How To Actually Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions
It’s the end of December, the beginning of the year is quickly approaching- the arbitrary date where motivation spikes and everyone sets goals that never seem to get accomplished. We’ve all been there, you decide this is “your year” and that you’re going to finally get in shape, but six months later the gym membership you bought has only been used twice and you’re nowhere closer to your goal.
I’m here to tell you that it actually is possible to make this your year and accomplish your resolutions, in this article I’m going to go over how to set a goal and how to actually stay motivated throughout the year.
We’ve all heard of SMART goals; specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-bound. Okay… cool, but what does that actually mean? One way to approach this is by looking at your main goal and breaking it down.
If your goal is to get in shape for the year, that’s great, but it doesn’t really mean anything. The first step is defining what exactly that means for you. If that means you want to eat better, lose weight, and gain strength, then the next step would be to figure out how you can apply those to your life.
This is where we’re going to lose some people…
If your plan is to go balls to the wall the first week of January, hit the gym every day, and only eat chicken and broccoli, you might see a couple pounds drop, but you are probably going to get burnt out pretty quickly.
Try and pick weekly goals that already work with your established habits. If you are trying to eat healthier and always eat dinner at 6pm, the first step could be to add 20 grams of protein to that meal. If you are trying to be more active and sit most of the day, adding in a 10 minute walk when you wake up in the morning can help with that.
The key is to create habits that are sustainable for your lifestyle. If you work 12 hour shifts and know you will be exhausted after work and know you probably won’t go to the gym those days, that doesn’t make you a failure, it just means you need to find something else that will be sustainable for you long term.
I always tell my clients; something is better than nothing. If your goal was to get in three workouts for the week and it’s already Saturday and you’ve only done two and have no motivation for the third, just do ten squats while you watch TV because this is better than doing nothing and puts you one step closer to your goal.
When you break things down you’ll probably find that it’s actually fairly easy to achieve your goals and you’ll find yourself staying more motivated long term and enjoying the process much more.
