How did your January work out? Did you do the things you set out to do? Or did you set too many goals?
New Years is a time where many people set new goals, start afresh, or try to pick up good habits. But sometimes our expectations are too high. Or is it perhaps that we aren’t realistic about how much time we need to achieve what we are setting out to do.
Anything is achievable. But how?
Break it down.
We all have our strengths and weaknesses. My husband and I were having a discussion about watching romance movies versus watching action movies. He finds romance movies completely stressful, yet he’s in his comfort zone with an action movie. Why?
Calculated risk – this photo is actually of my husband jumping off a massive waterfall at Blue Duck Station, during a coaching camp he was holding. He constantly takes these types of risks. It’s just who he is, but it’s not without planning or thought.
He breaks it down. He weighs up the risk, he works out the physics, he sees the obstacles.
So what’s your obstacle? What’s your area of weakness? Where can you better yourself?
- Do you arrive late to appointments? Plan to leave earlier. Allow for the traffic. If you’re running multiple errands, add a bit extra onto each stop.
- Are you wanting to improve your fitness or lose weight? Make a meal plan and stick to it. Write out a week or months’ worth of workouts, and be realistic (don’t aim to run 5km on your first run type-of-thing). It might be 5 lunges in week 1, but 20 by week 3!
- Do you have a cupboard you’ve been procrastinating to clear out? The cupboard as a whole might be daunting, but write down what the cupboard is for, be brutal in what you don’t need to keep. Make an op shop, rubbish and stuff-to-sell pile. BUT if you’re likely to procrastinate listing things to sell, then op shop it!
- Perhaps it’s a whole house de-clutter – break it down room by room and aim to finish one room before starting the next. Don’t try to do it all in one week, otherwise other areas of your life will fall by the wayside. Use your planner month view and allocate a room or two for each week (depending on the room and the amount of clutter!).
On Your Marks
Sometimes finding when you want/need to achieve your goal by is your starting point. Working backwards, you can see how much time you actually have to achieve your goals.
I have to do this with my running. I have a half marathon coming up in April. You might be thinking “that’s still 2 months away”. And you’re right. But training needs to begin long before this.
Working from the race day date, I then have to work backwards to see what I should be doing now. The training plan I follow is 16 weeks long, so if I was only started now, I would be jumping straight into an 10km run. Not ideal. Find what is achievable within your timeframe. Don't over do it!
If you can break something down, or see it all in front of you, it’s easier to handle it as a whole.
No matter what type of person you are, or how busy life is, if you can map it out, not only will you be more prepared, but it will take a weight off your shoulders, help you think more clearly and help you achieve your goals in a more realistic manner. Go on, take the plunge and dive into this week knowing that you got this!