New Year, New Goals?

annieagar

Jan 2, 20234 min read

So it's the New year and you have set yourself a resolution...'Dry January', 'No eating chocolate for 1month', 'Dedicate more time to self care'. Any of these sound familiar? Especially now we all reflect and look at what we can do to better ourselves. Whether it be fitness related, business related, money related or family related we all set ourselves goals. Now me personally, I don't believe in new years resolutions. Don't put so much stress on yourself to do something you THINK will make you feel better, and if you want something bad enough you will do it no matter the date! We all look at resolutions as a whole and end product, when in reality the smallest changes added up make the biggest difference. So in todays blog lets have a look at how to set and FOLLOW through with those new goals!

Setting and Following through with new goals:

Tip #1 - Positive reinforcement

First one and it's the MOST important! 1st question anyone asks themselves when setting a goals is 'why'. WHY have you decided to set that goal?, WHY have you decided to do that now?, WHY do you think this will make you happy?

So once we have established the WHY, we need to look at how we treat ourselves once we put into place the building blocks to reach that goal. So imagine you have started working towards said goal and you are not making progress as well as you thought you would or are not seeing results as fast as you would like. How do you react to this? Do you look at all the reasons it went badly and beat yourself up thinking over and over how you should've done things differently. What will this achieve? Will it make the outcome any different? Will it help you get more motivated in reaching your goal? Probably not NO.

So instead of reacting in this way what can we do? We can look at all the things we HAVE achieved and look at how far we have come since we started. Give yourself a pat on the back (Literally) and a well done in anyway you want. This way you are motivating yourself and rewarding your behaviour when you know you have done a good job. It might sound silly but what is the worst that can happen?

Format each tip's title to H2 to keep your post neat.

Tip #2 - Smaller is better (in this case anyway)

So you've set your goal, now how do we go about reaching it? You can't just go into it blindly we need to break it down and look at the HOW. So lets take an example of 'I want to loose a dress size in 4 months'. How are we going to reach this ultimate goal? All the following factors are going to add up to result in you reaching this goal.

If I do at least 7000 steps a day I will be increasing my total daily energy expenditure (TDDE).
If I eat 4 small meals throughout the day instead of 3 main meals I am less likely to snack.
If I aim to be active 2x a week whether this be the gym, swimming or home workouts this will mean I reach my overall goal.

Remember these are just examples! However, you get the idea... all these smaller goals go together to reach your main goal.

"A goal without a plan is only a dream" – Brian Tracy

Tip #3 - DO,DO,DO

CONSISTENCY!

What good is a plan without a follow through? This is when it is most important to keep reminding yourself of the WHY.

DO the smaller steps

DO the hard work

DO it over and over

DO get results.

You see the methodology now? You have got to want it hard enough hence the positive reinforcement and reminding yourself why as it wont be easy.

Tip #4 - FAIL

Failure is a feared concept but why? Without failing we will never learn how to become better. So don't be afraid if things don't turn out the way you expected. As humans we are exceptional at adapting, you will adapt to situations and whether the outcome is positive or negative use it as a way of learning. So even though we hope not to fail it can be turned around to being a positive.

Tip #5 - Don't be afraid to ask for help

Know your goal but still need some advice/motivation reaching it? Ask someone. Ask someone on how they did it or the best methods to follow. Obviously if your goal is fitness related I am more than happy to help! I myself have reached certain goals, not met others the way I wanted and found the best methods to approaching things. So if you need any help reaching fitness related goals I am definitely your girl!