Posts Tagged New year resolutions
It’s Not Starting Over, It’s Starting….
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on December 1st, 2010
One of the biggest problems I use to have was saying “Tomorrow I am going to get started again.” I would tell myself this over and over until tomorrow became next week, next week became next month, and next month became next year. I sat year after year spinning my wheels thinking “Tomorrow’s the day.”
One of the problems with doing this is that we start to lose faith in our ability to accomplish things. We begin by thinking about how we are letting others down. We see it in their eyes and in their actions that they just don’t believe the words that are coming out of our mouths. In a way we make it about someone else. “I could do it, but no one thinks I can do it.”
Who cares what others think? It’s not their journey and it’s not their responsibility to be our cheerleader. If you have had a tendancy to always wait till tomorrow, how about taking action today? How about not worrying about what you think EVERYONE else is thinking and act on your own behalf.
The great thing about our life is that each day we choose how we are going to live it, regardless of circumstances. We choose whether or not we are going to exercise and eat healthy or not. We choose to do the best we can with where we are.
I want to encourage everyone to not wait until tomorrow or the new year to get started on making your life the way you want it to be. Instead of starting tomorrow and having that one “last supper” or binge, get going today and see what can happen.
It’s not about starting over, it is about starting to be consistent and focusing in on what’s important.
Remember, it’s not about starting over, it’s about starting and doing the best you can along the way.
Getting a Jumpstart on New Years Resolutions….
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on November 29th, 2010
I can’t believe that it is only 2 days away from December. It seems like time has been moving faster and faster. Today I am going to talk about New Years Resolutions. Let’s face it, every year we hear advice about how to make them and how to achieve them.
If it is so easy, why do many of us have to make the same on year after year? It’s because resolutions are simply good ideas. There is a big difference between ideas and goals. Ideas are something that we would like to do. Goals are something that we actively pursue in order to achieve.
Ideas are things that we work toward when it is convienent and we “have time”. Goals have structured plans that we MAKE time for. Of course the most famous New Years resolution of all is the resolution to “seriously lose weight and get healthy this year.”
It’s a great concept, but it is too vague. By saying “I’m going to lose weight”, we give ourselves too much lienency. By that statement, if we lose 1 pound we have met our resolution. This year, I want to challenge you to make specific goals. Instead of saying “I’m going to lose weight”, set a specific goal. For instance, let’s say today you weigh 26o pounds. A specific goal would be: I will weigh 210 pounds on September 11, 2011.
It’s a simple statement but notice what it does. It gives you an end date and a specific number to hit. We aren’t done yet. After clarifying our specific goal we need to look at what it’s going to take to reach that goal. If you were to start on your goal today, you would have 42 weeks to achieve it. That means you would need to lose 1.2 pounds a week for the next 42 weeks.
That is very doable. What’s it going to take to hit that weekly number? How much are you going to workout? What are you going to eat? What numbers along the way are you going to use to celebrate? Will you celebrate every 5, 10, 15 pounds? What is your reward going to be? (Not going out to eat!) Who is your support system going to consist of? What are your breakthrough goals going to be? What are you going to do when you get there? How are you going to maintain? Is this a lifestyle change or are you doing this for a specific event? What are you going to do when you face challenges? How will you overcome those challenges?
I could go on and on but I hope you get my point. There is a big difference between setting goals and having a plan on how to achieve them.
Let’s take a different approach to New Years Resolutions this year. Instead of waiting until the new year, how about starting now? Instead of making resolutions, lets make goals. Remember ideas are things we work on when it’s convenient. Goals are things we work on everyday whether it is convenient or not.
Have a great day
New Year Note
Posted by Matt Hoover in General on January 1st, 2010
I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about resolutions today. Everywhere you look and everyone you talk to is going to be telling you how to make and keep resolutions. Just like every other year many people are going to read about resolutions and get all fired up for a solid week or two. Unfortunately, after that short amount of time many people are going to start saying “Well there is always next year.” Have you ever noticed how packed the gyms are the first month of the new year? Have you noticed how spacious the gym feels by the second month?
Here is the deal, all of us know how to make resolutions and all of us know what we need to do to keep them. Very few are willing to do the work that we know we need to do to succeed at what ever we have set out to do in the new year.
When I turned on my computer this morning the lead story on my home page said: Americans look back at difficult decade. That headline is an excellent example of why many don’t suceed at acheiving their new resolutions. They start their year off looking back rather than deciding to move forward. They concentrate on what went wrong rather than looking at where they are today and how they are going to improve.
The new year isn’t an opportunity to go back and fix the events of last year. The new year is an opportunity to begin anew and to do something everyday that is going to make our lives better. This year I want to encourage you to change the words you use as you set out to acheive the goals you have made for this year.
Let’s not talk about all of the things we aren’t going to do and start talking about the things we are. Let me briefly explain why this is so important. If we talk about the things we are not going to do it is easy to beat ourselves up and feel bad when those things happen. When we talk about the things we will do, and then do them, we will be able to speak positively to ourselves and see the progress we are making. The more we see positive results the more we want to continue to experience them.
This year can be a great year! In order for it to be a great year it is up to us to make it happen. Be positive and take action then next year you won’t have to set the same goals that you did this year.
