Readers, unless you have been hibernating under a rock for the past month, you must know it’s finally 2015!
After fun festivities like the ball dropping in Times Square, copious amounts of alcohol being consumed and kissing a beautiful stranger, we roll into the next year a little drunk and disoriented, but hopeful.
Once the hangover subsides a day or two later, the infamous New Year’s resolutions start.
The dreaded cliché “new year, new me” appears on every social media outlet before users list their long, detailed lists of goals they hope to reach by Dec. 31.
I can outrightly say that more than fifty percent of people will not finish their resolutions. And I, too have fell victim to overhyping resolutions. The following explains why we fail to achieve our New Years goals:
1. We ditch our previous goals
Remember when you said you were going to complete all those half-done projects in 2014? Well, you probably didn’t finish two-thirds of it, but it doesn’t matter now! For 2015, you want to start a whole new project that you may or may not finish!
Here’s the problem with this: a resolution is a promise- no a commitment, to yourself to make changes in your life in order to improve. If you fail to complete a resolution on time, that doesn’t mean you just stop- make a conscious effort to complete whatever resolution you set, despite the time frame, or you will live a life knowing that you’ve constantly tried half-way to do something great.
2. We set far-fetched goals
Hate running? Now’s the time to change that. You want to run a marathon by the end of this year!
Based on that thought alone, you can already predict this resolution will fail. Health writer Christine Luff, who has many years of running experience (including marathons), says that you should have been running for a year, including racing 5Ks, 10Ks and half marathons before even considering marathon training. With that being said, after prolonging your marathon goal for a year to properly train your body how to run long-distance, you have to prep further for 18-20 more weeks of training solely for the marathon of your choice.
This far-fetched goal discourages the underlying goal of improving health, which is ideally what you want when they set such a high standard. In order to improve this, make sure it’s an attainable goal within the time frame set for yourself.
3. We do too much, too soon
Finally ready to commit to a goal as much as you are to Netflix? Hooray! Positive energy, correct planning and anticipation for the end reward excites us as it should.
The only downfall to over-committing to your resolution is that drastic measures are taken prematurely. For example, a simple goal to become healthier can backfire if one were to make a 180 degree change within the first week. Only wearing workout clothes, strictly eating salads, pressed juices and protein supplements and doing a HIIT, crossfit and powerlifting workout on top of hot yoga classes will not bring proper results.
You’ll initially achieve a short-term satisfaction, or a quick-fix body. At first, you’ll look and feel great due to the extreme change you put on your body, but soon you’ll plateau. In order to maintain and further improve your physique, you’ll not only have to change up and intensify your workout, you will have to be even more health conscious than before. This will lead to disappoint, frustration and overall weight gain instead of loss.
Learn to make small changes and take baby steps when setting a goal for this year. It took you years to mold yourself into who you are now, so whatever you want to improve (mind or body) will take time to adjust. Life is a marathon, not a race; celebrate the small victories and forget about the small losses in order to win the big one and finish what you started.
