Are you looking to finally change your life and achieve the results you want in 2017?
It’s that time of year again, with Christmas just a few days away, and thoughts turning to making the best start to 2017. A sense of renewal is in the air and many people are preparing themselves to hit the ground running (pun intended!) in early January.
You can prepare yourself psychologically to get the best head start in January. The biggest hurdle that we all face is ourselves, so with these 5 simple steps I guarantee you will be winning the race.
Start the New Year off with these 5 realistic, simple steps.
1/ Preparation
Make sure you are both mentally and physically ready to start your journey to success. A lot of people abandon their program due to not having the right mentality from the beginning, and we can increase our chances of success merely by being well prepared.
I find that the easiest way to prepare is to start with the simple things. Do I have my new gym kit? What are my nutritional goals? Have I done my weekly food shop? When can I incorporate my gym time into my day, and how many hours per week can I physically achieve? Being prepared is like taking an exam, the more you prepare the better chance you give yourself to succeed.
2/ What are my goals?
One of the biggest problems with New Years resolutions is that they can be extremely impractical. Setting goals is a fantastic idea, but just make sure they are realistic and feasible. Having a short term goal to start with is usually the easiest way to achieve.
Sometimes, setting long term goals can put too much pressure on yourself, and therefore it can feel like we can never really see the end goal. My advice would be; set monthly targets – 1 month becomes 2, 2 months becomes 3, and before you know it 3 months have passed and you are well on your way to conquering what you had set out to achieve.
3/ Prioritise
We prioritise the most important things in our lives; family, work for example, and for me my health has to come first.
We’ve all had that moment where we tell ourselves “I’ll start next week it will be fine”, but next week can soon turn into a month and so on. If you don’t make your health a priority you may as well just unpack your gym bag now. If you don’t make sacrifices in order to achieve what you truly want, what you want becomes the sacrifice.
4/ Consistency
For me this is what defines how much you can actually realistically achieve. If it’s 1, 2 or 3 sessions per week you are able to do, then try to be consistent as much as possible. It’s a slippery slope when you find yourself making excuses each week. Remember your mind quits before you body does, and you have control over both.
5/ Motivation and staying positive
We all thrive on being motivated throughout our lives and surrounding ourselves with positivity. No matter what your situation is, staying motivated is perhaps one of the biggest challenges ever. It’s important to never lose sight of why you are doing this, we never say it’s going to be easy, we say if you push your body beyond its limits, you can achieve anything you set out to do.
I always have that image of what I want to look and feel like, it keeps me focused on my goal. No one is perfect, everyone at some point of their journey falls, the most important thing is to get back up as quickly as possible and go again.
I hope these 5 really simple tips help you to make the very best start to 2017, here’s to your continued success, not only in looking, feeling and performing your best, but in living a better life as a whole.
To your lean, healthy, optimised future,
Mark Pugh – Optimised Personal Trainer
