Checking in on your New Year’s resolutions can be hard to do. If you’re the type of person who has a hard time sticking to the promises you’ve made yourself, evaluating the progress you’ve made since the beginning of the year can be daunting and maybe even disappointing. For a lot of people, fitness resolutions are some of the most difficult to keep. You start the year with such lofty, shiny goals, and by week two, you’re burned out. Slowly, you start going to the gym less and less until one day, you realize you haven’t gone in a week and a half.
However, it’s important to be honest with yourself if you know you aren’t exactly living up to the assurances you laid out on New Year’s Day. While sometimes we can feel like the weight, expectation and newness of the new year is the perfect time to commit to new goals, we sometimes forget that January is not the only time to do so. As February kicks off, I challenge you to reevaluate the resolutions you made last month and refocus on achieving them.
- Baby Steps
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First, lower your expectations. If you aren’t used to going to the gym, start off by going just once or twice a week—immediately promising yourself you’ll go four or five times a week only sets yourself up for failure. By making your goals more attainable, you put yourself in a position far more receptive to success.
- Specificity
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Be specific in what exactly you want to achieve. Your goal isn’t just to transport yourself to the gym; presumably, it is to go in and make fitness progress. Write out what you want to work on and the steps you need to take to get there. The vague, “I want to go to the gym more” isn’t going to cut it when it comes to making actual progress. One recommendation I like to make regarding this topic is keeping a gym journal. Planning your fitness week in advance helps in two way. It first helps you designate specific time for the gym for the week ahead, and it also lets you visualize what you will be working on each day as to ensure you aren’t overworking or underworking any one area.
- Prioritize
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Arguably the most important component of the revived New Year’s resolution is prioritizing. To prioritize going to the gym, putting other responsibilities or goals on the backburner may be a necessary step. At the end of the day, no one can achieve your goals besides you. At some point you need to develop the mental fortitude to put your foot down and finally do it, and that starts with prioritizing the small, strategic goals you have made.
We may be more than a month into the new year, but it’s never too late to believe in yourself, start over, and refocus on your ambitions. If you follow these steps, going to the gym will be just another part of your routine.
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