Did you stick to your New Year’s resolution?

This week our Longevity Exercise Physiologists in  Edgecliff, Marrickville, Randwick, Lindfield and Drummoyne  reflect on New Year’s Resolutions – How are you going with your goal?

As January turns to February and February turns to March, we start to forget about the positive outlook and ambitious goals we had for the new year and the new decade. It is always valuable to reflect on the goals you set for yourself and analyse why you have been achieving your goals, why you have fallen short, or what new goals may have popped up in the first couple months of the year. If your goals are exercise/health related and you are in the Eastern Sydney, the Inner West or North Sydney, reach out to a Longevity member for some individualised advice. Here are the 3 potential places you may be at with your resolutions:

1. Still sticking to my resolutions

If this is you, congratulations! You are in the vast minority who have stuck to their resolutions and have stayed on track for the first several weeks of the new year. For any resolutions that fall into this category, you should ask yourself the following questions:

• What habits have I created to achieve these goals thus far?
• What barriers might I encounter in the next month, quarter or year that could cause this goal to be unattainable?
• How can I deal with these barriers?
• Are these habits sustainable for the period of time I expect to stick to this resolution (often these are lifestyle changes that should stick around forever)?
• Is the success of attaining this goal satisfactory, or am I ready to take on a bigger challenge?

2. Re-frame over-ambitious or under-ambitious resolution

There is nothing worse than creating a goal that has set you up for failure (or guaranteed success) as this will either leave you feeling dejected or leave you achieving less and feeling less accomplished than you could. Look at each of your goals, determine whether that is still an appropriate mark for where you are at right now. Life changes and your goals will change with it. The purpose of a resolution or a New Years goal is to accomplish a little bit more than you would without tracking your progress. If your goals aren’t doing that, you might be wasting your time. When you look at each of your resolutions, ask yourself the following questions:

• Does achieving this resolution leave me feeling fulfilled?
• Will this resolution contribute to my larger goals in life?
• Am I asking too much of myself to achieve this resolution?
• How can I modify my resolutions to better suit my current situation?
• Who can I consult to help me re frame the inappropriate resolutions?

3.Implement habits to track you towards goals that seem to be slipping

If you have some of your resolutions that you aren’t quite being met, but you are convinced that it is possible and appropriate, this is the final step to follow. This is the holy grail of setting goals and resolutions, where it is a task that seems just out of reach but through discipline and commitment you are able to achieve a little more each day, leading to large changes over time. If you have goals in this category, ask yourself the following questions:

• What daily/weekly habits can I create to take small steps to achieving this target
• How can I break up this resolution into smaller, more manageable steps to easily track my progress?
• Who can help me stick to this goal?
• How can I make myself accountable on a daily/weekly basis to keep tracking in the right direction?

In the end, the most important thing to remember is that all goals can be fluid. As much as sticking to a set goal can be helpful for some, it can be just as detrimental to continue to plug away at a goal that, when critically analysed, is unrealistic.

Xavier, who along with his family has committed to making significant lifestyle changes in 2020.

 

We are Gym-based at 5 great locations in Sydney: Edgecliff, Marrickville, Randwick, Lindfield and Drummoyne 

If you are looking to make long-term changes to your health, or need help setting health goals, give us a call!

                            Longevity personal training and exercise physiology 1300 964 002