Good morning people,
happy Thursday and welcome to our first blog of this year. Happy new year to you all and here’s to
wishing you a happy, healthy 2016.
Naturally as this is the first blog of the year we have to talk a bit about new years resolutions, especially the ones that promise self-improvement! Some make them, some people avoid them, some say they don’t make any but they really do – in secret. Personally, I always make them. I procrastinate from September, tell myself by November / December it’s not worth bothering getting anything new started now, I should just leave it until the new year – when of course miraculously – I will be feeling fresh and new and fighting fit and enthused and energised and inspired. Then January hits and enthused, inspired or energised are not words I use to describe myself in January at all!
January. It’s cold and grey and damp and as we all
placed such hopes on it, it’s a let-down.
I feel sorry for January. This
year in particular – Jan 4th has been the worst. It was the Monday from hell that we all went
back to work. The trains weren’t
running, it poured from the heavens, some smug sods were still on holidays or
had returned from winter breaks with a tan, an engagement ring, a new puppy…whatever.
I digress, but
because January is always a little shocking and because I’ve had the same new
years resolutions for about the last decade – none of which I have ever
accomplished or stuck to – I decided this year would be different. This Jan, before making new promises to
myself I would try and understand why I keep making the same ones and then why
I don’t keep them. Isn’t the ultimate
definition of madness doing the same thing over and over again yet hoping for a
different result? Well yep, then call me
mad, because that’s been me (and I’m sure you relate) for too long. This year I’m sharing my old and my new
resolutions with you, plus the reasons why they have changed and how I changed
them. I’m hoping this will give you some
food for thought in making promises to yourself anytime this year.
OUT WITH THE OLD:
My top 10 old
resolutions, in no particular order, went something like this – year in, year
out….
- Get fit
- Lose weight
- Get healthy
- Get a better job
- Save money
- See family and friends more
- Get a boyfriend
- Learn to drive
- Don’t drink and smoke so much
- Take my make-up off each night before going to bed
I’d start each
January getting up nice and early each morning, arriving at the gym onto the
treadmill and pounding away. I’d contact
one friend (that I’d probably seen over xmas/new year anyway) and set up an eve
to go for dinner – not drinks as was trying not to drink/smoke so much. I’d rewrite my CV and look online for
jobs. Actually I was lucky enough with
this one to find suitable openings, go for interviews and get the jobs in most
cases. I’d rethink the “learn to drive”
thing while I was still in London, I probably couldn’t afford it anyway, at the
same time realising I couldn’t save much money as took a pay cut in my new role. I’d take my make-up off most nights, until
the one when I met my friend for dinner, ended up going for a few drinks anyway
and coming home too tipsy to care. Then
I’d be upset that I was 3 weeks into the year, I’d been out once and didn’t
have a love interest or been swept off my feet my prince charming yet. Come Valentines day in February (or honestly
a few weeks prior in most cases) ALL resolutions were over. Does any of this sound familiar to any of
you? If so read on because I’ve found a
way to stop all of this by adding value and reason to resolutions – thinking
about why I was making them in the first place made all the difference this
time.
IN WITH THE NEW:
This years top 10 is
similar but check this out:
- Find and run a 5k race for charity
- Shift a stone/6.5 ish kilos before turning 39 (5th September)
- Eat something green with every meal!
- Focus on my business, passion and creativity, finding paid work that’s fulfilling and fun – ensure I do one thing every day to get closer to this goal
- Save enough money for a summer holiday
- Meet at least one family member once a month / Meet a different group of friends each month too
- I’m in a relationship now (whoop – sounds strange saying that and even stranger writing it down) so make sure we get time alone to build our bond – date nights, mini breaks, duvet days etc at least once a month
- (Learn to drive when I need to – this isn’t a priority for me this year unless my situation changes)
- (I’ve managed the not drinking so much already and smoking went hand in hand with the alcohol, so that’s cut down too – not a focus for me this year) Instead – drink at least 1 litre of water each day
- Take my make-up off each night before I go to bed!
I would like to add
as a quick aside; there are lots more things I’m hoping for this year too and
not all are as self-centred as the above!
These however work for the purpose of today’s topic so stick with me:
I hope you can
instantly see most resolutions are now more focused. Adding value to each promise and reasoning
with myself as to why these were a priority, I then used my own adaptation of
the SMART goals technique to get to these. I thought long and hard about why I
was making such promises to myself and why I wanted to do/change/better these
things and even though I wanted to before, why hadn’t I succeeded?
Well to start with lets look at SMART goals.
SMART stands for
Specific
ie lets get specific
with each one – eg “Get fit” turns into “find and run a 5k race for charity”
Measurable / Meaningful
ie “save money”
turned into “Save enough money for a summer holiday” so it was something
meaningful that I was saving up for and I knew how much I needed to save too -
making it a measurable goal
ie “lose weight”
turned into “Lose a stone by September” which when you break it down is a
sensible and achievable weight loss goal per month and even per week (if this
is one for you too and you’d like more info on healthy weight management please
contact us info@nitakothari.com)
Realistic
ie “find and run a
5k race for charity” is something a lot of people do and a very realistic goal
for me considering my current fitness levels
Timed
ie “lose 1 stone by
September” gives me a clear goal of how much and by when
I’ve gone and added an extra E and R to make my goals SMARTER
is for End
Know when to end it,
to stop, to change your mind and adjust your rules. Sometimes with even the most amount of
willing things just don’t get done or turn out how you planned. You need to know, when the time comes, that
you can adjust your goals/resolutions/promises and there is no harm, no shame
and no sense of failure attached in doing so.
Letting go can be just as hard as starting up, but knowing that you can,
sometimes prompts you to try harder at the start.
is for Reason
Make sure you have
your own personal and real reasons for your new resolutions. Make sure they are for you and for your
benefit. For example, when I really
think about it my get fit and get healthy goals were both geared towards the
“lose weight” one. Really I didn’t care
if I was healthy, I just wanted to be slimmer.
The reason I wanted to be slimmer was totally wrong too. This year I understand fitness, health and
weight go hand in hand but are NOT the same.
If you would like more info on this or how to succeed in your own weight
management journey, fitness and/or realistic health goals please contact me on info@nitakothari.com
for a free initial consultation, or for any advice and further info on this
article.
Remember, each goal
is specific and measurable. It has it
owns reason and value. For example:
- I want to run for charity to give back to Macmillan cancer support – they helped me so what better way to raise money and give back than to do it with my fitness after recovery from cancer!
- I am in a relationship with a guy who loves my lumps and bumps, but I’m still not at a healthy weight so have worked out a reasonable and healthy height/weight ratio I’d like to stick to. Also my focus is on getting the full nutritional value from the foods I eat to aid not only weight management but my fitness and health goals too. Again for info on achieving healthy weight loss, or more details about nutrition and finding the best foods for yourself and your health, please just get in touch – info@nitakothari.com
- Saving for a holiday – of course there is a reason – I need a break!
- Seeing the family, friends and building our relationship well the reasons here are the same for each. Keeping good relationships is what keeps me happy. In fact it’s a proven point that this is true for most, so working on relationships as a resolution for this year is my number one focus.
Finally, let’s think
about how we get to these new, focused, goals.
We have managed to redefine them this year, but how are we going to
achieve them all if we didn’t manage it before?
Well step one is done here – making them SMARTER helps a great deal to
focus our energies and have that end point to aim for. Do not expect instant results – this is
another major reason a lot of us do not succeed in keeping to our resolutions. Each promise needs commitment and work from
you to achieve. Building good goals and
turning the process of getting to them into good habits is the best way I have
found to proceed, so the next step I’ve found is to break down our resolutions
to small and even easier achievable chunks.
For example when thinking of saving for a summer holiday – that holiday
may realistically be in let’s say August.
- So it gives you 7 months to save.
- You may have to pay earlier but could do a finance deal if it’s a
big holiday/hotel/operator/airline etc.
Find out.
- Make a budget of your expected salary and outgoings and see where
you can make the savings.
- Seek out a high interest savings account or such, to help grow your
savings as much as possible over a short time period.
These are 4 steps
already that you can think about for just one resolution. If you give yourself a week or 2 for each
step everything will be in place in a couple months and it will just be the
saving to actually do and the holiday to book!
There is a great
blog piece here from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition – short, sweet and
to the point - they talk about having one resolution and 12 mini goals – one
for each month of the year. I love this
idea: http://www.integrativenutrition.com/blog/2015/12/the-truth-about-new-year-s-resolutions-and-some-useful-alternatives
Lastly Mind Tools
have also offered a great piece on common goal setting mistakes that I found
useful in setting my resolutions this year - https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/goal-setting-mistakes.htm
so I thought Id share this with you too.
So good luck with
your resolutions and relationships and your 2016. I hope this year is fulfilling, happy and
ultimately healthy in all respects for all of you.
If you’d like more info on achieving a happy, healthier year,
please get in touch info@nitakothari.com
where we can discuss our health coaching service and weight management
program. Or like and follow us on social
media for regular recipe and tip updates:
You can also sign up for the newsletter via the link on any page of
our website: www.nitakothari.com
**Please remember this is advice ONLY (as is all other
information contained in this blog, the website and social media related to it)
None of the info or advice is intended to override any recommendation from your
GP or health professional**
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