The end of the year is a busy time when we frantically try and cram in as much as possible; we tie up loose ends at work, try and catch up with as many family and friends as possible, we shop, eat and run around as though December 31st is the deadline to wind up all aspects of our life for the year! Then January 1st chimes in… and suddenly, we breathe! We finally have a moment to reflect on our year and what we want to change in this new ‘fresh start’ year. Many people make New Year’s resolutions and most of these are geared toward self-improvement. With this in mind, it is no surprise that fitness is often high on the priority list of when it comes to New Year’s resolutions. However, studies have shown that approximately 20% of people are successful at seeing their resolutions through and some of the biggest failures are found in fitness resolutions (“Make Your New Year Fitness Plan Stick” - Lynn Bode CFT). We often choose resolutions that we think we should adhere to rather than something realistic and achievable, so we make an empty promise to ourselves that we know we won’t see through. What a waste of an opportunity! New Year’s resolutions offer hope and prove that people have a belief in their ability to create positive changes for themselves. The difference between our resolutions and other decisions we make to bring about changes in our life is that other goals we set for ourselves and achieve have taken concise planning, an action plan for when we get off track and landmarks so we can measure our progress. If the New Year inspires a resolution and brings about optimism and motivation, why not create an action plan to guarantee success???
The practice of making resolutions can be tracked back to 4,000 years ago with the Babylonians. Their New Year commenced in March to coincide with the “spring planting of crops” (“Personal Growth—New Year Resolutions: A Matter of Resolve” - Anupama Bhattacharya). The Babylonians believed that “what a person does on the first day of the New Year will affect him or her throughout the year” (“Personal Growth—New Year Resolutions: A Matter of Resolve” - Anupama Bhattacharya). Today’s take on resolutions doesn’t quite have the same superstitious connotations as the Babylonians, however, most resolutions are inspired from a reflection on the year before and a belief that the mere pledge to change will wipe clean a magical slate as the new year chimes in so we can start over again. If only life were that easy! Unfortunately for most of us, unless you really did go about tying up loose ends and creating closure for certain life scenarios during the festive/catch-up/wrap up season, the problems we may have had with fitness, or work, or family often stay with us moving into the new year. The lack of success some people have with resolutions often comes from the fact that they think uttering the resolution aloud will have the same effect as a magic wand! However, when we look at other achievements in our lives, these have often come about due to actions, hard work and planning.
Many Personal Trainers use the SMART model when it comes to setting goals for clients; specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound goals. A vague resolution like “I want to get fit” may inspire someone enough to join a gym, but with the word ‘fitness’ having so many variables and meanings associated with it, what’s the plan from here? Most people who aspire to be fitter in the New Year do so because they indulge during the festive season, so their resolve to be ‘fitter’ is actually a wish to be leaner. Setting a specific goal weight often helps people map out an action plan on how they can achieve this. This goal must been realistic; if your goal is to lose 15kg and the average person loses 1-2 kilos per week, if you set yourself a 2 week time frame to achieve this in, you are dooming yourself to failure! The main reason that so many of us give up on our New Year’s resolutions is that we set ourselves goals that are unobtainable. A 12 week goal would be more reasonable and achievable in this scenario.
There should be some system to track and measure your progress; whether it is as old-fashioned as the scales, recording body measurements or a clothes size. Measuring progress not only documents that everything is going in the right direction, it keeps you accountable and motivated when it comes to your goal. Measuring progress of fitness doesn’t always have to be about aesthetics (as motivating as those changes are!), the measurement may be a progression with the training itself such as lifting heavier weights, the ability to do more repetitions at an exercise or increasing the distance or speed on your run. A food diary is another measurement of progress; it documents improved habits and is an accountability tool if you stray from personal goals.
Goals should be attainable; a 4ft broadly-built female can’t strut up to a personal trainer, point to a photograph of Megan Gale and say “I want to look like this!” and someone who has never run to the letterbox in their life can’t expect to initiate their running training with a marathon and be amazing. Reality tells us that, firstly, we must work with what we are born with and, secondly, we should set small achievable goals in order to draw us closer to bigger ones. You may aspire to run a marathon; but why not start with 1-2km… gradually increase this distance to 10km… then build your speed and become more time efficient… then increase the distance to 15km… and so on… It is good and optimistic to set your sights high, but perhaps breaking down these goals will offer a greater chance at success.
Goals should also be relevant to you and hold a certain resonance with your current lifestyle. The trouble with New Year’s resolutions is that most changes we choose to make are based on what we think we should do and not what we really want for ourselves. We may say that we want to give up drinking or smoking because we’ve heard they are ’bad for our health’ but then may be the biggest socialites on the planet who expose ourselves to these temptations 4-5 days of the week. Then we fall off the wagon within moments of pledging our resolution because we actually enjoy our current behaviour. If we are going to commit to our resolution and want to bring about change, our goal should inspire us and come from an honest place. I have had several personal training clients who have been inspired to work on their fitness due to a personal health scare or one involving a family member. It is like an epiphany! A loved one manages to turn their life around because the doctor prescribed them exercise and suddenly they are inspired to do right by themselves, or the pin finally dropped in regard to their own health and suddenly workout isn’t a luxury, it is a health necessity!
Time lines can create a sense of urgency; they keep us in line and make us strive harder for what we want when we want it. Any student will tell you about sleepless nights spent just trying to finish an assignment by a deadline to ensure good results. When we give ourselves a time-frame to achieve fitness goals we tend to see them through more successfully. Successful Biggest Loser/Transformation Challenge contestants can vouch for this; the first 8 weeks are dedicated to lifestyle changes– training and physical exertion, diet changes and breaking bad habits... then suddenly the end date is in sight! Training increases, the diet becomes even stricter and on that last weigh in day, the sauna sessions increase. It is astounding the lengths we will go to when we have an end point in sight.
New Year’s resolutions have often been given a bad rap; a less than 20% success rate and many accounts of failure usually because we set ourselves goals we can’t achieve and don’t necessarily want to achieve. But what is wrong with desiring a fresh start for ourselves? The optimism and self-belief that we can make positive changes for ourselves should be encouraged! The resolution itself may be broad and a little beyond our reach, but that isn’t to say we can’t take the idea, break it down into small achievable goals and see our resolutions through.
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