How is that new year’s resolution coming along?

 

© Humoar.com

It’s been at least three months since we saw those famous memes making the rounds on social media.

“This is my year…”

“New year, new me”

“This is the last year I’m fat’/broke/etc etc.

 Unfortunately, as we head into the second quarter of the year, this is also the time that many resolutions die on the hill of “I don’t have time/money/company/energy...”

I see it at the gyms where I attend my  Zumba classes. At the beginning of the year everyone and their sister is crowding the gym….good luck finding a free treadmill!  But come February, numbers have already started to drop; by mid-year everything will have settled down and only the regulars will still be going.

If this is you, you are not alone. A Forbes Health   study says most people give up resolutions after less than four months.  Only 1% said they lasted for 11 or 12 months.

 Sound depressing?

 It should not be.

 The reason, according to psychology, that many fall by the way side is because we rely on that feel-good New Year energy to carry us through the year. Once we don’t experience that we throw in the towel.

 But the truth is, to make progress on our resolutions, build good habits and sustain them we need more than motivation and the feel-good vibes that the promise of a new year hypes us with.

 Harvard university researchers Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, point to a study that found that when doctors tell heart patients that they will die if they don’t change their habits, only one in seven (14%) of patients will follow through successfully. Go figure. 

 Basically if the threat of possible death is not enough to get people to change, then desire and motivation alone can’t be enough.

 

Motivation has its place, that’s for sure. But it is a fickle beast.  A terrible master. Some days you will feel inspired. Some days you will not. You will need to dig deep and find the discipline to keep going.

 

It helps to simply be   realistic and be comfortable in your own “humanness”. None of us is perfect; we fall off the wagon. Own it. Accept that setbacks in our fitness routines, personal finance or whatever journey will happen; having a plan to overcome the setbacks is what matters.

Forget optimal, strive for beneficial.

It’s so easy to get hung up on doing things the perfect way that we end up giving up when things don’t go according to our perfect plan. Here’s an example…

I really want to work out at least three times a week. But because, well life happens, (work meetings at 5:00pm, visiting family, spending time with my friends) I don’t always meet my exercise quota. There’s nothing I can do about that. 

But i working out once or two times a per week better than not working out at all? You bet! So if I can only work out once a week, I’ll take that. 

 It’s not the individual impact of missing a schedule that’s a big deal. It’s never getting back on track that is the bigger threat. If you miss one workout, you will not die. Or put on weight. The world will still go round…Wake up the next day, and start again.

 

A long term outlook helps.

“How do we eat an elephant?” the famous riddle goes. The answer is ridiculously simple. “One bite at a time.” To reach any big goal you have to break it down into bite-size pieces. 

No use waking up (very motivated) and saying you’re going to save one million shillings a month when you have never saved 10,000 before. Start with 5,000 and build up from there. Go to the gym consistently one day a week before you attempt to do a 100kg deadlift on your first visit!

 James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, explains this phenomenon of  getting 1% better every day through  small, consistent improvements that compound over time, leading to significant results.

 So don’t feel too bad if you’ve forgotten about or given up on your New Year’s resolution. It seems like most of us have just been going about it the wrong way.

Focus on building your desired habit slowly, consistently and don’t rely solely on motivation.  

 And no you don’t need to wait for next year to start…