If you're like most, you set resolutions going into the new year. This is GREAT because it proves that you have a desire to grow and improve your life.
A survey conducted by Statista found out that the most popular resolution is to start exercising. Eating healthier and losing weight rank second and third.
This shows that many people (and this might also be you if you're reading this newsletter) desire to improve their fitness and well-being.
But here’s the sad reality:
92% of New Year’s resolutions fail.
80% do so by the first week of February.
That’s a very depressing statistic because it demonstrates that countless people crave to improve their health, vitality, and well-being - but most can’t.
The purpose of this newsletter is to help you end this frustrating cycle once and for all so that you can finally reach your goals.
Yes, even if you’ve already ditched your resolutions for this year and feel like crap about it.
There's enough time for you to create the change you desire if you use the right strategy.
Let's dive in!
The Big Myth
So why do so many people struggle to improve their fitness and vitality, even though they KNOW how important it is?
The common narrative, and you might also think that, blames it on laziness or lack of discipline. But that's only one part of the answer.
Think about it:
There are many very successful professionals and entrepreneurs who struggle to lose weight or get their ideal body. Those aren't lazy people without discipline - if they were, they wouldn't have been able to build their professional success in the first place.
In fact, trying to "just work harder" might be TERRIBLE advice if you keep following a broken strategy.
So, if it’s not laziness that prevents them from reaching their goal, what is it?
And how DO you actually turn your resolutions into reality AND make them last?
Let's find out...
1) Have a clear and valuable goal:
“Without a clear vision and goal, you’ll end up drifting around and never gonna end up anywhere” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
Let’s look at resolutions I mentioned above:
- Starting to exercise
- Eating healthier
- Losing weight
What do all those resolutions have in common?
They are very unspecific, intangible, and boring.
Think of goals like destinations on a map: You can have the fastest vehicle in the world - if you don't know where you're going, the vehicle is useless.
So if you don't know where exactly you're going in the first place with any of those resolutions, I wouldn’t be surprised if you had lost motivation very quickly.
Let's say you want to lose weight - how can you make this goal more specific, tangible, and exciting?
The most popular framework to do so are S.M.A.R.T. goals.
S.M.A.R.T. stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time Bound
Here are some questions that will help you write this out:
- How do you want to look?
- How much weight do you want to lose?
- Why is this important?
- By what time have you reached this goal?
- What can you do that has the biggest impact to accomplish this goal?
- What will reaching this goal change for you?
- How are you going to feel?
Yes, this might take a couple of minutes, but it's well worth it. Do this now before you continue reading because the rest of the strategy you’ll learn here depends on it.
Once you’ve done it, you will get a goal formulated like this:
I will lose 30lbs and have visible abs by June 1st, 2023. I will achieve this by exercising 3 times per week with a personal trainer/coach, reducing my sugar intake by 50%, and maintaining a calorie deficit. I will finally feel strong, energized and amazing about myself when I look at myself in the mirror.
Compare this with the initial resolution:
“I want to lose weight.”
One is vague, lacks a clear benefit (THE requirement for intrinsic motivation) and you wouldn’t even know when you’ve reached that goal. The other is crystal clear, motivating and with a strategy.
2) Commit to something you can do even on a SHITTY day:
“There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” - Desmond Tutu
Setting big goals when you’re all excited is easy - executing on them when your plate gets full and you have a bad day is not. And if you're an entrepreneur, your plate is ALWAYS going to be full.
The biggest mistake you can make is trying to radically change everything at once as soon the new year starts: December, when New Year's resolutions are created, is a time of cookies, hot chocolate, wine and relaxing. Switching from this to Keto diet and working out 5 times per week from one day to another is not sustainable - and still, it's what most people try to do.
The reason for this is the common belief that small changes don’t matter - which couldn’t be further from the truth.
In his book “Atomic Habits,” James Clear describes the exponential impact of small habits over a long period of time: 1% better per day = 37x better in a year
Start with something you can do ANY day – even if it seems insignificant, like a walk. Once this becomes effortless, you can add more.
Think about the successful professional from earlier: This person built his or her success over years, one step at a time - and your fitness is no different.
3) Keep yourself relentlessly accountable:
Motivation gets you going, accountability keeps you on track.
To get new outcomes in your life, you need to build new habits. Building habits requires consistent effort. And consistent effort requires data.
This could be logging your workouts, tracking your meals or measuring your sleep. Without that data, you will find yourself back into your old patterns and behaviors within as little as 7 days, wondering "how" it happened.
Here's the reality: You can't grow what you don't measure.
Measure your new behaviors and be 100% honest with yourself. This doesn’t mean you have to track every single calorie, but you need data to know where you're going and stay on track towards your goals, so that you can improve constantly and make adjustments as necessary.
Not doing so is like trying to grow a business without measuring variables like cashflow – it won't work.
The best way to do it is to write it down on paper and put it somewhere you will see it every day. This is called “habit tracking” and it’s essential for lasting results.
4) Setbacks aren’t failures:
Despite acknowledging the importance of measuring behaviors, I guarantee at least 80% of people won't do it.
Why?
One of the most common, but least obvious reasons is fear of failure and the inability to handle setbacks.
The problem is that missing a day in your habit tracker can be very discouraging, if you don't know how to handle it. Most people tend to beat themselves up over one missed workout, despite working out consistently for a month before that.
It's not your fault, if you’ve done this to yourself before because we’re conditioned to avoid failures and feel bad for it if it happens. Just think about that subject in school you weren’t good at – how did you feel seeing a bunch of red marks when you got a test back?
It probably wasn’t encouraging, right? Maybe your parents even yelled at you or grounded you for not having a good grade when they saw or had to sign that test. So what you likely did is tried to avoid "failing" again at all costs, and not just in school...
Here's the problem though: Nothing will kill your progress faster than trying to avoid failure and setbacks. Being overly focused on setbacks will make you indecisive and paralyze you. The truth about setbacks is that they’re inevitable. And they are part of the process of progress. Trying to avoid setbacks is less important than learning to RECOVER from them.
EVERYONE has days where things don’t go according to plan. That’s normal. Don’t overvalue it and simply focus on getting back on track immediately.
A single missed workout will ONLY throw you off track if you let it affect the next workouts, which will happen if you beat yourself up about it. The less time you can spend ruminating about setbacks, the faster you’ll achieve your goals.
5) Acknowledge your wins:
As mentioned before, we’re conditioned to focus on what’s NOT going well and avoid setbacks and failures at all costs, and this KILLS your goals.
To make matters worse, most of us won’t acknowledge our wins.
Acknowledging your wins is a HUGE part of long-lasting success nearly everyone misses.
I already wrote about the importance of being honest with yourself and a part of that is acknowledging your progress.
One of my most influential mentors, Jim Fortin, always talks about a vital concept: You go wherever you direct and hold your attention.
To put it simply:
You get more of whatever you focus your energy and attention on. Giving yourself credit for your progress is VITAL. This will put you into an UPWARD spiral:
- You follow through with the habits you committed yourself to
- You acknowledge your progress
- The behavior gets more and more natural
At some point it will become part of who you are (your identity), which brings us to the last point of this newsletter...
6) Change how you perceive yourself:
Want to learn the single most effective "hack" to working out and eating healthy consistently, without having to beat yourself to the gym all the time?
If your goal is to lose 30lbs, have visible abs by June 1st, feel strong, energized, confident, focused, and amazing when you look at yourself in the mirror, and maintain this goal LONG TERM…
… start to see yourself like an athlete.
And no, I’m not telling you to dedicate your life to a sport. This is about seeing yourself as a person for whom movement and healthy eating habits are a non-negotiable part of life.
The term “Mindset” has grown extremely popular over recent years, but most people don't understand what it's really about. Having a "strong mindset" is simply about developing thoughts, perceptions and a self-image that is resourceful and encouraging towards your goals.
Why is this important?
The way you perceive yourself and your identity (who you are), drive your behaviors (how you are). Like a person who plays videogames calls and perceives him or herself a "gamer."
Different perceptions of yourself will lead to different outcomes.
In his book "You Are The Placebo," Joe Dispenza writes about several cases where a person's thoughts had drastic physical consequences in both positive and negative ways. In one study, for example, a group of 84 overweight hotel maids were divided into two groups.
One group was informed that just by doing their job, they more than fulfilled the daily recommendations for movement and exercise. The other group did not receive any information.
One month later, they measured several markers of health and compared them to the beginning of the study: In the group that had been informed, there was a decrease in their bodyweight, a lower waist-to-hip ratio and a 10 percent drop in blood pressure.
If your thoughts have the power to change you on a physiological level, don't you think they will greatly impact how hard or easy it is to follow through with a certain behavior?
New Year, New Me?
100%, but not with your old, faulty strategies, habits and thoughts. Just because the calendar changes doesn't mean your life will change too, unless you take the right steps that make sense to guarantee the lasting results you desire.
When you apply the strategies in this newsletter, you will notice better results almost immediately compared to the common New Year Resolutions because you work on all levels necessary for lasting results:
- Your clear, specific and tangible goal serves as your destination
- High-leveraged habits are the vehicle that gets you there, and accountability keeps you on track
- Managing your attention and thoughts is necessary to fuel your results
- The way you perceive yourself is a catalyst for your behaviors and who you will become, look, and feel like.
Summary:
Let's tie everything together:
- Use the S.M.A.R.T framework to get a detailed roadmap for your goal.
Here are some questions to give you clarity:
- What do you want to look like?
- How much weight do you want to lose?
- Why is this important for you NOW?
- What will reaching this goal change for you?
- How are you going to feel?
- By what time have you reached this goal?
- What can you do that has the biggest impact to accomplish this goal?
- Commit to something you can do ANY day and build from there. Here are some examples I like to give my clients who have a packed day:
- A 15 minute walk
- Eat 1-2 cups of vegetables
- A 15-30 minute workout 3 times per week
Keep yourself relentlessly accountable. Use a habit tracker and be 100% honest with yourself.
Don't ruminate over setbacks. No one will be 100% perfect 100% of the time. Get back on track immediately.
Give yourself credit and acknowledge your progress. You are and you’ll go where your attention is.
Change the way you perceive yourself and see movement and your eating habits as a core part of who you are as a person.
That's it!
Use the strategy I just laid out for you and achieve lasting results.
See you next time,
Manuel
If you’re serious about achieving your goals and want to get personalized guidance from me towards your goals, click HERE to sign up for a free 30 minute personalized call with me.