Just like that, the holidays have come and are already done. Trees are coming down, the decorations are being stowed away until next year, and new toys and gadgets have found their homes. After a month of planning, shopping, decorating and baking it seems all the excitement of the holidays are over in a blink of an eye.
For some, the beginning of a new year is a time for reflection and a time for planning for the year to come. While I don’t promote resolutions for the new year in the traditional sense of throwing out ideas for change, I do encourage goal setting and planning to make changes to challenge and improve yourself for the future.
Have you been thinking about New Year’s resolutions? Are you working towards a goal for 2016? I sure have! I want to share my fitness goal with you in hopes that my goal will help you set some goals for yourself!
Consistency! When reflecting on the past year and some of my personal gaps, consistency, or lack thereof, has been a trend. Just like many others, I struggle to find balance between work, family, kids’ activities, and my own personal needs like fitness. I often preach of the importance of finding time for yourself and your workouts but I don’t always heed my own advice.
My fitness has taken a back burner to my busy household. When I do make time for a workout, I go hard and try to make up for lost time in one grueling session. Unfortunately, more often than not, my attempts to make up for missed workouts result in me feeling burnt out, sore and frustrated.
I have developed a pattern: lack of consistency leads me to pushing too hard. Pushing too hard forces me to take a break and taking a break results in more inconsistencies. It has become a cycle.
My goal for 2016 is to break the pattern so I can be more consistent. It sounds like a bit of a resolution, right? So what is the difference? The difference is I am making a plan to reach my goal.
My busy household isn’t going to change. There are going to be days when a 30 minute workout just isn’t going to happen. I will, however, focus on what I can change.
So what can I change? Firstly, I can be nice to myself: I can accept that my usual 4 to 5 days a week at the gym isn’t going to happen. Instead of trying to cram 4 to 5 days worth of workouts into 2 sweaty sessions, I am going to plan 2 to 3 really great workouts that are appropriate for my current ability and not my desired state.
Second, I am going to start booking sessions for me as I would book an appointment with a client. ‘Me Time’ will be scheduled in my calendar and will have the same priority as any other meeting.
I will be working on some additional goals for 2016 over the next few weeks. For now, consistency is what will have my attention.
Fitness is a popular New Year’s resolution. Unfortunately without a clearly defined goal and a plan to meet that goal a fitness resolution frequently ends in failure.
Ensure you are successful meeting your goals and don’t fall into the traditional resolution that is bound to fail. Getting fit is a great goal. Define what it means to you and build it into your lifestyle. I hope that by sharing my goal, and how I have defined it, will help you figure out your goals.
