The new year is coming up so its that time where most people will now reflect on this past year. What was positive, negative, what would you have done differently if you could do it again, what do you need to keep doing, and what are you going to start next year to make 2021 better than 2020. The year 2020 has created many trials and tribulations from the coronavirus pandemic, the multiple lockdowns, riots, protests, Brexit, and those are just the topics that have had a universal effect. I am sure everyone who reads this will have had their challenges this year on top of all of that. Given all of the external environment factors which made the year 2020 so tricky, theoretically, making 2021 a better year should be the easiest thing in the world. However, some may find there is a harsh reality. There have been many changes that have come about this year and it is essential to realise and be aware of how the changes you have experienced this year have affected your physical and mental health. Restricted socialising, vices like the gyms, shops, bars, and clubs, being closed, and not being able to see family members, may all of impacted your wellbeing, both physically and psychologically. As this year comes to a close, and people are being vaccinated, it is vital to have an idea of how you want the next year to go and how you will make it happen for yourself. Even if there are still some tight restrictions in the new year we need to be able to work around them and set targets for ourselves to keep pushing forwards. This is something people do every year and we call it our “New Years Resolutions”. The problem is that even in easier years, by comparison, in most cases, they are never stuck to. A reason for this is that the resolutions people may have set for themselves may not have been thought through enough for them to be actionable and capable to the individual. Another reason is that they may have just not made the target a priority and it just faded away over time due to not having someone to keep them accountable and on target. This is why in this post, I will talk through 6 things to do when making resolutions for the new year.
1.Keep Yourself Accountable -
Whatever you decide your goal to be, you need a way to stay accountable for your actions. You can either do this yourself and have the self-efficacy to stick to your target or you can do it with someone else or part of a group. If you are looking for someone else to help keep you accountable it may be worth your time hiring a personal trainer or an online coach who can be with you and watch over you to make sure you are doing what you need to and help guide you to your target. If you would like the help of a personal trainer or online coach you can go to the contact information page and enter in your details and what you would like help with and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
2. Make your goals Specific -
This may sound very simple and you may wonder why I’m even going to write this but… make sure you know what you want to do. The reason for this is that a lot of people set vague, superficial, subjective goals for themselves, and then just try to achieve it. The problem with this is that you haven’t set a target which can have a defining completion point. For example, “I want to get fit”. With this goal, there is no point of completion. What is fit and how do you know when you are there? This isn’t a goal itself but rather a starting point to developing and working out what you want. Getting fit can mean two different things to two different people. When Tyson Fury wanted to “get fit” he became the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. When Kevin Hart wanted to “get fit” he ran a marathon. Both of these men indeed “got fit” but had completely different goals and targets. In addition to this, neither of these may be anything close to what you want to do. Technically if you, for example, can swim 5 lengths in a 40m pool, then the next week you can do 7 you’ve gotten fitter, but does that mean you’ve reached your goal? If we stick with the swimming example, rather than “I want to be fitter”, a more specific start would be “I want to be able to swim more lengths.”
3.Make Sure You Can Measure Your Target Quantitatively -
Once you have narrowed down your goal to be specifically about swimming, as an example, and being able to perform more lengths, you then need to figure out how many lengths you want to be able to do. Again, if you start only being able to do 5 and the next week you can do 7 you have technically improved, but is this all you wanted to achieve or do you want to challenge yourself a bit more? Either answer is perfectly okay as it is important to have both short- term, and long-term goals. Short term goals will keep you motivated and on track towards your main, long term goal. So, to build on our swimmer example, by adding a unit of measure, the goal could become “I want to be able to swim 2 more lengths to total 7 lengths”. Alternatively, another goal could be “I want to be able to swim the English channel”, equivalent to 14,000 lengths. Both of these goals are measurable but you may see the problem with the second one.
4.Make Sure your goal is Achievable
These next two points are probably big reasons why a lot of people do not reach or give up on their goals. When you are thinking of something you want complete or attain you have to make sure that it is something that can be done. Still sticking with the swimming analogy, if you were to say in January “I wanted to be able to swim 14,000 lengths total” there’s probably a likelihood that you will not keep going with this goal after few months. This is because that many lengths in a 40m pool would be extremely tedious and would seem like an endless pursuit due to how long this task would inevitably take. You would also mostly get injured before you got anywhere near the goal due to the repetitive nature of the movement. A more achievable goal would be “I want to be able to swim 200 more lengths”. This number is more plausible but you may still run into a similar problem.
5.Make Sure Your Goal Is Not Only Possible Theoretically, But Also Realistic For You
Although it may be possible to swim 200 lengths, that may not be something you have the time to commit to. Not everyone is a professional athlete and gets paid to do so, in fact, in most cases it is the opposite, especially for swimmers. You may not have time to swim for 2-3 hours at a time, multiple times a week to build the endurance to achieve that goal. You may only have 1-2 hours between other personal responsibilities you have. Yes, it is a number which is possible but if you don’t have the practical time to work towards it, it will never happen. To make this goal more realistic you could say, for example, “I want to be able to swim 67 lengths within one hour.” This would have you swimming at the same speed as the 200 lengths over 3 hours.
Now that this goal has gotten much more specific, from “I want to get fit” to “I want to be able to swim 67 lengths in one hour”, there is one more aspect which should help you keep moving towards your goal.
6.Set A Date For The Goal To Be Completed By -
Make sure you set a date you want to have achieved this goal by. This will help you to know if you are still on track and knowing you are getting closer to completing your goal should give you a sense of motivation drive to reach it. If there was no end date, whatever you are working towards may just feel like an endless task. You may lose interest due to a feeling of stagnation, not feeling you’re getting closer to your goal or just boredom. The amount of time you allow yourself to achieve your goal can be as long or short as you want, as long as it is realistic. This is where you can start implementing your long, short, and medium-term goals. This allows you to have the big goal which you want to a achieve, but also to have incremental goals to keep you on track, and which will give you a sense of achievement which should help keep you motivated. If your long term goal was “To be able to swim 67 lengths in one hour by 6 months from today”, your medium goal could be “To be able to swim 33 lengths in 3 months from today”, and a short term goal could be “To be able to swim 11 lengths in 1 month from today”.
This doesn’t just apply to swimming. You could want to run 5 more km in 8 weeks, or bench press 20kg more in 3 months. It doesn’t even have to be exercised based. You could aim to read 3 pages of a book a day to finish it in 3 months or you could aim to eat 5 pieces of fruit and veg 5 days a week by 2 months. The possibilities are endless, the important thing is to zero in on what you want to improve and what you are going to do to achieve it.
Again, if you are looking for someone to help you with creating some goals for the new year or someone to keep you accountable and on track towards them, then feel free you contact me using the form on the contact information page or go straight to the hire me page to buy online coaching packages. I wish you all the best for 2021.