The Dreaded New Year’s Resolution

It’s that time of the year again, when we make a resolution to improve ourselves in one or more areas of our life. Our resolutions often don’t have a great track record, causing many of us to not even bother. But for those who are sick and tired of being sick and tired, we want to share some ideas for how to make this year’s resolutions actually stick.

Here are some points from Dave Ramsey, the nation’s most famous financial advisor, who has helped millions forge new financial habits and get out of debt:

“Think back to when you were 5 years old. If you were playing with a set of blocks and wanted to build something, you would put one block on the floor and stack them from there.

So why is working toward a goal any different? Build something grand by going one step at a time. If you want to accomplish something over the course of a year, for example, the key is to build that year out of solid days.

A year is made up of months that are composed of weeks, which boil down to days. If it’s Monday and you have a big presentation on Friday, you’ll do a good job by working hard and being solid in the days leading up to the presentation. You don’t do a week’s worth of research and preparation the night before. You do it piece by piece. One day at a time.

Many times people become discouraged from accomplishing a goal because they think they have to do the whole thing at once. If the objective is to lose 20 pounds, they’ll look at their bellies and think they need to see abs before the end of the day. That will discourage them from working, and no progress will be made.

Instead, set a goal and commit to make strong progress toward it today. Let’s say you want to run a marathon in six months. When you wake up Saturday morning, can you do Tuesday’s run at that time? Of course not! What you can do is put in a good workout for Saturday. If you do, then you can go to bed that night knowing you did well in laying a piece of the foundation for what you will accomplish down the road.

If you repeat that process each and every day, then, as time passes, you will become more ready to tackle that marathon. At the starting line, your body will be fine-tuned not by one super training session, but by a bunch of strong workout days.
If you have enough strong days in a row, that makes a strong week. If you do it again, you’ll have two strong weeks. Do it some more, and you’ll have built a strong month. Keep it up, and you will have a strong year—one strong day at a time.”

In my next post, I’ll fill you in on how we take this same approach to your health. In the mean time, reserve your spot today for our LivFit Seminar. It’s designed to not just to teach the things to eat and not to eat, but to teach the application of a healthy lifestyle. Our January seminar always sells out, so sign up today! Learn more on our LivFit page.