Keep Making January Decisions
The point of a New Years goal is not to have it accomplished in a single sitting. We want these goals to be memorable, and change the direction of our lives; these goals take time.
Unfortunately around 80% of people currently feel they have failed their goals.
In a previous piece “Make Your New Years Resolution Stick By Doing THIS” we explore the idea of changing Failure into Feedback, and learning from setbacks to better prepare moving forward. Today we will look to revisit our goals, and find the motivation to keep pushing forward.
Do you Feel your New Years Goals Were Over the Top?
It is great to have ambitious goals. This is what drives us to create, explore, and achieve incredible feats. However it is important to carve an efficient path. In our Goal Setting Discussions, STRIVE’s Director of Mental Performance Dr. Lindsay Ross-Stewart recommends choosing goals that invigorate you and do not exceed three months. Goals that go beyond this short term idea become difficult to aim for and manage your motivation and intention.
- When evaluating your goal, identify if it truly drives you to get out of bed each day
- What is a short term action can we break this goal into?
- Can you identify small behavioural changes that you can improve to get closer to this goal?
Strive Client Michele Sung mentioned this that stuck with her… “We all have training, nutrition, financial, and personal goals we want to achieve. You want the secret to success? This year, just choose one”. Instead of trying to master all of life’s domains in a single year, choose the one, most meaningful goal, and pour attention into that.
Now we know we aren’t going to create a major life shift in three months, but we can identify and divide up key parts of a larger goal. Prioritize them into smaller actionable stages, and allow S.W.E.A.T, time and consistency to take us there.
Lasting Results Take Time
In relation to training, it takes approximately six weeks to truly begin the process of developing muscle. For beginners the first six (or more) weeks is your brain learning to coordinate muscle action to provide the best method for true strength training to occur. These early jumps we see are unfortunately not muscular development, but the body learning to stabilize to achieve the movement.
If we broke down this process in stages, we could envision the following
- Stage 1: Learn the Motions (Create Consistency and Stability)
- Stage 2: Continue to Load the Motions (Allow Time to Create Change)
- Stage 3: Learn a New Motion (Take the Next Step)
The same is true with nutrition. To improve ones metabolic health and teach the body to function more efficiently can take months. While quick weight loss from a caloric deficit can be seen instantly. We all have seen the latest celebrity on a magazine cover claiming to cut 15lbs in a week but this is simply your body not having enough fuel in the engine and burning on overdrive.
To break this process down in stages, we could envision the following:
- Stage 1: Identify Food or Meals to Make Slight Improvements (Create Consistency and Stability)
- Stage 2: Consistently Energize the Body with Healthy Foods (Allow Time to Create Change)
- Stage 3: Allow the Body to Repair Metabolic Health (Take the Next Step)
A major life goal can’t be a quick fix. Quick fixes often lead to the creation of bad habits and breakdown that can continue negative spirals without allowing learning or stabilization to occur.
We must make mistakes, learn from them, stabilize new habits and form new “ways of living” to move to the next level.
Break down YOUR ONE GOAL from January, and keep making steps to make it a reality. You can do it, find the right strategy for you.
The Key is Finding a Path of Consistency
In our A Long Weekend Reset post from Labour Day Weekend, we spoke about Dr. Lindsay Ross-Stewart’s S.W.E.A.T. Goal Setting Strategy that detail the importance of the following:
- Specific
- Written
- Energizing
- Aggressive
- Timely
When creating a short term goal for long term change, this would be a great concept to revisit!
