Making Resolutions That Last
It’s that time of year where stress is in overdrive and many are looking forward to the New Year for a fresh start. Here’s the thing though, ‘New Year, New Me’ is a great mantra to get you through the month of December, however, only about 9% of people who make resolutions actually see them through. There’s something about the start of a New Year that makes people come up with aspirations of a new life and they tend to set their eye on a large goal. The problem is, they don’t give themselves any roadmap to get there. You can’t plan a vacation without finding a place to stay, comparing prices and using your GPS app to ensure you get there. Likewise, you can’t say you want to make a large change in your life, and not lay out the steps and milestones that will get you there.
When you set a goal, you have to be specific and give yourself a timeline to complete it. If you are too generic, for example, ‘I want to lose weight’, the likelihood of you sticking to this goal long-term is limited, at best. If you want to lose weight, a better goal would be something like ‘I will lose 10lbs in the next 3 months. That gives a specific number while also giving a time limit. Now that you have that critical piece, you need to create your roadmap on how you will actually lose that weight. Most people will go about weight goals all wrong. What I mean is they say ‘I will join a gym and eat better’. While those concepts are good, that doesn’t help to fit this into your everyday life. In order to make these types of changes, there need to be steps that work within your daily life. Joining a gym may work for some people, but for a single mom, there may be no time to get to the gym. Or for someone who is helping family financially, they may not be able to afford a gym membership. I could go on, but you get the point. Generic ideas and statements will not create lasting habits that reach resolution goals. To create change in your life, you have to be real with yourself and what your capable of implementing.
Continuing with the fitness resolutions, let’s elaborate. Small changes can lead to lasting changes in your life. Take a look at your daily routines and see what changes you can make. For example, park in the furthest parking spots when shopping to allow for more walking. Take steps instead of the elevator whenever possible. If you typically drink 2 sodas in a day, limit yourself to 1 for a couple weeks and the limit to 1 every other day, and so on. If you eat fast food 4 times a week, drop down to 3 times per week. All of these seem like minimal changes, but they matter more than you think.
The reason I emphasize these small changes is because they last. It takes a minimum of 21 days to form a habit so making these small changes make it more likely for you to stick with it long enough to form a new, healthier habit. So many people make fitness goals and quit within a few weeks because they aren’t seeing the changes they want to see. Change takes time. You didn’t get to where you are now overnight, and you won’t get to where you want to be overnight. If it were easy, 91% of people wouldn’t fail to keep their resolutions!
I’ve created an easy way to dissect goals into easily digestible steps with my FREE 1-3-5 Method of setting goals found here. Try it out and let me know what you think. If you’re having trouble breaking down your steps, reach out and let’s do it together!
