Who’s been thinking about their NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS?

Did you know that roughly ONLY 19% of people are successful with their New Years Resolutions? I’ve seen lots of articles like this over the years, but today’s read was on Medical New Today reported that a staggering 81% of people quit or give up on their resolutions within the first 2 years. That’s huge!

There’s TWO big pitfalls I see people fall into repeatedly when trying to hit new goals. Keep these in mind as you plan for 2022:

1)    Success is about CONSISTENCY. NOT intensity. Don’t plan to do something hugely great once. Plan to be pretty great- every day. When setting up your PLAN to be consistent, it’s critical that you’re honest with yourself. If you’ve never set foot in a gym- in your entire life- planning to go EVERY SINGLE DAY- could cause burnout, or worse, injury. If you’ve never ran a mile, you probably won’t be able to just go out and run a marathon by the end of January. If you’ve never skied in your life, you might not be doing double black diamonds on your first day trying.

You’ve got to be OKAY with this- and more than OK with it- fully accepting of it. Taking consistent baby steps towards your goal WILL win the day. How do we eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Also be sure to recognize what obstacles will hold you back in your plan, too. It’s important to recognize and remember that Wednesdays might be tough to do XYZ new thing because that’s the day you pick your kids up at school. Build around your current routines, habits, and lifestyle.

2)    Focus on Lead Measures- not Lag Measures. Okay, so you’ve been at the gym two weeks busting your butt. You’ve substituted water for soda and cut fast food or sugar out of your diet. But when you get on the scale- you haven’t lost as much as you want. When you look in the mirror, you don’t look amazing just yet.

That’s more than OKAY. That’s expected. Change often takes TIME. We have to be patient, trust the process, and recognize that even though you can’t SEE something is working- things often are working behind the scenes. All too many of us get discouraged far too quickly, and give up on our hopes, goals, and dreams simply because “it got hard”.

Duh. Change IS hard. Especially if you’ve developed poor habits throughout years- or your entire life. Doing something new is GOING to feel difficult and uncomfortable and when it DOES, that’s often a GOOD thing- not a BAD thing. It’s a sign that you are PROGRESSING. You know, as in, making PROGRESS. Life’s focus should BE about progress and improvement- not perfection. When we set the bar too high, and don’t allow ourselves mistakes, setbacks, tough moments- we set ourselves up for disaster. This isn’t loving OR kind to ourselves, but it’s also unrealistic. I wish everyone the most wonderful New Year’s Eve and start to 2022! See you all next year!

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