New Year's resolutions have gotten a bad reputation over the years. Mainly because most people don't follow through.
Are You Like This?
I find that starting my resolutions early is the best way to go. That way by the time it's January of the new year, And everyone is talking about their resolutions. You will already have a headstart, and it will be more motivating to keep going.
It's easy to give up on your resolutions when you start in January When everyone else does. Because eventually people's motivation dies off, And it's easy for yours to die off too.
We tend to do whatever one else is doing, Consciously or subconsciously.
Start With Habits!
Habits are everything; People never seem to go after their habits. But instead start changing their whole lives, Diet Etc. Which causes them to fail when they try to reach their goals.
Recently I have been working on changing my bad habit, of coming home from work, Only to put my work bag, And my jacket on the floor. I'm trying to get in the habit of hanging it on a hook on my wall.
By focusing on creating a habit of immediately putting it on the hook. I'm addressing the real problem. And it's more likely to be permanent.
But with healthy eating you often see people force themselves to drive super far to a new store, And pick up all this food when they hate cooking, And they expect themselves to start eating a lot healthier.
Instead of looking at the habits they already have and making small adjustments to get what they want. They are essentially trying to reinvent the wheel with what they do every day.
And that's going to make you fail.
We can often only handle changing so many habits at once
Where Will It Work In Your Day?
We love to make goals without even considering on how we can put them into our day.
Want to start running every day? Great,
When do you plan on scheduling your daily run each day? Before work? After work?
Is it at least somewhat Convenient?
Or are you expecting to drive for 20 minutes to a nice park?
We have to think realistically when we have goals, Or when we want to build new habits.
While I have a running habit every day.
I still wanted to lose weight.
I knew I couldn't motivate myself every day to go to a nearby gym. Plus there aren't any 24-hour gyms near me. Which I tend to have a crazy sleep schedule.
So I went back to my old job lifting and moving boxes. Where I successfully lost over 40lbs (in 4 months) the first time. This job is less than 5 minutes away from my house.
I don't have to be "Motivated" to go to work everyday. Because If I don't. I'll be in trouble with my supervisor. (And for someone like me, that's motivation enough.)
So Ups is setting me up with a free personal coach (My Boss), Allowing me to hang out with my friends, And paying me to have fun and exercise.
Sometimes I wonder if I or UPS is getting the better deal here. LOL!
Think I'm going to fail my weight loss plan now?
Hell no!
See? My goal was to "lose weight".
So I found things that tend to keep me motivated.
A supervisor that could get angry + Money + Fun Excercise + Awesome coworkers. = Goal Successfully accomplished.
Then I made it into an easy habit that I could do five days a week.
Every day I go to work at the same time And spend about the same number of hours there.
I also keep track of my "Scan" Count. So I can check how many boxes I'm loading. And I try to improve on that each day to increase my weight loss.
Sure, Many of you can't go to quite this extreme. But finding something easy that you can do each day makes a world of difference.
UPDATE: I've been back at UPS for only one month. And Have already lost 16lbs. I plan to show photo updates after the second month there.
How Are You Going To Achieve Your Goals?
Changing your whole life overnight won't allow for long-term changes in your life. Instead of making small changes that are easy to follow will give you maximum results.
