It’s that time again. The time when many will start quantifying your life and its various aspects as the year draws to a close, with the next year hovering just past the brink of the present one, with its whiff of potential new horizons.
There’s no denying that the New Year is as good a time as any to undertake intended lifestyle improvements. But how successful is any well-intended tweak to your current life and routine likely to be?
Certainly, there are a couple of key factors to consider if you want to set yourself up for New Year’s Resolution success.
How Common Are Fitness or Gym-Related NYRs?
Let’s face it—fitness-related resolutions with the turn of the New Year are more common than street dogs with fleas. Everyone has done it at some point—made a bold decision about a new fitness or lifestyle direction in the coming New Year.
The New Year works well as the first day of the rest of your life. A new chapter—out with the old, in with the new. Thus it is that resolutions, either new or revisited, are made with the best of intentions for the New Year in the hope of achieving some change or improvement on the current state of affairs.
You may be aware of this already from first-hand experience or by witnessing the annual forays of others into the realms of physical self-improvement. Certainly, there’ll always be plenty lining up to get (back) in shape, lose weight, go to the gym more, eat this way or that way in the coming months, or ‘commit’ to something that they think will improve their lives come New Year.
Why is this Such a Popular Time for Goal-Setting Year?
There are a couple of good reasons. One has got to be that magic word—‘new.’ A New Year is often perceived as a new chapter, a new beginning, starting all over. The longest measurement of time that we have, years, are somehow perceived as big things—for many, ‘New Day’ doesn’t quite carry the same kind of weight.
And anyway, if everything in your life isn’t as you feel it should be—you can always blame the year, right? Maybe the last one just wasn’t your year—it could even have been the numbers (if you’re into numerology).
Either way, you might feel that although the last year sucked big time—this one’s going to be a different animal altogether…right? Well, maybe.
What Pitfalls Cause People to Fall Off-Track?
The simple fact is that many people set themselves up for certain failures in various ways.
The first thing to get straight is that it’s not the year. It’s you, plain and simple. The state of your life that you are currently witness to is the culmination of your thoughts, actions, and feelings up until now—so if that’s not in line with your goals, intentions, and directions, then this coming year won’t turn out that good either.
Falling short of a well-intended resolution could come down to the planning—not thinking it through. What kind of new direction or pursuit will best suit your temperament, physiology, and current circumstances in realistic, achievable terms?
It may be a tad tricky, for instance, going from never having kicked a ball to becoming a world-class soccer player by the end of the year. Especially for someone with two left feet and no real interest in football in their heart of hearts.
I would thus suggest that the best resolutions are born from the realization of what adjustments you need to make in your life rather than simply following trends or general popular advice and accepted opinions.
You are an individual, after all. What changes and what progression do you seek? This requires some thought, and perhaps even more importantly, what are you willing to do to bring them about? Some degree of prior meditation on this would benefit any worthy resolution.
While there’s nothing wrong with thinking ‘out of the box’ or getting ideas ‘above your current station,’ the simple fact is that many people fall short in their attempts at New Year improvements because they either have the wrong goals. Or when it comes down to it, they lack an authentic commitment to begin with. Heaven forbid, it could even be a case of both to some degree.
A general inability to adapt or integrate any ongoing consistency is a sure sign that you are barking up the wrong tree.
Finding the Right Resolution and Staying on Track
Falling into old habits and patterns—often a perceived return to ‘comfort’—can be an easy slip for the untrained mind.
This means there will be some degree of training involved—perhaps re-training even—for any hope of evolving new habits and their corresponding neural and physical pathways. A good dose of mental discipline must be the baseline behind any physical endeavor, particularly a new one.
Then if you do slip—which you are likely to—then you’ll have much more chance of getting back on track again instead of giving up in the second week of the New Year.
Other Things to Consider
Being in the line of distraction too often—finding yourself in a position where it’s easier to do something else instead. This is one of the things that boils down to whether you want/need/intend to do this or not.
If you have established the right approach and know why you are doing this, what you need to do to get it done, and are willing to put in more effort than you usually would on achieving your goals, distraction won’t come easily. Even if your favorite brownies are in the frame.
If, however, your new resolution came about as a pact with friends over a few too many glasses of wine or after reading a few pages of a fitness magazine and wanting to look like the cover model (with no real idea or even sense of authentic commitment as to the how…) it won’t be too long before the distractions start to come thick and fast.
Work may get in the way—sometimes, it will seem like there’s not enough time. Either that or family matters always seem to drag you away from any hope of consistency.
This is when you need to make extra efforts to be flexible and adaptable. This may entail changing the time of your routine or maybe cutting it short, but there are ways and means—like getting up an hour earlier.
Failure to adapt to the building of any mental discipline or fortitude is another serious stumbling block with any new habit, as is the assumption that something needs to be ‘fixed’ and adopting the ‘go at it with a hammer’ approach.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, if you want to change anything—whether it’s how you think or look—new habits need to be formed. This means you have to practice being or doing what you want to become, integrating and accepting it into your lifestyle as an actual component rather than some chore that needs to be done. It is particularly important to reinforce this when it starts to feel uncomfortable for any reason.
So choosing the right New Year’s Resolution requires some thought, effort, commitment, and mental discipline. Begin to consider yourself the worthy exponent of these qualities, and before you know it, you’ll be eight months into the new you!
