New Year’s Fitness Resolutions Often Fail!
It’s time for New Year’s Fitness Resolutions so welcome to 2018. Today I want to share with you some ideas on your resolution and why ‘most of them suck’.
But first I hope you have had a good break. I find that each year we start to wind down in early December. It’s all family and party time until January’s end, which is signified at Australia Day.
Over this period we re-energise ourselves for the year ahead. Hence why I take a break in blogging and articles. It’s also a great time for reflection and planning for the year ahead!
New Year’s Fitness Resolutions… I’m not a fan! Here’s why.
- People go out on a whim!
Your mate has decided that his new year’s fitness resolution is to (whatever) and you hear it and think to yourself, “that’s cool, maybe I’ll try that”. Wrong!
For most of us, behaviour change needs to come from a deep ‘intrinsic’ motivator that has meaning and purpose in our lives. Basing decisions from an extrinsic motivator (a mate’s good idea) is a nice idea but rarely sticks because it’s not really what we want.
- They are generally too big!
Many goals are too big. For instance “This year I want to lose ‘x’ kilo’s”. Losing 20 kilo’s may sound great but that is a huge task (if you want a kickstart on eating to get lean see this article here) . It’s made up of many actions to make happen (finding a gym, diet that works, training you like etc, etc) and even though you have good intentions, it can simply be too big and therefore, becomes overwhelming. Most of the time we go full throttle and start doing everything possible to achieve the goal (which is awesome) but then 3, 4, 6, 8 weeks down the line, chuck in the towel, as life happens and it becomes too much.
So I have a different approach for you to try if you wish. Perhaps this year you can ‘Focus on what you want’! I mean what you really want and then put it to the test.
Here’s how. Ask yourself these 3 questions:
- What 1 habit would I like to achieve by Easter this year?
- If I did this habit how would it impact my life?
- Therefore by achieving _________ (fil in habit) I will benefit by _____ (fill in 1-3 benefits) and this will give me ___________ (2-3 values).
Now go and share it with 2 people and ask them to ‘test’ your will on the subject. Remain optimistic, calm and do not become defensive. They are asking you tough questions (I hope) to see if you have thought it through. Your job is to be positive and have a ‘can do’ attitude, so you can work through any obstacles that will pop up.
Give it a go this week. And I will share with you next week why I prefer focussing on ‘habits’ towards your success, rather than outcomes only.
Make it happen in 2018
Dion Mychalyn
