OH! Magazine - Australian Version January 2014 (Australian Version) | Page 12

PAUL
BROWN

HAPPY
SAME YEAR?
NOT THIS TIME!
Paul Brown explains how you can finally
break the cycle of broken resolutions.

t is hard to write about health and
fitness in any January and not
make reference to the new year and
common resolutions that so many of us
make. Wherever you go you’ll hear your
friends,
family,
colleagues
and
commentators talk about how this year
they are going to make some serious
changes to their lives, but it’s equally
hard to take any of it too seriously when
you know in many cases these are the
very same promises they made last year,
and the year before that and so on.
The reality is for most adults their
present ‘condition’ is the result of years of
habit-forming behaviours that are now
engrained in their way of life. These habits
are not just what they do, it’s who they are
or more importantly who they see
themselves as. It has become their identity.
This is key because if you are trying to
change what you do, but still think of
yourself as typically behaving in the
opposite way then you are destined to fail.

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ISSUE 6 ( OH! MAGAZINE )

For example when a smoker says they
want to quit smoking but they will still
think of themselves as a smoker, it
becomes very easy to light up occasionally;
and each ‘failure,’ in some way, validates
their identity. Instead a more successful
approach is to change the language. For
instance, ‘I’ve been a smoker, but I was
also once a non-smoker and that is who I
choose to be now.’ It may just sound like
a play on words but while some talk is
cheap, self-talk is self-direction and the
more conviction you can put into the
words you say, the more they become
your chosen or true identity.
So what about for fitness?
If this year you promise yourself to get
off the couch, exercise regularly and eat
more responsibly, then you need to start
to consider yourself as an active and
health-conscious person, even before you
have the track record to back it up. To
shed a few unwanted kilos and get some
bounce back into your step, the first step

is to remember the times in your life
when you were more active, or lighter, or
slimmer, and decide to go back to being
that person instead of the one you’ve
become. You can then map out and
replicate the behaviours you know were
more positive and keep reminding
yourself, that is what I do and that is who
I am. This will help you stick to the plan
and soon enough it will start to show.
Simple self-talk and positive actions can
then start to take hold and before long
they will become healthy habits.
Remember the word ‘resolution’ is
actually ‘re-solution’, which suggests the
first solution didn’t work and you are
trying again. To break the cycle this year
perhaps, instead, you can rediscover the
best of yourself and identify yourself as
the true winner you are.
Set lifestyle goals you can live with and
that are best for your individual reality, not
someone else’s ideal of who you can be.
Happy same year? Not this time!

www.50sports.org

( Exercise Adherence )