Its that time of year again, a time when everyone plans to use the new year as a landmark to eat healthier, exercise more, lose weight, the list is endless. Studies show this resolve starts to waver in the third week of January. This pattern shows how difficult it is to make a new habit stick, its said that it takes about 66 days to form a habit. Lets make a commitment to stick to our resolutions for a minimum of 66 days and see what happens.
Setting a specific goal is more effective than vague vows to get healthier. A new habit should be realistic enough to be reachable but challenging enough to be worthwhile.
Many people fail their resolution not because of their dedication but because of their surroundings.
- Make your home temptation free – Cook all your healthy meals at once to last you for the week, when you have plenty of healthy food in the fridge, you have to eat them before they go bad. Toss out the junk food, it forces you to eat healthy. It no longer becomes a question of weather you re going to have a banana or those chocolate cookies. The decision is weather you are going to eat a banana or nothing at all.
- Delegate Discipline – A common mistake is that people leave it up to themselves to have the discipline to succeed. This can be solved in different ways depending on your lifestyle. Leave the discipline to someone else such as committing to a twice a week fitness class or hiring someone you are accountable to. Sometimes when the money is spent that is motivation enough. If that doesn’t work for you, get an accountability buddy. Delegate your discipline to a friend of yours that is going to make sure you are actively making progress on your goals.
- Surround yourself with the right people – Take a hard look at the people you interact with on a daily basis. Ever had that friend who always puts you down when you tell them about your big goal? Those may be the people in your life that get jealous for you wanting to do something that they have given up on. Find a group of ambitious friends and support each other.
- Don’t be afraid to fail – To achieve your personal best, to make the impossible possible, you can’t fear failure, you must think big and you have to push yourself. When the rewards of success are great, embracing possible failure is key to taking on a variety of challenges. Remembers not to be afraid to step outside you comfort zone.
“The starting point of all achievement is desire.” Napoleon Hill
Results 4 Life Fitness would love to help you succeed not only in the first 66 days but for the rest of the year and help you achieve results for life. You can delegate the discipline to us with personal training, partner training or join one of many group-training classes. Visit our website at www.results4lifefitness.com for class schedule or like our facebook page for nutrition info, weekly workout challenge or fitness tips of all kinds.
