It’s a new year, which means new beginnings, new goals, new “resolutions”. This is the time people reevaluate their lives and decide what they can do better or what they want to achieve in the upcoming year.
Something I like to do at the beginning of every year is write down my goals. I write down my general life goals and a list of fitness/health related goals. My general goals include things like less stress, more doing. Visit this place, talk to this person. My general goals are usually very broad. But my fitness goals tend to be very specific. Last year I had the goals to strengthen my upper body and increase my plank time, to name a few. And I stuck to them. My cross training of boxing, yoga, and weight lifting has given me strong arms, and I can now hold a plank for 10 minutes (only did it once for a bet with myself…). I am without a doubt a lot stronger at the start of 2015 than I was January 2014. My body has changed, and I feel stronger than ever.
It is an amazing feeling to whip out the list of goals you wrote for yourself a year earlier and see that you completed so many of them. I want to encourage all of you to try this! Write down a list of at least 5 fitness or health related goals, and be specific! Store that list somewhere you will remember it. (Maybe put it in the back of your yearly planner, where you’ll find it at the end of 2015). Work hard all year long and don’t look at that list until at least June. Take a look half way through the year and see if you have reached any of those goals. If you haven’t … it’s time to put in some work!
It’s important to put these goals in writing because it holds you more accountable. It’s easy to tell yourself “I resolve to lose weight this year” … it’s also easy to break that resolution. Put it in writing; show it to your closest friend if you need extra motivation. Don’t you want to feel proud of yourself come 2016? Don’t you want to be healthier and stronger? Then it’s time to do something about it. All of us can improve no matter how strong or weak we think we are. Let’s make something of this new beginning.
Happy New Year –