Celebration is the final habit we focus on. It boosts energy and confidence, keeps you motivated to stay on track, and allows the journey to our goals to be more joyful.

Ed “Fast Ed” Halmagy: Learn to embrace fear

TV presenter, chef and contributor to the Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group’s Rude Food Cookbook

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” thundered former US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt from the lectern in 1932. It was his first inauguration, and he sought to inspire his nation out of the Great Depression. In the end, though at some cost, it worked, proving that at least to some extent, leadership and express values matter.

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I think on this a lot because fear does creep in. For me, perhaps more than most, on a regular and maddening schedule.

Fear of failure, fear of success, fear of commitment, fear of missing out, fear of novelty, fear of being trapped where I am. Yes, the contradictions built into this palette of anxiety should cancel each other out, but they don’t – that would be just too sensible.

In part, my apprehension and dread stem from the fact that I live with bipolar. It’s a condition I tried to disguise and deny for so long, but I realised in the end that speaking openly might make it even just a little easier for others. The other part is my expectations of myself, and my unwillingness to let go of the rudder. Lack of control is a bitter cup of tea indeed.

So, my habit? Well, it’s learning to accept fear as an inescapable part of being human – or at least of being me. In practice, this means slowing down when the pressure spikes, and leaning on those I love and respect. Because when you drill right down, Roosevelt was right. Deal with the fear, and the world – your world, my world – is infinitely better.

So here’s to a more joyful and less fearful 2024.

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