“New Year, New Me!” “This is my Year!” But is it really? Are new years resolutions actually a viable strategy to reach your goals? Let’s dive in.
Point: New Years resolutions are a great way to achieve your goals
Confession: I was a New Year’s “resolutionist” as I’ve found we are called by gym bros. During my senior year of college, I was over 300 pounds and was tired of people telling me I wasn’t fat. I knew I was and so did they. They were trying to tell me that they didn’t care what I weighed or how I looked, but it came out as I wasn’t fat. I appreciate that about my friends from back then. They allowed me to have a great college life, but I wanted more. Then came my opportunity. It was late December, so why not set myself a New Year’s Resolution. I was embarking on my fist real spring break that next March. My roommate and I decided to join one of his friends’ “90 Day Transformation Challenges” on Facebook, because, well, I wanted to look hot on the beach for my trip. Not fully realizing what could be accomplished in less than three months, I went in full force. I exercised 5 days a week and spent 30 minutes every day on the elliptical. First I cut out out fast food (except Subway, because in 2008 Subway was still considered healthy by pretty much everyone). Then I started progressively eliminating more from my diet (I finally decided even a 6” Subway sandwich had to go). By the time we left for my trip, I was down into the low 270s. Since then I haven’t taken more than 5 days off from lifting. I’m not telling you this to tout some sort of superiority, but to say that a resolution I made 10 years ago sparked my journey into a career and passion to help others.
New Year’s offers us the ultimate fresh start. A new month. A new puppy picture atop the calendar. We can use this fresh start to set fresh new goals. Everyone needs a push to get started, and while I would always argue that there is no better time than now, now is currently the New Year. So use that momentum and get started on the new you! Whether it is reading more, spending more time volunteering, eating less fast food, or whatever it is that will make you the best you possible, get started now! Pick a goal, set a date to accomplish it, have progress goals along the way, and you can make 2019, the year that you finally stick to your resolution. Who knows? You may make a change that impact your whole future.
Counter-Point: New Year’s Resolutions are designed to fail
Have you had a New Years Resolution? How did it go? According to Statistics Brain Research Institute, only 8% of resolutions are successful. 80% of them fail by February. Our innate belief that we are different tells us we won’t be like those other 92%, we’re going to succeed. It’s why we play the lottery and why we take chances that are 1 in a million. The human mind is amazing because it can drown out the negative and let you focus on the positive outcome, however unlikely it is.
That is why we continuously set New Year’s resolutions, but at what cost. What does it mean for our mental state if we continuously set these goals (which are often far out of our tangible range) and fail to accomplish them? It destroys your willpower. It makes you feel like you aren’t good enough. Every time you fail to reach a goal, it makes the voice in the back of your head say you’ll never reach that goal. That voice is already loud on so many fronts, why give it a megaphone? In my experience, people set these unattainable goals with all the optimism in the world, but when they fail to reach their goals, they give up entirely. Any small progress is seen as no progress since it didn’t complete the task. You are discouraged and dismayed. It’s a very difficult thing to get back on the horse, so to speak. You may even wonder why you would even try to lose weight or set goals?
Well, all I’m saying is that New Year’s resolutions aren’t the reason you should want to lose weight. You should start today because you’re ready to fully commit to the challenges ahead, not because it’s the first week of January.
What do you think, Andrew?
Anything that gets you moving towards being a version of yourself that aligns with where you want to be is a positive thing. However, it’s hard for me to throw my enthusiasm behind something that has such an abysmal success rate. “It worked for them/me/co-worker Karen” should never be a reason to try something. We are all built and wired differently because of our genetics, lifestyle, commitment level, etc. If you make a resolution, or even just a goal throughout the year, follow these steps to ensure you have the greatest chance of success:
1) Set a timeline. Setting a time limit for your resolution gives it a sense of urgency. There’s a principle out there that says we will take as much time to do something as we give it. Think to the last time you had a project due. Chances are, it wasn’t given to you on a Friday and due Monday, but I bet you waited until the last minute complete it. The same principle applies to your fitness goals. With a finite timeframe, you will feel compelled to get started and stay moving towards your goal everyday.
2) Set up smaller goals along the way. Success breeds success and failure begets failure. When setting a goal, it needs to be something worth getting. If you want to lose 50lbs, setting your goal at 20 isn’t going to get you to 50. However, if you set your goal to lose 50lbs this year and you say you want to lose 20lbs in the first 5 months and 4lbs per month after that, you have now created momentum. Accomplishing the first goal will snowball into more accomplishments and establish good habits that can be repeated. The way to lose weight is one pound at a time.
3) Have a plan. And please, stick to it. “A goal without a plan is a dream.” How are you going to lose those first 4lbs? If you don’t know that how are you going to lose 50? How are you going to get your bench press up to 225? Create a plan and stick to it for the duration. Don’t hop to the next thing. Don’t just go into the gym and do what you feel like. Don’t go to the grocery store without knowing what you need. Have a progressive gym plan, a diet that works for you and know what to do if/when it stops producing the results you want. Having a plan and sticking to it, even if it isn’t optimal, is better than having no plan at all. At the very least, you will find that this plan doesn’t work for you.
4) Change your mindset. Easier said than done, I know. However, the people I work with don’t really start to see lasting results until they start doing it for the right reasons. Many people come to me because they hate the way they feel. They’re not “sexy” enough. They don’t have enough muscle. But something happens after a few weeks or months. People start to see what their bodies are capable of. Now, Instead of thinking they don’t have enough muscle, they want to see how much muscle they can get. That simple mindset shift has gotten more results than any resolution alone ever has.
5) Learn to love the process. Celebrate that squat PR, rejoice in your new 5k time, get psyched about your new program! Through chasing progression and not perfection, by looking forward to what’s to come and not what you did/didn’t do yesterday, you are subconsciously more exited about your goal. Be optimistic with your future and your process, and it won’t feel like you’re doing as much work along the way.
There are five steps to help you achieve your resolution. This isn’t a complete list, nor do you have to do everything. These 5 steps are a few simple ways to give yourself the best chance of success. Set a resolution or don’t, but have a plan to get there, set some goals along the way, and change your mindset so you can start enjoying the process.
Do you need some help getting started or maybe you know where you want to be but don’t know how to get there. Go ahead, click that contact button and shoot me an email so we can get started right away. I help people get results every day and I can definitely help you!