The new year is a great time to reflect on the previous year, and reflection is the highest level of learning. The new year is a great time to reflect and create anew, but it is also a great time to create anew every single day. I always have new things that I want to do for the year, and I don’t wait until the new year to start and then have them die out a couple of months later. The problem with New Year’s resolutions is that people make these crazy goals and don’t stick to them, and they don’t have an action plan to get to their goal. It is not just saying, “I am going to lose weight this year.” What is your plan to lose weight? What are the actions that you will do to get you there?
Next year I have a New Year’s resolution. I need to be more responsible for my sleep, but that doesn’t mean January 1 is when I start. I am already being more responsible for my sleep. What I am doing is using a sleep app to track my time and make sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep. Also, I am learning to make a B line for my bed because I am so wired. I am also creating bedtime rituals that get me to sleep. Is that a New Year’s resolution? Yes and no, because I already started, and I don’t wait until January 1 to start my resolutions. I like to create things that will stick and create actions that align with them. It is more of a behavior change than an event that happens in a new year and then dies out in a couple of months.
A New Year’s resolution is not a waste of time, and I want people to know that change can happen in a second. It is the procrastination and the thought around it that takes so long. I don’t like that people feel they have to wait for the new year. The fitness industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry, and so is obesity. Everyone keeps saying Monday, but Monday never works, and everyone wants to lose weight for the new year, but that never works either. What is missing is integrity: people making promises and never keeping them. It is not like they don’t want to keep their promises, because of course you want to lose weight, but they don’t have systems in place to keep them.
Setting an unattainable goal is another common trap. If you tell yourself, “I am going to work out every single day,” you are setting yourself up for failure. If you make resolutions or goals, make sure that you can actually achieve them. No one wants to continue doing something that they fail at. For people who want to work out every day, it is better to have a range. Never go under 2-3 days and never go over 5-6 days. Be real with yourself! That way, if you fall a little behind, you won’t feel like you failed. It’s all about changing your behavior completely, because this is stuff you want to stick with for life.
Resolutions are often used as an excuse, allowing people to fall off the wheel. It is a way to push things off until later when they should start now. People keep saying they want weight loss, and they keep not getting it. It is not about losing weight just for New Year’s, weddings, or birthdays, because this is something you do for life. You have to train for life and recover from life. Movement is the medicine (unless you’re dead). Making excuses pulls people away and keeps them in an endless cycle: make a resolution, fail to do it, then make it again, like a rat in a trap that doesn’t know how to get out.
It is all about setting yourself up to be successful, making an action plan, and starting now. Don’t weigh yourself. Get a pair of jeans you like in the size you want to be, and fit into those jeans.
Thank you for taking your time to read this post, and I hope you are having a great day and a wonderful new year!
Don’t start later. Start now!
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