3 Tips for New Year Resolutions

It is that time of year where everyone is looking to change their life. Sadly, many people don’t even make it through January before going back to their old ways. Goals involving health and fitness are majority of the resolutions made. Luckily, I have a few tips that can help you stick to your goals and make your new lifestyle last well beyond 2019.

Tip-Toeing into the New Year

1. New Year, New You (But really it is a new you and you have to believe it)

The biggest part of any endeavor in life is belief. Most individuals fail to stick to their health and fitness goals because their entire life they have built up a persona of being an unhealthy person. They believe that they are unhealthy, unfit, and unworthy of their goals. It doesn’t matter if you are 300lb or 100lbs the biggest thing that can change your life is your self-talk and ultimately your belief. If you can rewire your brain to “I am a healthy person” instead of saying “I want to be a healthy person” your goals become your identity. Next time you want to eat that donut, skip that workout, or drink all night think to yourself “Does this allow me to be the healthy person that I am?”.

All in all, changing your self-talk can be one of the biggest ways to stick to your goals and ultimately change your life. You must believe to achieve.

2. Sometimes all you have to do is show up

The hardest part of changing your lifestyle is breaking old habits and creating new ones. In my opinion the best way to establish a new habit is to not go crazy with it at first. Simply just getting to the gym, going for a short run, or doing a short fitness activity everyday will lead to it becoming a habit in your life.

In the book “Atomic Habits” by James Clear there is the discussion of a man who wanted to make going to the gym a habit in his life. This was achieved by simply going to the gym, walking on the treadmill for five minutes, and then leaving. This was done everyday for an extended period of time until the habit was set in stone and the man was a “gym goer”. Eventually the workouts were extended and going to the gym was a guaranteed part of his day.

So, don’t go into fitness goals with the mindset that you have to blow it out and workout for hours on end. Just show up and make it a habit.

3. It works 60% of the time, all the time

No, my third tip is not to go out and buy Sex Panther cologne, but if you know where to get it please email me.

This tip is about just sticking to your goals more than you don’t stick to your goals. You don’t have to eat salads for every meal, workout every day of the week, and never look at alcohol again to be a healthy person. Simply making the right choices 60% of the time will lead to weight loss, better health, and overall a better life. Of course you should aim higher than this, but all I am saying is make it your goal to make the right choice 60% of the time and you won’t go back to your old unhealthy ways.

Conclusion

I really am happy that you have taken the time to read this. I genuinely hope that you can achieve everything you want in 2019 and change your life. Please stay tuned for weekly articles on health, fitness, and spirit (I know the site is called Optimization Daily, but it is more about stuff that you can do everyday to make your life better). Also, if you need help on the nutrition side of things please check out my previous article on Ketogenic Optimization here. Thank you and happy New Year!