How to stick to those coveted new year’s resolutions.
The start of a new year brings new aspirations and dreams of a healthy happy new year for billions of people around the world, but how can we as a single individual cope with this dramatic change from relaxing during the holidays with friends and family to suddenly hitting the ground running full steam ahead towards our lofty new year’s goals only to find ourselves back in the same old routine 2 – 3 months down the road?
Like many people across the country and around the world, I too have set goals I’d like to accomplish this year and for many years past have begun with the best of intentions, performing tasks I thought would move me closer. Yet for one reason or another found myself back in the same old routine and mindset several months later and this went on for several years until I got serious about achieving my goals and making things work in my favor instead of falling victim to the victim entitlement mindset.
What happens is the majority of people always try to go from relaxing during the holidays to trying to hit the ground running toward their goals in the new year.
For example, I’ve always wanted to learn Japanese, and every December at least once or twice during the month I’d tell myself that starting on the 1st of January I’m going to spend 3 hrs a day studying Japanese until I’m an expert in 3 months.
Obviously, as January came and went and several months later I remembered “Oh yeah, I was going to start learning Japanese” and then I’d come up with some lazy excuse for why I couldn’t start and vowed to start fresh the coming year.
I’m proud to say that I started my Japanese learning journey back in mid-August of 2022!
I’m going to share with you a few tips for making things easier when it comes to setting goals and actually following through with achieving them.
First, everyone is under the impression that you have to attach a time limit to your goals.
They’ll say something like this; “I’m starting on this exact day and I’ll have achieved it by this date.”
While it sounds good and looks good on paper it very rarely works that way. So, don’t attach a time limit or any time constraints to achieving your goal whether it’s the beginning of the year or the middle of July.
Here’s the reason why you shouldn’t attach a time limit to your goals.
Say for example that your goal this year is to lose 30 lbs by the beginning of Summer, which for most people is Memorial Day at the end of May.
What happens is most people start going to the gym and exercising and after about 2 weeks their muscles are super sore. You decide to take a few days off. Meanwhile, you might start focusing on improving your diet by eating healthier and eliminating junk food.
After about a week your muscles are feeling better so you decide to go back to the gym, feeling strong you get a few good workouts in and then to discover you’re sore all over again. At this point, you vow to take it a bit slower and then life gets in the way with working late, kids in school, etc…. And your plans for eating healthy kinda go out the window with the occasional “Oh I don’t feel like cooking tonight, we’re getting Burger King or ordering a pizza.” and then the same starts happening to your gym habits. You start going less and less and before you know it you stop going altogether by mid-March.
By April you suddenly realize that you wanted to lose 30lbs by Memorial Day so you start working out again with the goal in mind of losing 30lbs, but this time instead of having almost 5 months to work on that goal you have about a month. So, when you start getting closer and closer to Memorial Day and realizing you won’t lose 30lbs you begin to get a little annoyed and frustrated. And this goes on for years.
At this point, you’ll probably be jumping between two different mindsets. (1) I’m going to keep trying and workout out as much as I can. (2) I just don’t have time for all this and I’m getting older.
Let’s stick with #1
Here are some helpful tips.
Tip 1, don’t put a time limit on your goals and this leads us to tip number 2.
Consistency is the key to success in anything.
Consistency is exactly what it sounds like, consistency, day in and day out, every single day no matter what.
It doesn’t have to be for hours at a time, just 5 – 10 minutes a day every day consistently, over and over.
The best example of consistency I can think of is how I lost 80 lbs within a year.
8 years ago I weighed 255lbs and had a simple goal of getting rid of my huge stomach and back into shape. I didn’t put a time limit on losing “X” amount by “X” date but I did have a goal of going out and walking a few short miles every day. Every day at the same time I’d go out and walk the neighborhood.
You don’t have to start out 3hrs a day, start small. Try doing something that takes 5 – 10 minutes to move you closer to your goal and do it every single day no matter what. As an added benefit do it at or around the same time every day too.
The last tip I want to leave you with is this:
Know exactly WHY you want to achieve your goal. Having a strong reason for wanting to achieve something or accomplish something is the fuel to keep you going.
And another thing to keep in mind, which is probably much more important is this,
Do it because you want to do it not because someone else wants you to or encourages you to do X Y or Z.
Your goals are YOUR GOALS so achieve them because you want to achieve something and not to impress others. The latter will come naturally.
As we head into the new year – 2023 – anything is possible, but we must stay focused. Keep an open mind, stay consistent, and remain positive and good things will follow.
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