BE ABOUT IT
What happened to that New Year’s Resolution you made a month ago? Or maybe just a fresh start you planned on? The reality of it is, life happens. We have all these great ideas and goals we want to achieve yet somehow they slowly slip away from us. Habits are hard to break and holding yourself accountable is a must.
Reset and rearrange how you view your goals. Say an individual wants to lose weight. Great, but where do they begin? Instead of being a crazy person in the gym 7 days a week, have they considered maybe more sleep could help? What about just cutting out one food you don’t need a day? Take the smaller approach. Give yourself some battles you know you can win and use that as ammunition and encouragement to reach that not so easy goal of dropping the lbs. The same applies to your workouts. You are not going to reach that “goal” in one day. It is a process. You must be patient with yourself, your coach, your expectations. Don’t just think because you set a goal it’s going to come true without hard work and determination. You must be consistent. No one else is going to do it for you. The reward is much greater when the outcome at stake is not easily achieved.
When you screw up, skip a workout, eat bad foods, or sleep in, it doesn't make you a bad person. It makes you human. Welcome to the club. There's like seven billion of us.
Most come to understand their intention was there but the follow through was not. The population of people in a gym in January is significantly different come March. What is on someone’s plate at the end of a long day has most likely changed too. What comes after these realizations of skipping the gym, eating that piece of cake, not reaching that goal? GUILT. And a lot of it. Then you spend your time obsessing over it instead of using that energy to just do the damn thing you had intended to. How many people on a holiday told themselves not to touch the second serving of sweets and ate them anyways? A lot. Why? Because we’re HUMAN. Allow yourself to enjoy those days. Then come the next day it’s back to business. If you continually tell yourself “No”, that urge to indulge becomes stronger. We all need outlets and all of us turn to those in different ways. If some days you know what you really need is to just sit down with a book and cup of tea instead of go to your weekly workout class, so be it. You are still serving yourself by listening to your body. However if you create that habit of taking the easy way out from whatever it may be, you get stuck. That does not mean you should just give up on that desire. Hit the reset button.
Instead of falling into your same mundane routine, try to do things each day to recharge your attitude and better your body. Waiting for the whole year to pass to decide again will not serve you. Instead, try checking in each day or month with yourself. Get real with yourself. Ask what you did well or achieved and what you sucked at or didn’t succeed in. It is never too late to start whatever it is you want to. Doing smaller things more consistently will eventually lead to bigger changes.
Once you begin to take care of yourself kindly, you will see a translation into your everyday life. It provides you with a different energy and confidence to use. Below I listed a few ideas to maybe spark a list of your own. Adding one small detail into your life each day rather than always trying to take away. These are in no way specific to any goal or individual. Be kinder to yourself and others. Create a lifestyle that challenges you. You goal isn’t as far away as you think and it is never too late to press the restart button.
1. Make eye contact with every single person you talk to
2. Plan out your meals for the day
3. Give a genuine compliment to a stranger
4. List what you failed in today
5. Only allow positive self talk today
6. Read what you wrote for 4, take a new approach and try again
7. Listen to understand, not to respond
Continuum Performance Center
175 Benton Drive, Suite 500
East Longmeadow, MA 01028