By Zoe Martin
It is estimated that 30% of the UK population will make a New Year’s resolution of some kind by January 1st. That’s approx 12.4 billion people and nearly half of those self promises will relate to health and exercise. The most popular being to lose weight and get fit.
Women, more so than men, seem all too familiar with the New Year drill. We verbally commit to no more chocolate, to take the stairs and to rise an hour earlier to hit the gym only to find that by mid-month we lose all motivation. In fact, statistics show that over 500k of those who make resolutions will have broken them by the 2nd of January.
So why do we punish ourselves with unrealistic goals? Are we a nation of dreamers who think things will come easy to us? Or do we purposely make false promises to ourselves and expect to be disappointed?
The key lies in the way we make our resolutions. American self-help author Melody Beattie says ‘The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.’
‘By this Melody means, we should take smaller steps to reach our ultimate goals’, says nutritionist Zoe Martin at Discount Supplements. ‘If your goal is to lose 3 stone then break it down and make it more achievable. Set yourself a target weight to lose over the course of a month, and set smaller targets in between such as going to the gym twice a week or not eating takeaways. These small resolutions will change your behaviour in the long term and can really feel like you are making progress, rather than think the challenge is just too great and giving up within days.’
New Year’s resolutions are about personal development and improvement, so if you are worried about keeping yours, you might want to look into some personal development courses from places like Development Academy. About 92% of people fail at their resolutions by the end of the year. It usually is not because they have not tried or are not committed they merely choose the wrong type of resolution. You may be flying along sticking to your new fitness routine for the first month only for things to get on top of you and you miss a session. It does not mean you have failed. If you plan your resolutions beforehand you can create ones that you will always be able to reach with reasonable effort.
Zoe Martin gives us some tips on setting goals for the New Year;
1. Be realistic
2. Make it measurable
3. Never doubt yourself
4. Keep it short
5. Create small challenges
6. Get a friend involved
