2013 Workout of the Week!!! New Year’s Resolution Time! What’s yours going to be?
Ok: so we hear it every year, and every year we either partake in the New Year’s Resolution extravaganza or we roll our eyes and say, “Oh god.” The one great thing about a New Year is the feeling of a clean slate. The ability to say to yourself at least one time out of the year, “Let’s do this,” or “I’m going to accomplish something new and challenging this year!” I’m personally not a fan of the New Year’s Resolution but what I do endorse and stand behind is the act of setting a goal. The time honored and very effective act of setting achievable but yet challenging goals is something that I believe is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, but not many people actually know how to do successfully. This is why I personally roll my eyes every time I hear someone talk about a “New Year’s Resolution.” Being in the fitness industry for so long I see this time come around year after year where everyone gets all excited about what they “want” to do but never put in place a “plan” or even take “action” on what they said before that good ole ball drops in Times Square. It’s amazing to me how fast people flame out on what they so adamantly committed to doing for the upcoming year.
2013 will bring in a whole slew of people that will set goals for themselves for what they want to strive to achieve in the upcoming months. Some will think about what their goals will be, some will conversate with a significant other what they plan to achieve in the coming year, and a handful of people will actually sit down grab a piece of paper and list out what their goals will be. Now the first two groups of people will more than likely fail miserably, flame out, and crash in a blazing flame of glory faster then the Hindenburg. The few that choose to write their goals out, create a plan as to how they will achieve their goals, and strategically place those goals somewhere visible, will have the highest probability of success.
The New Year’s Resolution doesn’t get the credit it deserves because so very few people put the proper formula for success into how they set their goals. This week’s workout has to do with goal setting. Here’s my challenge for the week — and I say week because I want you to treat this with the respect that it deserves so take your time.
Here’s your formula for a successful New Year’s Resolution:
Grab a piece of blank paper and a good writing pen, do not do this on your computer either. We are going low tech for this challenge. Writing your goals out is going to have a much more profound impact with yourself than typing it on your screen. Call me old fashioned, but trust me.
Start off by giving yourself major topics or areas that you want to improve in your life. The basics are Personal, Financial, and my personal preference, Community. You can choose more or less, but I like to keep it around three so it’s more manageable. From those three major topics you will come up with three goals for each area in your life that you would like to improve or change. For example under “Personal” you can put “Lose 5lbs,” or “Stop taking things personally.”
Once we get our three goals, we are going to put down underneath each goal how we plan on achieving these goals. This is the part of the formula that needs time and careful thought. It doesn’t need to be long – maybe a couple of words – but no more than two sentences. When coming up with your how look at your goal and see what you can do on a daily basis in order to get to your goal. If your how does not have a daily action behind it than it will not be an effective formula for success.
I can’t stress this enough: if you can’t see yourself doing a daily action towards achieving your goal, then don’t bother writing a goal in the first place.
So there’s your formula for a successful New Year’s Resolution, now go out and be serious about your Resolution this year or please for the love of God, just don’t say anything at all! At least not to me… I CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!! Remember, there is no magic here… just a commitment to achieve a goal YOU are setting out for YOURSELF.
BE A PART OF YOUR OWN SUCCESS STORY…
HAPPY NEW YEAR ARENA FITNESS!!
