Why is it so hard to stick to a New Year’s resolution? Less than 10% of us are still committed to our goals come June.
Countless people come bounding through our doors enthusiastically every January seeking to ‘drop some fat’, ‘put on some muscle’ and ‘get healthier’.
The problem that we typically encounter with such resolutions is that they are vague and not thought through properly.
What you need is a careful plan of attack designed to get you exactly where you want to be.
So, let’s take a look at the 10 basic goal-setting strategies that we drill into all of our clients. If you follow these through with consistent application, then success can be almost guaranteed.
Rule #1. Be realistic with your goals
A great approach to any client-focused service is always to underpromise and over-deliver. We all recognise that to do the opposite is to create disappointment and a nagging sense of dissatisfaction. So why set yourself up for these negative and disempowering emotions by having expectations that are entirely unrealistic?
You may want a body like Brad Pitt or Jennifer Lopez, but let’s get real for a minute. If you are 50lbs overweight and give yourself five weeks to lose it all and see visible abs, you are quite simply setting yourself up for failure. And with failure comes disappointment, derailment, and a gradual (or swift) regression back to your comfort zone of bad habits and easy self-gratification. Pick a goal that you know in your heart of hearts you can really achieve.
Read what Alex did to lose 20kg over 25 weeks with a realistic plan that fit around her lifestyle.
Rule #2. Focus on one goal at a time
Following on from being realistic, it is important not to put too many well-meaning resolutions on your plate at once. Achieving anything meaningful requires a step-by-step process. Don’t try to lose body fat, add muscle, stop smoking, read a new book a week, and start Spanish lessons all at the same time! You will fall between multiple stools and end up achieving absolutely nothing, apart from an overwhelming feeling of failure and frustration.
Rule #3. Plan properly
Just as unrealistic, vague goals can scupper your motivation and progress, so too can the lack of clear and precise goals. Would you take a car journey to somewhere you have never been before without a map, hoping to get where you think you might want to go, and ever expect to get there? No, of course not. You would end up frustrated and lost, inevitably going back to your starting point because that’s the only place where you are comfortable and know your way around.
Now imagine mapping out your journey, drawing up a plan of where you want to go, and how you are going to get there step by step. You know which roads to take, and you know that when you reach each waypoint, you are closer to your final destination.
This approach is the only approach to take when embarking on any action that takes you out of your normal modes of behaviour. Be it a fitness regime, a career progression, or enforcing new nutritional habits, you will only succeed in the long haul (the only haul worth succeeding in) if you have clear goals to work towards, and to benchmark your progress against.
Rule #4. Keep things in perspective when setbacks occur
Just as a lack of goals will derail you, so too will being overly focused on goals to the detriment of everything around you.
It’s important to remind ourselves every morning and night that a setback (a missed goal on the weighing scales, a lapse in our healthy living plan) is just a temporary, fleeting thing, and that we have tomorrow to get back on track.
In short, don’t be one of those people who is so wrapped up in their goals that at the first sign of a slip-up, they throw in the towel and revert back to their unfulfilled old selves. Remind yourself that progress is rarely linear, and no single slip-up can undo all the work you’ve put in. Success comes from consistency and resilience, not perfection.
Rule #5. Be patient
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and nothing worthwhile ever came easily. Take your time. It truly is all about the journey, and not the destination.
End of sermon and platitude.
Rule #6. Build better knowledge and understanding
You would think it foolish to try to assemble a complicated piece of machinery without a blueprint or guide, so why do so many of us set off down the path of New Year’s resolutions armed with bundles of enthusiasm but zero knowledge of how to achieve our goals?
Read up on the ‘how to’ of what you are about to do, and you will markedly increase your chances of success. Knowledge is power!
Explore our range of books on training and nutrition to help you improve your results.
Rule #7. Stay disciplined
We live in an age of instant gratification – movies on demand, shopping at the click of a button, and takeaway food dropped at your door 24 hours a day. This mindset can easily spill over into your health, fitness and eating habits – where the temptation to indulge can feel hard to resist.
But true change comes when you choose good health and long-term progress over fleeting satisfaction.You have to want to make a difference to yourself, because, in the final analysis, it’s down to you and nobody else.
It takes discipline and strength of character to effect a fundamental change in any of our ingrained habits, but once the momentum has been created, and the sense of satisfaction and well-being becomes your constant companion, you can do it.
Rule #8. Celebrate your successes along the way
The flip side of all that discipline is that you must also acknowledge your human frailties. No one is a machine, and every one of us responds well to incentives and pats on the back.
The way to achieve your goals and feel good in the process is to break your big plan into a series of smaller goals, and each and every time you reach a mini milestone, reward yourself. How you do this is entirely personal. It could be a meal, a new pair of shoes, or a night out with friends. The occasional planned break from any disciplined regime can be refreshing for both the mind and the body.
Read how 68-year-old Sybil accomplished her transformation goals one workout at a time.
Rule #9. Find positive social support networks
We all need support to succeed. The people around you can have a profound impact on your journey – both positively or negatively. A strong, supportive network is often the key to success. Surrounding yourself with positive, encouraging individuals helps create an environment where you can thrive, grow, and stay motivated.
On the other hand, negative influences can hold you back. These are the people who may question your goals, challenge your choices, or discourage your progress – not because they want to help, but because your growth highlights their own inaction.
True success comes when you align yourself with those who want to see you achieve your best, who celebrate your victories, and who invest in your long-term happiness and fulfillment. Seek out those people, and let them inspire you to keep moving forward.
Rule #10. Get advice from professionals
If your resolutions have any impact upon your health and/or are genuinely important to you, then professional advice should be regarded as an investment, not an expense. Too many people waste too much time getting nowhere and following erroneous, if well-meaning, advice.
A good professional personal trainer can fast-track your progress and often be the difference between success and failure through frustration caused by mistakes and overly slow and limited progress. We very rarely see a new client who isn’t familiar with the gym, but we almost never see a new client who knows how to exercise and eat properly for their specific goals and physical and biochemical makeup.
Following these rules will provide you with the cornerstone for making any program, whatever time of year you decide to implement it, an absolute success. These are the basic strategies that are drilled into all our clients, and if they are followed through with consistent application, then success can be almost guaranteed.
Last year, the average body fat reduction of our fat loss clients was 19lbs in 12 weeks, typically accompanied by a rise in lean body mass (muscle) for enhanced tone and shape, so that shows you how well a properly approached resolution can work!
