06 Jan How to Avoid The Biggest Mistakes in Healthy New Year’s Resolutions.

Are you one of those people that made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, start exercising again, and start eating healthier?

Is your resolution to get healthy and get back in shape this year?

You may or may not know that resolutions usually don’t even last past the 1st month.  I’ve heard many different statistics on the failure rates of New Year’s resolutions, so I’m not sure what the most accurate number is.

But, I do know this.

If you set a resolution without a clear goal and a powerful reason why, you won’t achieve it, end of story.

The biggest mistake is to not have your goals clearly defined.  And, that’s not enough. You’ve got to have a rock solid reason why you need to lose the weight, lose the fat, take control of your health, or whatever goal you have.

For example, if you’re goal is to lose 10 pounds, then the goal would be to lose 10 pounds by a certain date.  Let’s say 4 weeks from the date that you start.  Just to point out, this is a very reasonable goal.  A typical safe weight loss is about 2-3 pounds per week, so 3-4 weeks is an acceptable and realistic time frame to lose 10 pounds.

Of course, you are going to have your plan, whether that is to begin exercise and remove something that you over consume from your diet, or what ever it is.  The best thing to do would really be to make it easy on yourself and not try to do to much.

What I mean by this is that you shouldn’t try all these radical changes at once, rather just do one thing or make a few small changes.  If you try to change everything all at once, it can be too much and I’m sure you can guess what will happen.

This is a about a new lifestyle, not just losing 10 pounds, which brings us back to the goal.

Why are you losing the weight to begin with?

Here’s some examples, so you get the idea:

• to be a better role model for your family
• to feel better and have more energy
• to make your health a top priority in your life, because you serve no one (including yourself) if you don’t have your health
• to look better for your husband/wife and to be more physically and sexually attractive
• to feel better about yourself (increase your self esteem and self confidence)
• to compete or prepare for an event (this is actually a great one, if you have a sporting event of some kind that you need to be physically ready for.  HINT: If you don’t have one, think of something you can do as a target, this is sure fire way to get you motivated and to meet your goals)
• because you know if you don’t start taking care of yourself, you are headed for serious trouble (illness, disease, obesity, etc.)
• because your sick and tired of being ‘sick and tired’ and you MUST do something to improve your health and energy

These are just examples, maybe you can relate to one or more of them or maybe you have entirely different reasons.

Whatever the case is, have your reasons!

If you don’t have your strong reasons, I’m sorry to say that your new targeted resolution won’t last.

The stronger and more clear reasons you have, the more likely you’ll achieve exactly what you want.

Having a strong reason why may be the most important factor for your success.  Not just in getting healthy and being fit, but in anything.

Instead of setting a New Year’s resolution, let me suggest something much more simple.

Form a new habit.

Yes, create a new success habit, whether that’s exercising 3 times per week, cutting out all processed carbs, eliminating soda, eating fresh organic vegetables with every meal, or something else very specific.

Forming one new habit per month is very powerful.  And, if you do this every month, that’s 12 new habits a year.  That can totally transform your life.

Again, 12 new habits a year can TOTALLY TRANSFORM your life!

But, if you do like the New Year’s resolution thing, then please avoid the biggest mistake which is not being clear on what you want and not having a rock solid reason why you must.

If you have your what, by when, and why, you’ll be one of the few that actually achieves their resolutions.  I really hope that you do!