Nothing new, right? Every year we all want to better ourselves, and what better time to start than the new year itself. At least, that’s what most gyms and trainers will have you believe. And so every year, you make the same resolutions without much changing. Why is that? Read on to discover the top 3 reasons why New Year, New Your needs a new makeover!
Today is Monday January 5th – D day for new year’s resolutions. The beginning of a new year and the start of a new week. It’s the day I throw out the chocolate, iron my gym fitness gear, take out the new runners and get fit once and for all!
Bullshit.
I’ve been around gyms for twenty years, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned – this is an ineffective approach for becoming healthy, improving back pain, restoring breathing, getting fit or strong in any capacity!
If throwing everything out and starting fresh for new year’s doesn’t work, then you could always try the opposite thought process “don’t make any new year’s resolutions because they never work”. And there is a growing body of trainers and gyms who support this idea.
This is also bullshit.
Because if not today, then when?
I mean, why not ride the energy of the new year as a catalyst for transforming yourself. If nature thinks it’s a good idea afterall, it probably isn’t a bad one for us either.
So, how can we give the New Year, New You concept a makeover, and make the most of this energy?
Here’s my top 3 makeover tips!
1. Be like Nature
2. Start with the end in mind
3. Success doesn’t come in a straight line
1. BE LIKE NATURE
If you’ve ever planted a seed, you know that it takes time and preparation before you see the first shoots spring up, and even more time before it flowers. The same is true for improving your health.
Becoming pain-free, getting fit and strong do not happen over night – it takes time….and preparation.
There is good news in that because, just like in-nature, you don’t have to start a whole load of new stuff today. In fact, I rarely start anything new in the first three weeks of January. That’s right three weeks!
Why?
Because I need to get my house in order – dream up my health and fitness life, define goals, plan the process, clear a path for this new phase and then start the actual work. It’s similar to nature – you have to dig up the weeds, prepare the ground and sow the seed, so that it is given the best environment possible to bear fruit.
This preparation phase is really important to achieving your goals and living your greatest life. If you skip it, you’re less likely to succeed in your endeavours. Is it a lot of work – yes, it is. But that’s not important. Anything worthwhile always takes work, the key is that you want to live your dream and then make steps towards it.
“when you successfully prepare, prepare for success”
2. START WITH THE END IN MIND
On that note, many people create goals first and get to work. Goals are not the first step – the dream is the first step. This is the thing that gets your juices flowing, the butterfly’s in your tummy fluttering and the hair on your skin standing. The dream is the thing that’ll turn you on during the dark days of winter, when you don’t feel like doing anything.
There was a time when health was an interesting dream for me – breathing free was the most exciting thing I could dream of because I spent so much of my youth sick, but even that was for a deeper reason. What I really wanted was to be well, so that I could run and play sport again. This was the big driver for my health cause. Health was just a stepping stone.
Over the last twenty years coaching people, I’ve found this predicament to be a common one for clients – health is a poor goal, fixing your breathing, your knee or your back are likely to be poor goals. They are just stepping stones along the way to what you really want. Find the thing that you want to be healthy for. Maybe it’s a sports endeavour or to be a better parent or to do your job better. Use that as your fuel on the bad days. Then start by building your health one breath, one joint at a time.
3. SUCCESS ISN'T LINEAR
You’ve probably heard this point a million times before, but it’s true – success is not linear. Let me give you a concrete example. One of my clients, I'll call her Mary, was losing weight for a sports competition last year. The All-Ireland Championships were in July and she typically competes at 60kg category.
However, she had a surgery in June and gave herself reprieve for the previous winter. 12 weeks out from the All-Irelands, Mary weighed in at 65.2kg, a whooping 5.2kg overweight. This was going to take more than a one-week weight-cut, she was going to have to gradually lose weight in a healthy fashion to make her competition category.
Over the course of the next 12 weeks, her average weight tracked like the graph below.
This was an incredible feat by Mary. It took a lot of dedication, but she didn’t do anything too radical to be honest. What she did fantastically well was to gradually reduce her energy intake, maintain her training and track her weight regularly.
The main difference I see between Mary, and most other people on their weight loss journey is that Mary tracked her success carefully. When her weight went up, she didn’t panic, instead she kept her head down and continued to work on the simple things that were going to bring her success.
This was a frustrating process for her, as are all weight loss / rehab / health journey’s for anybody.
If you take a look at the graph, you'll notice that her actual weight trended above the average weight loss for more than half the time. On more than ten different occasions she took her weight and it wasn't on target!
But she stuck with it. This was a frustrating process for her, as are all weight loss / rehab / health journey’s for anybody.
And if the goal is worth it and you can trust in the process, the journey is a great one to undertake.
“what gets measured, gets managed”
So there it is, my top 3 tips to for a New Year New You makeover – prepare successfully, dream big and track your progress carefully remembering the long game.
Before I leave you get to work on your dreams, remember Mary. Her dream was not to lose weight – it was to compete and win the All-Ireland championships (dream). To do that she needed to make weight (goal) as part of her journey. She assessed her start point by acknowledging the past surgery and getting her house in order. She didn’t do anything drastic, rather she progressively reduced her calories to achieve her goal (planning effectively). Then she tracked her progress very carefully, distancing herself emotionally from the numbers and continuing to stay on track in the long run (tracking success).
If you have any rehab or fitness dream in mind that you want help with, be it breathing, pain or sports, drop me a messageand I’ll see how I can help.
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