WHY YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FAIL YEAR AFTER YEAR!
It’s almost Christmas again and you’re ready to start planning your New Year’s Resolutions. Maybe this year is your year to drop some weight, clean up your diet, start getting up earlier, or learn to meditate.
If being a personal trainer has taught me one thing, it’s that New Year’s Resolutions rarely last beyond January.
What are you doing wrong?
- YOU AREN’T AIMING AT THE RIGHT OBJECTIVES
It is important to keep the bigger picture in perspective when your setting a goal, or changing a behavior. Many people are often shortsighted when setting a goal. They spend too much time focusing on a symptom rather than identifying the overall problem.
Are you really trying to simply lose weight, or are you actually trying to improve your health?
Not only does it remove an immense amount of pressure when you start looking at the overall picture, suddenly your timeline extends well beyond the scope of a New Year’s Resolution.
Meditation becomes more about reducing stress and organizing your thoughts.
Cutting back on your morning Starbucks is really an overture at living with intent and shifting your focus to eliminate mindless spending habits.
What are you aiming at?
- YOU DON’T SPEND ENOUGH TIME PLANNING OR RESEARCHING YOUR GOAL
You know you want to get healthy, but what does that even mean? Many people would head to the gym and hire a personal trainer. Most people jump on the internet and frantically google diets. Ascribing to the latest dieting trend, or hiring a trainer really just OUTSOURCES your learning.
So what do you do?
Grab a pen and paper! Spend some time assessing your current health status and lifestyle. Pinpoint the areas you see that need improvement. Once you have a clearly written “needs improvement” list, you can start researching how to start.
I suggest that my clients start with small improvements. Baby steps! If you know you eat fast food for lunch at work Monday through Friday, commit to packing your lunch on Mondays.
Likewise, if you think to drink Starbucks too often and you want to cut back, start looking at monthly bank statements. How much are you spending? How many days did you go last month? Get some data behind you to reinforce your good decisions. After a time, you’ll start seeing those positive trends accumulate.
Most behavior changes fail due to inadequate preparation.
- FINALLY, YOU ARE NOT A FAILURE!
Just because you mess up one day, or even a whole week doesn’t mean that you still haven’t made positive changes.
Don’t keep the black and white mindset going. Flub ups happen. If you can accept that and keep moving forward, your much more likely to be successful in the long-term.
What if I keep screwing up?
If you continuously catch yourself “cheating” or breaking your rules, try reassessing your goal. Maybe it was too extreme! If you make a blanket commitment to stop drinking Starbucks this year, after drinking it daily for the last five years, that’s probably not going to pan out well for you.
Long-Standing Habits Are Hard To Change!
Figure out what you REALLY want, plan well, and be patient.
Good Luck!
Stay Buff,
Elizabeth
