Why You Should Set New Year’s Resolutions
New Year’s Resolutions. Most trainers are now advocating you shouldn’t write them. They think it is fickle. Something you will stop doing within a few days or weeks at most. And while that might sound like a wise decision, I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath tub. In fact, I think New Years is a great time to set goals and refine the life you want. Here are 3 reasons Why You Should write New Year’s Resolutions.
1. If its good enough for Nature its good enough for you
New Years is the start of a new evolution for the planet earth orbiting the sun. It has just completed one full orbit of the sun and it is setting out on another trip for the next 365.25 days. It is the Sun’s pull on earth’s gravitational field that makes the earth circle the sun. Without the power of the Sun, there would be no New Year. There would also be no light and heat, which means we’d be a giant ball of rock.
And so it is with us. The New Year is an opportunity for us to begin a new cycle. Out with the old and in with the new. Refine yourself. Focus Yourself. Live the life you want to life. Intend it. Create it. Manifest it. Do it.
And just as the Sun dictates the new year, our Sun dictates our life. That is to say, our dreams, our Vision and our goals dictate the life we want to have. Will it be a fruitful harvest this year or a barren year? Are you going to reap weeds or produce? Are you going to make those changes to your life you really want or are you going to continue down the path you set yourself this year. These are all great questions for the New Year. They are the beginning of creating a new life. It happens in winter, under a blanket of snow, in the dark. Then in spring you will sow the seeds of your goals and in summer, they will blossom. New Years Resolutions are just the start. You don’t need to be “Amazing to start, but you need to start to become Amazing”
2. Everyone else is doing it so why don’t you!
I think it is dangerous mindset out there that you shouldn’t set New Year’s Resolutions. Some of the most experienced coaches worldwide are now recommending not to set New Year’s Resolutions. Why? Because they think it is a fickle exercise. They think it is borne out of little effort to focus on what you really want and little conviction for change on your part.
But I think they are wrong!
New Year’s is a wonderful time to Set Goals. There is an enormous energy at New Years, both from Nature’s perspective and from people’s point of view. Everyone knows it’s a fresh start. Everyone is excited at the prospects of things to come and that energy abounds in life. The more you can tap into it, the greater likelihood you have to achieve the things you want. Think about it. Did you ever try and set a goal to get fit or lose weight in the middle of Christmas? No. It never happens.
Why?
Because the timing isn’t right.
Timing is everything with starting something new and New Years is a great time to focus in on your goals and vision. We do this, by making our New Years Resolutions.
3. I always fail when making New Years Resolutions, so what’s the point?
The latest research on overcoming cigarette addiction suggests that the only way you can achieve your goal is to set the goal, put a timeline to it. Achieve it or fail at it and set a new timeline for the same goal.
If you continually set goals, with the intention of achieving them, you fail at them and you reset the goal. Your brain learns from your experience and forges new connections to make the next timeline more realistic. It results in a higher chance of achieving the goal at the next date. And if you don’t achieve it then, you repeat the process again and again, until eventually the brain learns that what you really want to do it to stop smoking.
The same can be said of any health, fitness and performance goal. You set the goal, intend to achieve it by a specific date. You get to work on your goal by taking action on it daily and then you let the outcome speak for itself.
If you achieve your goal by your given date, then great for you, keep climbing and keep setting new goals. It’s all good too if you don’t the goal within the timeframe.
Simply, reset the achievement date, jot down your learnings from your failing. Improve your performance and aim to achieve it again this time.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 15 years of coaching health, fitness and performance it’s this:
“Doing, Failing and Learning is the most common route to success”
There is a big difference between failing and becoming a failure. Failing means you didn’t attain the thing that you wanted, and that’s ok. You pick yourself up, dust yourself off. You learn from the experience and go again.
Being a failure, on the other-hand, is a totally different concept. Being a failure is a resignation to defeat. It is an attitude that I can’t do it now and I won’t ever be able to do it. If that’s your attitude, then you’re right, New Year’s Resolutions are not for you. Because you are likely to fail with them and your attitude will only harden your theory that you shouldn’t have started in the first place.
This is not me. I buy into a different ideology. A success-oriented ideology. That is why I set New Year’s Resolution’s and so should you if you want to achieve your goals and live your dreams.
Tagged as: Goals
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