By Dominic Pronesti , Master Trainer, Zap Williamstown
Most of us strive for unrealistic goals and ultimately set ourselves up for a failure. Things like healthy eating, regular exercise and giving up smoking can have a real positive impact on your mental and physical health. Every year millions of people make resolutions yet almost 80% of us fail to achieve them.
Below I have a few tips to get you motivated and heading in the right direction.
Be realistic
- Change one small thing at a time.
- Unattainable goals are often the enemy of achievable resolutions. Planning helps
- Don’t wait until the last minute – plan ahead of New Year’s Day.
Measure your successes
Stay motivated by measuring how far you’ve come each week. This will help you realise how small changes can make a big difference.
Develop a support network
Let your friends, family and colleagues know. Talk to them about what you’re planning to do and ask them what they can do to help.
Join a club
These days there are many gyms, studios, outdoor fitness clubs that do not charge and if they do it is normally quite reasonable. Group fitness is a great way to meet new people and make new friends. Often personal trainers charge less for small group fitness, so why not invest in one you like.
Reward yourself
Celebrate along the way by treating yourself, which doesn’t necessarily have to be the thing you’re trying to avoid. You might reward the first month of your successful diet with a night at the cinema, for example – or a weekend away.
Treat failure as a small setback
If you slip and break your diet, forget to exercise or have a secret cigarette, don’t despair! Learn from this, what was it that made you slip? What can you do differently to avoid this happening to you again? Don’t obsess over it; setbacks happen besides it won’t help you achieve your goal. Start fresh the next day.
Make your resolution stick
After a couple of weeks, your changes will become habit and part of your routine, so don’t be discouraged if you’re still finding it hard after the first week. Stick to it as it will only get easier. And remember groups, clubs, organisations, fitness classes, gyms, personal trainers and sports are a great way to keep you moving. Get a jump start on the New Year and begin today.
