Now is the time to set new year goals for yourself
Every new year, people set multiple resolutions, vow to follow them 100%, work really hard at it for a few days, then inevitably have a small slip. Instead of just reacting to the slip-up and correcting any factors that may cause it again, they fall totally off the wagon and vowing to start the whole process over again in 1 week, 1 month, or maybe even next year.
This is not the way to improve yourself.
Set goals, not resolutions. It is 2014 – so for simplicity, set 14 goals for yourself. Try to not focus on more than one at a time. Sure, if you are wanting to improve your diet, every nutritious item you add is important. But only focus on that goal when you have a good chance of really attacking it and changing it from a goal into an acquired life habit.
If you have 14 goals set for this year, that means you have a little more than three weeks per goal. So, try to work on a new one every three weeks. This will give you a little bit of buffer time to work on any lapses, vacations, or even more goals come the end of the year.
But no resolutions, I hate them. I only have two resolutions this year:
1) Eat poorly on the first day of the year. Then I don’t have a healthy diet on some holy pedestal. There’s a stigma of not eating perfectly 100% of the diet or whatever – this gets the inevitable failure over with.
2) Don’t go to the gym for the first two weeks of the year. Yes workout, you can do it at home. But a gym at this time of year is not very enjoyable. Too many people there who will only work out for the next couple of weeks. If you went hard in December, then think of this as giving your muscles a break. And the resolutioners there – thank them for subsidizing your gym membership dues.
Dealing with the inevitable setbacks
You cannot attack all of your goals with perfect energy, never have setbacks, and achieve them all in the time you allotted. You know this isn’t possible. Especially with nutrition and exercise goals. Especially the crash diet and 5 day per week workout plans. We are bound to have setbacks.
The problem is, people expect that they will follow their goals/resolutions 100%. Yes aim for this, but don’t expect it. I’ve seen way to many people start crash diets that are too restrictive for them, especially right off the get go. So they follow the diet religiously for the next week; energy levels and immunity systems dropping. Then they have that piece of chocolate, cookie, or heaven forbid a piece of bread that didn’t come from the low-carb store. And instead of just taking that slip at face value (essentially the body craving something that the crash diet was lacking) they fall right off of the wagon. Instead of finishing off the day as best as possible, they fall into a blackhole of junk food. Vowing to start next Monday, even though it is five days away. The process repeats itself ad nauseam.
Think of attaining you goals as if you’re playing football. You have to fight for the end zone; some long passes, some short runs, some hard tackles, and the odd sac or interception.
Or think of it as a boxing match – you can’t win the bout without taking some hard shots yourself and changing up your game plan.
Think of it like a game of Tetris, or like a snowball you pushed around the schoolyard, or the 80/20 principle (I’ll expand on this one another time – but for now it means that 80% of your results come from 20% of your efforts. Find that 20%).
It’s all about momentum
Momentum, forward progress, snowball effect, or as Darren Hardy puts it: Compound Effect.
Every action you take, every food you eat, every moment you spend is either contributing to your goals and success or taking away from them. Every pushup you do helps you health and fitness. But if you goal was 20 and you did 18, then many would call it a failure – not 18 successes. This is the snowball effect: every pull-up is positive, every cookie is negative, every piece of kale is positive, every extra hour of sleep is positive, every bit of thinking for yourself is positive, everything you grow in your garden is positive, every tiny percent of a skill that you learn is a positive, every inch that you move towards self sufficiency and personal sovereignty is positive. Get it? Don’t worry about the set backs.
What are some examples of goals
Nutrition: more vegetables, less grains, balanced fruits, cleaner food, less processed food, JERF Just Eat Real Food
Health: more sleep, less stress, more natural cleaning products, natural toiletries, less smoking, meditation
Fitness: Weightlifting, Kettlebells, Kickboxing, Rope work, hiking, pushups, pullups
Self Sufficiency: Hunt, fish, garden, plant fruit/nut trees, learn to forage, produce your own energy, learn skills to build structures, weld, repair cars, build furniture, etc.
Self Reliance: Can food, store water, improve you EDC items, increase the emergency kit in your car, store more items you use: batteries, toiletries, tools, etc.
Personal Sovereignty: Think for yourself, question media and government, take responsibility for your health, get out of debt, learn self defence, buy a firearm
Have you set new year goals in 2014? Have you fallen into the resolution trap before?