Make a Plan, Not a New Year's Resolution

Well, we are at the beginning of another year, so it is time of year to reflect on the past and think about the future. This is also the time for people to make New Year's resolutions, many of which will probably have to do with health and fitness. Making resolutions is a traditional thing to do, but really, how effective are they?

Some people do have success, but for most of us, they just end in frustration and disappointment. I believe your best bet is to stop making resolutions and make a plan instead. If you have been successful with your resolutions in previous years, by all means keep it up, but if you have not had the success you wanted, it's time for a different approach.

Making resolutions can help you get off to a decent start, but once the initial momentum and motivation fades, things become much tougher, especially if there is not significant initial success. This is the point at which people generally start slipping and continue to regress until they give up on their resolution altogether.

One major problem with resolutions is people often don't really expect to achieve them. In many ways resolutions have become more of a joke than anything and there is often an expectation of failure. When people talk about resolutions, there is usually a lot of talk about how long someone will last before they quit, but very little discussion about whether or not someone will actually succeed.

If you do not believe you will achieve your resolutions when you start, there is almost no chance you will be successful. It is almost as though making resolutions has become more of an empty tradition where people go through the motions of putting forth some initial effort, just to say they gave it a shot.

If you have a history of unrealized resolutions, the first thing you should ask yourself is how will you make this year more successful than previous ones? If you don't have a good answer for this question, it's time to rethink your approach to resolutions or possibly do away with them altogether.

Otherwise, you may start off strong and have all the tools you need to achieve your resolutions, but still end up falling short. People often attribute their failure to keep resolutions to problems with their motivation, ability, or other personal characteristics, but more often than not, the main problem is not having an actual plan to reach your goals.

Resolutions can be beneficial if they are accompanied with a solid plan, but a list of resolutions by itself is really just a wish list of things you desire or hope to accomplish. For example, consider the popular resolution of losing fat. Fat loss is not something that you just do, it is the result of taking specific actions (eating healthy, exercising, etc.). Having a vague general resolution like losing fat is not very helpful, unless you also make resolutions do all the things necessary to accomplish your primary resolution.

Personally I recommend forgetting the whole concept of resolutions and concentrating on setting goals instead. Resolutions and goal setting may seem similar, but resolutions typically take a let's start something and see what happens approach, while goal setting is about planning a specific path to success.

Most people are familiar with the concept of setting goals, but few people actually take the time to make specific goals. Even if you have never tried setting goals in the past, now is a great time to start. There are a number of approaches and different types of goals you can set, but for now I suggest just keeping it simple.

The two most important things are to make your goals specific and make them realistic. If your goals are too general, such as just losing weight, or too unrealistic, such as running 10 miles every day (if you have never run before), then the goals will not be helpful and you will not succeed.

Instead, focus on the little things you can do on a daily basis to help move you towards your ultimate goal. For example, if you want to lose 20 pounds of fat, you should have some goals related to exercise and nutrition. Start by taking a look at your life and figure out what is keeping you from reaching your goals. Then think of some things you can do to improve and make them into goals.

For example, if you do not exercise at all, then you can start by making a commitment to exercise at least 3 days a week for 10 minutes each day. This type of workout routine will not give you your ideal body, but it should be an accomplishable goal for almost anyone.

Achieving your initial goal should increase your motivation as well as your commitment to your training program. Then you can increase the number of days, duration of your workouts, or both until you work your way up to performing regular challenging workouts that will really improve your body.

A similar approach can also be used with nutrition. A good place to start is by looking at your worst eating habits. Naturally these will vary from person to person, but some common ones include eating too much at night, eating fried food, skipping breakfast, and not eating protein. Pick your worst habit(s) and create goals to encourage your improvement.

For instance, if you eat fast food every day, you can set an initial goal of only eating it 4 or 5 days a week. Then when you complete that goal, you can decrease the number more. Eventually you will be eating fast food once a week or hopefully even less.

These are just some examples of goals you can use to create a plan for success, instead of making resolutions that do not provide any real direction to help you succeed. Your initial goals should be things you can achieve, but as soon as you can comfortably keep up with them, be sure to make new goals to challenge yourself even more.

Consistently reaching your goals should help you stay motivated and the gradually increasing challenges will keep you progressing and moving closer to reaching your ultimate goals.

Source:

14 years of experience and education in health and fitness