New Year, New Me

Year over year we want to make progress. It's only natural that we'd want to do better than the year, month, or day before. I mean, who really wants to be stagnant and going nowhere? Who wants to "not better" themselves? It sounds stupid even saying it. Here's the thing. We make New Years resolutions and that's great, but that is only half the battle. New Years Resolutions are only as good as the follow-through, the execution, the plan. Now nobody is perfect, and we all get off track from time to time. You may ask, how do I fix that? Great question! Goal-setting! Goal-setting is the key to life and success. It is such an elementary solution to so many lifelong problems, so this definitely relates to everything including fitness. Obviously, we have all had goals to make a million dollars or to own a fortune 500 company, etc, etc...blah blah blah, but let's talk small battles. Everyday you should have a fitness goal, whether it be learning a new exercise or perfecting an old one or beating a personal run time. You must have a foundation to build on, because the small goals and the parallel challenges build to bigger better things. Follow these simple steps for goal-setting.

1. THINK LONG-TERM - Determining your long-term goals will help you to decide what steps to take in order to achieve these goals.

2. CUT IT UP! - A years time really isn't that long, so segmenting your goals further will help you to stay on track. Anything less than a year is considered a closely attainable victory.

3. LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE... AND THEN SHRINK IT - So you know what you want to achieve long-term, and you broke it down by year. Ask yourself what it would take daily to get you to where you want to be. Plan your goals for the next day, because these small daily wins will boost your outlook on life, create momentum and discipline, and further your dreams.

Three steps! That's it. Obviously, you have to put in the work on a daily basis, but this isn't rocket science. It doesn't require the cracking of the Da Vinci Code, and it sure as hell isn't knowledge guarded by some secret society. All-in-all, the New Year brings out the "New Me" in a lot of folks, and I am okay with that. Just follow through with the resolutions or don't make any at all. That's my challenge to you, so that you can better yourself. Boom!