Stardate: 2nd January 2016
A year ago on this day, and ever optimistic, I wrote a post about optimising one’s new year resolutions.
Today… I sit here inundated by a flood of exactly the same resolutions as last year, by the same people. The facebook memories app compounded the situation, by reminding me further that each of these individuals had posted basically the same thing each year… every year, since I’d befriended them on facebook.
Gung-ho “new year, new me” posts. “It’s all about the money!” “Gonna lose that gut!” “No fake friends this year!”
…followed by failure.
Yes. I’m talking about you. Are you pissed off yet? No? No wonder you’re failing:
- Neural priming
- Follow-through/Logical progression
- Motivation/Commitment
…or, rather, the absence of any of the above.
A quick visit to google shows over 15 million posts about New Year’s Resolutions. Staggering! That’s more posts than those about the Loch Ness Monster and BigFoot sightings combined. Maybe, that’s because New Year’s Resolutions success is equally fictional.
But… it doesn’t need to be.
Let’s talk:
- Neural Priming
Priming (psychology): “a process in which the processing of a target stimulus is aided or altered by the presentation of a previously presented stimulus.”
Many of your fail, primarily, because your mind isn’t continually primed for change, via the inclusion and achievement of small goals through-out the year. i.e. Instead of making small changes (- e.g. cutting back on flour one month; cutting back on soda the next month; adding a brisk walk the next month; joining the gym the following month… and so on-), you wake up on January 1st declaring to the world that you’re going to get your teenaged figure back. You expect that a magical switch will flip on, and success will follow suit.
If it worked like that… we’d all have PhDs, 6-figure incomes, and flat stomachs. C’mon man.
2. Follow-through.
My go-to thought? “What did you spend December 31st-January 1st doing? Working on your vision… or where you drinking?”
FYI: the only correct answers are ‘working on my vision’, or ‘the latter… plus drinking.’
I hate using myself as an example, but for the purpose of this post I’ll do so anyway. It’ll piss someone off, but … *shrugs*
My timeline:
- December 31st – 5 a.m. – 6 p.m. – Trained clients (i.e. maintaining vision continuity into the new year)
- December 31st – 8:20 p.m.- 10:30 p.m. – Cleaned Studio and planned workouts for January 1st’s clients (i.e. neural priming: preparing to transition)
- December 31st – 11 p.m. – At church with family (i.e. neural priming)
- January 1st – 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. – trained clients
- January 1st – 2-3 pm. – Collected items for charity drive
- January 1st – 6 p.m. – Delivered charity food hampers
- January 1st – 7 pm.-until – Consumed alcohol (lol)
Now, I’m not saying that you need to follow my truly-anal process. Not at all actually. What I AM suggesting however, is that you’re failing because you’ve squandered those pivotal, transitional points with activities that contribute NOTHING to your goals or passions.
3. Motivation/Commitment
And, that’s understandable. No… I’m being serious: I get it. Your well-meaning facebook declarations sound good, and are somewhat expected by society. But therein lies the reason why you can’t commit to them: they’re not coming from within you. You kinda want these things because you believe you kinda should.
As a trainer who’s worked with literally hundreds of clients over the year (and respectfully turned away hundreds more), let me clue you in to something about the “kinda” thought process though: It kinda runs out of steam before you even get started. Nothing happens before it’s supposed to… and, further to the point, nothing happens before you are ready (-read: until you make the conscious choice-) to.
So… when you decide you’re ready, pop off facebook for a minute… and give these year-old-but-still-valid-non-resolution-goal-achieving-tips a try.
…or don’t.
Merry January!
Yours in fitness,
– Corey Springer
Apollo Fitness Barbados
Apollo Fitness Barbados 