1. Prioritise your goals
There’s no point in making a million different – and hard to achieve – New Year’s resolutions. By saying, “I’m going to lose 10kg, stop smoking, run a marathon and climb a mountain this year,” you are inevitably setting yourself up to fail. There are just too many different projects in there for you to really throw yourself wholeheartedly in to each of them all at once. Choose the one you feel is most important to you this year, and stick to really trying to smash that. There’s also nothing to say that if you do lose that 10kg by June, you can’t then start training for the marathon. You’ll have gained the confidence to smash even more goals after you’ve nailed the most important one.
2. Don’t make unrealistic goals
Again, this is all about not setting yourself up for failure. If you’re finding that your fitness really isn’t great or if you currently suffer from an injury that means you shouldn’t run for a few months, don’t make your resolution to run the marathon. You’re setting yourself up for disappointment and it’s going to stop you from setting other goals in the future. Set your sights to things you know you can and really want to achieve and you’ll make things a lot easier to stick to. The marathon will still be there to run next year and you’ll find it much easier if you’ve dedicated this year to getting your fitness where it needs to be to start training for it in 2019.
3. Make things fun
Hate exercise but really want to get fit this year? Our best piece of advice would be just to start doing it. Come in and join us for a trial! You’ll soon see that spin classes aren’t that scary and that there are others just like you in each class. Our instructors are always there to nurture you and to help you improve. Once you’ve been a few times and familiarised yourself with our team and your fellow gym-goers, you’ll realise exercise can be really fun.
If you’ve still not got the confidence to go it alone. Grab a friend to go out on outdoor walks with or come to classes together. Things are a lot more enjoyable if you’re with someone who can give you moral support during classes or can give you the gentle push you need to get in the car and drive to the gym after work in the first place.
4. Track your progress
This could well be the most important tip of all and the one that could ultimately see you smash your goals this year. How do you know you’re improving if you’re not tracking your progress? If you’re trying to lose weight, make sure you set aside a specific time (usually the same day of each month) to measure yourself to see if you’re losing centimetres. If you’re trying to improve your fitness, keep an exercise diary. Choose a few exercises you want to improve and keep track of how many you can. Knowing that you went from 2 push-ups to 10 in the space of a few months will show you that you’re constantly improving, which will spur you on to continue.
5. If you fall of the wagon, accept it and jump straight back on
We all have those days (or even weeks) where our goals just fall by the wayside. Doing those trips to Maccas or eating that third slice of cake…they are part of being human. The important thing to remember is not to make yourself feel too guilty about it and throw your whole plan out of the window. It’s so easy to revert back to old habits because you had a slip up, but I promise, that’s not the answer. Just accept that it happened and move on. Tomorrow is another day and there’s plenty of time to make up for that McNugget meal in spin class in the morning.
If you’re unsure on how to do smashing goal statement join us for a goal setting ‘playshop” held 2pm-3.30pm on 3rd February 2018 with Psychologist Jocelyn Brewer. More details to come if interested please contact us or book your FREE trial to get started on smashing those goals.
