Here Come The New Year's Resolutions
Over the last six months I have really been focusing on my health and fitness. Call it the mid-life crisis or me making a last-ditch effort to hold onto my youth. I don't know.
I chose a random day to begin back in June I guess and just chose to do good for myself and have not looked back. So I arrive at this new year invigorated and for the first time in a long time genuinely happy with where I am physically inside and out. I've got a long way to go to reach my personal goals, but I am on my way. So when I saw the following post the other day, it made me laugh so hard.
In particular of course and of importance to me this year is I will be fighting with "Resolutioners" on January 2nd to get on the machines or weights I want at my gym. Having said that, we all know how this goes, by late January, the herd will have thinned considerably and by mid February, it will all be back to normal. Those of us who have always gone will be the only ones still going.
Over the years I have asked myself whether New Year's resolutions are a good or bad thing. I have yet to ever keep one myself. Yet whether it was the fit lifestyle I committed to six months ago, many years ago when I decided I would start to earn my degree even if it were one course at a time, heck the day I joined the Army 22 years ago to make a better life for myself. Each were just generic dates, just a regular Tuesday or Wednesday. Nothing particular about the days I began any of these life-changing journeys.
Therefore I wondered, if I could choose to do something so positive on generic days, why is it I (along with most of you I suspect) have never succeeded at keeping a New Year's resolution. First we have unrealistic expectations. How many of us start at the gym on a Monday and want to see visible results by Friday? Don't lie, every one of us does. Yet those who succeed at a wellness program do so because they have committed to more than some "diet" or exercise "program." They have committed to changing their lives and are willing to continue when it stops being fun or amusing. They go when there isn't a lot of time and when going is not convenient. They go, and in doing so they get results in time. The same can be said for so many other things. Those who desire not to smoke or who desire not to drink alcohol or who don't want food to control them. Those who want to finish their educations. Those who maybe want to whatever, pick a goal. We are a society of "right now" and if it doesn't happen right now, then we give up, blame someone (cause it's never our fault) and go eat a cheeseburger value meal, extra large please.
I am personally not opposed to New Years' resolutions. Make as many as you want if you find inspiration in them. Just know, the only way you are going to succeed is if you commit to those resolutions, one day, one hour at a time, and then "act" to make them a reality.
I am lucky enough that some people come to me for advice on certain things. I recently had a friend who learned I had committed to this new lifestyle ask me how she could successfully "resolve" to follow a similar lifestyle for her. I told her to close her eyes and imagine herself on December 27th, 2013. I told her to envision the kind of body she dreamed of. I asked her to really feel it. To see and feel how her clothes fit, and how she looked in the mirror. I asked her to look at her smile in the mirror and imagine how amazing she would feel knowing she had accomplished so much. When she finished, she said "now what?" I told her "now you just have to make it happen. December 27th, 2013 will come whether you want it to or not, whether you make any changes in your life or not. December 27th, 2013 will still arrive exactly one year from today. What you DO between now and then is what matters."
Friends, I submit we can use this analogy in any area of our lives we desire to change. How will you greet December 27th, 2013? Still wishing? Still dreaming? Still waiting for that perfect opportunity? That magic pill? That knight in shining armor to save you? This is real life and those who succeed know the one thing that all successful people know, no one is coming to save you and no one is going to fix your problems. If you want it, you must DO. No matter how hard, no matter what obstacles get in the way (to include your greatest obstacle, your mind). If you want a change in your life, you must make it happen. Take it as a challenge from me. I believe in you, but if you don't believe in yourself and take that first step, then that ever important second step, you will never get to where you want to go.
I wish great things for you. I wish you accomplish the things you dream of, the things you are afraid to try. I wish you "DO" because in the end a goal without action is just a dream, and we are the only ones in our lives who have the power to make our dreams reality.
I chose a random day to begin back in June I guess and just chose to do good for myself and have not looked back. So I arrive at this new year invigorated and for the first time in a long time genuinely happy with where I am physically inside and out. I've got a long way to go to reach my personal goals, but I am on my way. So when I saw the following post the other day, it made me laugh so hard.
Over the years I have asked myself whether New Year's resolutions are a good or bad thing. I have yet to ever keep one myself. Yet whether it was the fit lifestyle I committed to six months ago, many years ago when I decided I would start to earn my degree even if it were one course at a time, heck the day I joined the Army 22 years ago to make a better life for myself. Each were just generic dates, just a regular Tuesday or Wednesday. Nothing particular about the days I began any of these life-changing journeys.
Therefore I wondered, if I could choose to do something so positive on generic days, why is it I (along with most of you I suspect) have never succeeded at keeping a New Year's resolution. First we have unrealistic expectations. How many of us start at the gym on a Monday and want to see visible results by Friday? Don't lie, every one of us does. Yet those who succeed at a wellness program do so because they have committed to more than some "diet" or exercise "program." They have committed to changing their lives and are willing to continue when it stops being fun or amusing. They go when there isn't a lot of time and when going is not convenient. They go, and in doing so they get results in time. The same can be said for so many other things. Those who desire not to smoke or who desire not to drink alcohol or who don't want food to control them. Those who want to finish their educations. Those who maybe want to whatever, pick a goal. We are a society of "right now" and if it doesn't happen right now, then we give up, blame someone (cause it's never our fault) and go eat a cheeseburger value meal, extra large please.
I am personally not opposed to New Years' resolutions. Make as many as you want if you find inspiration in them. Just know, the only way you are going to succeed is if you commit to those resolutions, one day, one hour at a time, and then "act" to make them a reality.
I am lucky enough that some people come to me for advice on certain things. I recently had a friend who learned I had committed to this new lifestyle ask me how she could successfully "resolve" to follow a similar lifestyle for her. I told her to close her eyes and imagine herself on December 27th, 2013. I told her to envision the kind of body she dreamed of. I asked her to really feel it. To see and feel how her clothes fit, and how she looked in the mirror. I asked her to look at her smile in the mirror and imagine how amazing she would feel knowing she had accomplished so much. When she finished, she said "now what?" I told her "now you just have to make it happen. December 27th, 2013 will come whether you want it to or not, whether you make any changes in your life or not. December 27th, 2013 will still arrive exactly one year from today. What you DO between now and then is what matters."
Friends, I submit we can use this analogy in any area of our lives we desire to change. How will you greet December 27th, 2013? Still wishing? Still dreaming? Still waiting for that perfect opportunity? That magic pill? That knight in shining armor to save you? This is real life and those who succeed know the one thing that all successful people know, no one is coming to save you and no one is going to fix your problems. If you want it, you must DO. No matter how hard, no matter what obstacles get in the way (to include your greatest obstacle, your mind). If you want a change in your life, you must make it happen. Take it as a challenge from me. I believe in you, but if you don't believe in yourself and take that first step, then that ever important second step, you will never get to where you want to go.
I wish great things for you. I wish you accomplish the things you dream of, the things you are afraid to try. I wish you "DO" because in the end a goal without action is just a dream, and we are the only ones in our lives who have the power to make our dreams reality.
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