Five ways to stick to your New Year’s fitness resolutions

Written by Kat Millar

The New Year is soon upon us. Do you make great health and fitness resolutions with big intentions for a New Year but find that you have troubles sticking to them? Here are five ways to stick to your New Year’s fitness resolutions:

        1. A brain dump list.

        2. The concept of be, do, have.

        3. Set the time frame.

        4. Write your action plan.

        5. Keep them visible.

Many New Year’s resolutions fail, but an often over-looked and powerful factor is that many people don’t know how to effectively set goals. Many people who now have the life they want, started with a dream of something different at an earlier time in their life. Imagine for a moment that you have no limitations. What kind of health and fitness would you want to create for yourself?

According to author Brian Tracy, Back from the Future thinking, is a powerful method, used regularly by high performing people in every field. Here’s how it works. Just project yourself forward in your mind and imagine yourself as you would want to be. What do you look like? How do you feel? What are you doing? What is your energy like? The clearer you can make your forward vision of health and happiness, the faster you move towards it. The more unclear and vague your goals are, the less likely you are to achieve them. This is a powerful exercise.

Now that you have a vision, it’s time to set your goals. 

Here are five tips that will help you to stick to your New Year’s fitness resolutions.

1. Brain dump list.

Firstly, dump everything out of your head that you want to achieve in your health and fitness journey in 2018. I recommend that you either use a blank spreadsheet or write it in a journal.  Then list everything that you need to do to achieve your fitness resolutions. 

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2. The concept of Be, Do, Have. 

There are three ways that you can list your goals – to be, to do and to have.

This is a great way to ensure that you are taking a balanced approached. For example, if all your goals are ‘to have’ goals, then you may miss out on tapping into the type of person you want ‘to be’ and the experiences that you want ‘to do’. Let’s break it down:

Be: Who do you want ‘to be’ in 2018? 

• Be disciplined with your time management and focus

• Be an excellent role-model to your family

• Be energetic and strong

Do: What do you want ‘to do’ in 2018? 

• Do the 14km City to Surf run in August

• Do 20 push-ups on your toes

• Do exercise using 2,500 calories every week

Have: What do you want ‘to have’ in 2018? 

• Have the body I have always wanted and deserve

• Have a new outfit that is one size less than I am now

• Have a new training buddy 

3. Set the time frame.

Now, write a date next to your list of everything you want to be, to do and to have. This date is when you want to achieve your fitness resolutions.

4. Write your action plan.

When writing your action plan, use John C. Maxwell’s Swing the Axe Everyday principle. The principle works like this: if you have a large tree to cut down and you go out EVERY single day and chop at it, eventually the tree will fall. You don’t need to chop it 20 times on one day and get exhausted and then not chop it at all for a week. Just swing the axe at it every day. 

Once you’ve decided to swing the axe every day, it no longer becomes a matter of whether or not you’ll chop down that tree but rather, WHEN that tree falls. To apply this principle to your own life, make a list of three things you can do every day that will move you towards your health and fitness goals. 

Those things can be simple, such as time management planning for five minutes a morning, doing some form of movement for 30 minutes a day and doing some meditation for five minutes every afternoon. What’s important is that you are developing that discipline of the daily habits that will serve your ultimate goals and help you become the type of person you want to be. 

5. Keep them visible. 

The final step in effective goal-setting is to keep your goals visible. I believe that missing this final step is one of the major reasons that most people don’t achieve their fitness resolutions; they forget about them. Put your goals where you can see them every day. You have set the goals because they are important to you, so don’t give up on them. If you regularly review your goals to see how you’re progressing and tweak your action plan if necessary, you are much more likely to achieve them. 

Let’s make this our best year yet!

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