Fit to Print Volume 25 Issue 4 December 2016

Tr a i n e r P e r s p e c t i v e By Erin Frawley New Year, New You! Setting Resolutions That Last Well Beyond January been there. So what's the answer? Focus on less. What?! you say. I know, not the magic pill you were hoping for, but hear me out. Only change one habit at a time, for one month. T his year is going to be different! You're going to get in shape, lose 10lbs, eat healthy, stop drinking, cut out stress, get more sleep, etc. 2017 will be the best you yet! I love the enthusiasm. I'm right there with you. But how are you going to achieve all this? Why set goals of course! They look something like this: Changing too many things at once will decrease your chances of success dramatically! When you focus on one habit, your chances for success will go from less than 35 percent to greater than 80 percent. That's the difference between “I totally got this” and “why bother.” Kristin at the Reebok Spartan Race I was ﬁrst introduced to this method by Leo Babauta in his book “The Power of Less.” He outlines how to create a new habit: From Chapter 5: Create New Habits… “The only way you'll form long-lasting habits is by applying the Power of Less: focus on one habit at a time, one month at a time, so that you'll be able to focus all your energy on creating that one habit. Ÿ No more eating take out or, heck, even Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ Ÿ going out to dinner. Cook a healthy dinner every night Cut out all sugar Cut out all carbs Cut out all alcohol Go to the gym ﬁve days a week for an hour You are determined to do this every day. Other people do so why can't you. This is your year! Each year we start out this way; each year we fail. Why? It's not because we don't genuinely want to make these changes in our lives. Then why and how will we make 2017 different? Look at that list. That is a complete overhaul to your lifestyle. It's a lot of changes, and we are resistant to change. Moreover, once we fail at one change, the rest seem to follow. When we try to make too many drastic changes to our already stressful lives, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Once you can't keep up with all the new changes it all goes out the window. You miss a workout, well then why bother to eat healthily? You have a glass of wine after a stressful day at work and end up eating cake for dinner. Sound familiar? We've all 4 1. Select one habit - only one habit per month. You can choose any habit – whatever you think will have the biggest impact on your life. 2. Write down your plan. You will need to speciﬁcally state what your goal will be each day when you'll do it, what your “trigger” will be, who you will report to. 3. Post your goal publicly. Tell as many people as possible that you are trying to form your new habit. I suggest an online forum, but you could email it to coworkers and family and friends or otherwise get the word out to a large group. do multiple habits at once, you will be much less likely to succeed. Trust me – I've tried both ways many times, and in my experience, there is 100% failure for forming multiple habits at once and a 5080% success if you do just one habit at a time – depending on whether you follow the rest of these rules. Choose an easy goal. Don't decide to do something really hard, at least for now. Later, when you're good at habit changes, you can choose something harder. But for now, do something you know you can do every day. In fact, choose something easier than you think you can do every day. If you think you can exercise for 30 minutes a day, choose 10 minutes – making it super easy is one of the surest ways to ensure you'll succeed. Choose something measurable. You should be able to say, deﬁnitively, whether you were successful or not today. If you choose exercise, set a number of minutes or something similar (20 minutes of exercise daily, for example). Whatever your goal, have a measurement. Be consistent. You want to do your habit change at the same time every day, if possible. If you're going to exercise, do it at 7 a.m. (or 6 p.m.) every day, for example. This makes it more likely to become a habit. Report daily. You could check in every 2 or 3 days, but you'll be more likely to succeed if you report daily. This has been proven over and over again in the Fantastic Four Challenges. Keep a positive attitude! Expect setbacks now and then, but just note them and move on. “ Long-term change takes time. Please be patient and trust the process. Don't give up after a week or even a month. Determination, consistency, and a positive mindset will pay off. Keep in mind having someone to be accountable to will help keep you on track. They can remind you not to beat yourself up when you do have a setback. So tell friends, tell family or if you need some help setting your ﬁrst habit or someone to hold you accountable I would be happy to help. Let's make 2017 your year! 4. Report on your progress daily. Each day, tell the same group of people whether or not you succeeded at your goal.” Now, according to Babauta, here are “the rules”: “There are only a few rules you need to follow to make this challenge a success. If you follow these rules, it would be hard for you not to form a new habit by the end of the 30 days. Do only one habit at a time. Do not break this rule because I assure you that if you Holidays 2016 FIT to Print Erin Frawley is a Certiﬁed Personal Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor at Fitness Incentive

Fit to Print Volume 25 Issue 4 December 2016 | Page 4