Sunday, January 8, 2012 
by: Lucy - Art of Fit female blogger
Welcome to the New Year – a time for beginnings, a fresh start, out with the old, in with the new. An explosion of positivity, motivation and excitement followed by romanticized perceptions of the ‘perfect year’. For some of you this may be the case – but for most, It couldn’t be further from the truth! January 1st 2000 and (insert year here), most people I know wake up with a hangover from alcohol, worse yet - drugs or lack of sleep (I’m in the lack of sleep hangover department… midnight is way past my bedtime) due to a combination of peer pressure and ‘new year expectations’ of celebrations and setting of new years goals. I do nothing but moan at the idea. However, in saying that I often go about curiously asking people I know what their new years resolution is.
“I want to lose weight”
“I want to be fit”
“I want to be rich”
“I want to get motivated”.
I really like the one “I want to give up drinking… “ Especially when they say it at midnight of January 2000 and (insert date here) with a beer in one hand and a shot gurgling down their throat.
Yeah, I hear these all the time. You probably have made such resolutions yourself at some point in your life. I could not think of a worse time to be setting goals…. So many of us are still celebrating Christmas and new years and holidays all through the course of January. Firstly I ask myself, why put so much pressure on the situation? I used to force myself to make a goal/resolution simply to feed that expectation that I feel is so present in the air at such a time of year. That then often answers the question of “Ok is this really something I want or is it simply something else to think about so I don’t have to ask myself what I really need?
You’re probably scratching your head now, wondering – well yes, Lucy is right – how do I then set myself a goal to satisfy both my need AND my wants? Let us break down goal setting into a more manageable concept – less of a beast to slay!
Steps to setting goals:
- Grab a piece of paper and write down all your dreams and desires, needs and wants.
- Ask yourself why you want this ‘thing/experience/achievement’ in your life. Don’t just say ‘I want to lose weight’ – that’s too broad. Give your goal some content: WHY do you want to lose weight, HOW much weight do you want to lose WHEN do you want to lose it by and HOW are you going to go about losing the weight?
- Write the pros and cons of the goal and weigh it up to see whether you really want this as your goal.
- Be realistic! There is no point setting yourself a goal that your cant achieve – then it all becomes far too overwhelming and you will find it extremely difficult to achieve ANYTHING!
Steps to achieving goals:
- Once you have established the goal, write it up – stick it everywhere: on your fridge, on your mirror, in your car, as a wallpaper on your iphone or lap top, whatever piece of techno goodness you use and abuse! See this goal – all surrounding your being. Make yourself accountable to someone who you can trust and have faith in – and keep track with them as to where your goals are at!
- Make smaller goals to achieve along the way. For example, perhaps you want to become the richest person in the world. This isn’t going to happen over night, but it will happen. Only if you be realistic with these goals. So perhaps the first goal could be:
Open a new bank account with an investment fund in it that has a higher interest rate than Knobjobs Bank down the road. Then…
Promise to put away 10% of your weekly earnings straight into that investment fund every week. Example. - Reap rewards: Reward yourself for these smaller goals once you have achieved them! So perhaps you have saved 10% of your weekly earnings for two months – go treat yourself to the latest issue of ‘Financial Review” come on you know how excited this makes you! Embrace the glorified feeling you get whilst reading it; “yes, I deserve this!” And then set yourself another small goal with another small reward. Simple!
Steps to maintain goals and keep you on track:
- Remind yourself of your goals and why you want to achieve them. Keep em’ in an ‘all access area’. Jamie Eason, an incredibly young woman who inspires the world with her positive notions and goddamn good looks recommends a ‘visionary board’. Great idea I think, so ill copy her by recommending it to you! Frank uses one too – just put any images/words/poems/photos up of things that keep you inspired towards your goals and dreams and leave it in a place that you know you will see it everyday. Better yet why not create an account at a new website called "Pinterest". There you can create multiple online boards reminding yourself of your goals and dreams. You can connect with the Art of Fit on there to see what inspires, motivates us!
- Keep track of your progress – by writing down small achievements/telling someone you know gives a darn about your goal.
What do I do once I have achieved my goal, you may ask? Start another one! There comes a great sense of pride and satisfaction in achieving goals, why sell yourself short of such a thing! So, while your sitting here reading this… get out your piece of paper, scratch your head and get scribbling – 2012 has begun!
If your ready to START....so are WE!
goals, new years, resolutions, vision board in inspire
Reader Comments (1)
Great post! I also have been posting about setting and keeping New Year's Resolutions. I love that you went more into the "why" in your post, but our "how" is roughly the same.
NPR also has some great Science Friday articles related. I wrote about those, too. You might want to check those out, too!
Thanks for sharing!