New Year Resolution top tips!

I’ve coached many people through their New Year Resolution over the years, and if you are interested, here are some of my top tips to help you get the most out of it…

Make it an action

Make your New Year Resolution an action that you do, not an outcome you hope to achieve. It is much better to pick something like “I will complete 3 workouts each week”, than something like “I will get fitter”.

One is something that you actually do, the other is a hope.

Also, make sure it is an action that you do, rather than an action to avoid. For example, “I will do my hobby for an hour every evening” is better than “I will watch less TV every evening”. Doing something is better than twiddling your thumbs pining after the thing you are missing.

Make it a small action that can be built on

Don’t overwhelm yourself with a huge demand that you will struggle to achieve and likely give up on. Instead:

• Make things easy for yourself.
• Get the ball rolling.
• Gain some experience.
• Build confidence.
• Increase when you can.

So maybe instead of saying “I will complete 3 workouts each week”, you might start with “I will complete 1 workout each week” and increase once you have gotten your groove on.

Make it regular or frequent

Where possible, make it a small action you can complete frequently. Following the “little and often” approach is more successful than following the “all or nothing” approach.

• If it is little and often, it becomes part of your background life.
• If it’s all or nothing, you will probably have to talk yourself into it each and every time.

Make yourself accountable to others

Don’t go it alone. Every superhero has a sidekick to help them when they need support.

• Find someone who knows why your Resolution is important to you.
• Tell them what you are planning to do, when and how.
• Ask them to keep you accountable.

It is a well known fact, we can let ourselves down all the time, but we are much less likely to let someone else down.

Review and Redraft weekly

Lets face facts, you will not get this perfectly on your first try. You will almost certainly cock up a few times when you begin. So why not make that universal law part of the process. At the end of each week, make sure you Review and Redraft. Ask yourself:

• What worked well over the previous week. What are your strengths?
• What didn’t work so well, or what went wrong over the previous week? What are your weaknesses?
• What lessons can you learn and put into practice for the following week? There is nothing wrong with making a mistake, as long as you don’t keep on making the same mistake time and again.