The Myth of the New Year’s Resolution

Editor's note:  As we celebrate the new year, so many of us make new year's resolutions.  We promise to exercise more, eat less sweets, quit smoking, etc.  As I contemplated about whether to even bother with another new year's resolution (which I'm sure will fail within the first month), a friend of ours posted the following comments to his blog with tips to actually be SUCCESSFUL with a resolution to exercise more and create a healthy lifestyle.  Gene Szpiech has struggled through his own personal "fitness journey" and is now a certified personal trainer dedicated to helping others lead a healthy lifestyle.

Gene's blog can be found here:  http://bodyengineerz.com/blog/ and his business website can be found here:  http://www.bodyengineerz.com/, or look for Body Engineerz Fitness on facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Body-Engineerz-Fitness/225651960854450

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Well the New Year is finally here! So it’s time to dust off those Resolutions. Given how the 1st has fallen, I’m guessing that you haven’t started yet. Maybe Saturday, maybe Monday. So you still have time to bail or to do it right!

I’ve never been a big fan of the concept of the New Year’s Resolution. I know, as a Personal Trainer I should be all over it. But the stats say that something like 85-90% of all New Year’s Resolutions end in failure. Of course I also read that 51% of all stats are made up. So how can I or anyone really, get behind a concept with such a horrible success rate? Well let’s figure out how to turn that around.

So why is the success rate so poor? Because people make resolutions without any kind of plan to achieve them. Permanent change requires some upfront planning. If you think that you can just say that you’re going to do something and it’s magically going to happen, you’re mistaken. If that were the case, then you wouldn’t need a New Year’s Resolution. You could have made that change at any time of the year.

Consider for a moment life in general. We only succeed when we have a structured plan. You’re born then you learn to crawl, then to walk, then to ride a bike, then to drive. You go to elementary school, then junior high, then high school, then to college. You get a job starting on the bottom rung of the ladder, you work hard, get promotions and move your way up. You get the idea. The point here is that you don’t turn 2 years old, ride your bike to college, then get a job as the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. If you did, please call me!

Now there are all kinds of formal methods that tell you how to set goals and create a plan to achieve them. You don’t need a Gantt chart, so let’s keep it simple and use weight loss as an example.

Set a specific and realistic goal

Just saying that you want to lose weight is too vague, so you need to come up with a little more detail, such as X number of pounds in X number of months. Now it has to be realistic too. 40 lbs. in 1 month is not very realistic. If everything is clicking, 1-2 lbs. is the sweet spot.

Do a little root cause analysis

Developing a plan of attack general works better if you understand what’s causing your problem. So ask yourself “Why am I overweight?” Poor diet and lack of exercise are generally going to be your two main contributing factors. So now you know what to attack.

Get some help

Ok, so you don’t exercise. Well what type of exercise should you do? Believe or not there’s no one, correct solution for everyone. So do some research or seek the guidance of a professional. The same goes for changing your eating habits. There is so much information on both out there that it can be maddening. Just picking whatever the latest trend happens to be may lead to frustration and failure. So again, plan ahead.

Track your progress and adapt

So you have a goal and a plan of attack, now you need to know how well it’s working by tracking your progress. A good plan is structured, but also has to be flexible. If you’re not on track to meet your goals you may need to tweak what you’re doing. Or your goals may change altogether. So rather than getting frustrated and quitting, adapt.

Be Patient

This is probably more important than anything. In this drive-thru, Internet culture that we live in, it’s very easy to expect immediate results. When you can order something from the other side of the world and have it on your doorstep tomorrow, it’s very easy to want to execute your plan and move on. Stick with it, it’ll be worth it.

Not so hard, huh? So now you can be part of that small percentage that succeeds. Good luck!

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