New Year’s Eve: “New Year, New ME! I’m going to lose that final 10lbs of baby weight once and for all, I’m going to hit the gym at least 4 days a week consistently, I’ll start meditating, and I’ll get 8hrs of sleep every night. BAM!”
New Year’s Day: Yikes, I partied a bit too hard last night. I’ll start tomorrow.
January 2nd: Okay, new gym membership DOWN! Meditation app downloaded onto my phone. I’m going to bed early tonight so I can hit the gym first thing tomorrow morning.
January 3rd: Man it’s hard to get up early enough to meditate AND hit the gym. Today I’ll start with meditation. Tomorrow I’ll do both.
January 5th: How do we STILL have Christmas cookies in the house? Better eat them up so they’re gone and I can start working on that 10lbs.
January 10th: Meditation is so overrated. What’s the hype anyhow? I’m scratching that from my list. My focus for now is on the gym. That’s the most important anyhow, right?
January 15th: Okay, 2 out of 7 days isn’t bad. Next week I’ll get up to 3 days at the gym.
January 30th: I’ve got a bit of a sore throat. I think I need to take the week off.
February 10th: What gym?
Sound familiar? Most of us have lived out some version of this. I know I have.
If you set New Years goals or resolutions at all (and most don’t) tragically the chances of you actually achieving them are slim to none. In fact, by mid-February, most people have completely scrapped their New Years Resolutions – many can’t even remember what they were!
I’m a BIG believer in setting goals, but I’m human and have fallen into the common traps just like anyone. I’ve learned a ton over the years and have figured out the top things that sabotage the process and keep us from making the changes that we seek to make (and thus keep us from living the life we want to live!)
Here’s the problem:
Your goal isn’t big / inspiring / audacious enough.
Losing that last 10lbs of baby weight sounds great, but really, it’s not THAT motivating. Most health goals are like that: I’ll meditate daily… I’ll hit the gym regularly… I’ll sleep more… I’m going to cut out sugar… These are all great strategies, but in and of themselves they’re not inspiring, and ultimately they’re not going to be enough to create the change in your mental state, which you need to actually change your life.
Let’s face it: change is hard. REALLY hard. Behavior change is some of the hardest work there is because we get really, really good at our daily habits – so good they become automatic and unconscious. To break these unconscious habits, we have to have something really compelling motivating us. This becomes particularly important deeper into the year: the further we get from New Years, the more diminished our resolve.
Last year, I set a goal to run a half marathon in less than two hours. For some, this is no biggie. But for me (my last half marathon time was 2:34), this was daunting to the point of absurd.
BUT here’s the thing: what it took for me to even try for this was a complete shift in everything that resulted in all sorts of other, smaller, less-inspiring-on-their-own-but-still-important changes that wouldn’t have happened otherwise, like:
- I had to change how I trained to focus on speed work rather than just putting in miles. Not only did I get faster, this type of workout yields better results for fat loss, cardiovascular health, and overall fitness.
- I had to prioritize sleep in a whole new way, which helped me mentally and supported my immune system to keep me from getting sick all the time.
- My eating became even cleaner and more focused: no wine on Friday nights, for example, since my long runs were Saturday mornings.
- I had to get better at recovery to allow me to put in longer miles and faster runs. Enter hot epsom salt baths, sauna time, regular body work, and regular use of my trusty foam-roller.
- I realized I couldn’t do this on my own so I sought the support and advice of other runners, trainers, fitness experts who helped me shape my training strategy.
- I shifted my schedule and priorities so that my fitness and health were moved to the top of the non-negotiable list.
Historically, especially since my autoimmune diagnosis, I have focused my health goals on simply managing this disease: bringing down antibodies, keeping myself healthy and ahead of this disease process. But that’s pretty uninspiring after a while. While I still needed to keep my autoimmune condition in mind so that I didn’t overtrain and push myself too hard, working towards this goal is far, FAR more inspiring than simply keeping a disease process in check.
Also, I have the very big and audacious goal of being healthier, stronger and fitter at 50 than I was at 25, and hitting this running goal is a big milestone for me on that journey.
Did I achieve my goal in 2019? Nope… I didn’t. My fastest half marathon time this year was 2:12, so still a long way from where I want to be. But I made major gains, learned a ton, and wouldn’t have even achieved this time had I not gone for the bigger, harder goal.
And for 2020? This sub-2hr half marathon is going DOWN.
What’s your audacious, inspiring, big picture 2020 health goal that will require all the other little shifts to fall into place? Share in the comments below!
