Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM January 2019 | Page 29

Health & Fitness 5 Tips For A Bullet Proof New Years Resolution By: Louie Robinson, DC, CES Clear Creek Chiropractic Center [email protected] For those of you who read the online version you’ll notice my previous article and this one tie right into each other. With the new year coming up there is a reason for that! We’ll be talking about a few of the topics discuss there, but we’ll be more focused on why new year’s resolutions fail and how to set yourself up for a new year’s resolution win! First be realistic but challenging with the goals you set for yourself. If a goal is too simple and easy or too broad and difficult your setting yourself for failure right from the start. Accomplishing these life changes is hard enough, there’s no reason to create your own additional road blocks. Use the SMART method for choosing your goals. • Specific – who, what, where, when, why • Measurable – make sure your progress can be tracked and track it! One of the best ways to keep track of your progress is to take pictures of yourself. Many of us don’t want to have a picture of us before we are looking the way we would like, but this is important for motivation and goal tracking. Take pictures at regular intervals, say every 2 weeks. Do not live and die by the scale, it’s not as important as how you look and how your cloths fit. Cloths never lie! • Attainable/Achievable – make sure your goal is neither out of reach or below standard performance • Relevant – does your goal agree with your immediate and long-term plans • Timely – include a time limit to promote better time management. If you have a hard deadline that will create a sense of urgency and prevent you from falling off the wagon more often than not. Make sure your time line includes specific dates such as a birthday or wedding because those cannot be moved as if you were to say “by summer” which is a more fluid deadline. 28 MOMENTUM / January 2019 Second it is important to remember: Don’t change everything at once. Bite off small chunks and tackle those successfully. Use that success to motivate you to accomplish the next goal or change. If you try and change your work out habits, eating habits, sleeping habits, etc. which have been around for 10 years all at once, you’re going to overwhelm yourself and find a reason to go back to what is familiar and comfortable. Third get a workout partner/trainer. A personal trainer is a wonderful tool to help get you started in the right direction. This forces you to financially commit to your goal which shows a true intent on getting it done. If you aren’t willing to lay down a little change for some change, you aren’t really that motivated in the first place. However, training can be very expensive. At around $60-70 per hour they do not come cheap, so this is not a long-term possibility for most of us. A more permeant and financially doable solution is to get a workout partner. This will also make you accountable to show up to workouts and attain goals. If one person falls off a little the other is there to motivate them to keep going. However, you must make sure your partner is as motivated as you are or more because lack of motivation can be contagious and throw you off your goals also. Finally, be certain of the outcome. When you start changing your life for the better to achieve the fitness goals you have for yourself, be sure you are going to accomplish them. If you’re thinking “I’m going to really try to do it this time” you’ve already lost. You need to have the mind set of I AM going to do this. Like Yoda says, “there is no try, there is only do or not do.”