I mentioned yesterday about not just retrying the same approach as you have done in previous years with New Years resolutions / goals / plans.
Part of the problem people have often had with their previous goal setting is that it’s very easy to get a bit too gung ho!
Setting these, huge, challenging goals………….
Not drinking for a month…………..
Exercising at least three times a week for the whole year…………
No chocolate, biscuits, cake, etc at work…………
And so on.
Laudable ideas, of course.
But the problem arises in that, as soon as we don’t achieve it once, we feel that we’ve “failed”.
The first time we don’t make three workouts in a week or when we have a drink or chocolate……….
We feel that ‘failure’ and ‘write off’ the rest of the day / weekend / week / month / year.
Only to ‘try again’ at some future point.
Setting big goals can have it’s place.
I’ve set some pretty challenging ones for this year.
But I’ve set them in a way that I know works for me.
In ways I’ll cover here and over the next few days.
One of them is to put my phone away more.
Daily is my intention.
365 days is a lot, sure.
But I’ve set a target of a minimum of one minute per day.
Whatever happens is there really every any reason why I can’t put my phone away for 1 of the 1,440 minutes in a day?
Not really – it would just be me choosing not to if I didn’t.
One minute won’t do much, I know.
But, chances are, if I do that minute, I might then do 3 or 10 or 60.
I might not.
Worst case scenario I’ve got 60 seconds worth (still six hours come the end of the year).
And, perhaps more importantly, I’m creating (and then strengthening) that habit of doing that.
It’s a Minimum Achievable Goal.
That I can over achieve on where possible.
No matter what happens with other things, the only reason I won’t achieve this is if I, essentially, just choose not to do it (or forget – I might add this one on to the end of these 5 days actually).
And you can do the same with your goals.
Found you struggle to stick to exercising three times a week in the past?
Aim for at least once.
Is there really ever any reason that you can’t do something physical at least once in 10,080 minutes?
Might not be your first choice, sure.
But something can be done, can it not?
And chance are you’ll over achieve.
Worst case scenario, it’ll still be 52 bits of exercise.
But you’ll have that habit.
It won’t be “Shall I exercise this week?” but “How many times?” and “When?”
Same with eating.
21 “healthy meals” (however you define that) a week not maintainable?
Aim for 14 plus.
Or one good food shop per week.
Loads of water over-facing?
Try one more glass per day that you usually do?
Not drinking for a month too much?
Set a number of times you know you can definitely limit it to?
You know you better than anyone else.
Find your Minimum Achievable Goal.
Don’t set yourself up for ‘failure’ and ‘writing it off’.
Hit that goal.
Over achieve if you can.
But don’t worry if you can’t 🙂
Much love,
Jon ‘Posts” Hall
P.S. A little thing you could do today that will lead to massively disproportionate benefits this year is to click this link. It’s just a chat to have a look at our four week trial. No commitment. But it’s the next step everyone who ever joined us and changed their lives took! —> www.myrise.co.uk/apply
——————————————————————-
RISE in Macclesfield was established in 2012 and specialise in Group Personal Training weight loss programmes for those that don’t like the gym and find diets boring and restrictive!
