New year. New you. Or so the theory goes. Every year at this time swaths of people make well intentioned promises to themselves that this year will be the year they get in shape, get healthy, lose weight, etc. But reflecting on who actually achieved big and permanent changes last year will tell you something; the success rate is extremely low. Actually the success rate is abysmal. Just look at yourself and your friends. How many of you have set resolutions for wellness and leanness before, but have made nothing near the changes you once envisioned? Most if not all, I bet you. So what’s the problem. Clearly, set a resolution for massive change and achieve said change is not so simple. After 18 years helping people with just these problems and observing what actually happens in real life, please allow me to share my insights on the topic here and, if I may be so bold, a bit of guidance.
Your efforts are doomed to fail or at best fall short for three basic reasons.
- Change is harder than you think.
- You’re making too much change too quickly.
- You’re in a rush.
Fail to acknowledge and address these three issues and I assure you your chances of success are very slim unless you’re extremely disciplined and desperate.
What to do to actually make 2022 a healthy and transformative year
- Think on a year long time scale.
- Change slowly, painfully slowly, but compound permanent changes
Here’s how I recommend you start. In week one, pick ONE change you can adopt as a permanent change to the way you live. For example, eat a high protein and fat breakfast which is usually my first step with clients. Do just that for two weeks, don’t add anything else at all. Sounds simple but its effective. After two weeks when you’ve settled into that. Start getting up to go for a 15 minute walk or run before that meal. Sounds too easy to work, but it’s about making it hard to fail, rather than hard to succeed. Anyone can get out for 15 minutes! After a few weeks add another change, like hitting the weights twice a week for 30 minutes. You can always do more later on, but its about adding things you will actually do and adding to them over time. Set yourself the target of running for an hour every morning on day one and I absolutely guarantee you’ve dropped this within a few weeks. These tiny changes compound upon one another to add up to immense changes. Keep upgrading at this pace for a year and your way of life is completely different. So too will be your physique, health, outlook, sleep, etc.
This is curating your way of life.
Bottom line:
- Resolve to curate your way of life towards that of the person you want to be.
- Use life long solutions to life long problems.
- The process is ongoing.
- To enquire about working with the team at Thrive, or to read the full blog and more hints and tips visit:
thrivehm.co.uk/blog
