1. Lose Weight
2. Getting Organized
3. Spend Less, Save More
4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest
5. Staying Fit and Healthy
6. Learn Something Exciting
7. Quit Smoking
8. Help Others in Their Dreams
9. Fall in Love
10. Spend More Time with Family
Here we are, almost a week into 2013 facing some of the same problems as last year. Making resolutions is the easy part. Taking that first step, not much more difficult. But, how do we make them stick? Why do we fail? How do we ensure that we don’t end up making the same resolution again next year? I find that from my past successes and maybe more often than not, failures are a direct result of overgeneralizing my resolutions, biting off more than I could chew in my expectations and LACK OF PLANNING…
I can personally look at this list and say that every one of them are on my list this year with exception for smoking, but that was on my list for many, many years before I finally succeeded. Now, repeating resolutions is not always a bad thing as many of these common goals are relative to each person and the state they are in at the time. Getting more fit last year may have been being able to run a 5K and this year it could be a half marathon. Helping others with their dreams and spending more time with family can always be areas for improvement. But what about when we hit those walls. When it starts getting hard and we’re tempted to give in and cheat or worse, give up. That one goal, isn’t always just one goal. What hits me the most looking at this is how many, if not all of these fit hand in hand, kind of a “chicken or the egg” type of deal.
Now this may be an extreme situation, but it’s not that unrealistic. If I wake up on New Year’s Day and say that this year, I’m gonna spend more time with family but am not organized with my time because I am too busy focusing on helping others follow their dreams because I think that person might be the one I’ll fall in love with this year, I’m probably setting myself up for failure. Now if I’m also overweight and a smoker, it’s more than likely going to have an affect on my ability to fall in love and enjoy life to the fullest leading me to also love myself less and have less motivation to stay fit and healthy and more motivation to spend more on temporary fixes such as food, alcohol, shopping etc and as a result, saving less. Ya getting dizzy yet? Is it any surprise why we find ourselves in the same place year after year?
This is why planning is so important. Best place to start is a simple tool we learned in school, our 5 W’s and an H. Write your goal down and answer Who, What, When, Where, Why and How.
– Who do I want to spend more time with? Who else do I know who wants to lose weight and can work on this with me? Who do I know that is organized or on top of their finances and could help me learn to be better? Who am I going to tell about my goal so they can hold me accountable?
– What do I want to organize? What do I want to save for? What exciting thing do I want to do? What could get in my way and cause me to fail? What can I do to prevent this?
– When am I going to start? When do I want to accomplish this by?
– Where am I gonna put all this stuff? Where can I help others in their lives?
– Why do I want to do this? (For myself or for someone else? It makes a difference.) Why did I fail last year? Why am I still putting it off a week into 2013?
– How am I going to know if I’m doing it the right way? How can I sidestep those temptations before they arise? How will I know that I have reached my goal?
1. Resolve to do something that is truly meaningful, measurable, and achievable.
2. Keep perspective on what is important.
3. Check the strength of your commitment.
4. Plan for success.
5. Exercise self-efficacy.
6. Watch out for the Wheedler.
7. Follow a “do it now” philosophy.
8. Reward yourself.
9. Avoid blame.
10. Make accepting a discomfort part of your change plan.
11. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
12. Take a global approach.
Happy New Year y’all. Let’s make 2013 the year to go Against the Grain and break the cycle of our past!!!
Against the Grain Fitness 