First off, I hope you had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a great new year ahead.
The new year is one of the most natural milestones in our calendar and as such, it is definitely a great time to take a step back, review the past year, and make some solid commitments for the year ahead.
I’m also a huge believer in avoiding the hype, drama and false promises that engulfs so many people come January 1st.
While everyone starts off with great intentions, the majority of people unfortunately fall by the wayside within a few weeks. If you’re serious about avoiding this common theme, here are 13 tips to make sure you start your 2018 goals, resolutions, commitments (for whatever you want to call them) the right way, and stay on track once the sparkle of the new year fades.
1) Get Super Clear On Your ‘WHY’
If you don’t have strong enough reasonbs to drive you forward, you simply won’t stay the course when you start to meet a few challenges. Make your goals truly meaningful to you and they will pull you through the challenges you are sure to meet.
2) Expect And Plan For Challenges
As mentioned above, you need to expect challenges. I see so many people quit on their goals once they meet their first challenge because it wasn’t part of the plan.
Make overcoming challenges part of your plan in 2018. Use them as a way to grow and not as a reason to give up.
3) Find The Right Facility/Coach For You
Not all gym, trainers, coaches, etc. are the right fit for everyone. Some focus on sports performance, others on general fitness, others on physique transformations and other on powerlifting.
Be sure to pick a coach/facility with a track record of delivering the results that you want to achieve.
4) Get An Assessment Before You Start
An assessment basically shows you your starting point and allows your coach to design a suitable program for you. Without this you’ll end up with an unsuitable program and won’t know how far you’ve progressed. Also, finding and recording your starting point and then comparing it to your progress is one of the best ways to stay motivated when you meet those challenges we talked about earlier.
5) Start Slow
Year after year people throw themselves into the deep end take on way more than they can handle. While people can generally keep this up for a while, it always ends in frustration.
Don’t overhaul your entire lifestyle in a few days no matter how capable you think you are. You can only juggle so many balls at once so respect this, give yourself a decent timeframe, and make slower changes that you can sustain.
6) Get A Coach- Outsource Your Health, Fitness & Fat Loss Goals
We’re a little biased here, but having a coach in your corner is just so powerful. People are busy and let’s be honest, keeping ourselves fit and healthy often slips to the bottom of the list as work, family and social commitments get demanding.
Having someone to design your programs, advise on what improvements to make, and working in the background to keep you on track when life takes over is a game-changer for so many people.
7) Focus On Living Healthily, Not On Weigh Loss
One of the big mindset shifts we help clients make, is to start focusing on living healthier lifestyles, and not solely on weight loss.
By focusing on doing what healthier people do such as eating veggies, regular exercise, increasing the nutritional content of their food, developing good sleeping patterns and staying hydrated, the weight loss that most people want comes a lot easier than if they solely focus on slashing calories and doing drastic exercise routines.
Focus n getting healthier and watch the magic happen
8) Focus On 1 Main Habit To Change
If you’re currently in a bad rut, focus on just one main habit to change at a time. Results will come slower but they will also feel so much easier when you look back on how far you’ve come.
The changes you make will also be much more sustainable which is crucial. No point getting a fast result only to lose it even faster.
9) Follow This Formula
Here’s an approach we use with so many people.
Step 1: Start exercising 3 days a week. Keep it gentle. We’ll take care of the program for them- they just need to turn up
step 2: Focus on your main habit as discussed with coach. (Star5ing to exercise is often the first of these habits)
Step 3: Focus on making healthier decisions in general.
Once they have their main habit from step 2 dialled in, we add in their next habit while steps 1 & 3 stay the same.
Works like every time
10) Understand This
Getting fit and healthy starts with your decision to do so.
Once you truly make that decision, you then need to find out what to do.
When you find out what to do, you then need to take action and implement what you’ve learnt.
Decide >>> Educate yourself >>> Take action and implement
11) Focus On Technique
Too many people want to just hit the gym and smash themselves into the ground with weights that they simply can’t handle. This is the sign of someone who really doesn’t know what they are doing.
And besides not impressing anyone in-the-know, they are setting themselves up for injury and sub-par results. Invest in a coach to show you how to do the basics properly and you’ll be much closer to achieving your goals.
Your joints will also thank you for it which is never a bad thing 🙂
12) Slow Down When Lifting A Weight
Piggybacking on the last point, slowing down deserves a mention of it’s own.
This is the number one thing we focus on with new clients when it comes to their resistance programs. People have just been programmed that you must lift heavy weight really fast.
Slowing it down allows you to focus on the muscle you are working, allows you to feel if you are doing the exercise right (because you have time to think) and also makes the muscle work a bit longer.
Avoid doing things fast if you don’t know how to perform the exercise correctly. Better results, healthier joints and more confidence are just some of the benefits.
13) Reduce Your Sources Of Information
Listening to too many people giving you advice abut the same thing is one of the surest ways to get confused and frustrated.
Too much information simply fries our brain and we end up overwhelmed and not taking action. Whatever your goal is, remove the sources that don’t resonate with you as much and focus on the top 2 or 3 that do.
And of course, don’t forget to put that advice in to action as it’s completely useless otherwise.
Summary
There you have it, 13 ways to kickstart your 2018 health, fitness & fat loss. Improving your quality of life has such huge benefits that it’s worth focusing on and doing the right way.
Be patient, give yourself time and move forward bit by bit. Avoid the hype and drama that prevails at this time of year and you’ll be looking back at the progress you’ve made in a few months time.
If you’ve any questions then just post them below.
Regards,
Steve
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