The new year is here! And with the new year usually comes new year’s resolutions. Have you made any of those for 2020?
People are often down on new year’s resolutions because we don’t always keep them. They assume that by the middle of January, we’ll have given up on our goals for the year and gone back to our same old way of doing things.
But here’s the deal: If we’re going to get healthier, we have to make changes sometime. So why not take this opportunity at the beginning of the year to have a fresh start and do things right?
If you want to make a change in your life in 2020, I’m here to tell you that you can. And in case you’re worried about falling off the wagon in a few weeks, here’s some advice for how to do it.
Set attainable goals.
We’ve talked about goal-setting before, but it’s worth going over quickly again. You cannot change your life and become more fit if you don’t know what that change looks like. You need specific, attainable goals in order to succeed.
It’s not enough to just want to lose weight. How much weight do you want to lose? By when? Don’t pick some astronomical number that isn’t within your reach. Be realistic and set a goal that will challenge you but won’t set you up for failure.
How about your diet? We all want to eat better, right? But what does that practically look like? What food types are you going to cut out, and what are you going to replace them with? These are the kinds of questions you have to ask yourself to decide what your goals for this year are going to be.
So to start out, you have to set goals that you can attain this year. They can’t be too easy, because fitness isn’t always easy. But they can’t be impossible either.
Make a plan.
Goals are great, but you can’t tackle an entire big goal all at once. You have to break your goal down into smaller, actionable steps. Otherwise, you’ll never feel like you’re making any progress.
Let’s take the weight example again. If your goal is to lose a certain number of pounds this year, then you can break that up into smaller amounts each month. After all, you can’t wait until November to lose it all. If you make incremental steps throughout the year, you just might hit your goal.
One of my goals is to become a full-time coach. But that’s not something you can do overnight! It takes lots of effort, training, and building to create a career like that. So right now, I’m in school earning my certification. After that, I’ll move on to the next step. And so on.
We can’t accomplish big things if we don’t master the art of breaking them down into smaller steps. So start with a big goal, and then break it down into a detailed, actionable plan. What can you do today to move towards your greater goal?
Get started!
Which leads me to final point: Go! If you want to accomplish your resolutions for 2020, it has to start today. You can’t wait for the perfect moment because the perfect moment will never come. Now is the time to start changing your life.
Today can be the day that you start to make that change you’ve always wanted. At the end of 2020, you can look back on today and think, “I am so glad I set that goal for myself, and now here I am a year later, and I’ve accomplished it!” Don’t you want to look back a year from now and see some kind of significant change in your life? You can!
Don’t let anyone tell you that new year’s resolutions aren’t worthwhile. If you want to start to make a change today, nothing can stop you but yourself. Why not today? Why not become more healthy this year? I believe in you, and I know that if you follow these steps, you can accomplish your resolutions and make 2020 the year you break the cycle.
So how about it? Are you going to give it a try? I’d love to hear what your new year’s resolutions are and how you’re going to accomplish them. Let me know in the comments or on social media.
I’m off to get working on my goals, and I hope you are, too. We’ll talk again soon, but until then…
To your fitness!