New Year, new goals, new you. Right?
Did you know that approximately 80% of us fail to adhere to our New Year’s resolutions before February?
But why - isn’t the New Year a clean slate? The chance to start something new or finally do that thing you’ve always wanted to do…?
In the world of goal setting we all have something that we want to achieve big or small, and many of us find it difficult knowing how to get there. So we set goals that are so big and unrealistic that we end up tripping and falling at the first hurdle.
Hence the statistic.
It’s become quite the controversy over the years with many branding the concept pointless and unnecessary.
However – we’re here to tell you that that shouldn’t be the case. It’s the labeling and overhype of the ‘New Year’s resolution’ that gets people and there are better ways of creating these ‘goals’ without feeling the added societal pressure.
You may or may not have heard of the ‘SMART’ concept when goal setting. It’s the idea that goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Realistic/Relevant and Time-Bound.
To a degree the concept is much less intimidating when you break it down, but the issue still lies around the time of year that we choose to set our goals and why we consistently break them.
Goals should never be strict to a month in the year – i.e. New Year. They should be fluid and open to change.
To set a goal you will actually stick to, you need to start thinking of your adherence.
It’s huge and it’s why so many fail. If you have a goal set for 6 months’ time to learn a new skill, then that’s a reliable and achievable timeframe. Because within that time it’s much more realistic to implement smaller goals to build you up towards the big one. So your likelihood of adhering is much higher.
Then again – if you’re someone that doesn’t know how to set yourself up then work out your barriers first that might prevent you from achieving that goal. If we’re talking about exercise, let’s say the classic ‘Couch to 5k’ challenge, the season has a big impact on the adherence but also the aftermath of the challenge. This type of challenge has an expiry date (e.g. 5 weeks to get …), which makes it hard because after those 5 weeks, what happens?
As mentioned, once the Autumn/Winter months hit it’s way harder to stick to an activity because of the temperature drop and darker periods. So – a simple step can be to layout your workout clothes the night before (it’s one less thing to do in the morning!)
Or maybe have a playlist or podcast that you:
1. Look forward to listening to.
2. Only use when you’re running or at the gym.
Be realistic. Tailor it to what you need.
Remember that goals are not just for January. They’re flexible.
Someone else’s goals are not going to be the same as yours, their timeframes will be different and how they get there will be different to you too. So try your best not to compare yourself.
We hope this makes things sounds a bit less daunting.
