A Fool Proof Way To Keep Your New Years Resolutions(Part 1)
As you know, this time of year is a time where we reset many things in our lives. I find that it is a great time to take stock of the past year and set new intentions for the new year. I was saying to a friend this week that it must be preprogrammed in us at a very young age as this week I personally felt I needed to set some New Years Resolutions.
So the question is if all of us have such great intentions at this time of year, why do we go off track? I noticed last week that my gym was unusually busy, people around me were eating very healthy, not drinking etc. So the question is why do people go off track? In fact, statistics show that 92% of New Year resolutions are broken by the end of January. I had a friend email on January 2nd saying he had already broken his New Years resolutions!
There are 3 mindsets that I personally try to follow that allow me to stay on track with my New Years Resolutions. In order to keep the blogs relatively short, I am going to share 1 Mindset this week and share the other 2 Mindsets in the next Blog. In conversation with many of you, these mindsets have helped you stay on track and help sustain your New Years resolutions all year long.
The 3 Mindsets I will cover in the next 2 blogs are:
- Just Do One
- Baby Steps
- 80% Rule
1. Just Do One
A key mindset that has really helped me stay on track with my intentions I call “Just Do One”. I am going to share a real example to help explain the mindset.
Last year during triathlon training season, I realized that I was doing 100% cardio workouts(Running, Swimming and biking) and felt that although I wasn’t getting to the gym I needed to stay strong. I, therefore, set the Intention that I would do 50 push ups a day. I started off each day doing 50 pushups every morning before I got on with my day. I was diligent for likely 3 weeks or so then I had a day or two where I couldn’t get them done or perhaps didn’t feel like doing my 50 pushups. After a while, it dwindled and I stopped doing them altogether.
I then heard a story about a U.S college coach using the “just do one” strategy with one of his athletes. The concept is simply this: just set the intention of doing 1 of what you are intending to do and you are setting yourself up for success.
I tried this strategy and found myself doing pushups every single day. I think the task of doing 50 pushups a day was daunting and quite frankly felt like “work”. However, when I set the intention of only doing one push up a day, it was easy to accomplish and in practice most days I ended up doing 30-50 or more pushups. So setting your expectations low allows you to get in motion and once in motion you typically do more than you intended.
Success Story using the “Just Do One” concept
I would like to share another example. Last year a friend shared that their New Years resolution was to read 100 pages a day for self-development. They started off reading 100 pages a day as planned and then life got in the way (busy, other things happening, no time and soon fell off and then resigned themselves to the fact that they had failed and therefore stopped reading altogether.
I suggested that they set a new intention of just reading 1 page per day which they laughed at as they thought how easy it was going to be. I talked to them a few months later and asked how it was going and they said they had read almost every day since they committed to reading 1 page per day. He shared that if he only had the time or only wanted to read one page, he was ok with that but also shared that most days they read chapters or multiple chapters as once they started they kept going. So the bottom line is getting in some motion and it will lead to great results.
Another example of this concept is someone who says their goal is to do 30 mins of exercise in their basement 3 times per week. I would suggest that a better intention would be to say you are going to do 5 mins of exercise 3 times per week. It seems crazy easy to get 5 minutes of exercise but in practice, if you only have time for 5 minutes at least you are doing something and getting in motion. However, I guarantee that once you start the 5 minutes and are already “In motion”, you will do much more than 5 minutes and most days will exceed the 30 minutes that you really wanted to do.
The Key is Starting
The reason this concept works is that when we set our expectations very high or set lofty goals, we are setting ourselves up for failure. The key is to just “Get In Motion” and just start. Most people fail as they just never get started on what they are doing. I am sure you know people that talk about doing things but never actually do them. For instance, “ I am going to run every day”, “I am going to go to the gym every day” but never get around to it. I suggest that the key is just getting out the door or starting your intention and will find that whatever you are trying to do isn’t so bad and will do more than you intended on doing.
My Personal Story
Last year I set a goal to run a minimum of 8 kms a minimum of 4 times per week. Many mornings I rolled out of bed in the dark and quite frankly did not feel like running 8 kms as perhaps I was tired or just didn’t feel like it. So I changed my intention to a much easier goal to run for just 5 minutes per session which allowed me to be very successful. By simply resetting my goal of running for just 5 minutes, it allowed me to get out the door and get started. Once I started I found it quite easy to keep going and in fact many days ran much more than the 8 kms that I had originally set as once I got out there I felt really good with a lot of energy. On other days where my energy was not great, I simply ran a much shorter distance and then came back to the house and stretched and I was ok with it as I had accomplished my goal.
How does “Just Do One” relate to other resolutions?
You may ask yourself how does this concept relate to other New Years resolutions such as healthy eating?
For example, let’s say your New Years resolution is to “Eat Healthy Every Day”. This is a very lofty goal and is also very general in nature.
I would suggest that instead, you may alter your intention of perhaps starting every single day with a Morning shake. This is a great way to flood your system with great nutrients, get your full compliments of fruits, vegetables, vitamins, and minerals. I would suggest that what will likely happen is that because you have started your day in a healthy and energetic way, you will likely have other healthy options that day. And guess what? If the morning shake is the only healthy thing you have that day, you are starting your day on the right foot. I have had many readers tell me that they are now starting every day with the healthy morning shake and commenting on how it has given them amazing energy and how great they feel.
I can personally say that the key to me starting my health transformation years ago was starting with the Morning Shake. To access my recipe you can access it here:http://kevinbradyhealth.ca/the-morning-shakenew-recipe/
So in summary, the key to accomplishing your New Years Resolutions is set your intentions low, get in Motion and Just Do One.
Next blog will focus on two other mindsets I use to accomplish your New Years resolutions. – Baby Steps and 80% Rule
From our family to yours, wishing you and your family a happy and most importantly a healthy 2019.
Kev
1 comment
Hi Kev,
I appreciate the time you spent telling me and others about your experiences. Your blog always contains good advice. Everyone that meets you knows how true your stories are. Congratulations on another good blog.
Marge