2013 is approaching, which means a lot of you are thinking about your New Year’s resolutions. While I am not always a fan of New Year’s resolutions (I think goals should be set throughout the year), I think it is great to have goals. Unfortunately, statistics indicate that a very small percentage of people actually achieve their resolutions.
So, today, I want to discuss 3 ways to increase your chances of achieving your goals.
1. Write down your goal(s) for the New Year and make it specific. If you want to lose fat or gain muscle, then write down exactly how much – “I want to lose 10 lbs of fat this year,” or “I want to put on 5 lbs of muscle this year.”
Whatever your goal is you need to make it specific. This way you can better track your progress along the way, which we will discuss below. If you write that you want to lose fat, then how do you determine if you succeeded? Will you really be happy if you lose 1 lb of fat? If not, write down how much will.
2. Determine your starting point. Again, if you want to lose fat, you need to know how much fat you currently have. There are many ways to do this – just be consistent with the method and tools used. If Kyle measured you with calipers on day 1, then make sure he is the one that measures you at the end of the year as well.
3. Determine your action steps. What steps do you need to take to achieve this goal? Which of those are you most confident that you can stick to? The best thing to do here is to pick one or two action steps to start with – ones that you are confident you can maintain – and stay with those for about a month until they become a habit.
Many people attempt to tackle too many things when first starting out toward their goal(s). This is not the best idea and often leads to failure. I have written about this before HERE. Your chances of success will be much higher by sticking to only one or two new habits.
So if you want to lose 10 lbs of fat then some common action steps may be:
-Eliminate calorie containing beverages
-Protein with every meal
-Strength Train 3x/wk
-Walk 20 min 3x/wk
-Sleep at least 7 hours a night
-10 min of quiet alone time each day to manage stress
This list could go on and on.
Now, rate these action steps on a scale of 1/10 of how confident you are that you can stick to each one (10 being the most confident).
After you have ranked the action steps, choose 1-2 that had the highest score and that you feel will make the most impact on your results.
Stick to these 1-2 action steps for a month and measure progress along the way. Have these new habits made an impact on your goal(s)? How closely have you stuck to these new habits? If you have stuck to the habits very closely and feel confident that you can continue on with them then it is time to tackle 1-2 more action steps.
Pick 1-2 new action steps and follow them for the next month.
Continue on this way – measuring your success by how well you are sticking to your new habits. If you choose an action step and are having a hard time turning it into a habit, then throw it out and choose another. You can attempt to come back to it later. The goal is to get started on a good path.
Always remember that there will be slip-ups along the way – no one is perfect all the time. If a slip-up occurs, forget about it and move on.
So if you plan on making New Year’s resolutions I highly recommend going through the steps above. Your chance of success will be much higher.
Happy Holidays!!
Thanks for sharing this. Setting goals are very important as this is your guide to achieving it.