Starting the year off on the right foot

Happy 2022!

I know I’m a little late to talk about New Years’ resolutions, but let’s still talk about goals.

Do we really need to set them?

Socrates compared living without thinking systematically to practising an activity like pottery without any acknowledgement of the technique required. If you’re winging it and hoping for the best, the end result will be nowhere near as successful as if you had learnt how to do it and put in the necessary hours of practice.

It’s a good idea to frequently assess the different aspects of your life and how satisfied you are in those areas to make constructive decisions around what to do about them.

Your health and fitness should be one of those areas.

Poor health distracts us from things that really matter in our lives.

Let me encourage you to think differently about your resolutions for this year.

To do so, start brainstorming the things that truly matter the most to you, that you love doing or that are important to you. Then ask yourself, what sort of person do you want to be so that you can maintain or improve the commitments which you have to these areas?

The answer to this question is your personal ‘why’. This ‘why’ should be applicable to why you do almost anything that you do. If you’re doing something that doesn’t feel like it aligns with your personal ‘why’, you’re doing injustice to your authentic self.

When you think deeply about what it is that truly makes life meaningful for you, it becomes much easier to stay motivated to stick to the habits and processes behind them.

The next question to ask yourself is what would you like to get better at, and whether that aligns with your personal ‘why’. For example, if your goal is to get better at long distance running, and your biggest ‘why’ is to be a good parent, you may struggle to feel motivated if there doesn’t appear to be a strong correlation between those objectives. But, if the reason behind why you want to do that could be to run a marathon which raises money for a significant cause that might be particularly meaningful for your family, that will make you a role model for your children in perhaps more ways than one, which will surely be a more motivating driver.

The point that I’m trying to make is that if you’re trying to set yourself an ambitious goal such as completing a marathon just to get off the couch and moving, you are setting yourself up for failure, unless you really enjoy long distance running, or if you have a really strong motivator..

So, when you are thinking about what it is that you would like to get better at, think of skills and activities that already somewhat intrigue you, that are also related to your personal ‘why’.

‘But Lauren, I haven’t written anything down about my nutrition or exercise routine or drinking habits or sleep schedule?’

Exactly. That’s because even though those are important things, you will not always feel motivated to stick to those habits when the driver behind them is no more than ‘I think that they are good for me’. When you find a way to connect those habits to your personal ‘why’, then those habits are far more likely to actually stick.

Now, you can start thinking about your big, important goals for the year. They could be related to saving money, losing weight, advancing in your career, travelling, spending more time with loved ones, meeting new friends, doing a sporting event, or stepping out of your comfort zone in some other way. I would suggest focusing on no more than three ‘big’ goals for the year, from different categories. Ask yourself, do these goals align with my core values and/or are they related to what I have already said that I want to get better at? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both of them, you are more likely to achieve that goal.

Finally, you can start thinking about how your health and fitness regime will tie in to achieving those goals.

Be realistic with the habit-related goals you set for yourself and don’t expect to commit to all of them at once. Every week, month or yearly quarter, do a check in with yourself to see how you are going, and whether you have been too hard or too easy on yourself. You can always change your goals throughout the year. Keep a checklist somewhere you frequently look at of the things you are trying to achieve daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly.

Some ideas to get you started:

Daily:

-Drinking at least 2L water

-5 servings fruit and vegetables

-Lean protein at all meals

-30 minutes activity

-15 minutes outdoors

-7 hours sleep

Weekly:

-Meal prep at least once

-Eating out _ amount of times

-Drinking _ amount of alcoholic drinks

-Resistance training

-Cardio

-Mobility/rehab

Monthly/Quarterly:

-Review progress on goals

-Plan for the next month/quarter

-Seek advice from an expert for help or accountability

So, if you want to live a successful life which is meaningful to you, you should have some sort of order to it. Goal setting, planning and self reflection will help you achieve much more than just going with the flow, and by incorporating your health and fitness into those routines, you will be less distracted from the things in your life which matter much more to you.